Letters to the editor

Week of March 22

Correspondence pertaining to the April 17 school elections will not be printed after April 5. Correspondence pertaining to the May 8 Washington Township Council election will not be printed after April 26.

Common sense, leadership prevail

To the editor:
   
Our Board of Education is looking down the road — all the way to Breza Road where soil contamination issues aren’t issues, where wastewater management isn’t a concern, and where future growth potential and expansion are possible. Our Board of Education has taken the thoughtful approach and worked very hard to make Ellisdale Road work, but it doesn’t. Common sense and actual facts told them, "let’s find an alternative."
   Common sense, thoughtful leadership, and facts allowed our Board of Education to realize building a new high school wasn’t warranted because the studies they actually did revealed the high school is under capacity and the projected growth rate doesn’t reflect the need.
   Common sense, thoughtful leadership, and facts helped design a middle school our district is in desperate need of that is conducive to the school curriculum, allows for the desired "team teaching environment," and isn’t dauntingly expansive to young adolescents because, according to academic studies across the nation, the physical building for a middle school impacts learning, psychosocial issues, supervision, and discipline. Hence, the current design of the middle school reflects this research.
   Common sense, thoughtful leadership, and facts told them that if they build a high school our district will lose the remaining $5.7 million of state funding. That significant amount of money will never be granted again since funding regulations in New Jersey have changed, due to administrative changes since the 2004 Referendum.
   Common sense along with this BOE’s refocused energy on the Millstone Partnership tells us that a K-12 regionalization may be a prudent goal to strive for in the future, but does nothing to address the dire need for a middle school in our district now.
   Please read the facts, the ones that are documented and substantiated. Our children need a middle school yesterday. Common sense tells us if we prolong this process further our children’s education will continue to suffer, even more money will be required, and our community will continue to divide. Working together is critical for all of us.
   
Andrea Reynolds
Upper Freehold
Board should be more embarrassed

To the editor:
   With all that has gone on in Washington Township — the skyrocketing real estate taxes, the re-valuation of properties — to find out that members of the school board and the school administration are "embarrassed" by their budget is distressing. They should be more than embarrassed and they should take ownership of the problem.
   Have we learned nothing from the corporate governance issues (Enron and the like) of the past few years? To be embarrassed is hardly a good response. Managers and board members need to take responsibility. You need not look for scapegoats. The budget is a refection of you, collectively in one form or another. Either the administration or the board hires each of the people responsible for putting the budget together.
   Can input errors occur? Surely, but they also should be caught early in the process by those familiar with the budget. Where was the board as the $500,000 debt service error that occurred last year required the use of a large portion of surplus. That should not come as surprise now. The board is not some ceremonial position. I am sure that it is highly demanding and time-consuming. But, the right questions need to be asked; you cannot simply be spoon-fed information.
   Superintendent Jack Szabo speaks of teacher salaries being under-budgeted and requiring transfers from other line items. Again, that should not be a surprise in March of 2007. That should have been dealt with prior to now. The board should have been aware. The board cannot be "embarrassed." It appears that no one on the board was asking the right questions. And at the end of the day, it is the Washington Township taxpayers that will foot the bill for inattentiveness.
   
Murray A. Barnett
Robbinsville