>The tools at the BOE should not have rammed the $48m bond thru in December. What a scam that was…
There was so many things wrong with the way they went about it:
1. should have put in on the general ballot in november instead of its own ballot in december OR put it at the same time as the budget vote. they only did this because they knew less people would come out in december to vote against it AND that the NJ budget cuts were coming. additionaly, it costs money to hold a special election so yet again they wasted money.
2. they put a package deal together so they people with leaky roofs would vote yes even if they were not in favor of a dozen new classrooms, new bleachers, and new turf fields (which were, by the way, voted down by the general public when specifically asked whether they wanted to pay for them on the ballot two years ago).
3. there is no logic to the fact that they are claiming to need a dozen new classrooms while school populations are hundreds less than in the 1970s. why would we possibly need these things? if certain schools are too crowded, rebalance the boundaries like they did with somerville a few years ago. it’s not like you’d be sending your kid to inner city schools if they had to go to a different elementary school in Ridgewood.
4. as mentioned in point 2 above, the put deferred maintenance items in the bond. ok, fine, fix the roofs, wiring, etc. that was neglected in prior years that should have been handled in the operating budget BUT AGAIN, do not add new infrastructure (classrooms etc.) that we will not be able to maintain because obviously we can afford to maintain what we have already (hence the deferred maintenace in bond).
We need somebody on the board who will say NO to the teachers’ union, who has kids who will feel the impact of any cuts/reductions to keep them honest, and will not empire-build. We have to get back to basics and for once stabilize the taxes and let incomes catch up. 4% increases to the budget are not stable when there is essentially zero inflation.
