Public Can Weigh In on Budget Review Tonight

Members of the public will have the opportunity tonight to let the school board and Township Committee know what they think about the defeated school budget.

The two governing bodies will convene at 7 p.m. at Eisenhower Middle School to hold a public session on the 2010-11 $33.3 million spending plan, whose $31.8 million tax levy was rejected at the polls by a scant 22 votes. The defeat has triggered a Township Committee review, with members charged with possibly identifying spending cuts, and the school board empowered to locate which line items to make those cuts. The committee ultimately could recommend to keep the tax levy intact.

"Our position is the budget is bare bones. I'm confident we should leave it as it is," said school board President Anthony Robert Francin.

However, it's likely the Township Committee will recommend some cuts, owing to the public defeat of the budget. Committeeman Chris DePhillips, a member of the governing body's Finance Committee, said members have "not made any final decisions" but have raised "areas worthy of consideration.

However, "we're not going to tolerate cuts in academic areas," DePhillips said.

Committeman David Connolly, chair of the Finance Committee, agrees. "We're not going to impact kids' education."

Francin expects the board to address specific questions from committee members tonight and encourages members of the public to offer opinions and pose questions.

"The goal is to have it be as transparent as possible," he said.

DePhillips said "now is the time for us to listen to the public" and agreed that resident input will go a long way towards influencing the Township Committee's final recommendation on spending cuts.

Members of the governing body's Finance Committee have held several sessions with representatives of the board and teacher's union in an effort to fully understand the 2010-11 spending plan. The business administrator's office has provided the committeemen with the relevant data, and Francin, Vice President Lisa Martone and Wyckoff Education Association President Kathy Bowers are among those who have attended the seven meetings held since the budget vote.

"We're trying to reach an amicable solution," Connolly said.

While the two sides haven't yet come to an agreement on how much can be cut or where it should be taken from, both sides have spoken to Bowers about voluntarily opening the teachers' contract, set to expire next year, to allow savings to stave off deeper budget cuts. Those inquiries have been fruitless thus far.

Francin said the board is "looking for the association to assist" in the search for budget savings and met with Bowers last week to communicate that message. Bowers, an Eisenhower Middle School teacher, has said she's not amenable to opening up the contract, which must be done voluntarily on the part of the teachers. She feels that doing so would unfairly impact the teachers to solve a problem (loss of state aid, corresponding budget reductions) that they are not responsible for.

There are various proposals asked of the teachers: Inquiries to freeze salaries entirely next year were made under the prior school board, headed by former member Dan Moynihan, although talks of late have centered around compromise ideas. Francin said he's asked Bowers for the WEA to accept a delay in salary, where teachers would get their full, contractual raise in 2011, without retroactive pay for the first four months of the school year.

"It's done in the private sector all the time," Francin said.

Alternately, Connolly, the chair of the Finance Committee, has echoed Moynihan, who also had floated the idea of the teachers accepting a 2.9 percent increase next year instead of a 4.4 percent bump, which would save the district approximately $240,000.

"We're asking them to work with us," Connolly said. "The teachers don't have to give back anything they don't have."

In an e-mail to staff over the weekend, Bowers wrote, "We have a signed contract, and we are in the second year of the contract. We would never recoup our losses," should the teachers agree to open the contract before it expires at the end of next year.

"We stand on our reputations as teachers, secretaries and instructional aides, not on a percentage we give back to the town.  It should be up to the BOE and the administrators to promote the quality staff Wyckoff has. They should be shouting from the rooftops that the town is getting an outstanding staff while paying mediocre salaries. They are getting a GREAT deal for their bucks.  A Blue Ribbon District, in one of the wealthiest towns in New Jersey,  paying their teachers a salary that ranks in the middle of the Bergen County guide. They should be ashamed of the low salary, not asking for it to go even lower," Bowers wrote.

Members of the school board have pushed for Bowers to put the contractual issue to a vote of the full Wyckoff Education Association, a move that Bowers has said isn't necessary, as she knows the sentiment of the staff. Furthermore, she feels that there are too many unknowns, as it relates to the state Department of Education, to make such a move. The state has pushed teachers' unions to freeze their wages in exchange for possible restored aid, although such a move on the part of teachers wouldn't automatically trigger the state to act.

"I know the vote would be no, and I would rather the public point the finger at me  than take it out on all the teachers. I do not believe a vote is in the best interest of the district," Bowers wrote in the recent e-mail.

However, Francin said he "thinks a good number of teachers would support" opening up the contract, should it be put to a vote.

"There is full agreement on both sides that it would be helpful if the teacher's union submitted the issue" to the full membership, DePhillips said.

"Why not submit the question to the membership and get an up or down vote?" DePhillips asked.

Furthermore, the school board president said the teachers' association has incentive to open up the contract before May 21, after which a state administration proposal for employees to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health benefits will go into effect. Should the board and teachers reach a contractual agreement before that date, it would prevent the teachers from having to make more health-care concessions for at least another year.

"The clock really is ticking," Francin said.

Communications concerning the teachers' contract has also led the WEA to file an unfair labor practices claim with the Public Employment Relations Commission, alleging that Moynihan attempted to negotiate outside of the union leadership when a letter to staff was posted on First Class, an internal e-mail system, that detailed the board's request on the contract. Moynihan, who didn't stand for re-election, has said the attempt was informational and not an attempt at negotiation. Bowers has said the union had no choice but to report what it feels was a violation of labor law.

Members of the public will have five minutes to speak at the public meeting tonight.

The Township Committee could schedule a special meeting before the May 19 deadline to vote on spending cut recommendations.