We’ve been working hard on this lead for awhile, but needed to obtain irrefutable supporting documentation to confirm it. Now it’s time to disclose the truth that the Belleville Board of Education doesn’t want you to know.
Brace yourself, folks. This one is going to be very uncomfortable, for all of us.
By now you probably know that depending on your own assessment, your pending tax increase will be around $193. That figure is quite a punch in the gut already.
What you probably don’t realize is that this only represents one-third of the Board of Education’s actual liability at this time. If something isn’t done immediately to curb this deficit in the Board’s budget, our actual tax increase could end up being triple that amount.
And here’s something to reflect on for anyone still defending the Board of Education (if any of them still exist); no matter which “camp” you’re with, we ALL get to eat that lovely $600+ increase that could lie ahead. Each and every one of us. Just think about that before the finger pointing starts up again.
We are appalled, and will not sit back and watch while this problem that the Board created gets dumped in everyone’s lap as a complete surprise in the months ahead. The time to act is now.
Here to explain what our investigations have uncovered, community member and respected advocate Jeff Mattingly has submitted the following open letter to NutleyWatch:
At last Wednesday night’s meeting of the Belleville BoE, the board approved a 1.389 million dollar increase to our taxes. This will result in a $193.00 increase to the average Belleville homeowner whose house is assessed at the town average of $238,000. If your property is assessed higher, your increase will be greater.
What was not publicized is that they are not $1.389 million short this school year, they are $3.8 million in the red.
As a result of reckless spending, they were broke most of this year, as the budget clearly stated. But this did not stop our Superintendent, Helene Feldman, from recommending to the BoE Trustees to hire additional personnel, as they did. You can’t budget for X amount of spending, and then spend millions more that you did not budget for. Sadly, that spending was certainly not in the classrooms.
The $1.389 million increase is simply for obligations that are non-negotiable – contracts, loans and purchases. There is still more than 2.5 million dollars that is hanging over our heads that has yet to be addressed that we are liable for, not counting pending litigation costs.
Administrative costs have doubled in recent years, and capital outlay is up more than 2500% during the 2012-2013 school year alone, according to the 2012-2013 fiscal audit. Reckless hiring and needless contracts have lead the BoE to possible financial collapse.
There is no doubt that deep cuts will have to be made. Spending MUST be reduced and returned to the educational process. Our school rankings and statistics are sinking like a rock, to which our property values are directly tied. The mandate and sole purpose of a BoE is to educate, to the exclusion of all else if that is failing. Excessive amounts of money have been spent on everything BUT education. In fact, educational monies have been supplanted and diverted from their intended purpose that handicap teachers from being able to do their jobs of educating our children.
RIF notices, (Reduction In Force), must go out now!
Job requirement credentials have to be scrutinized, and those lacking should be immediately terminated. Careful review of all nonessential and duplicate personnel must go with a focus on administration, where hiring has gone wild. Contracts must be reviewed for necessity, cost savings measures must be reinstated where outsourcing created needless contractual obligations. Teacher work schedules have to be assessed to ensure that overloading be balanced against under-utilization. Purchasing and security expenses need to be scrutinized.
This BoE Majority, and senior administration, has been singularly focused on a destructive political agenda, and has ignored the cries for common sense and tolerance from staff and Belleville’s citizens. This can be seen in the many Youtube videos of BoE meetings that we had to record ourselves and post. Instead they chose to retaliate on and willfully harm those who would take a stand for our children, and to protect people’s livelihoods.
We must insist that resources be returned to education, and the teachers be provided with the tools to educate our children, and from a cooperative BoE.
Jeff Mattingly
Update: Further supporting documentation will be added here shortly.
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