Public vs. Private Is Class and Money##M:[more]##
Your issue about public vs. private schools (The News, August 26) posits that the West Windsor-Plainsboro public education is among the best in the country. I agree.
Your various articles, however, also suggest that private schools are better. I disagree.
True, teachers can give more attention to individual students in smaller classes. But the statistics about the quality of education disprove the assumption that private schools are ahead of the public ones. In our area, the scholastic achievements run neck to neck, and often the public schools have better scores than private ones.
No doubt that parenting is a lot easier when peer pressure on a son or daughter comes from a smaller number of classmates, and when teachers have more time for personal guidance of their charges.
But let us also not forget that more Nobel Prize winners attended public schools, achieving success even if there parents could not afford to send them to private ones. Being a part of a mainstream, even when crowded, has its civic advantages for society as well.
Sending children to private school is a choice available to those with more money: a matter simply of class privilege, with bragging rights. Pride has nothing to do with it.
Jasha M. Levi
46 Marion Drive, Plainsboro
Safety Issues On the School Bus
On Thursday, September 8, my son, Aedyn Yeras, attended kindergarten at the Plainsboro Town Center School. For parents who see their child go off to school for the first time, this is a day filled with excitement as well as anxiety. You are thrilled that your child is embarking on what you hope will be a rewarding experience in school, and you are anxious because the welfare of your child is now in the hands of others.
As such, we hope that our school systems are responsible enough to see to it that children are safe.
Unfortunately, my family had a horrible experience. My son rode the school bus as many children do, and while his journey to the school went well, his return home was a disaster. My wife and I stood at the designated stop with our youngest daughter, Alyssa, only to see the bus stop across the street and a few meters away from us. We quickly rushed to the bus and waved at the bus driver — who closed the doors in our face. The image of our son crying hysterical inside the bus and banging on the window replays itself in our minds.
He was the only child in the bus. His cries — and ours — were not heeded by the bus driver, who proceeded to drive away. I quickly ran after the bus, but could not catch up. I then ran to my car and tried to catch the bus, but this was hopeless. The bus was nowhere to be seen.
The school told us that the bus would return to the school in a situation such as this. Therefore, I drove to the school — only to find that they had no means of communicating with the driver of the bus. After speaking with a staff on the school grounds about the whereabouts of this bus, I was directed to the main office. At this point, my wife, who had returned home with my daughter to contact the school as well, called me on my cell phone: My son was left in the street by this bus driver with no adult supervision. He was forced to walk home by himself.
I could not believe that this happened to a five-year-old boy on his first day of school. I’ve spoken to the following individuals: Town Center School Principal Marilyn Hynes, Transportation Coordinator James McCloud, and Assistant Superintendent Larry Shanock. I have also written to Superintendent Robert L. Loretan in hopes of finding a solution to this issue.
This incident was completely unacceptable and presents an issue that all parents should be concerned with. This was gross negligence on the part of the Rick Bus Co. bus driver, but represents a greater issue with our school system as well as the transportation system. Under no circumstances should a child, regardless of age, be left so carelessly. The system needs to be improved immediately.
Jeddel Yerras
Ravens Crest Drive East,
Plainsboro
Editor’s note: According to school district spokesperson Gerri Hutner, the issue has been resolved. “It appears that on the first day of school at Town Center, the child got off the bus at the wrong stop. The bus driver was not yet familiar with the students and allowed the child to get off the bus. The bus driver has been reprimanded for this action. As per the parental request, the child has been moved to a new bus stop with a different driver. The parents, child, and the transportation office are all satisfied with this response.”
Driving Hazards On Alexander Road
On Wednesday, September 14, I was watching the news in my house on Alexander Road. I heard a horrific impact. I looked at my clock sitting on top of the TV; it read 6:25 p.m. I have seen and heard many accidents on the dangerous bend where I live, but this one was like no other. Something told me it was grave.
Within three minutes, the blaring sirens could be heard approaching my house, then another set of sirens, and yet another. When I heard sirens from a fire engine, my thoughts were confirmed. My husband went out to the scene, which is only about 50 yards from our driveway. He stood elevated above the accident where he saw a multitude of paramedics and police officers. From the positioning of the three vehicles, it was apparent how the accident happened.
Two days later, when I read the article about Rebecca Annitto’s death in the crash, it brought tears to my eyes. Her life was snuffed out when it was just beginning. Now, when I pull out of my driveway to head into town, I will think of Rebecca and the family she left behind.
