I hope that other Mullica voters will come out to support our local school budget this Tuesday. The budget as it stands will cost several positions at the school. If voters turn down this budget, it may cost even more services at the school and further impact the education of Mullica's children. Compared to stories that I have read in the Press about other local school districts, Mullica's district is seeking a very modest tax increase. Even with this increase, a number of positions will be reduced or eliminated.
The quality of the school experience here in Mullica contributes to our property values and continues to make Mullica a desirable community in which to live. An investment in education is an investment in the community as a whole.
We all pay a good amount in taxes. The current economy demands that budgets be put together responsibly. The school board has been responsible over the last several years and has delivered a predictable and stable budget each year. We need to support our school now, for the benefit of our children and our community.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Support The Local School Budget
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23 comments:
How about also supporting those incumbent school board members who are running this year, who are responsible for "the very modest increase" and who are in the midst of very difficult contract negotiations with the teachers' union.
Respectfully, in these times there has to be some give and take, both from the taxpayers and the teachers. While I understand the need to keep our staff at the school, I also understand that in the past their has been an unwillingness on the part of the teachers union to bargain. I bekieve that repeating the jargon about the children suffering is doing nothing to promote the teachers cause. Times are changing, and I feel it is time to face reality, we are tired of the NJEA running rampant with our tax dollars.
Respectfully, you don't know what happens behind closed doors.
The children ARE paying for the cuts Christie made already. The cuts are going to go deeper if this budget doesn't pass. It's 2.2 cents. Stop with whatever your axe is you have to grind with the NJEA and teachers and just think about the kids.
As a resident taxpayer in the Township I am wondering how we have survived so far. School taxes have increased every year but school enrollment has been stagnant. For years the mentality, "If we don't spend it this year, they will give us less next year" though it is true, should not be the standard. I cannot go to my employer and ask for more money because I need a new roof for my home. I need to put some money aside from my paycheck every week and save up for it.
The powers that be need to realize that our pockets go only so deep. They need to treat every penny that "We, the taxpayer, give them." as their own. Make it last, put some aside for a rainy day, and when it is gone, it's gone.
If the school board wants more from us, have them take a collection from amongst themselves, go down to Atlantic City, pick a Casino, go inside, find a roulette table and pick either red or black.
If they win, great. But, they will still ask for the 2.2 Cents as 3:47 says.
How about the NJEA reduce the $1200.00 dollars in dues being taken from each teacher to $600.00 per year.
The reduction of $600.00 is a nice pay increase for each teacher and it will not cost the taxpayer a single dime.
$100 a month- DUES!!!!! I thought teachers were supposed to be smart. What a rip off.
The school did save money - and Christie took it from them
RE 4:26 pm
Are you forgetting that the school did save a large surplus for emergencies and the Governor just ordered that they use it all and took away a lot of the state aid?
All the planning and savings were wiped out and you should blame Christie,not the local school board.
When you vote yes on the school budget, you are voting yes for teacher salary increases because the increases are in the budget. It gives the board less room to negotiate and allows things to stay the way they have always stayed. Vote NO for change and things have got to change.
It is not about the kids. It never was. It is about teachers demanding annual increases without paying their share toward health benefits premiums and getting away with it.
Our kids maybe better served with less teachers who are committed to teaching than to those who are committed to getting what they want when they want it.
How are the kids being hurt? When parents can't pay their taxes and loose their homes, I would say that kids are being hurt. Why would teachers not getting a salary increase hurt the kids unless the kids belong to the teachers? Perhaps the teacher's kids will miss out on a trip to Disney World?
I have to agree with the three eight o-clock posters. You're never going to effect change by doing the same thing over and over again. What was Albert Einstein's definition of insanity? Wasn't it doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? We really need to say enough is enough. Our annual property tax increases are destroying our families and the middle class in NJ.
This would have been the year of no increases if Christie didn't pull the funding.
To the 8:27 poster:
Voting NO would force changes - but I don't think it would be for the better. Larger classes, less programs, no trips - doesn't sound "better" to me.
TO the 8:34 poster:
Mullica school staff are the only district in Atlantic County that pay into their health benefits and have been doing so since 2006. Yes it is a small amoung but it isn't the "nothing" that everyone keeps yelling about.
To the 8:37 poster:
How would kids be hurt? Have you read nothing in the past few weeks? Kids would be hurt by larger class sizes, fewer programs, no trips and not the quality education that Mullica is known for.
Show your anger by calling Gov. Christie and your legislators - not voting No on the budget.
When I went to school the class sizes ranged from 35 to 42 and the teachers had no aides to help them. I guarantee my education was as good, if not better, than today. Of course, my school was only a 3 story plain brick building, not an eighty million dollar Taj Mahal and we brown bagged a lunch to a school with no cafeteria.
Yeah, I can see where one would confuse the Mullica School with the Taj Mahal. Your education couldn't have been very good if you would confuse Mullica School with the Taj Mahal.
That cafeteria/auditorium is plush. The playground is just chock full of equipment. They are bare bones.
Get real.
To the 9:29 Post
Kids being hurt? The salary increase in the budget is for anticipated teacher salary increases. If the teachers did not have an increase this year, the money could be used to maintain teachers, support staff, and activities. Any administrator will tell you that the largest part of a budget is salaries. We don't really have to cut activities or
even teachers if the teachers and support staff and administration agreed to no increases. Very simple.
To 9:29 post
What you don't realize is that $300 per year total contributions toward a Cadillac family health benefits plan which costs the district $20,000 or so is not really something to bitch about. I have paid up to $400 per pay period(every 2 weeks) for basic family health coverage. Do you see the difference between my world and yours? Unfortunately more people pay closer to what I pay than what you pay. That is the problem. You don't get it. You complain about a $300 contribution per year for single or family coverage?
to the 4:28 poster: the reference to the $80M Taj Mahal is the new high school in EHC that we are paying for not the Mullica School. The Mullica School is not fancy - just too big for the no-growth township with declining enrollment.
The current $400 a year contribution toward medical for teachers ($200 for staff) apparently is the main stumbling block for a settlement. My understanding is that the union wants it knocked back to zero.
To the 11:57 PM poster-didn't the State School Development provide the funding for most of this project? Wasn't only a fraction of it funded through tax payer funded bonds?
So we should go backwards, have 35-42 kids per class and brown bag lunches? Isn't this going backwards?
to the 4:08 poster:
How sad that you don't want better for your children then you had/ Did you walk to school barefoot, backwards in a snow storm also?
I want more for my children than I had. Unfortunately, I can't afford it at the moment. Maybe next year, if the economy improves.
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