>PJ Can someone please explain how:
· We had a bond referendum shoved down our throats under the specter of vanishing funds from state grants
· We had or state school aid eliminated this year
· We had 2 years of multi-million dollar school budget deficits
· After the school budget was defeated, the Village Council reduced it by a whopping 1/10 of a percent
· We laid off or retired around 30 town workers and more may follow
After all the angst and tumult in this past year, now we’re getting LIGHTS for our artificial fields?!?
During the dog days of summer, our geniuses at the Board of Ed decide that gadfly Jack Carroll’s idea to add field lights to RHS was a good idea. But don’t worry, sez Big Jack – he’ll shake down various village sports groups (like was done for Maple Field) to offset the cost. If that’s not enough, we’ll take come of the overbudgeted funds from the bond referendum. (Remember, Laurie said that they added a little (10% – our money) extra padding to the referendum – just in case!!)
Carroll has been playing puppetmaster for almost 20 years and this is his latest act. The Board of Ed decided it was cool to “roll the dice” (especially when few were watching – or so they thought). The Village has be mostly against turf fields and now we’ll have 3. And lights now too that will illuminate the new Staduim field and bleachers? How do they pull that off when the state New Jersey won’t even allow a bloody concession stand to be built? Ask the Vandevender Foundation about that one.
This whole process stinks to high heaven. I bet you didn’t realize that when you signed your kids up for a rec sports team, you’d be paying for lighting a field you may never set foot upon. You probably thought that the Board of Ed may want to take it easy with the spending and scheming considering they are staring down new state budget rules and regs – not to mention a possibly explosive REA contract negotiation.