In the 10 years I have lived in this house, I have witnessed and heard countless accidents. On many occasions, I have called 911. Literally, on any day it rains, drivers skid into oncoming traffic, resulting in either a near miss or an accident. It is very common for drivers to run off the road, plow down our mailbox, or lose control and do a total 180-degree spin. They either land in the small field across the street or in the opposite lane. By the sheer stroke of luck, drivers have escaped death on this deadly bend. For some inexplicable reason, they all had guardian angels looking over their shoulders, except for one. Unfortunately, it was just a matter of time for a collision of this magnitude to happen.
A day after the accident, it started to rain lightly. A white van veered off the road, narrowly missing our mailbox, and a mail delivery truck found himself on the grassy field. Another typical day on Alexander Road, proving it’s an ongoing problem. Moreover, it will only get worse with the endless traffic speeding into town.
There is evidence of all the accidents with the many police reports at the West Windsor Police Department. Unfortunately, the accident that occurred on Wednesday evening was foreseeable. Sadly, it takes a death — and a very young one at that — in order for Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh to announce that safety measures are now a “top priority.” For all of those reading this, please beware when it rains, and avoid Alexander Road.
Susan Fogwell
Alexander Road, West Windsor
Editor’s note: Officer Thomas Tarr of the West Windsor Police Department reported that this stretch of Alexander Road, approaching the Delaware & Raritan Canal and Princeton Township, has been the scene of 31 accidents since 2001. Tarr was unable to immediately provide comparative data for other intersections.
Citizen Complaints In Plainsboro
I’ve noticed a lot more Plainsboro residents writing in and openly voicing their displeasure with this or that aspect of the town. Good for them. It is a citizen’s job to open his or her mouth.
When our taxes and expenses are suddenly whittling down our incomes, we really do have to call our leaders out of touch for gleefully planning an $8 million to $10 million library with gardens and coffee bars. Our current library, built new, is only about a dozen years old.
For the most part, Plainsboro is a nice place, but somehow the notion that the government exists to serve the citizens got lost. The management seems to have different priorities than the residents. How else do you explain hundreds of citizens demanding 25 MPH speed limits being disregarded?
What rationale can the government give for imposing higher speed limits through the original Village, but not through the newer developments? We who live in the Historic District would like our kids to walk to school, to visit their friends, and to bicycle around our neighborhoods, but our town fathers encourage traffic to drive faster in our neighborhoods. Are we second-class citizens?
The township administrator said they use the “85 percent rule” to set the speed limit at the 85th percentile of the speed drivers actually do. It’s one of those “scientific” schemes from the 1940s that seems to stem from molecular motion theory. Do they use that rule on all the streets, or only the ones where they do not want a 25 MPH limit? I believe our older residents would call the 85 percent rule “hooey.”
Another example of unresponsive governance are the planners who appear to plan without thinking first. Their work is flawless, technically, and meets every engineering and legal requirement, but totally ignores the rationale for doing the job in the first place. It is as if their underlying assumptions come from another planet or an outdated textbook, because the solutions do not fit our town.
The New Jersey Turnpike, at our latitude, is only 10 lanes wide. Did we really need our main intersection, Scudders & Schalks, to be nine lanes wide? Do we really need traffic lights to control every intersection? If you can’t see oncoming traffic soon enough, why not have drivers slow down? When is the last time one of our planners said, “Just put up a stop sign,” or “Speed bumps will help?” What’s wrong with our planning? Aren’t there simpler solutions?
Town Officialdom said they are re-engineering the corner of Dey, Plainsboro, and Edgemere because so much Turnpike-bound traffic comes through there rather than waiting in the long left-turn lane on Scudders to Dey. If that is so, why don’t they put a jug handle or clover leaf into the acres of open space at that corner? Shouldn’t they re-engineer the problem corner, rather than destroying the character of our historic center?
The town plans to enlarge the empty corner nearest Wicoff School and butcher the occupied, privately owned corners, replacing the landscaping with traffic lights, the attendant machinery, and signage. Objections and counter proposals of the residents (four-way stop, speed bumps, normal residential speed limits) are dismissed without reasons. The plan is flawed by major false assumptions. One is that no one will pass on the right, but if the planners spent more than 15 minutes a block away at the corner of Plainsboro and Parkway, they would see this illegal move being done all the time.
The town also plans sidewalks to nowhere along the north side. If you think the town would not install a sidewalk to nowhere, see a sample at Pasture Lane and Plainsboro Road. It can’t be more than eight feet long and it leads directly into a lamppost! May God spare us from such improvements!
Despite unanimous opposition, the township said the work was planned for “this summer” (i.e. this past summer), but after public complaints we read that “the plans are not finalized.”
The astute reader will note that officials gave no details of what is planned and what is pending. “Not finalized” becomes an empty political phrase. Plans are not disseminated or discussed in the newspaper. Those who have the leisure to attend planning meetings may sit and watch, but busier people, those who commute afar or have family priorities, those who have to work long hard hours to pay their taxes, are out of luck.
