The Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget: Is It Yes, or is It No?

Last week, every Bridgewater and Raritan resident should have received a four-page flyer in the mail from the B-R Board of Education entitled, “The 2009-2010 School Budget”.

The flyer shows five people running for three seats on the school board. Each candidate’s background appears on the back page: Three incumbents wish to retain their seats: Cindy Cullen, current board president; Richard Guss, and Christine Schneider. Two challengers, Patrick Breslin and Stan Serafin hope to unseat two of those incumbents.

The remaining three pages of the flyer are devoted to summarizing the budget and to advise you of what might happen if the budget doesn’t get approved. This is a first. Typically, boards have not gone public in advance with specific items considered for elimination if you don’t vote ‘Yes.’ The list of these items was referred to as “The Doomsday Chart” by Superintendent Michael Schilder at a board meeting.

A person doesn’t have to be a cynic to think that this strategy is aimed directly at intimidating parents. One evening, earlier this year, a standing-room-only turnout of parents showed up at a board meeting, demanding to know why athletic programs were being eliminated from the proposed 2009-2010 budget. Not true, of course, but the rumor mill had done its job. Rumors don’t fly by themselves. Somebody sets them into motion.

With one exception that I know of, the B-R BOE has been very careful not to go on record about publicly lobbying for or against passage of the budget – a practice prohibited under New Jersey law.

Now, it seems that someone may have slipped. In the official flyer which you just received, the superintendent and board seemed to have missed something in their proofreading.

In the section on advice about “How to Help,” you are advised that “There are a number of ways you can help.” One of them is for you to “Join a campaign” such as, “CSA Vote Yes.”

The object of that flyer was to communicate information and to encourage a large, representative voter turnout on April 21st, not, as I have steadfastly maintained, for the board or administration to lobby one way or the other.