It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the original budget increase was above the state mandated cap, so in effect, the BOE did NOTHING but comply with state regulations.

Did the BOE use their newly hired PR firm to disseminate this information to make it "appear" like they did something productive? If they did, complete waste of taxpayer $$$. And if they didn't, then what is the purpose of hiring a PR firm?

Thanks, Mark: It's also nice to voice an opinion and receive educated responses from people who can comprehend what they have read.

Thanks to the BOE for doing the right thing with hockey and gymnastics.
Now will someone finally acknowledge that the hockey expenses are on par with other sports at the high schools. Yes, the individual line item for hockey is significant. But the hockey parents pay $750 to participate, that is 60% of the ice fee.
They pay 100% of the equipment cost, 100% of the uniform cost, 100% of the junior varsity program. We have no control over the coaches stipend. With a few exceptions, the 2 teams play most of their home and away games at the Wayne rink, so there is limited busing to away games.
You can not look only at the hockey line item cost. The rink is responsible for the cost of security, lighting, janitorial service, insurance, etc. Who do you think pays for those expenses at a football game, or wrestling match, or basketball game. Those expenses are included in other budget line items, not the "individual sports" line item as it is with hockey. Compare apples to apples! You can not single out one sport year after year, without looking at the real cost.

Have pay to play for all sports

I have not looked at the school budget, but my guess is that all the unnecessary budgetary fat lies in excessive administrative positions and additional benefits that go along with it. I cannot believe how many layers of administration have been added to these schools in the past 20 years. Contrary to virtually every other sector of the economy, government and schools are doing less with more instead of the other way around. To me, class size and efficient teaching of relevant subject-matter is what counts the most. Certain things like traditional high school sports and other activities are an American rite of passage and should be preserved if at all possible. Instead of debating the merits of cutting one program or another, if programs have enough traction to be useful and desirable, then budget cuts should be across the board and everyone share the pain equally. As for sports, the high schools have added a number of them in the past 20 years. I guess that's good in some ways, although it's a shame to dilute the talent that might otherwise go into the traditional sports. Maybe there are some areas where interest has waned so significantly that items should be cut. I don't know enough about the schools to engage in a debate with parents who are going through it now. However, class-size and quality of education is paramount. Somehow it just seems like there are too many other distractions in the Wayne school system budget.

I didn't mention that I am pro-teacher, but I am also a proponent of the school reforms that Bloomberg started in NYC and that Gov. Christie is trying to instill here. I don't really care for Christie's tactics but it is time to hold public employees, not just teachers, as accountable as the rest of us to the realities of the economy when it comes to retirement and health care. The conversation has somehow been muddied by the ancillary stuff, but health care, pensions and teacher quality/accountability are the things that really matter. The teacher's union has enjoyed a long rung of unmitigated power in this state, much like the police union. Both unions have negotiated more and more favorable contracts over the decades, to the point of being untenable for municipalities to bear. No one seems to want to take on the cops but there is a LOT of fat in that budget as well. As for teacher accountability, I can count on one hand how many really great teachers I had in school. Most were adequate (just like in the work force) and some were terrible but protected by tenure. It seems to me the biggest issue in the breakdown of our public schools is the breakdown of the nuclear family. These days, it seems a lot of parents are more involved with their kids educations, but hasn't really been the case since at least the 1970s. With both parents working in most cases and all of the entertainment around, most kids just aren't getting the structure and mental stimulation at home.

leanbean, I agree. Pay to Play for all sports.

I like sports too. But full day kindergarten should come before ANY sports. We are one of the shrinking minority of schools with antiquated half day kindergarten. We start our kids off behind and wonder why they stay behind.

Notice that they didn't mention the total overall budget, probably in the area of 138-140 million. Could you believe that? 140 MILLION?

Tell me again why we charged for athletics and exta curricular activities and after one year it was stopped? I understood that it brought in a good amount however managing it was difficult. How hard could it be. Many other towns charge. I know Ridgewood does....not a bad district to be in line with if you ask me.

