Questions and Answers

 

I encourage interested stakholders to email or call me if they have any questions on my candidacy or would like me to express a view on a particular subject.  This section of the website is devoted to such questions.

 

QUESTION:  With the school board election now in November voters to not get to vote on the budget provided it falls within state parameters.  Did you support this move?

 

ANSWER:  'I was President of the Board when the issue came before us and vocally supported moving the school elections to November. Why? IT'S BEST FOR KIDS AND I WAS ELECTED WITH THAT AS MY FOCUS.  As I suspect you know when the election is in November the budget vote is not on the ballot provided the district's proposed tax levy increase is under 2%. I have been vocal about keeping costs low and in fact spoke up firmly against going out with a 2% increase last year to put money in the bank. Moving the election to November has many pluses. Voter turnout is much larger in November, which I think is a major plus. In addition, the district saves election costs. Equally important. following a failed budget, the town council in Bridgewater and Raritan have cut the budget dramatically. It takes years to recover from that. I remember well one councilman declaring after a budget was defeated 51%-49% that he took the result "as a mandate to cut millions." Clearly this is not in the best interests of our kids. B-R still holds many public hearings on the budget and stakeholders are encouraged to come and share their views. I'm happy to take suggestions from the public on lots of matters and the budget is one. And the full proposed budget is available to interested parties ahead of time so people have plenty of opportunity to become familiar with it. .Therefore there is informed dicsussion with the public on the budget.  As a final thought, after one of our Board meetings in April Dick Bergeron approached me in the parking lot.  He was unhappy that in 2014 there were fewer public input sessions on the budget than there had been in years passed.  I agreed with him wholeheartedly, I took the issue to our Community Relations Committee, and as a result the Board committed publicly to hold more of these sessions on future budgets.