Montclair BOE Cuts A Million & More

Good. Cut more, please. Just leave the programs that my kids participate in alone. Thank you.

Tthey cut 7 teaching staff positions and only 3 admin positions? Typical...couldn't it have been the other way around?

Is he going to bother detailing the cuts?

What kind of cuts will be done at the BOE itself. The top heavy BOE. The BOE who squandered $850,000 to move the baseball field 17 feet.

Does this include the $1,000,000 insurance rebate thet the BOE tried to hide.

When questioned about it they responded that they "knew nothing". Yet they were planning on holding that slush fund for _________ (you fill in the blank)

Municipal school boards are an inefficient relic of the past. I know everyone's least favorite word is consolidation, but at some point, it has to be considered.

That said, our funding priorities in this country are f*cked up. How much money did the government just hand out to Wall St? 200 billion? How many hundreds of billions have been spent during the occupation of Iraq? How many tens of billions on a missle defense system that doesn't work? Etc., etc. And all this just in the last 6 years.

What matters to us as a country? Not educating our children, that's for sure.

Those bastards! If they would just give me that $10 billion instead of squandering it on a broken missle, the world would be a better place. (I would spend it all on the children, I promise!)

PS I'd settle for a measly 1% of $10 billion. Is that too much to ask? Lord knows I deserve it.

I have not been following this very closely, and although I primarily concentrate on words (the IRS can attest to my lack of skill with numbers), these figures really appear to be mind-bogglingly boondoggle-ish. $110 million dollars to run a school system in a town the size of Montclair? Are these guys all driving Bentleys? Are you sure they are not all County employees: it's hard to believe anyone else can waste money as efficiently.

guido, while I share your sentiment, you must understand that money spent on the war/defense budgets has nothing to do with local school budgets.

Education is a local issue.

However, by your comment I guess you welcomed No Child Left Behind, which was the most sweeping national education reform ever.

As for priorities, the baseball field move is a better example (locally).

And is the new school something we should be spending money on now?

The BOE made an absurd intitial proposal and then cut it to "only 5.6%" increase. This is called Negotiating 101. A 5.6% increase is still way above inflation and above what is appropriate given the overall situation we are facing with falling home values, job cuts and crushing property taxes.

It is nice the BOE is headed in the right direction but they need to cut more.

There was an excellent letter to the editor in the Montclair Times outlining the rationale for a 0% increase.

Please consider putting the new school building on hold. Make the space an athletic field instead.

So the average increase will "only" be $456 for the school portion? I would love to know how they calculate the "average". Are condo's and apartments included, to make the "average" look lower? I've been a taxpayer here 15 years and I have never received only the "average" increase.

(Conan, get ready for some to defend these clowns. Starting with the Bearded Wonder Alverez. Is his contract up yet?)

Let's see if we can't get the mayoral candidates to vow until they're blue in the face that they will introduce some transparency to BOE and town budgets.

Well Wallerooski,

Joyce Michaelson voted to give away the Grove St school to Deron.

That's pretty transparent.

A vote for Joyce is a vote for school expenditure!

For those wondering about Africk's ability to root out waste and analyze the budget, he just posted the following on the Watercooler - good stuff this:

BOE Budgeting

As we review the latest budget towards an eye to reducing programs, I would like to remind all that the Board still has approximately $840,000 that is sitting in a "reserve" account at Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

I would imagine that this "excess" money could be put back into the budget to further hold down tax increases to the public.

After all, it is a reserve above and beyond the reserve that the insurer recommends.

Here's the detail: In the minutes of the BOE Public Board Meeting dated June 18, 2007, Resolution (c), a "Resolution re: Transfer of Funds from Health Benefits Reserve Account to Rate Stabilization Reserve Account" notes:

c. Resolution re: Transfer of Funds from Health Benefits Reserve Account to Rate Stabilization Reserve Account

WHEREAS, the Montclair Board of Education has a contract with Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield to provide medical insurance to Board employees, and

WHEREAS, the contract requires the district to maintain a reserve account to cover run off claims in the event that we terminate the contract, and

WHEREAS, the reserve amount is determined by Horizon Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and fluctuates monthly, and

WHEREAS, the reserve account has a balance of $2,139,797.12 as of May 31, 2007, and whereas, the required reserve was reduced by Horizon Blue Cross/ Blue Shield to $1,205,000 as of June 30, 2007, and

WHEREAS, Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield has offered to hold a rate stabilization account for the district to cover future increases to the reserve in an interest bearing account,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Montclair Board of Education approves the transfer of $840,305.88 from the reserve account to Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield to be held in a rate stabilization account and a transfer of $94,491.24 into the district's operating account representing interest earned from July, 2006, to May, 2007. The district is also authorized to transfer interest accrued during the month of June, 2007, into the district's operating account.

