‘One-time, bad-time’ budget hit concerns Montgomery official

SCHOOL ELECTIONS 2005

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   MONTGOMERY — Months of dialogue and debate will climax Tuesday as residents go to the polls to elect three Board of Education members and weigh in on a $67.9 million budget and a second-question proposal to bump up school spending by $391,705 to fund laptop computers for high school teachers and students.
   Polls will be open from 2 to 9 p.m. at the Orchard Hill Elementary School.
   The adopted budget, if approved by voters, would carry an increase of $1,000 in the tax bill of the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $513,800. At a rate of about $1.61 per $100 of assessed value, the owner of an average home would pay $8,253 in school taxes next year, compared to $7,254 currently.
   Superintendent Stuart Schnur has called the budget increase a "one-time, bad-time" hit directly associated with the opening of the new high school and the district’s steady enrollment.
   Board members have urged the public to support the budget, which has undergone persistent questioning from the public at past meetings.
   "This budget will support the ongoing mandate for excellence in education for our community," board President Linda Romano said in a telephone interview earlier this week. Speaking directly to the public, she added, "In your hearts, you know it’s the right thing to do."
   Board Vice President Reginald Luke also voiced support for the budget.
   "I believe most of the residents who moved in have obviously valued education, and they did so because they value the futures of their children," Dr. Luke said.
   He said the budget increase isn’t caused by excessive spending, but rather by the state’s policy that creates a reliance on property taxes.
   "The issue, long term, is trying to get the state support that we deserve," Dr. Luke said. "Over the last several years, the allocation from the state per student has actually dwindled."
   Board member Bill Hyncik, whose name will be on the ballot for re-election, said, "The budget contains what we need to run the district at the same level that we have for the last 10 or 12 years."
   Mr. Hyncik agreed with Dr. Luke that state funding allocated to Montgomery is inadequate.
   "I think, that when you look at our numbers compared statewide, spending is not out of control — funding is out of control," Mr. Hyncik said.
   Outside of the money needed for the budget, the district is seeking nearly $400,000 in the second question to fund the first year of a high school one-to-one laptop initiative. If the second question is approved, 1,750 laptops will be obtained through a lease-purchase arrangement and distributed to each student and teacher.
   Discussion of the laptop initiative began in the summer and has since been the target of public scrutiny. After considerable public opposition, the Board of Education decided to place the funds needed for the one-to-one option in a second question, rather than in the base budget.
   About $350,000 is now allocated in the budget to provide computer technology in the high school next year. If the public denies the second question, the board has said it will remain open-minded on how to use those funds to offer the best technology plan.
   But on Tuesday, residents will be determining more than school taxes. They will be electing new members to fill three available board seats. Four candidates — Mr. Hyncik, Charles Jacey, David Pettit and Arun Rimal — are vying for those positions.
   Incumbent Mr. Hyncik, 50, a practice administrator for an orthopedic group, has served on the board for 13 years. He was appointed to his current term after an unsuccessful re-election bid last year. He has been a township resident for 17 years and has two children in the school system and two older children who have graduated from Montgomery High.
   If re-elected, Mr. Hyncik said he would like to "continue to improve the communication between the board and the community," something, he said, that began with the creation of the board’s Ad Hoc Community Relations Committee.
   Mr. Hyncik said, with a teachers’ contract coming up for renewal, his experience negotiating the last four contracts would prove useful to the board.
   Mr. Jacey, 68, is a retired senior partner and vice chairman of the consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand and a father of five. Mr. Jacey, who has lived in the township for five years, is the father of a recent Montgomery High School graduate and a high school sophomore. He serves on the board of trustees for his alma mater, Pace University.
   There is a need to "re-establish district and board credibility with the residents of the township," said Mr. Jacey. "I believe in order to do that, the board has to organize itself and be cognizant of the need on its part and that of the district to be more transparent on communications amongst itself, the district and the public."
   Mr. Jacey said he would like to bring a more business-like approach to the board. By doing that, he said, "I believe we can go a long way to avoiding the crisis management that has recently occurred."
   Mr. Pettit, 41, is a management consultant who focuses on leadership development and organizational transformation. He has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and has been a youth soccer and baseball coach for 11 years. He ran unsuccessfully in last year’s board election.
   Mr. Pettit said he has three goals if elected — bringing transparency and discipline to the budgeting process, creating open communication and "two-way dialogue between the board and the community" and ensuring a "productive, accountable and caring culture" within the district.
   Mr. Pettit said due to pressure "from all aspects" of students’ lives, there are instances where children then engage in destructive behavior. "There are things that we can do to proactively deal with this," he said.
   Mr. Rimal, 47, has been a township resident since 1992 and has two children, a Montgomery High School sophomore and a recent high school graduate. He is an engineer and an assistant adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Architecture.
   "I believe that education is very important," Mr. Rimal said. "In order for our children to thrive and prosper, our best gift to them is to provide an environment which encourages thirst for knowledge and ability to think."
   Mr. Rimal said his biggest concern with the current state of education in Montgomery is how growth has been "managed or mismanaged." And, said Mr. Rimal, he would like to increase communication between residents and the board.
   "There seems to be a broad concern that the existing board is out of touch," he said.