BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
The Lakewood Board of Education’s long string of school budget defeats came to an end on April 19 with the approval of a $99.5 million budget proposed for the 2005-06 school year. The budget was approved by a vote of 2,997 in favor to 2,608 opposed.
Voters also re-elected three incumbents to three-year terms on the board.
Since voters approved the budget that had been adopted by the board, property taxes will go up 8.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the coming year. Homeowners with a house assessed at $150,000 will pay $126 more in school taxes in 2005-06 than in 2004-05; the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay $168 more; and the owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $252 more.
The voters’ approval of the budget means that the Township Committee will not have to review the spending plan and recommend reductions, as has been in the case in recent years.
In April 2004, voters overwhelmingly rejected the board’s proposed $95 million budget for the 2004-05 school year by a margin of 10 to 1. According to information provided by the Ocean County Election Board, that budget failed by a vote of 6,375 opposed to 645 in favor.
That was not the story behind this year’s budget, which marks a turnaround for the district, according to board member Chat Galdo, who was one of the incumbents to win re-election.
“The positive numbers came from Leisure Village, A Country Place, and [other] senior citizen [communities],” he said. “They came out in support of the budget. I think … they see that the board has this year grabbed the bull by the horns. [We’ve] removed the superintendent and are in the process of removing the business administrator.”
Ernest Cannava stepped down as superintendent in November 2004 following a legal agreement with the board that paved the way for the panel to seek a new superintendent. That process is ongoing.
And just before the election, the board announced that it had requested its attorney to draw up tenure charges against Business Administrator Kathryn Fuoto, whose work was the focus of reports filed by a pair of accounting firms. If the tenure charges are filed with the state, depending on the basis for the action, Fuoto could be removed from her position immediately pending a decision by the state commissioner of education.
The 2005-06 budget, which carries a local tax levy of $56.5 million, was largely crafted by former interim superintendent of schools Ann Murphy Garcia, who began working for the district on Dec. 1 and announced her resignation on Feb. 10. Garcia remained on as a consultant to the budget.
Voters expressed their approval of board members responsible for proposing the budget by re-electing all three incumbents. Galdo (4,268 votes), Abraham Ostreicher (3,344 votes) and Leonard Thomas (4,876 votes) decisively beat challengers Ervin Thomas (1,461 votes) and Ada Gonzalez (1,222 votes).
Ostreicher, who served as board president in 2004-05, said he thought the election results reflected public approval of the board’s actions to rein in its finances and to address administrative performance issues.
“In my opinion, people see that the board is making progress in bringing things under control,” he told the Tri-Town News after the election. “The thing we have on the front burner now is to continue … in our search for a new superintendent.”