GSCS 18th ANNUAL MEETING MAY 27, 2009 at The Forsgate 9 - 11:30
YOU ARE INVITED! Click on More here for invitation, program details, and registration form. GSCS encourages you to sign up early as seating is limited this year. Thank you, we look forward to seeing you - parents, board of education members, school administrators, friends - on May 27, 2009. More...

4-28-09 Abbott & SFRA Back in Supreme Court
The Court heard arguments from the principals today on the constitutionality of the School funding Reform Act (SFRA) for the Abbott districts. Today's hearing follows initial argument brought to the Court in Spetember 2008 on this issue. After the September hearing the Court called for a Special Master, Judge Peter Doyne, to get facts and details together on the case and asked him to then make a recommendation to the Court. Judge Doyne completed this task at the end of March 2009, recommending that the SFRA be held constitutional for the Abbotts. The defendant was the State of New Jersey/the Departmente of Education and the plaintiffs the Abbott v. Burke litigants, represented by the Education Law Center and its Executive Director David Sciarra. The Attorney General, Anne Milgram, represented the State. The hearing lasted nearly two hours. The Court's final decision on this 'may' be announced before summer. STAR LEDGER 4/28/09- 'N.J. Supreme Court to decide funding for neediest school districts'..."The state's method for determining school aid will have a "devastating impact" on poor children or will provide "more than adequate funding" to the neediest while being fair to all students. In a nutshell, those are the two sides of the case..." Lynne Strickland of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, an advocacy group of about 100 suburban New Jersey districts, said her organization welcomes the idea of a "unified" formula. "It brings us back under the same umbrella," she said. "We think that is a good thing."

GOVERNOR CORZINE COMMENTS ON SCHOOL FUNDING REFORM …TRENTON -- Meeting the educational needs of all of New Jersey's children in an equitable and fair manner has been the primary impetus behind the State's School Funding Reform Act, Governor Corzine said earlier today. More...

4-27-09 DOE Revises Title I ARRA (fed'l stimulus) Allocations
"...The Title I ARRA allocations have been recalculated for the age 5-17 student population for New Jersey’s school districts and charter schools....It is important that you review the revised Title I ARRA allocation tables posted on the department’s website at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/arra/ . More...

4-23-09 GSCS BOARD OF TRUSTEES PASSAGE RATE OF SCHOOL BUDGETS is 87% More...

4-23-09 The public shows its support for public education in passing nearly 75 per cent of school budgets statewide
STAR LEDGER, 4-23-09,'Despite national recession, N.J. voters approve 73 percent of school budgets' "...They braced for the worst but instead most New Jersey school districts were expressing relief today, after voters approved 73.3 percent of school budgets in local school elections Tuesday night..."

PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY, 4-23-09, 'New Jersey voters no tougher on school budgets this year than last' "...Increased state aid and new state laws capping property-tax increases appear to have played a role in increasing budget approvals during the past few years...New Jersey School Boards Association data show that in 2006, when five years of flat state aid forced local school boards to turn to taxpayers for more money, only 52 percent of budgets passed..." More...

4-22-09 Statewide District by District Results FY0910 School Budget Elections
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4-22-09 Statewide County by County Results FY0910 School Budget Elections More...

4-22-09 Department of Education releases recap of school budget vote, 73.5 passage rate
"...The Commissioner called the approval rate “quite extraordinary” in light of the national economic crisis...it seems clear that yesterday’s school budget vote shows that the public supports local efforts to provide the best possible education for their children. [Davy] also praised Governor’s Corzine’s commitment to making additional education funding a priority, “not just because it is the right thing to do but because it is one of several ways that we are trying to rein in property taxes, and voters seem to be responding to that.” Indicating that voters did not support spending beyond the 4% tax levy cap, ten (10) of eleven (11) second questions were defeated. Seventeen of the 22 bond referenda on ballots passed. For additional information see http://www.nj.gov/education/data/vote/09/  More...

4-22-09 School election results & articles More...

4-19 and 20-09 Editorial and School Elections articles
New Jersey voters will have a chance Tuesday to say yes or no to an estimated $14 billion in school taxes. More...