@Al...$140 million is a lot of money. But how do we know it is too high or too low? What is the right number? Wayne actually spends less per student than the state average. $140 million is a big number...but Wayne is a HUGE district (it is the largest school district in the state aside from the large urban districts like Newark and Trenton). Given the fact that we spend LESS than the state average per student...why do you think the budget is crazy? Our taxes arent so high because we spend outrageous amounts per student. Our taxes are so high because our state government gives us way less than other districts our size so the burden falls solely on us.

My source on per pupil spending is the last available District Report Card I can find for the 2009-2010 school year. If someone has more updated info, I would love to see it:

http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc10/dataselect.php?datasection[4]=financial&c=31&d=5570&s=055&lt=W&st=A

These things are always a tough call. All of our property taxes are high, probably too high. However most of us chose to live here because the school system was very good, and you don't get something for nothing. I always voted for the budget's in the past because of my kids, and decided to bite the bullet.

Truth is I would like to see more ratables in town. I would love to see the Mayor and the town administration get more involved getting some more businesses here. The old State Farm building - empty, The lot where the old IHOP is - empty (actually I wish it was) , most of Wayne Hills Mall - empty. It certainly would be helpful to offset some of our property taxes and bring some businesses here.

There was talk several years ago of making the Preakness/Wayne Hills area into a "Downtown" area akin to what Montclair has, not sure where that went but that would be a homerun.

I, for one, would LOVE if the eyesore that is the Wayne Hills Mall area was turned into some sort of pedestrian "downtown" area with local shops and businesses.

475 Valley Rd and Nellis BOE are the real eyesores

The cuts the BOE are making to curriculum and supervision will be major steps BACK for this district. Shouldn't we be trying to move forward- and closer? Not backward and emulating districts like Paterson?! If you cut graduation requirements and have freshman in a 1/2 year study- what will the student's final transcripts look like? How will they compare to other students when applying for colleges? Cutting the budget to save tax payers $25 is very short-sighted. Think of this when your property values drop and you have to send your children to private school!

They'll destroy the district and our property values. Be aware of the following:
1. They reduced graduation credits from 135 to125. Why we need to be scared: To keep our school standings we must be competitive. To be competitive we need to have a solid special education program and a solid honors/AP program. The less credits, the less opportunity students have to take AP courses or participate in programs to aid learning disabilities. Our top scores for NJ will plummet. Kids will be in more studies and have less actual learning time during the day. That too will force our scores down.
2. Mandate 1/2 yr study hall at WV and WH for Gr 9 with 1/2 Finance. Why we need to be scared and why we need to actively fight against this: These study halls will have a high student teacher ratio. Your child will not be studying. These studies will be in a cafeteria which will mean your child will have the equivalent of another lunch period. How much studying did you do in your lunch period?

Again, to be competitive we need students in ACTUAL classes. The more learning time, the better our scores. Finally, our PROPERTY VALUES WILL GO DOWN because they are directly tied to the school district. Ask people in the 80s in Clifton about the district. They'll say, "One of the best." Then they did EXACTLY what they are doing in Wayne. Ask Clifton in 2012 about the district. They will say horrible. It didn't take long. By the 90s, Clifton schools were out of their top district ranking.

Your tax savings will be about 11 dollars. I think our children and our property values deserve that. If this stays, the sign on my lawn goes up next week. Anyone want to buy a house?

We need ratables but the Mayor, Council & the NIMBYs are not friendly in this town at all. The Owner of Wayne Hills Mall has gotten tax relief from Wayne several times. He keeps this property vacant so he can claim a loss against his properties that do well. The Township should get tough with this property and also ease up on buisness that wants to relocate here. The building dept with all its permits and regulations even hurts the homeowners. Wayne is the epitimy of over regulation. No one wants to deal with this town if they don't have to. The BOE could have cut alot more. This is all a smoke and mirrors game and now they have a PR firm to polish thier propaganda.

This is NOT a smoke and mirrors game. It is CHILDREN. We spend LESS than the average per child in our district. Honors classes have 29 students. Our electives are being cut. Now we are going to an 8 period day. Watch your property values dive Pad. Then you will wish you paid that extra 11 dollars to save our schools. Trust me. I am selling now while my house is still worth something. Enjoy your worthless plot of land and your "cheap" taxes. I hope it will be worth it.

Wow.....looks like some of these screen names are employed by the PR firm. Pretty expensive stuff here. The money spent for spin.