It's good, but as you know it's old news...the question has been asked for over a year now...with no answer from the BOE and an OPRA denial based on there being "no such account".

Dear Jon,

Yeah, but he was the one pointing it out a year ago, and it was his OPRA request that got denied. And it was all "he said, she said" until he dug into the Board minutes and found the smoking gun, so I guess we should give the guy credit for being, well, persistent at least?

and vote for him!

Curm, don't get me wrong, i like the guy, but running with Tobin leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And I agree, he is persistent.

Curm, don't get me wrong, i like the guy, but running with Tobin leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And I agree, he is persistent.

Predictable in every way. They (Dr. Alvarez etc) really don't "get it" and either can't run a "business", choose not to, or haven't been given the proper mandate by their "board of directors".
Create and execute the Plan, in this budget to acomplish:
1) Delayer Management by elimiating a layer, not "reducing". Get those accountable, closer to the real education that goes on.
2) Outsource the Admin, to either the town, or to another educational admin that is more focused on productivity gains, i.e. potentially Verona.
3) Carve out the saleable portion of the current Valley Road admin offices, move them into the space above the "Urban Outfitters" on Park, in "Open Office" enviornment championed by Bloomberg in city gov't, and his own enterprise. This could be in preparation of them moving into the new school (in the vacant space caused by high taxes. "Sell" the current BOE "island" on Valley Road; use those monies to pay part of the "need" for the new school. You'll most likely see developement of the dealership on the corner
anyway.
3) Start new teachers this August at $10K annual less than this year starting.
4) Expand school day so that buildings are fully utilized from 8AM-6PM, including teaching.
5) Expand Classroom Instruction Time, by 2 periods per day. You think Adjunct Professors get paid for time not teaching in classes? More time in the classroom teaching = more pay, less = less pay.
6) Outsource "additional help required" to Huntington, etc to utilize the classrooms until 6PM, for those that need it, and parents willing to pay for it. We have underutilized "space" from 3PM to 6PM.
7) All teacher meetings, non instructional time to be on "mid-term breaks", Saturday mornings,etc. There is simply too much timee off, for both students and the educational enviornment, to attempt to keep up with the Asians, that Dr. Alvarez took time to visit last year. Simply, the Asians work harder, and longer, at their schooling than we do...and we are loosing to them.
8) Want to add Asian studies? Good idea. Everyone wants, "more" for "less". Make the tough decision and drop French from the school system entirely. French (and Italian) may not be languages that help prepare our students for success in this century. Nice to have, but those that want, can buy PC software and learn it.
9) I would have said this on Mon nite or Tues nite, but alas, I have to work 60 hour weeks to pay these taxes.
10) And, wait until you see the increases coming to pay for the Pensions and Benefits, when the state has lost 1.9% on investments in Jan/Feb. Bloomberg just announced his 4th round of CUTS, due to anticipated reduction in funding to NYC. Does our BOE know the meaning of Cuts? It is not, "less of an increase". We are in competition with many towns for residents, but our Taxes, are devaluing our Real Estate, that "funds" our schools.
Your Taxes as a percentage of the value of your real estate,, whether rented or owned, are going up, unless we get serious.

"Does our BOE know the meaning of Cuts? It is not, "less of an increase". "

I love this and unfortunately you are right...too often the term cuts is applied to a decrease in the rate of spending, not to an actual decrease in spending. I guess they think it fools people.

Jon,

It's not necessary to vote for the entire slate. Just vote for the guy you like!

I understand that...it's that he feels that his values are closely aligned with Tobin, enough so to run on his slate. That bothers me. Anyone trying to seperate Tobin from Michaelson hasn't been paying attention.

Nah,

It's just that there are advantages to running on a slate. Don't read too much into it.

Besides, it's Jerry Fried's slate.

Didn't Ed Bloomberg, Mayor of NYC, takeover their BOE and put a businessman in charge?

There you go again, Nana! Making perfectly good sense!

I heard Africk made one suggestion. Moving some of the BOE's finance operations to the Town.

Gordon Stelter, the Town's CFO is a sharp, no-nonsence numbers guy!

Perhaps we should let the Board of EDUCATION worry about things like, well, education and let others do their own thing. Like Construction. And finance.

