Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     4-16-06 Sunday NY Times Metro Section, front page
     4-13-06 'Budget cap puts NJ schools on edge'
     3-9-06 Governor speaks to S1701 at town meeting
     EMAILNET 3-9-06 to South Jersey districts
     COFFEE a coalition of families for excellent education
     EMAILNET 3-7-06 S1701 Call to Action at Gov Corzine Public Hearing
     12-8-05 GSCS and Educ community testify together for S1701 amendment bills before Assembly Educa Com
     1-17-06 Asbury Park Press "Viewpoint" letters on S1701
     Op-ed piece written by GSCS Parent Network Regional Representative Kim Newsome published in Monmouth's "Two River Times" July 2005
     LINK to the S1701 Law
     S1701 Summit Board members' report re GSCS 1-11-08 Board mtg
     1-29-06 Asbury Park Press Sunday Front Page Right
     1-24-06 Asbury Park Press 'Funding sparks heated debate'
     FYI - S1701 impacts on local districts - excerpts from NJSBA spring 2005 survey, released 9-27-05
     Posted 1-17-06 December 2005 article from the NewsTranscript of Monmouth County
     1-17-06 Asbury Park Press
     1-12-06 Asbury Park Press letter to the editor
     12-20-05 Star Ledger 'Schools lower the heat and risk a backlash'
     Recap on property tax issues and S1701 - GSCS has been requesting legislative help on school budget cost drivers for a number of years - here is one example from summer 2004
     12-16-05 Star Ledger Schools may end courtesy busing, tied to S1701 budget stressors
     12-16-05 EMAILNET
     12-12-05 EMAILNET Bills move out of Assembly Education Committee
     5-6-05 EMAILNET Important S1701 meeting in Rumson
     UPDATE on 12-8-05 Assembly Education Committee hearing
     12-2-05 Hopewell Valley letter to Senate Education Committee Chair Shirley Turner re: school budget amendment bills & S1701
     EMAILNET 12-3-05 Heads Up!
     11-15-05 EMAILNET
     Parent Letter to Senate Education Committee Chair on S1701 and request to move amendment legislation
     S1701 EMAILNET Alert 11-28-05
     Ridgewood Board of Education member letter to legislators 11-15-05; good example letter with local legislator response
     Parent letter to legislators on S1701 and 'stalled status of amendment bills S2329 and S2278'
     EMAILNET 11-10-05 UPDATE on STATUS of S1701
     10-28-05 EMAILNET S1701 resignation, Gubernatorial election information
     AMEND S1701: GRASSROOTS BUMPER MAGNETS now available at the initiation of GSCS Rumson parent and their networking
     Readington Forum on School Funding & Meet the Assembly Candidates 11-1-05
     Invitation to October 7 Rumson hosts 'Stuff S1701' Party
     October 7 Sample Letter for 'Stuff S1701' Party Rumson area. html
     Parents in Trenton 9-21-05 Press Conference
     Link to The Hub article on Rumson Parent 5-19-05 Meeting Opposing S1701, GSCS and Assemblymen Sean Kean & Steve Coredemus co-hots
     Schools will seek Extra Funding
     Parents Give Codey an Earful
     Courier Post Online
     Bill to loosen school budgets altered
     Educators urge parents to fight school spending cap
     School funding plan gets OK from panel
     Legislature Acts to Revamp School Spending Caps
     Educators to Argue for Repeal of Cap Law
     S1701 One Board Member's Perspective
     Moody's Investment Services School Bond Rating Analysis post S1701 passage (pdf)
     EMAILNET 7-8-05 GSCS Take on Assembly Passage of A3680
     Asbury Park Press-Gannet Bureau 7-2-05 Legislature Passes Aid bill for Districts Near Abbotts
     October 13 2004 School Funding and S1701 Meeting hosted by Bergen County school group 'Dollars & Sense
     Glen Ridge Schools and Garden State Coalition co-host Dec 9 Meeting 'Public Support for Public Education v. Property Tax Stress' plus a focus on new school funding law S1701
     Red Bank Regional High School, Red Bank K-8 Schools, Little Silver, Fair Haven,Rumson-Fair Haven, Rumson K-8, Shrewsbury, and the GArden State Coalition Host December 6, 2004 Forum on the new school funding legislation S1701
     Rumson PTA, Monmouth Parents sponsor S1701 meeting, co-hosted by 11th District Assemblyman Sean Kean & the GSCS May 2005
     040430EMAILNET Govs PTax Proposal - reaction (Word)
     One Board's Example: Glen Ridge Public Schools
     Princeton Public Schools education symposium to explore impact of school cap legislation
     Real Figures and Sound Facts - A Grassroots Rebuttal to Trenton on S1701
     GSCS School Funding and S1701 Power Point - February 2005
     EMAILNET 2-21-05 S1701 and A3680 Still Stalled
     School Funding Presentation December 2004
1-24-06 Asbury Park Press 'Funding sparks heated debate'
Read this important article. It is a dramatic example of the conflict brought to a head where the state has not implemented its own school funding law since the 2001-2002 school year, combined with restrictions imposed via S1701. In order to provide a T&E education for its students, Freehold Borough is faced with the Hobbesian choice: having to raise even more property taxes to fund the state's own recommendations to hire additional staff and some of that staff would be classified as 'administrative' which likely would not be allowed under S1701 limits. The state makes recommendations that the borough may not be able to initiate due to already burdened local taxpayer and due to its own law that does not allow for administrative growth. And, what happens to the students who need a T&E education in order to achieve annual yearly progress?

