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5-30-08 GSCS 17th Annual Meeting featured the Governor, Education Commissioner and Assembly Education Committee Chair
GSCS was pleased to have Governor Corzine, Assembly Education Committee Chair Joe Cryan and Commissioner Davy spend a combined total of more than two hours with over 120 GSCS members. All three officials addressed the audience individually; presentations were followed by Q & A sessions.....Governor Jon Corzine is willing to review certain mandates with an eye to cutting down on them where possible, with the recommendation of Commissioner Lucille Davy.....An objective of GSCS' has been to remove the 60% voter participation 'yes' vote requirement for 2nd questions imposed via the CORE legislation. GSCS was pleased that Assemblyman Joe Cryan announced at the GSCS Annual Meeting today that he will seek an amendment to A15 to remove the 60% voter participation- passage requirement on 2nd questions. The bill A15 moves school board elections to November, as well as any 2nd question - the Assemblyman's rationale here is that the voter participation will be increased thus giving the public more say in 2nd question passage..There was discussion about the $2.5B proposal for school construction in the Abbott districts, talk of review of superintendent contracts and related issues...In addition to print media, clips from the meeting were aired on NJN and News 12 NJ...to see news coverage and Annual Meeting Program, click on

Maybe voters will get a say on $2.5 billion

By GREGORY J. VOLPE
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

Facing criticism over a proposal to borrow $2.5 billion for school construction in poor urban districts without voter approval, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Thursday he hasn't ruled out placing the measure before voters or including money for suburban areas.

A day after giving an impassioned plea for the construction plan outside a 19th century school in Newark's Ironbound section, Corzine was more subdued at the annual meeting of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which advocates predominantly for suburban schools.

"I am not opposed to a broader program, but that does not have the same constitutional thrust behind it that we have behind the Abbott districts," Corzine told a room full of school officials.

Though some lawmakers have criticized the governor for seemingly going back on a vow not to borrow without voter approval, Assembly Education Committee chairman Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, D—Union, said he thinks legislation can pass by Corzine's June 30 deadline and needn't be placed before voters.

"It would need a suburban piece, but I don't think it needs to be on the ballot," Cryan said. "It still has to be vetted, but what more do you need then schools in the Ironbound built in 1880?"

Republican legislative leaders, however, vowed none in the minority party would support a school construction measure that didn't require new borrowing to be placed before the voters.

"I don't think the courts have required that it all occur in one year, so we could go to a pay-as-you-go system," Sen. Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon, said. "I feel it should be placed on the ballot. All future borrowing should be placed on the ballot."

Even some Democrats are leery of borrowing without voter approval.

"The governor and legislators should be commended for their desire to build critical schools, though I would like to see if we can work together to both expand the eligible districts and seek voter approval for the initiative," Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, said in a prepared statement.

Corzine neither endorsed nor rejected the idea of seeking voter approval.

"It's a better idea than not doing anything," said Corzine, adding that if no money is approved, whether by the Legislature or the public, the Supreme Court will impose its will. "... They don't care how we fund it, they care that we build the schools that are required for a thorough and efficient education."

If borrowing is not authorized, and the courts force school construction to be funded, Corzine said there would be tougher budget decisions in the future.

He also said his plan isn't a break from his promise to stop borrowing without voter approval because the construction program is mandated by the courts and the new funding would be linked to the state's income tax as a dedicated way to pay the debt.

"My pledge, which I said over and over again, was no borrowing without a source of funding for the borrowing," Corzine said.

The state is under a Supreme Court mandate to build or fix schools in its poorest districts, known as the Abbotts. The $2.5 billion is seen as a short-term replenishment of the state's court-ordered school construction program that has cost $8.6 billion to date and been criticized for wasteful and potentially illegal spending.

Some say the agency has reformed and can be trusted again with new funding. The new money would complete 27 deferred projects and 20 new ones in the state's 31 poorest districts, which are estimated to need $12 billion to $20 billion worth of construction.

Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said her group cannot endorse Corzine's proposal unless it includes funding for non-Abbott districts.

"The $2.5 billion is strictly about the Abbott districts, so we don't have a position on it," Strickland said. "We'd like to see school construction funding stabilized for the regular operating districts."


