Author	Message
Guest 2	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 10:09 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: Isn't Governor Christie promised some retoration of aid if teachers agree to a wage freeze? So, it would not only be the savings in pay, but additional aid that we would gain.... The town will only get back the amount that the state would have paid on Medicaire and Social Security on the foregone raise amount. So they would only give back something like 7% of the savings on the raises. So if we saved 25K (note that the teachers gave back salary and tuition reimbursement - so the amount referenced above in teacher give backs is not ALL salary -- only partly) the state would only give us back approx. 3% of that -- not much to write home about.
Guest 2	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 10:05 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? French is only being cut in grades 1 & 2. Plenty of French left.
mrfunone	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 9:39 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Why are they cutting French? SACRE BLEU! All my kids take French, and they love the teacher. How may we fight to keep French in our school?
Guest	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 10:12 am EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? 3.26 CENT TAX RATE INCREASE •Proposed Tax Rate General Fund 88.84 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation $5,485.25 per year to the average taxpayer (assessed at $617,439) •Proposed Tax Rate Debt Service Fund 5.38 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation $331.90 per year to the average taxpayer (assessed at $617,439) •Proposed Overall Tax Rate 94.21 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation $5,817.15 per year to the average taxpayer (assessed at $617,439) Tax Impact of Proposed Budget Assessed-----2010-11 Value----------Tax Increase $ 300,000----------$ 97.87 $ 500,000----------$ 163.12 $ 617,254----------$ 201.50 $ 700,000----------$ 228.37 $ 900,000----------$ 293.62 http://portal.cranburyschool.org/boe/Budget%20Info/2010_11_PowerPoint.pdf
Guest	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 8:28 am EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Isn't Governor Christie promised some retoration of aid if teachers agree to a wage freeze? So, it would not only be the savings in pay, but additional aid that we would gain....
Guest	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 7:20 am EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: Guest wrote: Guest 2 wrote: Salary freeze would only ameliorate some cuts - not eliminate them. The amt. to be cut is BIG - a lot bigger than the raises. Don't kid yourself, the total cost of a 2% salary increase across the board for both teachers and admin + the increase to the health care cost (which is paid by the district) amounts to a pretty significant cost to the district. This savings may not be able to eliminate all cuts, but would certainly lessen the impact on students. Thus far, a majority of the budget cuts directly impact students ie. teacher cuts, programs, and services. Admin & teacher salary freezes would not directly impact students, which I believe is the overall all goal, to minimize the impact on students. Ask yourself...why should a administrator or teacher be entitled to a raise in a year when there is a tremendous financial burden on the district? You were obviously not at the meeting. The teachers gave back half of their raise plus all there education reimbursements only yielded around a hundred thousand dollars. A couple of things. 1) Salaries do not affect the health insurance costs those are fixed. I am not sure whether you meant that they increase or not if a person is given a raise. 2) What logic is Only Yielded around a hundred thousand dollars. If we assume half of that was raises then that means that a salary freeze would add another 50k. That means we could save a program or two or a teacher or two.
Guest	Posted: Thu, Apr 1 2010, 12:05 am EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: Guest 2 wrote: Salary freeze would only ameliorate some cuts - not eliminate them. The amt. to be cut is BIG - a lot bigger than the raises. Don't kid yourself, the total cost of a 2% salary increase across the board for both teachers and admin + the increase to the health care cost (which is paid by the district) amounts to a pretty significant cost to the district. This savings may not be able to eliminate all cuts, but would certainly lessen the impact on students. Thus far, a majority of the budget cuts directly impact students ie. teacher cuts, programs, and services. Admin & teacher salary freezes would not directly impact students, which I believe is the overall all goal, to minimize the impact on students. Ask yourself...why should a administrator or teacher be entitled to a raise in a year when there is a tremendous financial burden on the district? You were obviously not at the meeting. The teachers gave back half of their raise plus all there education reimbursements only yielded around a hundred thousand dollars.
Guest	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 11:04 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest 2 wrote: Salary freeze would only ameliorate some cuts - not eliminate them. The amt. to be cut is BIG - a lot bigger than the raises. Don't kid yourself, the total cost of a 2% salary increase across the board for both teachers and admin + the increase to the health care cost (which is paid by the district) amounts to a pretty significant cost to the district. This savings may not be able to eliminate all cuts, but would certainly lessen the impact on students. Thus far, a majority of the budget cuts directly impact students ie. teacher cuts, programs, and services. Admin & teacher salary freezes would not directly impact students, which I believe is the overall all goal, to minimize the impact on students. Ask yourself...why should a administrator or teacher be entitled to a raise in a year when there is a tremendous financial burden on the district?
Guest	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 8:35 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: I do not think that there will be a salary freeze. If there was which programs would it be applied towards saving? What is important to me may not be important to others. Also if there is a salary freeze now, then a few years down the road when things improve (fingers crossed) do the teachers get double raises to make up for it? Why should they get double the raises? I got nothing last year and 1% this year. Should I expect triple if things improve next year?
Guest	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 7:55 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? I do not think that there will be a salary freeze. If there was which programs would it be applied towards saving? What is important to me may not be important to others. Also if there is a salary freeze now, then a few years down the road when things improve (fingers crossed) do the teachers get double raises to make up for it?
Guest	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 5:53 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? I guess that is the question, how much would a salary freeze protect. Would it save the late bus? Would it save a teacher?
Guest 2	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 5:17 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Salary freeze would only ameliorate some cuts - not eliminate them. The amt. to be cut is BIG - a lot bigger than the raises.
Guest	Posted: Wed, Mar 31 2010, 10:57 am EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Just curious, if there were a salary freeze, would we have to cut anything?
Guest	Posted: Mon, Mar 29 2010, 10:12 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: I live in Cranbury. I moved here for the school. My household income is 400k(approx). I work in finance. I think it is fair to say that most of my immediate neighbors make around the same amount of money as I do. I have no problem paying teachers and cops. The salaries that they make is far less than what I make. Even with their pensions and benefits. A teacher with a masters degree making 80k after 15 years is not overpaid, even with a pension and health insurance. We have to be realistic. There needs to be some incentive for good people to go into teaching and other neccesary public service jobs like police. Good for you, but I can tell you it will take me a few years to make that. My retired neighbor will never make that, nor will the mom next to me. I think we need to consider all residents and the impact of taxes on all residents, not just those who make a ton and then feel that they want this and that because they can afford it. It has nothing to do with are teachers paid high or low. A Cranbury teacher makes more than a Trenton teacher, but I would say the teacher in Trenton has a harder job. However, I think we attract better quality teachers and thus reward their quality.
Guest	Posted: Mon, Mar 29 2010, 10:07 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: I live in Cranbury. I moved here for the school. My household income is 400k(approx). I work in finance. I think it is fair to say that most of my immediate neighbors make around the same amount of money as I do. I have no problem paying teachers and cops. The salaries that they make is far less than what I make. Even with their pensions and benefits. A teacher with a masters degree making 80k after 15 years is not overpaid, even with a pension and health insurance. We have to be realistic. There needs to be some incentive for good people to go into teaching and other neccesary public service jobs like police. Being reasonable will get you nowhere on this board.
Guest3	Posted: Mon, Mar 29 2010, 9:56 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: What happened at the school budget hearing last night? Guest wrote: I'd rather a tax increase than private school. Are they cutting the PTO clubs that we pay for or just the free ones? They are not cutting the PTO clubs that we pay for.