Finance Committee Meeting -- Proposed Budget

[Michele_bell]

Phil, funny you asked about closing another school....in speaking with friends today, that seems to be the big question.  I wonder if it will come up at regular BOE meeting tomorrow.

[Phil_Sanfilippo]

It will most likely come up but don't expect a miracle. What is so tragic is that after all the years of waste and run away spending it has come down to this. I don't like I told you so but many of the exact things that are being considered to be cut myself and others in Howell have been advocating for years. Its a shame that some people will be the sacrificial lambs. Its just to bad so many taxpayers were sold down the river all these years. Remember one thing if you don't pay the light bill the lights will get turned off. Don't send in the car payment the car gets towed. Don't pay the mortgage, start looking for a room under the boardwalk in Atlantic City. As a result of all this mess I wonder how many people in Howell
lost cars, had lights shut off and lost homes in  due to run away spending and GREED. Lets hope that we all learn a lesson from this and never let it happen again. I suggest that one more school gets shut we never needed all the new onesin the first place. Turn the building over to the township and than the Town can sell off some infrastructure and get thing back on track.
       Phil

[James_Obrien]

Great job Jeanette, Mr. Sanasac whipped through that presentation a little too fast for me.

Health benefits; as of 8:30 PM Tuesday all public employees will be required to pay 1.5% of their salary towards their benefit. For some that will not be enough. But I am sure no one walked into their boss and offered to pay into the health care cost without first being asked. It has to start somewhere.

  After quick number crunching it turns out that if each school employee kept their salary level the same next year (not a decrease in pay but the same pay next year) and contributed "a couple of hundred" dollars each month toward their healthcare cost then the budget would not be increased, taxes would not be increased, NO teacher layoffs would occur, no reorganizing of teachers in each and every school in the district, no after school changes, no busing changes and no nothing changes WHAT WE WOULD ACHIEVE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DISRUPTION TO OUR CHILDREN! 

That’s the problem with quick number crunching, it's not always accurate. A pay freeze will hold the line on roll up cost. This is a good start. But even at Two hundred dollars a month X 1000, if we have a thousand, would only cover 2.4 million of the 5.5 million the Governor cut. There would still be the need to find 3 million dollars in cuts.

Although courtesy bussing shows as a cut in the budget keep in mind that all it will really do is shift the expense to the township in the form of sidewalks and crossing guards.

 I suggest that one more school gets shut we never needed all the new onesin the first place. Turn the building over to the township and than the Town can sell off some infrastructure and get thing back on track.
       Phil
[/quote]

The opportunity to close two schools and have the Township step up and do the right thing has come and gone. These two entities have not worked together for the twenty years I have lived here. I wish that was different.

This problem is greater than one entity and will require all of us working together to solve it.

[Fran_Albury]

We have media specialists, school nurses, assistant school nurses, aides, principals, vice principals, family counselors, computer teachers, substance abuse counselors, cops on staff and roaming the hallways, guidance counselors, family crisis counselors, child study teams, therapists, etc.  

How many families are “in crisis” because they can’t afford the taxes or mortgage?  Get rid of the “crisis” and the crisis counselors can be minimized too.  

One thing the child study teams do is to evaluate children that are applying for the preschool disabled program and make sure they receive appropriate services.  The therapists listed probably include speech therapists and OT therapists.  There's a ton of paperwork involved with all that stuff and they do a good job keeping track of it all.  I'm sure there is room for improvement there and there are things that could be trimmed, but it is a very necessary department.




(disclosure:  my daughter went thru the preschool program for speech and is getting speech now in elementary school)

[B. Sandow]

Has Mr. Bill O'Brien of the local teacher's union responded to the request of our BOE to sit down and discuss ways to prevent layoffs of teachers and other school employees?  I know he wrote a letter that was read by the Board President at the last board meeting but he basically said he didn't have enough time to respond.  Wondering what's up? 

[Al_Miller]

Especially now that the Governor is offering to send more state aid to districts that the Unions have agreed to wage freezes in. It is time for the HTEA to agree to wage freezes to save their Co workers jobs n to have most of the proposed cuts returned to the budget.

[James_Obrien]

Especially now that the Governor is offering to send more state aid to districts that the Unions have agreed to wage freezes in. It is time for the HTEA to agree to wage freezes to save their Co workers jobs n to have most of the proposed cuts returned to the budget.

How can anyone any one support such a statement?

This is nothing short of bribery. New Jersey politics at its best.
Where is this money going to come from? And if the Govenor has this money why has he taken it away from the school?

[Barry_Jacobson]

It is not bribery but good finance.  Take the savings from the FICA and Medciare tax that would come from not paying the 6.25 and 1.45 percent on the increased salaries and plow it back to the schools.  In fact he is giving an incentive for these districts not to lay off personnel.

[Al_Miller]

Especially now that the Governor is offering to send more state aid to districts that the Unions have agreed to wage freezes in. It is time for the HTEA to agree to wage freezes to save their Co workers jobs n to have most of the proposed cuts returned to the budget.

How can anyone any one support such a statement?

This is nothing short of bribery. New Jersey politics at its best.
Where is this money going to come from? And if the Govenor has this money why has he taken it away from the school?

Honestly I am going to have to agree to disagree with you.  I am also surprised that as a BOE Candidate you don't support a way for the District to receive the extra State Aid to possibly restore some items that would have been cut from the children . The money is suppose to come from the FICA / Medicare taxes that would have been paid. I encourage you to read the articles on this proposal on rethink it.

