We've all seen the lies repeated: at the budget hearings, at the debates, in campaign literature, in electioneering materials. However, it is still hard to believe that the incumbents would actually be so foolish to lie so blatantly and not expect to get caught.
Well the board and administration have done it again. AND THEY'VE BEEN CAUGHT AGAIN.
We're refering of course to the unprecedented sacrifice that the administrators have made in order to craft a fiscally responsible budget. As has been pointed out numerous times, most administrators are under contract and they CANNOT 'give up' their contractual salary increases without a modification to the contract. We've also pointed out that numerous OPRA requests to the district for these contract changes have produced - - - - no contract ammendments.
For those of you that still doubt the games that are being played by the administration and board let us point out a recently noticed provision in the NEW JERSEY Statutes for FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY, EFFICIENCY AND BUDGETING PROCEDURES N.J.S.A. 6A:23A (The entire document is available as Chap23a under Docs).
(1) The public notice and public hearing required pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:11-11 is applicable to a board of education that renegotiates, extends, amends, or otherwise alters the terms of an existing contract with a superintendent of schools, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent, or school business administrator. (d) Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-5.3, the Commissioner shall require each local public school district, CVSD and CSSSD to submit as part of the annual budget submission supporting documentation in regard to the employment contracts of the superintendent, any assistant superintendent, the SBA, and any employee with an annual salary that exceeds $75,000 who is not a member of a collective bargaining unit. The supporting documentation shall include employment contract information as detailed in 1-4 below The employment contract information in (d) above shall be provided for public inspection, along with the budget as prescribed in (c) above, in an easily accessible location and in a "user-friendly," plain language format as prescribed by the Commissioner on the local public school district's Internet site, if one exists, no less than 48 hours after the public hearing on the budget. 1. The employment contract information shall be maintained on the district’s Internet site, if one exists, with a visible link off the main page, for the entire budget yearNo such contract modifications have been published on the district's website. No contracts for any of the named positions have been provided as public documents and no public notice or public hearings were permitted as required by law. Do you still doubt that this board and this administration are not only playing fast and loose with your children and your money, but fast and loose with the law as well??
VOTE FOR THE CHANGE WE NEED
VOTE APRIL 21, 2009
Are you telling us that although the BOE is telling us that they are not getting a raise, their paychecks will reflect a raise for this year? Are you saying that the teachers, and the administrators know this? While you have cited the law about altering the contracts before there can be any salary freeze, you did not say where the money will come from and at what percentage. If their salaries are a part of public record then won't we be able to see the increase. How exactly will they accomplish this. If what your saying is true they should have submitted paperwork to the existing contract which states they have accepted a salary freeze. What your saying makes sense, but what can we do about it? It sounds like we can question them about not having submitted paperwork to make the salary freeze legal and then what? This is all confusing. Perhaps it is designed to be this way. It is overwhelming to the average "Joe". We are all happy there is no increase so why rock the boat. Knowing that the BOE wants to put out a bond referendum for the replacement of Memorial School, it seems interesting that the timing of asking for a bond referendum coinsides with them reducing our taxes and not taking a raise.
ReplyDeleteYes their salaries are part of the public record and any member of the public can request a list of employees and salaries through the Open Public Records Act.
ReplyDeleteIn fact an OPRA request for exactly this information was placed on March 16th. The district has not yet provided the information.
The board and administration has made much fanfare of the Administration Salary Freeze but have repeatedly refused to disclose how much that salary freeze amounts to.
Joe Public would be able to figure it out by him(her)self if the Administration followed the law and posted the contracts on their web site. Nope they haven't done that.
The district would like you to believe that everyone is happy and everyone is sacrificing so that you don't rock the boat. . . that's their whole purpose to coming out with the nonsense they are peddling this year. Objective 1: re-elect the incumbents. Objective 2: pass the budget. Objective 3: don't let the public ask questions.
Once the election is over and the real truth comes out then it's too late.
