“There came into Belleville, a Board President who did not know.”
There really isn’t much for me to say that can do justice to this very sad circus act we were all forced to witness last night. The predictable Blame Game was in full swing.
Board President John Rivera tries to make a spectacle of himself, and succeeds admirably. He seems to be the only board president on earth who doesn’t understand that everything his board does is his responsibility. Not that he didn’t help lead the charge personally or anything.
Rivera trying to blame State Monitor Egan for having to do for the school district what he and his board should have done all along (preferably by budgeting for it first) was the highlight of the entire evening.
Meanwhile, State Monitor Egan is making very large strides in getting the school district some desperately needed financial relief, knocking down the massive budget deficit incurred by the board left and right, and accomplishing one substantial improvement over the next in the district. Egan is only here because the board screwed up in the first place, either deliberately or through incomprehensible negligence, on a scale few townships in New Jersey have ever seen.
And President Rivera, what do we have to show for the 65 million dollars (plus the nearly 5 million you overspent) last year? And the year before? Where did all that money go, and how could we have virtually nothing to show for it? How could the district be in such disrepair, literally and figuratively, with a huge annual budget like this?
Well, if you don’t like the State of New Jersey calling the shots on how you spend your money, here’s a suggestion – don’t blow throw through 70 million dollars, then leave the district with no money to pay the bills.
Shrugging your shoulders doesn’t mean you’re not fully responsible for everything that has happened. This is all on you and your co-conspirators, John.
We’re truly going to miss Rivera’s combative and clueless style of leadership come January.
Update: NorthJersey.com has added their coverage of the meeting.
Belleville BOE approves $3.3M tech deal
And from the Observer Online:
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