The town councils of Oakland, Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes have agreed on cutting over one million dollars from the defeated regional school budget. Representatives of the councils believe the approved increases in the budget will allow the schools to maintain the high quality of services and education residents expect. The failed budget was for over 48 million dollars with local tax dollars to cover close to 41 million of the total.
The majority of savings were found by cutting capital reserve from approximately two million dollars down to one million. Some of the projects that might be impacted involve window and door replacements, security lighting, resurfacing of the Indian Hills track, and replacing a sewage tank. The cuts in the capital reserve did not impact the Horizon Project which was a voter approved referendum that, including State aid, totaled more than fifteen million dollars for extensive additions and renovations for the two high schools. This included the involvement of numerous technical consultants to help outfit the schools with technology for the “classroom of the future”.
The Suburban News quotes Superintendent Saxton at length, and he expressed the feeling that the council representatives did not understand “the reality” of the different options being offered by the Board of Education. The Board would have preferred that the governing bodies cut from the schools debt service, rather than from the operating budget. With a four percent cap on tax increases, this year’s lower operating budget means that future increases will be impacted with a lower ceiling. He explains that operating expenses are increasing by more than four percent a year, so programs will eventually need to be cut.
Superintendent Saxton suggested that if voters eliminate all of the sports programs and extra curricular activities, then not only will the students’ education suffer, but the value of residents homes will decrease. He went on to explain that families move to towns like Oakland because of the quality of the education. The article did not offer an explanation as to how the school budget would be impacted if senior citizens, and families without children, were eliminated from the population and replaced with families with children in need of services.
Council members suggested that The Board seek voter approval for major expenditures through a referendum such as the one which funded the Horizon Project. But this did not sit well with the retiring superintendent who, as quoted by the Suburban News, said, “They’re forcing us to go out to referendum…”.
Read The Oakland Journal’s featured Op-Ed…”Grow old with me…in Oakland”
Of course the Superintendent doesn’t want the voters to have a say on these items because he knows what the voters will say: NO! As it is, everyone is bracing for his retirement package and the increased taxes that will bring. We all want to have great schools for our children but we cannot continue to spend money like it’s going out of style.
Here’s a suggestion for Mr. Saxton: get the school personnel to contribute to the cost of providing health care benefits for them and their families and perhaps the money for all these items will appear. You claim it’s about the kids and the community so put up or shut up. I’d be more inclined to vote for a budget that shows fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers if I knew that teachers and administrators were helping to contain costs instead of constantly demanding 4 and 5% pay increase with no contribution to health care benefits (which are out of control) and then asking for more and more money on top. The well will run dry Mr. Saxton.