There is no administrative salary freeze. The board and administration keep saying there is to get your vote; but they haven't done anything to make it legally binding. If you trust them you will find out sometime next January that they didn't really need to freeze salaries after all, they found the money somewhere else. [We can show you AT LEAST $3 million of taxpayer money being hidden or wasted in the proposed budget).
They keep getting caught in lie after lie after lie and they are counting on the fact that they've made it too confusing for anyone to really take the time to figure out.
So it's up to the voting public to figure out in the next 26 hours if they are willing to continue to trust the people that have lied to them all along.
I would also separate the teachers from the administrators. For the most part the teaching staff is a group of professional, dedicated individuals that are kept as much in the dark by the administration as the public is.
The administrators and the board of education know exactly what they are doing and know exactly what kind of lies they plan on getting away with because they expect nobody to be willing to speak up and rock the boat.
Why do we have these laws in place if they are not being followed? Who oversees the laws and ensures they are being followed? If this is true, how can they get away with this? Are they expecting that it would only be the general public, who is not aware of any of these laws, to bring this to light? Shouldn't there not be a governing body to oversee all this? This is all crazy. There have been years when the school budget does not pass, how do they get their raises then? Information is power and without the right information, we have no power.
ReplyDeleteI just saw a rerun of the April 2nd BOE meeting adopting the budget. watch that again and you will want to vomit. The smugness is horrible.Campaigning and MUD slinging right on channel 3. very professional! We need to all realize that these cronies running the board need to go. period. Please vote tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteAnd we pay this "couple" more than what $250,000 a year and I am sure the cost of teacher benefits which is zilch......If not zilch darn close........what exactly are we getting for that? I pay $5,000 for my medical and dental coverage and a deductible of $500 per person out of network and another $150 in network - and teachers in this district pay whhhhhaaaaattttttat? Welcome to the real world - grow up.
ReplyDeleteJust curious...How is the board and the administration "playing fast and loose" with anyone's children ? Say what you will about the budget and the contracts, this can be debated all day long, and anyone can quote laws without knowing the actual facts of the matter...But EB provides an educational system that rivals any public school system....Again, genius, how are they "playing fast and loose" with the students ?
ReplyDeleteThis last comment is obviously from one of the set of parents in this town that just "want to believe" EB schools are so great so as to feel "they are doing the best thing" in living here and sending their children to these schools. The pie in the sky mentality of this district is worth a vomit. Just giving your money away for an undisclosed venture does not equal a 'caring' for our children.
ReplyDeleteActually, you are wrong...While I pay plenty in property taxes, I don't have a child in the district....School taxes are a problem everywhere, but at least EB students are getting a great education and dedicated administrators for the cost...Do you not think EB provides a great education ? Check the national rankings for public school districts and get back to me, ok ? And try some pepto for that vomitting.....
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Eb students are getting a great education. We have fallen below South Brunswick. I do believe we have a lot of dedicated teachers, administrators I'm not so sure. Education in EB is not what it used to be and I'm not particularly impressed. It is allegedly great for gifted and special needs, what about middle of the road.
ReplyDeletejust for the record, Pepto is not for vomiting - it's for diarrhea and upset stomach. Once you start to vomit you would just puke up the pepto. I too do not believe the Ed. in EB is like it used to be. I personally know teachers who will say the same. I agree we have many wonderful and dedicated teachers. I don't really know much about the admin. to make a commment. I know there are things about how my children are being educated that I am not 100% happy with. This site has helped to open up my eyes about they way they are spending my tax $. You can't help but want to know how the BOE has $4 milion of our tax money. How come they have not explained that? Rankings have nothing to do with misuse of my tax $'s. You could have low rankings and proper use of tax $'s. We are entitled to know this and the answers to many other questions raised here. In other words if our rankings were not as good, then we would ? the $4 million. Since they are decent, let's let them do what they want and don't ask any ?'s. That just makes no sense - just like the pepto for vomiting - it makes no sense!
ReplyDelete