By: centraljersey.com
New Superintendent Jorden Schiff asked school board members Monday night to begin their public consideration of the imminent 2011-12 school budget by discussing their values – what’s important to them – when it comes to education.
They went around the table. Board member Barbara Sargent said she’d like to talk about the appropriate expectation of class sizes. Judith Haas said the district should look for whole new areas of generating revenue, as opposed to chipping away at budget corners. That would help avoid pitting facilities versus teachers or curriculum, too, she said.
Marc Rosenberg declared that his No. 1 value was academics; at the end of the day, the school must prepare kids for the competitive world – and that usually means college, he said. Neil Hudes agreed that academics were important, but the school needs to give students a range of experiences, he said.
Thuy Anh Le said the district ought to do whatever it could to balance a budget without hurting teachers and education, adding that it was important to keep kids healthy and safe. Thomas Kinst said the district’s focus should be on education endeavors.
Gregory Gillette urged everyone to keep in mind that the most-proven successful educational strategy is smaller class size, and that might equate to choosing to hire or keep personnel over buying more technology.
Board President Neil Paget cautioned it might be unrealistic to count on revenue-generating ideas and talked about cutting costs. He said he wondered from his own experience why the middle school and community clubs duplicate sports programs, for instance.
Marc Rosenberg commended the board for having such a conversation, but said the same process needed to be repeated across kitchen tables in homes throughout the township. People need to ask how important is education to them and how much do they want to pay for it, he said.
So that’s the challenge for Hillsborough, for residents to ask themselves what they feel is important in their educational system, in their schools, with this year’s tough budget staring it in the face, and to share those thoughts with the school board and administration.
We’re approaching budgetary crunch time, with schools throughout the state making lists of cuts and contingencies that will likely have to be made, especially with the likelihood of minimum state aid. If you have any idea of something you think is worthy of saving – or a candidate to be set aside – now is the time to declare it.
It’s not fair to the school board simply to show up at the polls in April and cast a "no" vote on the budget without giving the school some idea what it would take to gain your "yes."
What’s your idea? Officials have promised to repost a special hot button for budget concerns on the school’s website. We encourage using it, or taking the old-fashioned way in a letter to the school.
The closer the budget proposal can come to the public’s expectations could save a lot of angst, energy and argument come early May.

