School Budget Talk Brings Impassioned Remarks

The next step on the school budget will take place Tuesday at noon when members of the Borough Council and Board of Education sit down and preliminarily go over the budget.

But the first line of public dialogue following its defeat took place Monday night at the council's regular meeting. Council members started the discussion earlier in the meeting by reaffirming a position that they will be working with the Board of Education, not mandating, during the process. It ended with members of the public making their own requests, sometimes fervently.

"I intend to take the lead of the Board of Education," Mayor Mary-Anna Holden said after she introduced the topic at the meeting, echoing comments she had previously made. "They are the people who have worked the closest with the budget. They know what is required by the state."

She called it an education process that will take place before the budget comes before the entire council for discussion. It will be Holden, Council President Jeannie Tsukamoto, Councilman Robert Conley and Borough Administrator Ray Codey who will meet with Board of Education representatives on Tuesday, including President Lisa Ellis and Vice President Pat Rowe, both of whom were in attendance during Monday's meeting.

"We are not experts on funding-related mandates to education; they are experts," Conley said of the BOE. "We are a combined team that leads Madison and we will and continue to do that."

Residents spoke up during the public discussion session, asking the council to make sure not to hurt the school system in Madison with cuts.

"Some things are going to be cut," Tom Haralampoudis said. "Hopefully with brainstorming sessions you can avoid that. Cutting anything from education now will hurt the town and (the children's) future."

But the most impassioned comments came from Steve Wells, a supporter of the school budget who questioned how teachers could be asked to agree to pay freezes if the municipal employees have as of now still not agreed to the same. He referenced possible arbitration with the police force in his comments.

"My question that I was going to ask Ray (Codey) is if you lose that arbitration–then obviously the fire department isn't going to accept a freeze, DPW isn't going to ...–where are your finances at that time? And can any of us as a community say that teachers are the ones who should accept when none of the others do?"

Holden and the council said they agreed.

"There is only so much money to go around, and we've been quite frank with everyone that, 'here is the pot of money. You want arbitration, you're going to have to decide how you spend or how you deploy that money because there is a finite pot,'"

Wells asked if that meant if the groups go to arbitration and won, then they would still only get the money already recommended for the municipal budget, effectively forcing them to cut positions. Holden and council members confirmed that's what they meant.

Wells also said that the most important word involving the school budget was "kids."

"(The budget) is compromised and only marginal as it is," Wells said. "There is no room for you guys to cut."

According to Codey, council has until May 19 to craft a resolution either affirming the the budget as presented or a dollar amount reduction that has recommended line items associated with that reduction.