State suggests new staff for Freehold schools

Funding sparks heated debate Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/24/06

BY ANDREA ALEXANDER FREEHOLD BUREAU FREEHOLD — A team of state monitors recommended that Freehold Borough schools hire at least six new staff members, including language and math supervisors, to raise test scores — sparking a funding debate Monday night during the Board of Education meeting. The monitors were brought in to review borough schools because the district's poor and Spanish-speaking students failed to make "adequate yearly progress" on standardized tests three years in a row. The review is usually triggered after test scores fail to improve over four years, but the district agreed to undergo the assessment a year early, said Schools Superintendent Philip Meara. Board members said they need to do more to help disadvantaged students, but do not have money to enact the recommendations. "The taxpayers of Freehold Borough can't afford (anymore)," said Board member James Keelan. "The problem is we have failed," said Board President Peter DeFonzo, "These groups are not meeting the standards." "The (monitors) are telling us what we all know," he said. "It is a whole different ball game than it was five to 10 years ago." The debate about funding escalated Monday night as board members suggested suing the state over aid payments or applying to become an Abbott district, a designation as one of the poorest schools systems, to receive additional money from the government. The board's attorney is expected to attend a meeting in late February or early March to discuss the district's options for taking legal action. The monitors, from the New Jersey Department of Education, spent a week at the Park Avenue Elementary School interviewing staff and sitting in on classes before presenting a 60-page report. The monitors returned to the Freehold Intermediate School this week to prepare another set of recommendations. The report, presented to the board Monday by Park Avenue Elementary School Principal Joe Jerabek, recommends the district hire a supervisor for the English as a Second Language bilingual program, a full-time guidance counselor at each of the three district schools, and a full-time reading coach. Other recommendations call for a math and language arts supervisor. The monitors also told the district it needs to reinstate a world language program that was eliminated two years ago to create the bilingual program where classes are taught in English and Spanish. Districts are required to offer a world language program. "I am very upset listening to this because there is no way we can find any money in our budget, and the state isn't going to give us any more money," said board member Ron Reich. The report also recommends the district buy math workbooks for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students that district officials say cost $15,000 a year. Other recommendations call for additional teacher training, meetings and regular reviews of teacher lesson plans. "We can't spend money we don't have," said board Vice President Stella Mayes.