Al ~ how much do you think a child's education should be worth? And what are your credentials for figuring out that cost? How long have you been both in education and finance? How many children do you have? Why won't you invest in this town and the children of this town? Stop killing my school system and my property values over a couple of bucks a month. What they are cutting is devastating to our standings as one of the top schools in the state. Class size is huge. Educational courses are being cut. But go on... keep complaining. Watch this wonderful district fall along with your house values.

life long wayne gal.....What my credentials are, how long I've been in finance and how many children I have are none of your business. My professional experience, ( 39 years) and what I do give me more than adequate experience and knowledge about what I say in these posts. I've served in public office and was in charge of developing municipal budgets as well as being part of a committee to negotiate contracts with the various municipal unions. My experience speaks for itself! You want to be gullable, then so be it? Why don't ask your BOE trustees why they're not posting the real tax increase which includes the debt service? Because they're spinning tthis info that gullable people believe. Let them show you the PR contract and see if $2500/month is the real number. Let me ask you a question! Are you an employee of the new PR firm just hired? It wouldn't surprise me as this Board wouldn't stop at anything to stoop that low!

Way to go Al. Thanks for the debt service input. You just reminded me.

Aim Here & long life Wayne gal,
I believe about 107 million of this budget is for salary, benefits & pension cost so as you see the cost for all the rest isn't that much. If its only eleven dollars why don't you pay it for me. My taxes are over 16k and every year my school portion rises much more then $11.00. Yes it is a smoke and mirrors game for sure. They say it lowers the tax increase to $127.00 so where is that $11.00? They always say the average home but thier isn't that many average homes in Wayne. As far as per pupil cost ours is pretty high. The waste, the cost of all these new BS programs and the top heavy amount of six figure salaries has to go. We need less administrators and people on special programs etc. These programs come and go. Do we really need the Food Police for our children? A PR firm to handle the propaganda. The BOE has been rife with scandals and problems. Hey while you are at it why don't you find out how much our last two Super's left with in thier pockets? The last one here not even a year. They said he retired funny he is working right down the hill, so this was just more BOE BS.How about the new Super hiring his friend from Paterson at a six figure salary? OPEN YOUR EYES! For the children is just more propaganda they use to get thier budget passed.

Average cost per student here in Wayne=$16,500. Cost to send your child to William Paterson (tuition only, including fees)=$11464.

Why are we hiring anyone from the Paterson school system if we are to be taken seriously as a top 20% school system?

Wyckoff school system just approved their school budget. The average home in Wyckoff is valued at $811,800 which is well above the Wayne average value. Their increase.......$56, and that's on a home valued at $811,800. Now I know some smart ass is going to say...Well why don't you move to Wyckoff then? If I could afford to live in Wyckoff, do you think I'd be living in Wayne?

Al - I'm scraping together the funds to live in Wyckoff. It's a matter of two years max for me. A few years ago, the premium to live in Wyckoff in a similar house was about 20-25% above Wayne. Now, that gap has shrunk to about 10-15%. Wyckoff's takes are roughly 60% of what Wayne is, so that makes up a decent chunk of the gap on a monthly mortgage payment. When you factor the property tax savings in, you are running just about 10% higher in Wyckoff than Wayne. Wyckoff also smartly banded together with Franklin Lakes and Oakland for their high school system. Ramapo and Indian Hills are ranked considerably higher than Wayne, which unfortunately has slipped to about #41 for WH and #60 for WV (totally unacceptable). Basically, a better school system for about half the tax money. Obviously, the town's appeal includes that it has retained some small-town character and a leafy, safe suburban character. I loved Wayne, but between the taxes and the soul-selling, I think I am going to throw in the towel.

Wayne's World....good for you! Hope you get to Wyckoff in two years or so.It's a real nice town and their school system has a wonderful reputation as being a very fine system.

Al,

You say our high schools dropped in the state ratings. Didn't they move UP?

