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Annual Breakfast Meeting 6-3-05 Sign Up, School Budget Elections, School Construction Corp., Regulations - Office of Administrative Law...
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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS
210 West State Street Trenton 08608 609 394 2828 web ‘gscschools.org’
NOTE email address has changed: email ‘gscs2000@gmail.com’
Central offices: Please circulate GSCS EMAILNETs to your board of education, parents, and staff.
GSCS EMAILNET 4-14-05
VOTE: SCHOOL BOARD & BUDGET ELECTIONS April 19
· GSCS ANNUAL BREAKFAST MEETING FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 8:30-11:00 a.m.)
ü Date and Time: 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Friday June 3, 2005.
ü Location: Forsgate Country Club ( approx. 1 mile, head east off Exit 8A, NJ Turnpike)
ü What: Sit down Breakfast and GSCS Program.
ü RSVP to cyndywu@gmail.com). Please use sign up below as your voucher as well:
Name(s) :_____________________________________ District:_________________________________
Indicate: Parent_(P)_Board Member_(Bd)_Administrator_(A)_
- Mail/fax voucher and payment of $35 per person made out to GSCS and send to: Mr. Michael Gorski, CPA, 423 Buckelew Avenue, Monroe Township, N.J. 08831. (fax 732 521 1628/phone 521 1500)
- Cash/check payments may also be made at GSCS registration desk on 6/3.
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Correction from EMAILNET 4-7-05: GSCS incorrectly stated that the State Health Benefits Plan [SHBP] is carrying an approximate surplus of $1B surplus. Please disregard that statement – it is Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield to which the $1B surplus has been attributed by the media.
GSCS continues to advocate for the SHBP to allow the same flexibility for schools that is currently specified for municipalities, municipal authorities and county colleges that participate in the SHBP: that is, these local entities are permitted to present an incentive option to their married employees to opt out of required full coverage for both, when sufficient plans are already available to them. Schools are excluded from this legal specification and thus are required de facto to cover both spouses with full plans. While municipalities et al have enjoyed this specified flexibility for a number of years – and its subsequent savings to the taxpayer - within their SHBP offerings, schools have not. Why not? GSCS is seeking to level the playing field here. It only seems fair: what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
The following email was sent to districts yesterday by the NJ Association of School Business Officials:
“…Important: The SCC is not executing any new Section 15 Grants!
“…. you have all heard and read about the investigation of New Jersey's School Construction Corporation. Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper in early March ordered the SCC to halt new expenditures until she completes an investigation into the millions of dollar in alleged overruns.
Until just recently, those of us in the business of school operations interpreted that to mean projects under the direct
supervision of the SCC; namely Abbott projects and those non-Abbot districts that elected to have the SCC manage their
capital projects. It appears that is true and non-Abbott projects that are currently underway are unaffected.
But, we have just learned that the SCC is not making any new offers of Section 15 Grants. Even if you have an FEC
determination from the Department of Education, the SCC cannot execute a new grant agreement until the investigation is
complete. This means that any projects you planned to commence this summer, supported in part by an SCC Section 15 grant that has not as of today been executed, will be put on hold!
NJASBO has raised a number of serious concerns with officials at the SCC explaining that school districts are totally unaware of the SCC's position in this matter and how it would prevent necessary capital projects from moving forward this summer. The SCC has requested the Investigator Generals' office to review this issue in an attempt to resume offering project grant awards. The problem is we don't know for sure when an answer will be forthcoming. We hope within the next few days. We will stay on top of this issue and advise you according in the days ahead…”
GSCS Take: All reports on the SCC – Inspector General investigation focused on SCC operations in the Abbott districts, where the SCC has full responsibility for oversight of school construction in the district. The SCC does not have construction oversight in Non Abbott districts. It appears that the SCC has chosen to broadly interpret the Inspector General’s letter regarding its decision to investigate the operations in Abbott districts where construction is occurring. We hope this interpretation will soon be reversed. Stay tuned….
GSCS grassroots speak out:
Re: S1701
…Since [February], we have finalized our budget and now are pending public vote on April 19th. Note the last two paragraphs on the original mail (highlighted in blue). Our proposed tax increase in Verona is the largest dollar increase in history (same is true for just about every place I know). S-1701 has had no effect on reducing property taxes - which is what it intended to do. That's because it does not address the costs that cause the increases - it caps other costs that are immaterial………..
