Ridgewood BOE to decide on eliminating school budget vote
Wednesday November 13, 2013, 9:48 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Board of Education (BOE) will be voting to keep or eliminate the April school budget vote at its next meeting on Nov. 18, forgoing a previously discussed telephone poll to gauge public opinion.
Although three BOE members last month expressed an interest in the poll, all trustees were in agreement at last week’s meeting that the poll was not worth the cost of a few thousand dollars.
“We do have in place and will continue to have in place a very vigorous budget process,” said BOE Vice President Vince Loncto. “The question is so nuanced that it’s inappropriate for a telephone poll.”
Trustee Jim Morgan agreed, noting that the BOE had already discussed the issue for “three or four meetings.”
Sounds like the fix is in.
This is the biggest financial decision made in Ridgewood every year. Voters should be asked to give their approval. If this role is eliminated, the gulf in perspective and priorities between Ridgewood residents on the one hand, and the Ridgewood school district and its safely-ensconced bureaucrats on the other, already large, will only widen, much to our disadvantage.
Voting to approve or disapprove of our school budget in Ridgewood is the essence of local self-government. This has always has been a strong NJ tradition and now is no time to discard it. It is also reasonable to view BOE trustees as the agents of the voters and taxpayers in Ridgewood, much as the some of the existing trustees may tend to cringe at that description.
Accordingly, the BOE trustees should not be permitted to give themselves the final word in whether or how to spend 80+ million dollars annually or to increase spending YOY versus holding the line if financial circumstances warrant and the taxpayers are strapped. BOE trustees, this resident asks that you maintain the status quo on the Ridgewood school district’s annual budget vote. Ridgewood residents need that authority and the BOE trustees don’t need to tinker with it!
The Board of Education (BOE) will be voting to keep or eliminate the April school budget vote…
Wasn’t this topic covered under the Marxist country / stupid people discussions in other threads?
Tell me again why Ridgewood is a desirable town to live in ?
The vote is a farce anyway. When we voted it down, they just passed it anyway. The fix has been in for years.
It would be interesting to do an analysis of the budget this year and see what sort of one time expenses are in there that will now be memorialized as part of the baseline for a minimum 2% annual increase.