No, It's Gerry Tobin's slate. Just because he couldn't get the 250 petitions doesn't mean it's not his slate. And while there are advantages to running with a slate, it's disingenuous to join a slate when you don't agree with them just to reap the financial rewards.

Prof:

You're wrong on that. Education is not a local issue. If is was, why did the fed. spend nearly 90 billion on education in 2007?
(Comapred to 466 billion for the Pentagon which did not include the cost of the occupations of Iraq and Afgahnistan.)

The money spent on war and "defense" has everything to do with our priorities and our values as a nation.

And why would the fact that a piece of legislation was "sweeping" be a reason to support it? NCLB was nothing more than an unfunded mandate that refocues public education as little more than test prep. Like so much other Bush law, it is a mis-named program (if you can call it that) that actually does the opposite of what its name suggests. It was proposed and pushed by the same people who don't believe in public education as a way to make public education worse so more people will agree with their position that public education isn't worth the money we spend and that everybody ought to be in private schools that compete in an educational "market". You see? The rich can have their schools, pay for their children in what ever way they see fit, and they will not be obligated to contrbute to a tax base that is intended to provide everyone with the same educational foundation.

It's all a part of the same group that pushes the flat tax, Social Security "reform", bankruptcy "reform", product liability "reform", deregulation of financial institutions, and so on.

I am told the Bloomberg administration notified all the N.Y.C. schools last week that their budgets were being reduced by 1.5% across the board.

I heard this from a parent who was planning to protest at City Hall.

If this is true, I give Bloomberg credit for being realistic and acting decisively to control costs.

WHK, you do understand that your #3,4 and 5 may involve the contract between the board and Union and cannot be accomplished without negotiation (and the subsequent strike, because the teachers would fight your idea...)

And what do 4 and 5 have to do with the budget?

Moreover, without a competitive salary, the quality of our teacher pool diminishes. So you're #3 is just a bad idea.

As for:

#1- great idea.
#2- bad idea. Verona handling all the Mtc. admin? They would be overwhelmed.
#3 - Interesting, but in this market perhaps not a good idea. Likewise, looking at what happened the last time they SOLD building, I think this is a bad idea. Leasing perhaps....

My bad.

The NYC/Bloomberg cuts were announced in January: 1.75% from 2007 school spending and double that cut in 2008.

The protest rally (Teachers Union & parents) was this week.

"No, It's Gerry Tobin's slate. Just because he couldn't get the 250 petitions doesn't mean it's not his slate. And while there are advantages to running with a slate, it's disingenuous to join a slate when you don't agree with them just to reap the financial rewards.

Posted by Jon Doh | March 21, 2008 2:06 PM "

What financial rewards are you Talking about?

Sharing the contributions that 5 other people have received...or maybe they are all reaping Cary's rewards...not sure who the big draw is on that slate.

It's definately Cary!

Word is he's now trying to get a full accounting of the Woodman Field House, asking for ALL costs.

At the Board of School Estimate he got up and grilled them on the $500,000 "classroom of the future" and got them to discuss the two "newly created" central office positions.

Isn't this the kind of guy we want working for US?

These slates are fairly fluid. Maddox was on the "Leadership Montclair" slate along with Tobin and Michaelson in 2004. Kathryn Weller ran on the "One Montclair" Slate in that same election. I believe that Tobin ran with Bob Russo's slate in 2000.

Just because Cary is running on the Tobin/Fried Slate doesn't mean that he won't be his own man when he gets elected, any more than the fact that Roger Terry is running on Michaelson's slate means that he won't be his own man.

There is that rumor that Joyce has promised Roger a job. I think it was a head of school security.

Will he be his "own man" or will he be her lap pup just like Schlager is?

You remember that Schlager works for Michaelson don't you.

Just to give the Montclair numbers some perspective, I work for a large public school district in Arizona (approximately 38,000 students and 2300 teachers.) The proposed budget for the next school year is approximately $205,000,000 , an increase of approximately 3.5 %.

I know it is apples and oranges and I am not trying to equate the quality of the two districts, but it does make you think a little bit.

How many students are there in Montclair's school system? The high school has approximately 2000, but I do not know about the elementary and middle schools.

