Your tax dollars will pay for the $171 million school budget.
The budget process is all wrong. It’s not good enough to just stay under the cap. The budget should start with a 3 percent reduction. That will be easy, if they simply cut the 27 out of 30 supervisors and directors that we don’t need.
Only three supervisors are needed to observe teachers. The math: 929 teachers times three observations a year equals 2,787. Based on six observations for 181 days, three supervisors can make 3,240 observations.
The 27 other supervisors cost $3.5 million and are bureaucrats whom we don’t need and can not afford. If supervisors are not in the classroom teaching, we don’t need them.
I remember when there were no supervisors and our schools were excellent and professionally run.
Supervisors were an idea pushed for years by an assistant superintendent who has long since left the district. Finally the board caved in. Initially there were four. Now it’s a huge bureaucracy, which creates an echo chamber. This echo chamber shuts students and parents out of every decision.
The finance committee should be working hard to find savings. There are plenty more to be found: we don’t need a 6.8 percent increase in teacher training, or a 1 percent increase in administrative costs, some administrators are paid too much, there are lots of bicycles stored at South that should be sold. Why hasn’t the old district headquarters been sold?
Residents of both towns are sick of paying these high taxes. Taxes absolutely must go down. We will remember who voted to raise taxes at election time.
Carol Herts
West Windsor
