Support our schools?

[admin]

I am starting this thread with a question intended to get some good discussion going. Last week I was with a group of our finer residents when a woman, who's name eludes me, asked a very good question:

How do we get the public in our town to become more supportive of the schools?

This is a good question, readers. What so you think?

[admin]

Awesome points, Lisa. I have to be clear, the question as I wrote it may not be word for word, but the gist is there.

Let's look at this some more. The schools have had two building referendums shot down and have a terrible time getting budgets passed.

I will say the schools have tried very hard in the past to reach people and as of now they are doing another initiative to educate people. I will talk about that at another time.

What more can they do? If you were close to the schools as an employee of as a parent, what would be the next step?

[richardkelsey]

wlisa54 said:

The question is not phrased properly. It puts the onus on the residents. The question really is what can the Board of Education, teachers, school administrative staff, PTO and parents do to get the public in our town to become more supportive of the schools. It put the onus where it belongs.

Plain and simple. This is a sales job. The Board of Education, teachers, school administrative staff, PTO and parents have to sell the plans to the public. If the public buys what is being sold, then the budget passes.

I hate to put this in such cold and callus terms, but the better the sales job, the better chance the budget will pass.

Wow -- one can write a book to that question.

First -- you will never satisfy everyone. Some large group of people will never vote for the school budget -- ever. That's probably 10-15% everywhere. After that, you have an enormous amount of people who might vote for it -- if they cared to vote at all, but they don't.

Next, you in Freehold, a large group of people who won't vote for the school budget because they are protecting the expenditures on illegal aliens.

Then, you have a group who won't vote for it because they hate teachers unions, wastful spending, over-administration, sex-ed, bi-lingual education, or some other pet peeve. Every town has these folks -- and they grow larger as the other numbers embolden them.

Finally -- you ahve a growing number of people in towns liek Freehold who will vote agaisnt any tax increase because -- well -- it feels good to vote agaisnt the government that is taking more of your taxes everyday. (This is the NJ phenomenon.)

The other problem you have is that many parents of the schools whose self-interest would be to vote for the budget -- can't. They can't register because they are not there legally -- so that leaves yes votes on the table.

Then you have other new immigrants who because of language barriers and social barriers, don't know how or are intimidated about getting into the process. So, they don't vote.

I actually think the sales job is pretty good -- really. I think you just have a very difficulat set of circumstances based upon the various factors I have listed. You have increasing number of no vote advocates, and fewer numbers of active or illegible voters.

So much for local control.

[adefonzo]

Everyone has the right to vote however they want for the school budget, and everyone has the right to disagree with the school board, the administration, and whomever else you would like to blame for the proposed increase of 4% in the school portion of your taxes.

That's the first point I want to mention, it's a 4% increase in the portion of your taxes that go to public school funding...NOT an overall increase of 4% in your taxes. The figure the district has come up with is approximately a $74 annual increase on someone with a home assessed at $300,000.

For better or for worse, the school budget is the only budget that the public gets to vote on. You don't get to vote for Municipal, County, State or Federal budgets...most of which, if we want to be honest, take away a greater portion of our money than the schools do. That's the way the current system is, though, and so it is the schools and the school board, and the administration that has to take the heat from the public because they're the only ones who have to ask permission to raise taxes. Personally, I have always felt that the schools take a very unfair amount of responsibility because of this. No one likes their taxes being raised, but since there isn't a whole lot of input allowed into those other budgets, everyone brings all of their frustration down to the school board meetings and the school budget vote. And, don't think the irony has escaped me that the school budget vote is actually on "Tax Day" this year, April 15th.

I have to make one quick statement...

I take exception to jeffham's comment above, "And the school board will work hard on suppressing the senior vote."

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but where the heck did you get the notion that the school board intentionally goes out and tries to suppress a particular group of voters? If you have some sort of proof of this, I beg you to bring it down to the next board meeting and expose it to those of us on the board who are not aware of this practice. The next meeting is Monday, March 3rd at 7pm at the Park Avenue School Library.

Now, as far as the school board, the administration, or just the schools in general reaching out to the public to "sell" the schools better...I'm certainly open to ideas.

The fact of the matter is that Board of Ed meetings are lucky to get 6 people from the town in attendance...extremely lucky to get 6, more often than not, it's 2-3.

The districts website has been updated over the past couple of years, and is a wealth of information. I have posted a link to the site on here a number of times, but once more can't hurt, www.freeholdboro.k12.nj.us

The district has, for the past year or so, sent out newsletters with the town's water bills (in an effort to save on postage costs), which essentially guarantees that everyone in town gets this quarterly newsletter.

The district sent out 2,750 surveys last year trying to get feedback from the community on a number of issues in regards to the schools, I believe we got back 243...less than 10%...and we have gotten hammered for "wasting money" on this method of trying to reach out to the public.

The school budget vote also is the time to vote for members of the school board, and despite all of the complaining about what a poor job the board of ed is doing, no one decided to try and get their name on the ballot other than the three members of the current board who are running for re-election.

Short of going door to door and dragging people down to Board of Ed meetings, I am not sure what more the district can do? That's why I say...I am open to any ideas.

[adefonzo]

...one other quick note about jeffham's little quiz above...I'd like to see how many adults in town can pass this test...4th graders? Are you serious?? You delve into some fairly intricate questions about the Constitution for a 4th grade level. I didn't learn about much of that until I took a Constitutional Law class in High School!!

[fiberisgoodforyou]

adefonzo said:

...one other quick note about jeffham's little quiz above...I'd like to see how many adults in town can pass this test...4th graders? Are you serious?? You delve into some fairly intricate questions about the Constitution for a 4th grade level. I didn't learn about much of that until I took a Constitutional Law class in High School!!

Andrew, I am not sure if anyone in this town can answer question number 19.

[fiberisgoodforyou]

admin said:

I am starting this thread with a question intended to get some good discussion going. Last week I was with a group of our finer residents when a woman, who's name eludes me, asked a very good question:

How do we get the public in our town to become more supportive of the schools?

This is a good question, readers. What so you think?

OK, I believe the greater public needs to learn about the product being delivered to the community and society. Public Schools , as well as schooling in general is not a tangible, per-say.

Here is an interesting measure of the the Product delivered from our PUBLIC SCHOOLS...I have my kids going to an after school activity twice a week, were they are the ONLY KIDS from the Boro.

All of their peers come from surrounding communities and go to surrounding schools systems. We have been told (complimented) on a few occasions from a number of faculty staff members from this after-school program, that our kids do as well, if not better than their peers.

I will attribute part of this to the wife and I, for being the kind of parents that help our kids thrive academically, however I must also recognize that there is an Atmosphere and Environment of learning our kids get from our Boroughs public schools that is also building our kids academic minds, and the academic minds of all Boro Kids.

If you can strip away the scoring of the language challenged children, our schools are doing a fine job with providing children with the academics they need to succeed. Another lost fact, look at our HS, and how well it is revered. Where are these kids coming from?

Heres a fun idea for our Council, the Board of Ed, St Rose, the Recreation commission, the Education Foundation and the FCP...how about an ALL Borough Spelling Bee open for all kids who live in and are register in ANY FB K-8 school, as well as open this up to home schooled kids too?.

This would promote the Borough as a town where Education and Literacy thrives. There can be Spelling bee runoffs at our Carnegie Library with the Finals help in Borough Hall.

Just an idea from a creepy republican malcontent!