School Budget Presentation on 4/14/2009 (Tue)

[Guest]

The Cranbury School PTO would like to invite you to our next meeting on Tuesday, April 14th at 1pm. Chief School Administrator, John Haney and Business Administrator, Joyce Picariello will present the 2009/2010 school budget. The meeting will be held in the Large Group Room at the Cranbury School at 1pm. We encourage you to attend this informative meeting.

Remember to vote on Tuesday, April 21st.

[Who can go?]

That sure is a convenient time for everyone in town that votes.

[Guest]

Remember to vote NO to any increase on the Tuesday April 21st.

[Guest]

I don't think this is an information session so much as a strategy session on how to get the budget passed. If it were a true information session it would be held at night, but they'd risk a lot of people showing up who oppose the budget. I have a child, but am voting no because I realize this is a public school not an upper echelon private school and as such we have to balance what we provide. So long as the teachers are solid, I am okay with less class room resources. I did well with a chalk board.

[wcody]

The Board of Education gave their public budget presentation on March 31. They did a nice job explaining the different aspects of the budget and their rationale and were open to questions. I noticed a summary of the budget is on their web site but I did not see their powerpoint they presented. I will follow up with them to see if they will post that as well it is useful. I would encourage anyone with questions to review those documents. I was surprised to see only one other guest besides myself at their budget presentation.

Win Cody

[publius]

[Guest2]

The budget presentation being advertised is an extra information session being given to the PTO, the public is simply being invited should they be interested. Please let's not go on like it's some kind of "conspiracy"to not hold meetings at a convenient time. The main public session happened on March 31.

I will support the budget myself as I understand that the budget increase is due to increases in the Princeton tuition and already contracted payroll and benefit costs. Voting no won't change the increase.

Vote YES!

[Guest]

That is misinformation. A large chunk is for this, but at the same time there is money from last year's roof repair that can go to this year's tutition hike. Don't believe the hype, vote No.

[Guest]

Voting no will change the increase. They cannot accept a budget as presented if it fails to pass the vote.

[Guest]

If the budget is voted down it then goes through a review process that includes the TC review. Sadly, at the end the budget could remain the same. However, there is usually a reduction of some expense.

I find there are three camps based on a number of school elections over the years.

1) Parents with kids in school who mostly vote yes.

2) People with no kids who mostly vote no.

3) Parents with kids out of school or not of school age yet who are pretty evenly mixed. The longer the kids are out of school the more likely the people are to vote no.

The people in camps 2 and 3 are usually the smaller voting block. So the budget typically passes on group 1. However, if there is a budget like this year and groups 2 and 3 turnout there is a higher chance it is voted down. The problem is I can only recall one time in the last 20 years when it did not pass.

[parent]

[Guest]

Usually this is the most active voting block. However, school elections always tend to have low turnouts from all parties.

[Guest]

I guess I would be in camp number 4 -- A child in school that will vote no. Believe me, if they have a little bit less to spend it will be ok.

[Guest]

[Guest]

For those of you with kids in school who are planning to vote no - did you go to either of the budget presentations?

[Guest]

I have 3 kids in school and plan to vote against this Budget.

Enough is enough, there have been increases of a million per year over the past three years. Our elected officials manage Cranbury without a clue as to what the taxpayers really want. These increases should be deferred for the future. Say no to the unions, what are they going to do, litigate against the school board for a raise when the economy is in the toilet ? No one is getting raises like this lately.

Vote NO !