    
fringe
Citizen
Username: Fringe
Post Number: 293
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, February 13, 2004 - 8:07 am: |     |
The following appeared in the News-record on 12 Feb 2004. It is reprinted here on request.
Last week in several venues, including this paper, South Orange Maplewood School District Superintendent Peter Horoschack and the school board, led by finance committee members Latz and Frazier, began in earnest the campaign to sell the largest budget in SOMSD history including the probability of the largest Separate Proposal.
In his N-R letter, Dr. Horoschack invited public input and a "community dialogue on what we value most." Following last year's widely denounced budget process, several groups, including the Board of School Estimate, made similar suggestions with recommendations the process begin no later than September 2003. Now we are asked to cram this all-important discussion into three general meetings over a 30 day period all based upon the predetermined underlying assumption of maintaining the status quo.
Dr. Horoschack and committee chairman Latz have coined the phrase "Preserving what we have" (plus $1.4 million in new spending) to describe the initial proposal that ends with a slide entitled "An Opportunity to Build Consensus". In the same week Messrs. Latz and Frazier delivered a seemingly inconsistent message by acknowledging that the projected property tax hike to maintain all existing programs, services and central office staff will cause financial difficulty for many district property owners and result in the departure of a number of current community members. That is unless it is the consensus (i.e. much more than a majority) that maintaining educational status quo is more important than uprooting more residents.
Because of these high stakes, the administration and BOE bear an extraordinary burden of proof in demonstrating that the programs, services and staff are the necessities claimed, AND that they are producing significant educational results for all children. That will be very difficult if independent, objective measures from the last five years corresponding to Dr. Horoschack's tenure are used.
Yes, there is evidence suggesting that the shrinking white enrollment at Columbia High School is performing well in comparison with peer districts and this may have been the case before disaggregated scores were mandated. There is evidence that Maplewood Middle, but not South Orange Middle, eighth graders have also done well in comparison with other groups. But there is no evidence that many of the existing programs and services for which funding is sought have narrowed the racial achievement gap first confirmed in this district six months before Dr. Horoschack's arrival.
If the superintendent and committee chairman Latz are sincere and this is not simply another expectation-setting exercise designed to provide cover for yet another 7 percent tax hike, then the administration and BOE should publish proof of program proficiency in this paper and submit to questions in a public forum prior to a vote on the budget. They owe it to those that the high tax rate will force out.
JT Lamkin
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