Notes On The Tentative 2023 Berkeley Heights Public School Budget

Mar 15, 20234 Comments

Proposed Tax Increase, Legal Costs, Administrative Costs, Safety and Public Feedback on the Radar

-Natasha Joly

My summary from the budget presentation:

1. Ms. Bradford offered strong suggestions as to what to review to see where we can further cut expenses to save teachers’ jobs. While I support the goal and further review, I do not support the 3.19% tax increase – max increase without a public vote, and I think it would set a bad precedent and lead to an even more bloated budget. The one thing I did not hear Ms. Bradford call out was the legal fees. Tax increases also sting when parents implicitly pay a tax by hiring tutors. Tutors are helping kids close the learning gap and provide a backstop for BTC. But the tax increase will most impact those who cannot afford tutors.

2. Legal Fees-As the board is discussing laying off teachers and reducing the athletic budget, the board attorney earned at least $500 for sitting through the public session and doing nothing. Her only contribution was admonishing a community member for speaking beyond 3 minutes, which is not a legal matter. I am still amazed at how comfortable the attorney is at interjecting when not asked and so disappointed in the BOE for not telling her to stop. This firm has found a cash cow with the Berkeley Hights contract, where they continue making money off their bad advice. The budget for legal fees is nearly double that of the 2021-2022 year. Though Ms. Kot verbally stumbled through the justification, it’s still unclear precisely what legal matters are included in the budget.

3. Further review is needed of the Administration salaries. Ms. Akiri asked for budget details surrounding the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents. I’m not sure why her questions were so difficult to answer. Ms. Kot stated that she couldn’t provide numbers as the Assistant Superintendents have yet to be evaluated. That is irrelevant. The budget wasn’t pulled out of thin air, and the ask was for all three, not an individual breakdown. The other interesting item to look out for is that security costs were moved out of (as per Ms. Kot) from the General Administration bucket to line 51020 of approximately 46K. We will need the line-by-line budget (the 109-page document the board received) to understand what is happening with salaries and the General Administration rolled amount.

4. I had asked Ms. Kot to publish not just the PowerPoint presentation but the 109-page document so to avoid filing an OPRA request like we did last year. She said she would do so with a caveat that once submitted to the county, and it may change a bit as it runs through the county process.

5. The budget includes a 12k stipend for Mr. Hopkins to continue his OPRA work. I asked for the analysis to support the need for this. Ms. Kot stated that she had provided her detailed analysis to the Executive committee. I’m unsure what committee this is; I don’t see it listed on the website. As I stated at the meeting, there is no onslaught of OPRA requests to justify this position this year, let alone next year. It is a de facto pay increase of 24k/year.

6. When discussing the 2 SROs, Dr. Varley made a comment that “schools can always be safer.” So why did she reject a donation for piloting an application that would do just that? It would have cost the district nothing.

7. I inquired how the BOE, Business Administration will take community feedback into account. I am not aware of any process in place to systemically evaluate provided feedback, and we know that emailed questions are not answered. So the best bet for the community is to attend the March 30th meeting and be vocal.

8. Overall, the presentation was difficult to see because of the colors used. The conversation was even more challenging to follow as the public did not have a detailed view.

SHAUNA EXPLAINS HER COMMENTS TO THE BOARD ON THE BUDGET

THE PENNA MAGIC SHOW CONTINUES

BERKELEY HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL BUDGET: ALL (MAYBE MOST OF) THE ARTICLES