Legislator backs a limit on accumulated sick pay

Friday, May 30, 2008

BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL

Star-Ledger Staff

A key state lawmaker said yesterday he will consider legislation that would limit payment for unused sick days to $15,000 for retiring school officials, a move that could cost some school superintendents hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union), chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, endorsed the cap during an appearance at the Forsgate County Club yesterday before the Garden State Coalition of Schools, an organization that represents mostly suburban schools.

His proposal is the latest reaction to a proposed $740,000 retirement package Keansburg awarded its outgoing superintendent, Barbara Trzeszkowski. That package includes $170,137 in payments for 235.5 unused sick days.

Cryan endorsed a suggestion to scrap provisions in school reform legislation the Legislature passed last year that imposed a $15,000 reimbursement limit on newly hired school officials, but let more generous benefits stay in place for superintendents and other officials already working.

"I think it's more than reasonable," Cryan said of the suggestion lawmakers repeal the so-called "grandfathering" provision. "I'm going to be looking at legislation to do that."

Gov. Jon Corzine, who also addressed the gathering of 100 school officials and lobbyists yesterday, said he would welcome a move to repeal the grandfathering provisions, which he called "a mistake."

While state officials launch a wide-ranging review of superintendent perks, professional organizations who represent school officials in Trenton argued for restraint.

The New Jersey School Boards Association and New Jersey Association of School Administrators released a letter promising to form a panel to study superintendent compensation.

"Our organizations urge state leaders to avoid overreaction through unnecessary and restrictive legislation or regulation," said the letter signed by Marie Bilik, executive director of the school boards association, and Richard Bozza, executive director of the Association of School Administrators. "Because of recent state legislation, the authority of executive county superintendents to review contracts and the efforts of local boards, we do not anticipate seeing Keansburg-type provisions in future contracts."

Trzeszkowski, 60, is scheduled to retire June 30 and was to begin collecting her severance benefits over five years, starting in July.

Besides the sick day payments, the contract, worked out in 2003, included $14,449 for unused vacation time and another $556,290 in severance pay calculated by multiplying her monthly salary by the number of years she has worked in Keansburg.

Those payments are on top of the standard retirement pay -- estimated at $120,000 a year -- Trzeszkowski has earned over a 38-year career in the school district, which is one of 31 so-called Abbott communities that receive millions in special state aid.

Corzine has directed Attorney General Anne Milgram to file legal action this week to seek an injunction barring payments under the pact.

On Tuesday the Keansburg Board of Education agreed to suspend payments to Trzeszkowski while they renegotiate the severance package.

Dunstan McNichol may be reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341.

 

Garden State Coalition of Schools/GSCS

 

Seventeenth Annual Meeting, May 29 2008

 

Forsgate Country Club, Monroe Township, Thursday 9 – 11:30 a.m.

 

 

Welcome & Call Meeting to Order ……………………….…..Daniel Fishbein, GSCS President

 

Treasurer's Report, GSCS Treasurer…………………………………… Roger Caruba

 

Nominating Committee Report and Vote …….GSCS Vice President Linda Nelson

 

GSCS Executive Director Report……………….……………………….….........Lynne Strickland

           

Introduction…Brenda Considine, Director, N J Special Education Coalition

 

Remarks, President-Elect…………………………………………………………………Jim O'Neill

 

 

                     

 

Featured Guests: Presentations and Combined Q & A

 

 Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy

 

Assembly Education Committee Chair, Joe Cryan

 

 

As is GSCS practice, index cards for written questions for our presenters are available at your tables. Please fill them in and a GSCS volunteer will pick them up around 9:30. GSCS appreciates your cooperation and thanks you in advance.

 

 

11:00 Special Guest: Governor Jon S. Corzine

 

Adjournment………………………………..…....………………………................................

 

·      GSCS appreciates the support of all its volunteer members - parents, board of education members & school administrators - who through their membership and informed action, combined with GSCS' efforts, do make a difference.

·         A particular note of thanks to outgoing GSCS President Daniel Fishbein/Glen Ridge and Vice President Linda Nelson/Scotch Plains-Fanwood

·         GSCS often works with the education community – our thanks for the collegiality and collaboration.

·      A special thank you to School House Strategies' Richard Rosenberg and Richard Ten Eyck, Princeton Public Affairs Group, and Ernest Reock of Rutgers/Bloustein School.