Only on rare occasions are school budgets defeated in the Bayonne School District, but on Thursday nightthe Board of Education, absent one board member, voted against the $129.9 million 2016-2017 school budget in a 4-3 decision.Board secretary Gary Maita said he has not seen a budget fail to pass in his 20-plus years at the district. The hearing saw a public plea for higher pay for teachers and for the board to vote against the budget.
What happens next?
The decision took the board by surprise. “It’s uncharted waters,” said BOE Business Administrator Brian Buckley. “Between me being here for five years and another district for three years, I’ve never encountered this.” He later told the Community News that the board needs to adopt a budget by May 14, and that an emergency board meeting is has been called for May 12, when the budget will go up for a vote again. He said that not much in the proposed budget will change. “If it passes, then it’s more or less the same as if it passed last night.”
A 2.78 percent school tax increase is baked into the $129.9 million proposed budget, a total $1.7 million tax increase on residents, and a $97 average annual rise per home. A previous budget proposal had a larger tax increase, but was later changed, according to Buckley.
Before the vote, Schools Superintendent Patricia McGeehan noted student accomplishments, including scholarships and enrollment “at some of the finest colleges in the country,” and a graduation rate that outperforms the state average by four percent. She also discussed the technological advances the district has been making by providing each student with a laptop, starting in the lower grades.
But despite “$52 million under-adequacy funding” for the school, the superintendent praised the district for being “creative, fiscally prudent, and sound.” Her overall goal is to “maintain the current level of education for our students with an increased population.”
The superintendent’s focus on population and underfunding reflects current trends. A 2014 report by the Education Law Center, an education advocacy group in Newark, called the district “one of the most underfunded in NJ.”This year, student enrollment in Bayonne increased to 10,096 students from 9,856 last year, and 9,784 the year before.
“The 12th-year teacher is making about $54,000. If you go to another district you can make $82,000 in Hudson County for the same number of years.” – Alan D’Angelo
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Teachers are heard
President of the Bayonne Teacher’s Association Alan D’Angelocriticized the board for failing to provide adequate pay for teachers, despite improvements made in the district overall.“What you’re doing is expanding in every area except when it comes to the teachers and staff,” he said.“The superintendent mentioned how great we’re doing as a district and how far we exceed all the other places in the state, but you’re doing it on the backs of the teachers getting absolutely no money.”
He pointed to other school districts in the county that compete with Bayonne for teaching talent. “The 12th-year teacher is making about $54,000,” D’Angelo said.“If you go to another district you can make $82,000 in Hudson County for the same number of years.”
D’Angelo asked the board to make room in the budget for a raise in teachers’ pay. “The amount of money that I’m asking for as a percentage of your total budget is not even 1 percent,” he said. “It’s not even a half a percent. You need to look at our budget and find places.”
AndreaResetar, a science teacher at Bayonne High School,echoed his sentiments, noting that the loss of many experienced teachers will hurt the schools. “We lost a lot of veteran teachers, maybe that’s a part of why your median salary is down,” Resetar said.“I don’t know if you want to keep operating a school district with 25 percent of your teachers being non-tenured on a regular basis.”
Teachers have been without a contract for a year, and Resetar worries that recent trends can spell bad news down the road. “I don’t see how you’re going to keep from housing a ‘round robin’ school district where everybody gets their experience here and then goes elsewhere to teach for better money later,” she said.“And I think that’s going to be a detriment to our students in the long run.”
D’Angelo said that he wanted higher pay for teachers, but not at a high cost, or any cost to the taxpayer. “I’m not asking you to raise taxes,” he said. “Take it out of the 130 million dollars you have.”
The voting
BOE members Carol Cruden, Ava Finnerty, Barry Kushnir, and Christopher Munoz voted against the budget. Joseph Broderick, Denis Wilbeck, Theodore Garelick, and Mike Lawandy voted in favor, while Mary Jane Desmond was absent.
Finnerty voiced her support for the teachers before her vote. “I have to vote what I think is right for the city of Bayonne and for the teachers,” she said,“so I have to vote no.”
Budgetary efficiencies, as well as teacher negotiations were on Munoz’s mind. “I think this budget still has a lot of redundancy in it and wasteful spending,” he said.“And I think it does not address the pending contracts that are before the Board of Education this time. So I vote no.”
Lawandywants to avoid a process that could technically result in higher taxes. “If we don’t pass the budget, and we get more money, that means we are raising taxes,” he said.“So I don’t want to raise taxes next year. So I want to work with what we have this year and pass this one.”
Rory Pasquariello may be reached at roryp@hudsonreporter.com.