It would be nice if our town government went back to doing what the residents want done instead of wasting our money on luxuries we did not ask for, nor can afford, or destroying our neighborhoods with cockamamie projects that benefit impatient transient traffic.
Peter Pfister
521 Plainsboro Road, Plainsboro
Former WW Mayor Reflects on Taxes
As a former mayor of West Windsor, I have been receiving a number of inquiries from realtors and real estate clients at my law office concerning local property tax projections. This is a subject that I have not written about since I left public office in 1999. Apparently, the twin events of re-evaluation and expanding governmental costs have raised an alarm among many people concerned about where taxes will be heading.
I am asked about property taxes because many people are aware that keeping track of local fiscal calculations is something of a hobby for me. I agree it is a strange hobby. Based upon the number of inquiries I’ve received, this letter may be appropriate. I hope I can reduce some of people’s anxiety because they are not sure what level of increase they are facing.
The good news for the people of West Windsor is that while we have all heard of communities that have seen tax increases of 50-100 percent after revaluation, the factors that cause such an increase are generally, in my opinion, not in play in West Windsor. The numbers that I have reviewed suggest that the township should see a more modest 20-35 percent tax increase over the next two tax years.
As an example, a house built before 1993 (the housing which will see the largest adjustment) and presently assessed at $400,”000 pays approximately $17,”500 in property tax for tax year 2005; by 2007, that house will see an increase of only between $3,”500 and $6,”000. Houses built or assessed after 1993 will see smaller increases and new housing may actually see a decrease.
Thomas P. Frascella
Frascella & Pisauro,
Canal Pointe Boulevard,
West Windsor
Cantu: Tax Reform
Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu, who serves as President of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, presided over a press conference on September 13 to announce the formation of the state Property Tax Convention Coalition, which will press for property tax reform through a citizens’ property tax convention. His remarks follow:
As mayor of Plainsboro I have seen the harsh impacts and heard loud and clear the frustrations of citizens who endure the consequences of a property tax system that is simply broken.
These impacts are not numbers on a financial statement, dollars in a budget, they are human impacts. Senior citizens who are unable to stay in the homes they have lived in for years, the homes in which they raised their children. Young families who want to raise their families in the town they grew up in but can’t because even if they can afford the house the property taxes that come with it are just too much. These folks are leaving their hometowns and our communities are the poorer because of it.
The legislature can no longer dismiss local governments as spendthrifts when the core problem is an inequitable and regressive system of taxation that they refuse to repair. My town, Plainsboro, has a proud tradition of fiscal responsibility, good planning, and sound economic development.
We have consistently had the lowest municipal tax rate in Middlesex County. But our best efforts did little to protect our citizens from the impacts of a recent revaluation, which of course hit hardest with those who could least afford it. Taxpayers should beware! The incredible increase in home values comes with a dark side in a tax system that relies on the value of a home while giving no consideration to a family’s ability to pay.
This system simply has to go; it burdens our citizens, especially those least able to pay. State resources are inadequate and unpredictable, making sound financial planning difficult for many communities and impossible for some. It places us in competition for tax ratables which only distorts development decisions and inhibits sound planning. Ironically, property tax reform may be the most effective “smart growth” initiative we could ever hope to adopt.
New Jersey needs a citizen’s property tax convention and to accomplish this, the citizens must demand action from the Senate and Assembly.
To the Editor
In a letter to assuage concerns of realtors and real estate clients former West Windsor mayor and attorney Thomas Frascella posits that anticipated increases in 2005 to 2007 property taxes would be from $3,”500 to $6,”000 for a house for which the tax bill is already $17,”500 — a “modest” 20 percent increase.
It is unlikely that the homeowner would agree that “it’s no so bad.” It is horrific. Incomes don’t rise in such dramatic fashion and certainly for those who are retired.
The recent per-student average cost in West Windsor-Plainsboro schools was $11,”154. If 60 percent of the $17,”500 tax bill goes to the schools, my property taxes don’t support the cost of cone child, let alone two or more. The homeowner cannot, and never will, support the school district through the property tax system to the level required.
Frascella thinks that increases to $6,”000 over two years is not so bad. But what about the senior, the blue-collar guy, or the single mom who makes a modest income, lives in an older home, keeps food on the table, gas in the car, kids in school? They would feel quite differently.
We need a convention for tax reform to stop this property-tax increase nonsense. We have been squeezed by the system for too long. We want sustainable, balanced funding for schools and services based on the ability to pay. For more information, visit www.citizens4propertytaxreform.org
Walter Helfrecht
Upper Freehold
