Councils face public on board meeting walkout
Resident turns out to videotape Aberdeen
council meeting
Municipal officials in Aberdeen and Matawan faced the public fallout at their respective public meetings last week from their decision to walk out of a televised school board meeting held earlier this month.
The Aberdeen Township Council and Matawan Borough Council confronted the public for the first time after walking out of a scheduled joint session with the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional Board of Education May 16, where they were slated to officially release and explain their proposed cuts to the school budget to a capacity crowd gathered at the school board’s central offices.
The decision for the municipal officials to leave the meeting with the school board was made after school officials refused a request from town and borough officials to turn off a camera which tapes the meetings for broadcast on a local cable television station.
Angered by the actions of the councils, many residents at the school board meeting vowed to take their fight to Township and Borough Hall at the next council meetings. However, only a handful of residents was present in Matawan, while approximately 20 residents turned out in Aberdeen.
In a symbolic gesture, one Aberdeen resident chose to bring her video camera to council chambers to tape the meeting.
"It is not the official policy of this council to tape for broadcast its meetings," said Aberdeen Township Manager Mark Coren in response to the camera.
"That said, we cannot deny the right of public access to the meeting," he added.
Aberdeen Mayor David Sobel said that the council would not dispute the use of the camera at the meeting.
"We recognize that fact that the First Amendment exists and the right of the public to exercise their First Amendment rights," said Sobel.
When questioned by the council as to the purpose of the video camera, Fordham Drive resident Judy Smith, who had attended the school board meeting and witnessed the walkout, said she was trying to "restore faith in the democratic process."
"As you are well aware, I have every right to be here," added Smith.
At the Aberdeen meeting, municipal officials offered the public its first explanation of their reasons for making the cuts.
"The defeat of the school budget was a mandate from the public that we could not ignore," Sobel said in a statement at the beginning of the meeting, noting that voter turnout in the township was an especially large 20 percent at this year’s school election.
"The two councils did what we could to respond to the voters’ wishes," he added.
In total, the two councils agreed to cut $914,300 from the $46.7 million school budget, including a recommended cut of $470,000 which would eliminate the school district’s popular full-day kindergarten program, and drew the most anger from concerned parents at the school board meeting.
The mayor went on to criticize school officials for setting the councils up to take the heat from the public at the May 16 meeting.
"Welcome we were not," he told the crowd.
In retrospect, Sobel also said that the councils should have made an attempt to address the crowd at the joint meeting with the school board.
According to Sobel, the councils were not looking to hurt the school board, but were only discharging a responsibility that the law requires them to take on when a school budget fails at the polls.
"We, just like you, know and appreciate the value of a good education. It is why we moved here and why we continue to live here," the mayor said, noting that many council members presently have or have had children in district schools.
Despite their explanations, some residents expressed their anger with the behavior of municipal and school officials alike at the council meeting.
"This town is divided. Half the people listen to you and half the people listen to the school board. We need unison," said Ingram Circle resident Ed Demarest.
"We finally have you all together and you leave," added Demarest, who expressed his displeasure that the entire Aberdeen contingent walked out, while certain members of the Matawan council stayed behind to face the crowd.
"You know what, I respect those people," he said of the Matawan officials that returned to the meeting.
"We have to get together because this town is totally divided," said Demarest.
Sobel said that he agreed that education should not be a "political football."
"I can’t change May 16. I wish I could, but we can move forward and try and work together," Sobel said in response. "Good schools are one of our primary resources.
At the Matawan meeting last week, officials faced residents and a school board member who wanted to know why such a large cut was made since many residents appear supportive of keeping programs at the schools intact.
Council President Debra Buragina told those on hand that the council went with the opinion expressed by voters who rejected the budget by a margin of more than two to one.
Buragina said more people who felt strongly about school issues should have expressed their opinions at the polls.
"I don’t want to sit up here and say that people who did not come out would have voted a certain way," she said. "I don’t want to make that determination."
Buragina said that school officials should have done a better job informing parents about what was at risk if the budget failed and was passed to the councils for cuts.
"Once they realize that there is going to be that large of a tax increase, the only way it will pass is to get the parents out," she said, noting that as a former PTO member she worked to get out the parent vote for school budgets for years.
At last week’s council meeting, school board member Lawrence O’Connell asked the council what municipal officials could do to help the school district.
O’Connell and borough Mayor Robert Clifton both said that the system of voting on school budgets creates a confrontational process.
"If my budget was voted on, I would not want the school board to look at it any more than I want to dig through their budget," said Clifton.
"Nobody at the level above us wants to address the problem.
"It is not like we said, ‘Let’s go out and get them [the school board],’ " said Buragina of the process.
O’Connell and Clifton told residents to contact their state legislators and urge them to push for changes in state school-funding formulas.