Dear Editor:
Because the school budget was defeated by the voters in last month’s election, it became the responsibility of the mayor and council to go over the defeated budget in an effort to find ways to reduce it in a responsible manner. Our goal was to find every single way to reduce the amount to be raised by taxation, while remembering that providing our children with the best education possible in one of the most important responsibilities of every community.
We believe we have done just that. Members of both the town administration and school administration spent many hours poring over every detail, researching, and comparing in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. We were able to reduce the school budget by nearly $1.2 million without the loss of any teacher or program and without increasing class size.
I want to thank all the members of the Town Council and the Board of Education as well as various staff members who did an extraordinary job of working together to accomplish our goals. We were able to accomplish all this in the very limited time mandated by State law and the result is a win-win for the students, faculty, administration and the taxpayers.
On behalf of myself and the Town Council, we look forward to continuing to foster the spirit of cooperation which has resulted from this budget review process, and we pledge to work together to make Secaucus an even better community.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Gonnelli