Despite the Board of Education not approving the 2015-2016 school budget, it was passed after being adopted by State Monitor Michal Azzara during last night’s BOE meeting, with some serious ramifications.
The budget stands at $165.9 million, of which $90.9 million is being carried by local taxes.
Prior to voting, a discussion ensued as to whether the budget would include courtesy busing.
However, as reported late last month, State Monitor Mike Azzara stated that a $2.5 referendum would be needed to cover the courtesy busing deficit for the next school year – even if the schools would tier busing times for all grades.
Without the tiering, the deficit would have stood at approximately $5.5.
But the most shocking, was the announcement during the meeting from Azzara proposing mixing schools on buses, or even mixing public and private schools on the same bus – for both mandated and courtesy busing – in order to bring down the costs. But despite those options not considered viable ones by the Board, Azzara says he may require the options should the schools not tier.
Mr. Azzara ruled to have the referendum posed to voters in November.
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The solution seems obvious to me. Vote yes on the referendum. Vote no on the budget. Let the brilliant state monitor find the cuts.
Just saying.
If the referendum is in November, how will that work, since school starts in September?
How is it that they are only pulling in 90,000,000 taxes when we average 8000 each house. I know there are 1000s of basements but there are still more property taxpayers than 11,250 in lakewood something doesn’t add up. property taxes should bring in at least 110,000,000 for the 14,000 homes in lakewood that’s an average of 7,857.1428571429 per property.
Don’t forget the board of ed owes their own bus drivers retro active money from September. They don’t come thru with anything they say.
This town is run really backwards we should all enroll our kids in public school next year then they’ll give us bussing on a silver platter. If nobody had guts to do this Why can’t everybody pay for their own bussing its very selfish to put your bussing expense on a whole town an extra 2.5 million is to much for us were up to our necks with taxes already. It’s bad enough that I’m paying thousands in taxes every year when I don’t have any kids in public school where they can’t teach the kids not to steal bikes or break into houses at night
Time to register every kid in public school or at least every kid going in to primary!
If they were able to pull it of in Monroe we should be able to do it as well, as the famous saying goes “No taxation without representation”
to #1 the problem is that courtesy bussing is not mandated so if the 2.5 million is not approve he can just say no courtesy bussing.
to #3 not all the tax money goes to the BOE . they only get a percentage
Mr Azzara Do U really think that Yeshivos & bublic School kids should travel on the same bus? It comes to show how little U know about lakewood. Y can’t we have local people make decisions for us? Y the State Moniter? & Yes we should learn from Kiryas Joel they would never accept this!!
Why are they only picking on so called “courtesy” busing. And not on other “courtesy” services? I.e. Athletics, early childhood etc. If there isn’t after school sports, the town won’t come to a standstill… But if they don’t have safety busing it will be gridlock for the tax payers of lakewood on a daily basis…
time for those that use courtesy bussing to pay for it privately like they do in NY, Passaic, etc.
Time to vote chasidim on to the board!
#7 I find it hard to believe that the courtesy busing referendum would not pass. Get out the vote.
Azzara can put whatever referendum he wants on the ballot over the objections of the school board but as a voter I make the choice. I don’t trust him. Can the school board members come out with their own statement as to why they don’t feel the referendum is necessary. Is there really enough money for it but Azzaro is forcing the issue anyway? Please let us know.
The community has no choice but to vote down this and EVERY budget until their rights are restored.
Let them eat cake.
Stop threatning that you are going to enroll your kids in public school. Than your kids will be in mixed classrooms and you will have no control. You really think the private school owners who make money off of your child going to private schools are going to let you enroll kids in public classes. Lets be real, so you might as well just get use to the idea of mixed busing or make the change in times as suggested and stop fighting.
The state caused this problem. Only the state can fix it. Azzara said it himself. It is a funding problem. The only solution is to force the state to fix it by voting down all budgets.
You could make a political statement for certain by having a couple of thousand people line up outside district offices to register but it wouldn’t change the funding issue.
The state has left us with only one way to have our voice heard – the ballot box (since the board no longer represents us thanks to the monitor).
Just saying.
Is it my imagination or does this work out to about $150 per household max and $100 extra per kid on a bus?
Really I know property taxes are high, but is another $20 a month going to break a family’s budget. It certainly costs more to carpool
Hey hhmil do you think the boe will find space where to put another 18,000 kids. Point being if we all register at a shot they’re up a creek with no canoe even. The paddle they lost a while back already
And I allways thought the moderation was for language not to stifle free speech
Let’s just pay for busing directly .
What is the point of paying the amount it costs to the township and then having the township contract with the bus companies ?
It’s not like the township is some rich independent entity that can give us something for nothing . Every extra penny they spend is coming from us the tax payers .
Threatening to enroll all our kids in public school makes no sense .
You are just threatening yourself . By law the cost of education will just be billed to the local taxpayers in any case .
There is no rich Mr Township with free goodies to pass out if only we plead or threaten enough . You are simply taking money from your own one pocket and putting it in the other .
taxes dont cut the budget because alot of properties in lakewood are tax exempt. Every public School, Yeshiva, mosad, and the properties owned by each of them.
to Sam, you are incorrect, as the State formula for distribution of funds is based on public school enrollment
Private school and the transportation of children to private school should be paid privately. Parents should get vouchers from the state, paid for with tax money, since their children do not need to go to public school and therefore saving the taxpayer the expense of the public school. The way it is now the taxpayer pays twice, once for public school, and then again for private school. Next time you vote, vote for the candidates who want the voucher system.