[James_Obrien]

Especially now that the Governor is offering to send more state aid to districts that the Unions have agreed to wage freezes in. It is time for the HTEA to agree to wage freezes to save their Co workers jobs n to have most of the proposed cuts returned to the budget.

How can anyone any one support such a statement?

This is nothing short of bribery. New Jersey politics at its best.
Where is this money going to come from? And if the Govenor has this money why has he taken it away from the school?

Honestly I am going to have to agree to disagree with you.  I am also surprised that as a BOE Candidate you don't support a way for the District to receive the extra State Aid to possibly restore some items that would have been cut from the children . The money is suppose to come from the FICA / Medicare taxes that would have been paid. I encourage you to read the articles on this proposal on rethink it.

The money offered is a small portion of the aid that was reduced. That is not to say it is not needed because every dollar that comes in counts. But these are negotiated settlements done through collective bargaining. The process should be respected or it will mean nothing in the future.
 
The Governor asked for a wage freeze, the Board asked for a wage freeze the union asked for time to inform the rank and file of all its ramifications. Then School closed for two weeks. Wednesday night my initial reaction was no different than yours, what’s there to talk about? The administration led by example, or did they? The words wage freeze and give back were used to describe their actions. A freeze is a freeze it has no cost going forward. A give back indicates you received something first. If it is part of your base this year and you give it back it will always be part of your base. It has a cost going forward. Back to the Governor. His proposal to freeze salaries is welcome. His impatience is not and may unravel something that has the ability to succeed. I believe our teachers union clearly understands the position we are in and only wants time to answer all the rank and file questions before supporting this proposal. A threat on top it can only delay or even cripple any momentum that was underway. I say wait for the answer I believe the union will support the administration and the board.

One thing that must happen is the freeze must happen from the top to the bottom. And it must be a freeze not a give back.

[Jeanette_Smith]

Eliminate non-hazardous route courtesy busing = $200,000
 

I just read the front page article in the Howell Times. The article makes it sound like the council believes the elimination of non-hazardous busing was done as a result of the additional reductions due to the defeated budget.

This is definitely not the case since we can all see I reported this reduction on March 23rd, prior to the election/budget vote. Just want to clarify in case anyone is not clear on the timeline.

[James_Obrien]

Eliminate non-hazardous route courtesy busing = $200,000
 

I just read the front page article in the Howell Times. The article makes it sound like the council believes the elimination of non-hazardous busing was done as a result of the additional reductions due to the defeated budget.

This is definitely not the case since we can all see I reported this reduction on March 23rd, prior to the election/budget vote. Just want to clarify in case anyone is not clear on the timeline.

Jeanette,

I also checked the tape and Mr. Sanasac made it perfectly clear that this was not a savings to taxpayers just to the Board.

The artical made me see red and help me relize just how out of touch our Council really is.

[Bob Walsh]

      In all fairness courtesy bussing was talked about many times. The same situation occurred with sports and after school activities and clubs. It might of been when you were at the meeting or if you stepped out for a minute that a new twist or statement was made that altered what was previously said. I personally was at a meeting in April when it was stated the Board of Ed was reinstating after school activities and with a cost was never mentioned.

       If and I use the term to be kind bussing was eliminated in March why was this very important piece of information relayed to our police department in late June. The safety of our children is a priority for all and the powers to be know that the safety of our children would fall on the police department to execute and the governing body to fund. Studies need to be done and alternatives looked at and analyzed before a plan is funded and put in place. This is not the1970's when you have security patrol of 4th and5th graders being crossing guards.

         The governing body will bus the children if the board of education does not agree to. It did not save the taxpayers one thin dime to eliminate it from the school budget.  It will just compromise the childrens safety.

[James_Obrien]

Please review the tape of the meeting on Howelltv.org Board of education meeting March 24 2010. Time stamp 22:25 should remove all the "if's". Busing was removed from the budget right from the begining.

This why you can not effectively review a budget in 30 days that took a committee 10 months to craft.

The Council was out of touch with what was going on.

[Thomas Jennings Jr.]

I read the Howell Times as well and it definitely seemed to give the edge that the BOE was trying to pull a fast one (when I know that I personally have been hearing about courtesy busing since before April 20th). I think there's a reason it's free.

Removal of courtesy bussing was there from the beginning. Whether it saves the taxpayer a dime or not is another issue. The schools were told to cut their budgets, before April 20th because of a reduction in state aid. Then came the additional 1.9 million. Instead of the BOE footing the bill for busing, the town would(and would still cost the taxpayer). Or nobody would and we would live without.  The BOE was not going to add it back in when they got hit with the additional $1.9 million reduction! That would be insane.

I feel students could be used as crossing guards of some sort. I think the level of police involvement needed has been trumped up more than it needed to be. We had security patrols when I was in middle and elementary school and that was just the 90's. It is not much worse now than it was then.

I agree with James on this: "This why you can not effectively review a budget in 30 days that took a committee 10 months to craft. "

Governor "Bull-in-a-china-shop" is trying to bribe the teachers. It seems he wants them to disagree with their unions, accept a wage freeze, and then maybe he'll give back SOME of the money he took away. Or they could say "We'll keep what we've earned, and you figure it out".

You don't get something for nothing. There are no free lunches. Courtesy bussing and extracurriculars included.