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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS May 18, 2009
Dear GSCS member,
The Garden State Coalition of Schools has been working very hard for its members this year. Our Executive Director, Lynne Strickland (gscs2000@gmail.com), your officers, superintendents and board of education members and many of GSCS’ active parents were in
The activism and growth of GSCS’ statewide membership is recognized by the legislature in
We know that the testimony given by GSCS at multiple committee hearings on specific bills and initiatives has had an impact that is beneficial to member districts via statehouse policy direction and course-correcting legislation.
We suggest you visit our website www.gscschools.org which is kept current, is chock full of information on school finance issues that impact us all, and reflects many of GSCS activities this past year. Regular visits to the site keep you up to date and ahead of the game.
In addition to its 8 open Board of Trustees meetings convened at the East Brunswick Board of Education on the last Wednesday of the month, GSCS traditionally holds 2 meetings a year - one at the Fall Workshop in Atlantic City, and the other its annual breakfast meeting in the late spring. This year GSCS also reached out to its statewide membership further by adding two forums on state education issues to its calendar, one in Bergen County at Leonia, and one in Haddonfield in Camden county. These forums included panels with the Commissioner of Education and NJN’s Senior Political Analyst Michael Aron.
The overarching goal of GSCS is to see that quality education is delivered to all of
This year the legislature passed a $3.5B school construction bill; $1B of that will go to regular operating districts, with a 40% floor of state support for eligible projects. The original bill called for $250M for regular operating districts with the floor set at 20%. GSCS was directly involved in achieving increases in the funding amount to the near $1B level, and doubling the floor to 40%.
GSCS will play a role in the school consolidation proposal process as it unfolds. GSCS has consistently testified against any kind of forced regionalization/consolidation. It is apparent that current laws will also increase the costs to some districts due to such large policy issues as 1) property taxes due to the wealth factor differences among districts, and 2) teacher salary issues. Moreover, teacher retention – who stays and who (if anyone) goes when districts are merged? Our goal is to make the legislature deal with these critical issues.
We have gained a strategic and critical seat at the inner table with not only the legislature, but the Governor’s office as well. During the 2009-2010 school year we will continue our relationship with the Princeton Public Affairs Group to move our important mission forward.
GSCS has not increased its dues for the next fiscal year. This letter is a friendly reminder that GSCS dues for the 2009-2010 school year are the same as last year $1,850. Because we operate on a tight budget, we encourage you to have the bill that is enclosed attended to as soon after July 1st as is practical. In order to maintain communications with our members, please advise us when there is a change in your Business or Superintendent’s Office as soon as possible.
GSCS’ Eighteenth Annual Meeting is scheduled for May 27 this year at the Forsgate Country Club, 9 – 11:30 a.m. We hope you plan to attend and join with your colleagues to hear from GSCS directly on its efforts on behalf of its members this year, as well as GSCS plans for next year. The registration form has already been mailed to you and is also available at the GSCS website.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail one of us.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
_________________________ __________________________
David Abbott Jim O’Neill
Superintendent Superintendent
Marlboro Public Schools School District of the
Treasurer, GSCS President GSCS
(732 972-2015) dabbott@marlboro.k12.nj.us (973 457-2520) joneill@chatham-nj.org
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