Sam and David – public school enrollment is calculated later in the year (Oct. or Nov.) so just registering and pulling out would not increase funding. It would however increase expenses as the district would have to plan and hire and buy for those registered kids.
#3 and everyone else! there is a basic issue that everyone seems to be skipping– we pay our taxes directly to the state and they decide how much each school district receives based on how many children enrolled in public school!! our district receives a very small amount compared to how tax payers there actually are. we are asking for bussing bec we pay an enormous amount of taxes with nothing in return it would be fair of them to give us bussing Thanks
harry – the only way you will get the state to change the rules (which don’t work in Lakewood) is to force them to fix the law. Vote down every budget. When they are forced to cut everything from the public schools even with a monitor in place, they will fix the problem.
The monitor said it was a funding problem. Make it even a bigger problem and you will be heard.
Why would that be so terrible?
When I attended Yeshiva of Brooklyn in the 90s we had mixed bussing in the morning.
We survived.
Not sure why this is being censored…
Why is it always give me give me ! Why does the state have to give you anything !! If you send your kids to private school in Lakewood you have to pay for bussing ! You choose not to send your kids to public school. It is a choice youmake ! We need to stop living off the system
The well has dried up. Enrolling private school students, in the public schools, will entitle them to mixed busing & classes, no religious classes, the NJ State curriculum, and testing.
Let’s stop pretending that the real issue is the state .
Yes the state does choose to subsidize a portion of the school budget ,
Yes we can try to shout and attempt to get a bigger share . (Even though it is unlikely to succeed)
The ultimate responsibility for education is on the local tax payer .
The real issue is the cost of education . As surprising as it sounds the income to the BOE of each new house built in this town is less that the new expenses the house creates .
When you factor in the cost of busing , special ed, and now increasingly services to the basement tenants there is a net loss on each house built .
This is not to say we should stop building, but we must plan accordingly and be prepared for significantly higher taxes .
The budget stands at $165 MIllion. Can we get a break down where thats going ? Like how much for public schools, books, equipment, special ed etc ….. It sounds like mucho dinero
to #15
if we enroll our kids in public school they will give us busing which is way
cheaper for them then getting new buildings, teachers etc.
People complain all they get for their taxes is a bus ride, what about senior citizens ? We pay long after our children went to school, maybe we should be tax exempt .
All the while Michael Inzelbuch is saying, Miss me yet?!
Same old story. People make threats about registering their kids for public school. Just know that if you do that, your kids will need to attend public school. You can’t just register them. No they wont say ” ok we will just give you courtesy transportation”. They will call your bluff because nobody is sending their kids to public school. People need to be reasonable. Money doesn’t grow on trees. It’s courtesy transportation. Not mandatory.
Since we can’t get rid of the state monitor, perhaps the rabonim of the town can get together and put him in cherem. The full deal. Sifrei Torah etc…
what the people dont reallize is that the people to be most affected by the lack of courtesy bussing will be the public school children as most of them live within the two miles of the schools. we must vote no on the referendum and let all the people at the meeting that refer to us as “them” celebrate just to find out that their children are the ones affected! the private schools will get their own bussing via private contract at a cost but your taxes would have been raised if we pass the referendum anyways so its no loss of cash! and effectively we will remove the only weapon azzaro has against us!
#1 school busing can be done a lot cheaper we simply need to sharpen our pencils. #2 If we can work out some sort of 45 minute delay that we can fill the buses more efficiently it will cut the costs by minimum 40%.
Maybe we can mix girls schools, and have multiple girl schools on the same bus. Then have a boys bus from multiple school. It will save lots of time. Just have one bus per development (or three or four!) and have them go to 4 or 5 different schools. The runs will be much shorter.
Back in Lakewoods past the private school kids did ride with the public school kids and there was no problem. In fact I made a great friend who was dropped off at Temple Beth Am on our way to public school. For those of you complaining about not getting your tax dollars worth, explain to someone like me who hasn’t any children why I should be forced to continue to support a courtesy program for your convenience.
I have a different idea: let the schools not move to industrial park, rather stay closer where the children who are old enough and live close enough can actually WALK (dare I say) to school!
if we agree to the tax increase – they’ll just take busing away every year, forcing us to fill the gap of their bad spending habits. vote NO!
When did this azzara guy switch from state monitor to dictator everyday we hear new decrees from him
Sad to say but Jason is right. The twsp loses money with every new house being built. The taxes are around $8,000. so, 20 houses is approx $160,000. problem is, if theres just one person who needs special care, child or senios, the twsp just lost money.Its sad but true.
So many idiots posting here I can’t keep track
To how is it: not all taxes go to the schools , we do have police fire library roads etc.
To the guy kvetching about industrial park, do you think the schools wAnted to be there? I’m sure it would’ve been a great idea to place the schools in your neighborhood there’s plenty of room
And to the gut who suggested to mix the buses with schools right now that’s what the monitor required
Just he went a step further to require all the schools public and private
But the OILEM is right
The state does not appreciate or realize how much we save them by paying our own tuition
The only answer is for us all to register in the public schools and stick to it
If we did that it would bankrupt the state
I just wish I knew where all these hundreds of millions are going
It’s mystery to me