The schools were historically ranked as high as the mid-teens (going back about 20 yrs or so), and, more recently, firmly in the low 30's. In recent years, according to NJ Monthly magazine, the rankings have slipped considerably. While WH rebounded a bit to get back to 41 in the last poll, WV fell to 61st (out of 320 or so) public schools in the state. Rankings only have so much utility but I would expect it to be unacceptable for Wayne, for the money spent and the tradition it has, to have either of its high schools ranked below #32. We MUST be in the top 10% of the state if we want our town to continue to enjoy its relative prestige and property values. Property values are tied to the perceived prestige of a town. There are three main components: 1) a direct train line into Manhattan (which we do not have); 2) excellent schools and 3) a downtown shopping district. Tax rates are affected by amount of business revenue the tax collector gets, but residential property values are driven primarily by those three things. It's why Ridgewood, Chatham, Summit, Westfield, Red Bank, Princeton, etc. have such high values - they have all three criteria. We can't do much about our crappy train line. With some innovation, we CAN create a walkable downtown concept. We DO control the school system however, and it's a shame about the decline. It's still good, but I wouldn't consider it top-tier at this point.

Well...all these screen names spouting the same rhetoric in the same manner. If not the PR firm, then the same group who used the same tactics prior to the last election. Free speech... Free Press...Not so free BOE and Council

Al

See the initial article when the board approved the preliminary budget.

Couple of things your agenda misses Al and Justice and Pad - Wycoff is one town of 4 towns in one district. You cannot compare Wayne and Wycoff. Wycoff shares much of its resources with other towns which lessens the taxes.
Al - You spout your opinion as fact. I would like to know if you have any credentials to back this up. Obviously, you do not have any educational experience. To be frank, I would like to know if you are a parent and what stake you have in the schools district because it seems like you do not care what happens to the schools as long as your bottom line is not touched. Yes, the PR company isn't what I want but do not punish the students by cutting programs because you are angry with a PR company. Do not devastate my property values because you are angry with someone on the Board. This district does more with less money than the average district. You can say we spend too much per kid but that does not make it true... especially when the facts show the exact opposite. We spend less. Look at the report card. Our teachers and administration does more with less and do it well. Invest in the schools because that is what is saving your property values and our future generation.

Justice - I am not from the PR company. I don't like them. I think they are a waste of money but I am NOT going to make my children suffer because of a PR company. Stop cutting off your nose. And your "justice" seems to only serve you and two other miserable people on this sounding board. I am disgusted that you would sacrifice the school district and your property values for a lousy couple of bucks.

More then 105 million go for salaries, pensions and benefits. That leaves about 25 million for everything else. There are too many six figure administrators in this town. Positions are created for certain people and the last two Super's left with a fianancial windfall. The last one not even here a year. The BOE states he retired but funny he is working in a neighboring town. The BOE constantly lies to the taxpayers about what goe's on at Nellis Drive. We have a right to know just how much these two robber barons left with. If he decided to retire and break his contract he should have left with nothing. But the retirement story isn't the truth and the BOE won't tell the real story. This is what makes the taxpayer's irate. The new Super already brought in a friend for six figures and I know someone that she has offered a job to in Wayne. The Super Scam is nothing but friends taking care of thier friends and we are paying for it. There needs to be a full independant investigation of the Wayne BOE and its fianance's.

llwg ....NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.....you sound like someone from the outsourced companies that are located overseas...you don't understand the nuances of the English language and speak accordingly..you have STOLEN American jobs...I don't know who you are...I don't like you...stop personalizing all the comments and finally go play with yourself...

Wow.

Justice - It is funny because I was born in Wayne and I have lived here my whole life - well over 50 years. We must stop this back and forth. The fact is I assumed you were an angry man sitting behind a computer brewing conspiracy theories about how everyone is out to get him. Maybe I am wrong.

Pad and Al - many of the things you do not like are things that anger me too. However, I am not going to throw out teachers and programs because I do not like the salaries and positions of a few. I am not going to make the children suffer because I do not like a PR company. Again, do not cut off your nose.

The fact is salaries make up the bulk of MOST budgets for MOST operations, educational or otherwise. But if you want the best doctor, you pay him or her well. If you want the best lawyer, you shell out the big bucks. But if a teacher wants to be paid for his or her services, we scream that they do not love the children or they are getting too much. I want well educated, intelligent, motivated people working for my district. If I have to pay, I will pay.

Go to the board. Tell them to stop cutting programs. Tell them to stop increasing class sizes. Tell them to fire the PR company.

The few dollars you will save when you cut vital educational programs, teachers, and classes are NOT worth it.