Union takes off the Gloves with School Board Members; Councils may Preempt the Board

In a Facebook entry which was still on the Web site of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association at the time of this writing, union leaders called for the removal of any Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education member who will not vote for walling off the citizens of Bridgewater and Raritan from voting on the school budget.

BREA President Steve Beatty addresses the Board of
Education on January 24th, 2012.  (Bergeron Image)

New legislation which recently passed the New Jersey Legislature and which was signed into law by Governor Chris Christie permits locally elected officials (either school boards or municipal governments) to disfranchise voters by taking away their current ability to vote on the school budget which is far and away the largest single component of our property taxes.

The local education union, the BREA, seems adamant in its support for stripping away those budget voting rights. The full text of its statement appears below as written.  The emphasis and paragraphing are mine:


“On February 14, the BOE will debate and likely vote on whether or not to exercise their option to move the budget and BOE member vote to November.

And as you know, if the budget is at or below the 2% statutory cap, it automatically passes. Right now the BR BOE is divided on the issue with a few undecided that will swing the vote one way or the other.
 
The only argument that matters is that exercising this option is what is best for the kids.
 
Ensuring that the budget will pass and not be subjected to further millions in cuts at the hands of the town councils has to be every board members preeminent concern;
 
if not, they should be removed for caring more about their political survival than the students they have pledged to support.
 
Please help spread the word to every member living in the district and your friends and family members who reside in the township or borough. Be there on the 14th and make your voice heard! And don't forget to wear red...after all it is Valentine's day!”

However, the School Board may never get a chance to discuss this further, let alone vote upon it.

Before anything else is permitted to happen at the Wade Building where the School Board meets, BREA leadership may have to turn its attention from the BR-BOE to the municipal councils of Bridgewater Township and Raritan Borough instead.

Those groups may be preparing to preempt any possible action by the School Board by acting on this matter well before the Board of Ed. even gets a chance to convene on February 14^th.

The Bridgewater Township Council already has this item on its agenda for discussion on Thursday evening, February 2^nd at 7:30 PM, and could take a definitive vote at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, February 6^th.

Writing for the Somerset Messenger-Gazette, Warren Cooper quotes Raritan Borough’s mayor as saying that “While [Raritan Borough] council members didn’t take a formal vote, Mayor Jo-Ann Liptak said, the council was unanimous in its opinion that the elections move.”

Cooper’s article also indicates that Liptak “had spoken with two members of the Bridgewater Council who favored the move as well.”

Looks like this entire matter has already become a done deal, even before the voters of Bridgewater and Raritan have had a chance to become acquainted with and to understand the nature and long term implications of this new law.

It amazes me to observe how quickly and how easily it has become to disfranchise all citizens of our two municipalities by stripping them of their voting privilege on the school budget.

But it surprises me somewhat that the BREA has gone public with its political targeting of School Board members who will not toe the line.  Typically, this organization likes to stay below the radar and to exert its influence in other ways.

Board Members Patrick Breslin and Cindy Cullen, both of whom expressed strong opposition to this proposal at the School Board’s discussion on January 24^th may be high on the list of potential targets for removal at the next election.

The same applies to Jill Gladstone who also spoke with conviction against this change.  She is not up for re-election this year.  But some people keep score.

This is not an unfounded assumption.  Just review the BREA’s Facebook entry above, with emphasis upon the phrase which I now excerpt: “. . . they should be removed.”

By tradition, school board elections are supposed to be insulated from politics. 

This current move by the BREA  is an open threat of some very heavy, targeted politicking.

Thanks for reading.  Stay well.