The WW-P Board of Education must cut millions of dollars to reach the state-mandated CAP, as well as to present a reasonable budget to the public, acknowledging the current financial crisis facing the citizens of our community, state, and nation. To do so we have undertaken a review of every program, service, and operational component of the school system. Our overarching goal in making these severe cuts is to do the least harm to direct instructional and support services for all of our students.
The review of the custodial-maintenance program looked at cost effectiveness, quality of work, appropriateness of the operational structure, comparison to similar districts and the private sector, as well as alternative models to deliver these services. From the beginning we have shared information with all stakeholders regarding the purposes, processes, and procedures of the review, as well as when the report would be made public, be open for discussion, and possible future actions we could consider.
At the announced public meeting in early December, an executive summary of the report was presented to the Board and the audience present. At that time, four elected legislators –– State Assemblypersons Linda Greenstein and Wayne De Angelo, State Senator Bill Baroni, and Congressman Rush Holt –– took a partisan position regarding the future options open to the Board of Education. Rather than helping to bring the Board, employee groups, and citizens together to develop rational options to reach a financial agreement that equitably shares the costs of our operation, they spoke out against any future consideration of alternative models that could include outsourcing.
These elected officials of both parties have been part of the legislatures that created the financial mess in the state and nation. Without knowing the impact to WW-P of continued state mandates with no additional revenue, a 25 percent increase in the State Health Benefits Plan, money lost because of less than full funding from the state, attempts to negotiate more equitable contributions to health benefits, and the continuing current conversation with all employee groups to consider reasonable modifications in current contracts to prevent any one group from bearing an undue burden caused by required reductions, these legislators made it more difficult for the Board to engage employee groups in the necessary conversation.
I am no longer willing to sit back and allow public education to be used as a convenient political football, underfunded, required to do it all, inundated with limits on the capacity to carry out its mandate, and then blasted for not curing all of the ills of society. What I saw that evening was a political decision to support the lobbying groups that could bring votes to future re-election campaigns. I want elected officials who see beyond their own political self-interest and think and act on behalf of the collective good of all constituents.
Richard A. Kaye
West Windsor Resident, Chairperson, Board of Education Curriculum Committee.