WHK -- No offense, but a good portion of your slate is laughable. Not all, however:

#1 -- is a good idea, and could be accomplished without harm to the kids.
#2 -- how would Verona, or any other town, operate differently in terms of expenditures given the fact the great majority of costs are fixed -- salaries, pensions, etc.?
#3 -- that's possible.
Your second #3 -- What types of folks do you think are going to line up to teach here for 10K less than they'd get anywhere else. Actually, more than 10K, since there are other districts that already pay more than this one. Then again, there is that pesky contract. It is certainly a time proven fact, isn't it, that you attract better candidates to any position by offering less money than your competition!
#4 -- most buildings ARE utilized after hours, with practices, co-curricular meetings, parent-teacher meetings, etc. Community groups also use the buildings. You might up the usage, but pretty much any group that has business with the school can use them. And at no cost. do you propose to charge the PTO for using the building? Or should we throw open the doors to any organization that wants to use them? Who vets these people? do you remember a few years ago when Palisades Park thought it would be a great idea to let a film company make a picture in the high school? They got a porno film.
#5 -- Two more periods has school dismissed at about 5 or 5:30. After-school activities would occur when? That much bemoaned lack of time with the family? Forget it. Junior is home at 6:00 and eats dinner, homework, etc. He's home at 8:00 or 9:00 if he is on the newspaper or the baseball team. Forget that, actually. there won't be any teams because it will be dark by game time.
#6 -- Any thought to the insurance implications of allowing a private business to operate in the schools, free from oversight?
#7 -- Teachers meet when there is the need to meet. If a student is having difficulty in January, should they decide to wait until the April break to discuss it? Meetings take place during planning time, which is part of the negotiated contract under which the teachers operate. There are contracts in place, you know. You might want to take a look at one.
And Asians (which ones, by the way? Chinese? Turks? Bangladeshis?) do not "work harder" en masse. Some do, some don't. Students in China and Japan and India are tracked, and there is no attempt made to do what we in this country do -- educate everyone. This idea that Asians are smarter is a myth.
# 8 -- You could make an argument for or against language instruction as a luxury, if you're so inclined. You could also see it as a way for students to see the world through a different lens, and to get a better picture of how others think. French and Italian have no value? I beg to differ.
# 9 -- Take a sick day and go the meeting.
#10 -- Pensions cannot be cut by a local board. Bloomberg did indeed make cuts, but not to pensions and benefits, since he cannot do that. What is it about contracts that you don't get?

Everyone is frustrated, and changes need to be made. But your list is a study in frustration with virtually no evidence indicated that you have the slightest idea of the realities we face.

this is why I left montclair and NJ for a place with lower taxes. My taxes went up $1000 a year for the 6 years I was in town. I, too, never was hit with the 'average' increases always being talked about.

Here are a few thoughts.

1) The Chinese have an average classroom size of 52 children, and htey are able to manage with budgets FAR below our American bloated standards. Not to mention the fact that they are competing with us economically and winning.

2) When teachers say they need more staff and smaller class sizes, you can bet that's code for "we can't manage our classes b/c these kids are unruly"

3) The Washington Post agrees

The Well-Managed Classroom
Friday, March 14, 2008; A16
Jay Mathews's March 10 Metro article, "Smaller Classes Don't Close Learning Gap, Study Finds,"
highlighted one of the main fallacies in education today.
The main beneficiaries of the "smaller class size" argument are teachers who use it to explain away
problems with student achievement.
They say that smaller classes would allow them to provide more individualized instruction. In reality,
teachers want fewer students because they are unable to manage their classrooms.
When teachers spend more time managing students' behavior than teaching, clearly the solution isn't
smaller classrooms but better management of the classrooms they have.
Just one or two disruptive students ruin the educational experience for all, regardless of class size.
Improved discipline and classroom behavior are crucial to improving student learning.
And closing the achievement gap? Giving all students the skills they need to be successful is the best
solution to that problem. When up to 85 percent of a child's success depends on his or her social skills,
providing education in that area to lower-income students will help them to learn today and succeed in
the professional world tomorrow.
CORINNE A. GREGORY
Bellevue, Wash.
The writer is founder and president of the SocialSmarts program, which focuses on social skills and
character education for public and private schools.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031303374_p... 3/14/2008

Ms Finan -- There are literally dozens of studies pointing to the correlation between smaller class sizes and better classroom performance. To cite 52 kids in a class as OK is absurd. The Chinese may have this situation, and in a country of nearly 1.3 billion it wouldn't surprise me. But you can bet it isn't happening in the elite schools. The POST article says nothing --- look to the research, done by people who know what they're talking about.

social skills and character education - what exactly is that doublespeak for?

What school were you running those "polite child" classes at?

Were you running them with 52 kids in a class? One teacher and 52 kids. That really cuts down on overhead doesn't it/