The real cost drivers - enrollment, insurance, healthcare, and special education - are on the rise, significantly more than the rate of inflation. Well, for those costs, the state grants waivers since we must cover those expenses. Those waivers allow us to exceed the S-1701 "cap" that limits spending growth. Of the approx $1.5mm increase in Verona, only about $50k is going into classroom supplies, books, staff training and co-curricular spending. The rest is going to salaries, healthcare and special education mandates - none of which 1701 addresses……
Enrollment in Verona is up 10% in the past 5 years (25% for special education alone, as a subset of the total). Inflation since 2000 is up a gross 13%. State Aid has been flat - not even keeping pace with inflation. Further hurting us is the 1701 provision that limits how much surplus we can keep - just about $500k on a $23mm enterprise. That forces districts to budget a bit higher to make sure we cover all expenses since surplus to help us with unforeseen expenses is limited - hence, even higher tax increases.
Our next battle with 1701 is around Admin spending. 1701 forces admin spending to be held at 0% growth starting the end of the 2005/06 school year (regardless of how much - of little - we currently pay). That Admin line includes principals, the business manager, and superintendent. If you were a teacher, getting your yearly contract raise, why would you go the extra yard to become certified and become a principal?
John Quattrocchi
Board of Education President, Verona NJ
Re: School Budget Elections April 19, 2005
On Tuesday, April 19 Glen Ridge voters will have an opportunity to go to the polls and vote on the 2005-2006 school budget as well as for the slate of three candidates who will fill the three vacancies on the Glen Ridge Board of Education. In this year, when times are especially hard for education in communities all across New Jersey, it is especially important to make your voice heard.
In Trenton education and educators have been unfairly blamed and punished for all the problems caused by defective school funding formulas and a statewide system that is over reliant on property taxes to fund education and municipal services. Glen Ridge’s state funding, held flat for three out of the last four years, is down to 4.5% of the budget. We expect our student population to rise by approximately 40 students next year. Hard times bring hard choices, and this year school administrators and Board members have made tough decisions that have angered some members of the community. As parents, taxpayers and volunteer public servants, we understand that anger. The state has placed us in a situation where we are unfairly penalized for our district’s small size, our community’s perceived affluence and even our history of excellent management of the district’s resources. The budget process has been more difficult than usual, but through it all we have been driven by one mandate—to keep our excellent educational programs strong and intact while doing everything in our power to lessen the property tax burden.
In Glen Ridge we are lucky. In the face of our challenges the strength of our community support has only increased. The vast majority of Glen Ridge residents—whether they have children in school or not—know that our children’s future and our property values rest largely on the strength of our school system. They support us by donating money to maintain our buildings and support programs and co-curricular activities. They volunteer to plant shrubs, shelve library books and serve on committees. They come to Board meetings and voice their opinions. They send hundreds of postcards, e-mails and calls to Trenton in an effort to change the system.
I have heard officials and even colleagues from larger districts say that the Glen Ridges in this state cannot survive the current school funding crisis. They don’t know us. If our elected officials in Trenton have shown us nothing else, they have demonstrated unequivocally that they have no idea how to create an environment that fosters quality education. The people of Glen Ridge do. The state system will change, and, one way or another, the change will not be long in coming. In the meantime I urge you to go to the polls on April 19 and show your support for our teachers, students and for the continued strength and vitality of our community.
Elizabeth Ginsburg,Parent/ Board of Education President
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW has extended code readoption comments date to May 3…
Member Alert! The Office Administrative Law has extended the April 23 deadline to May 3 for comments on its proposed Special Education Hearing code readoption, with amendments. For further information on the code specifics, see http://www.state.nj.us/oal/proposals.html
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Repeat Note: TWO IMPORTANT COMMUNCATIONS NOTICES – new info below..
New GSCS email address ‘gscs2000@gmail.com’…
…and we apologize for not responding to recent emails that you may have sent to GSCS. Our entire inbox was recently deleted due to internet issues! Also, many school districts treat hotmail messages as spam and will not receive email sent from hotmail. A third issue that has emerged is that ‘aol’ will often not accept hotmail. So, it is time to move to a new email system.
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We will maintain the hotmail account for a short while during transition and strongly recommend that you place the ‘gscs2000@hotmail.com’ as well as the ‘gscs2000@gmail.com’ email addresses on your ‘favorites/safe address list’ so that your district is not excluded from receiving our communications. If you have not been receiving EMAILNETs from GSCS on a regular basis 2 problems are likely: you have not updated your contact information with our office, and/or your technology filter may be treating our email as spam and rejecting it from your inbox.
You may update your email/contact information to GSCS at: cyndywu@gmail.com Thank you.
Reminder: The website ‘www.gscschools.org’ is a good resource for member communications as well and now is being regularly updated and professionally overseen. To facilitate a better communication flow, member districts’ central offices will be contacted by a GSCS representative in the next month in an effort to update our contact records with you and ensure that you receive our communications.
