Lies, damn lies and Union negotiations

If you showed up to the council meeting last night to voice your opinion, you may well have been one of the scores turned away. Due to the overwhelming presence of the Fire Department, the meeting was initially moved to the library. After the fire marshals informed Mayor Feit that the library was over capacity, many people residents were told to leave the building. For the record, I was one of the people told to leave by the Fire Department, although I later returned to stand outside the door.

The Council knew well in advance that turnout would be high and should have sought a larger venue as had been done in the past. Unfortunately due to notice requirements it wasn't possible to move at the time. Thank you to the poster who reminded me of that.

Tensions were running high and there was no shortage of rhetoric to be found from the many speakers, starting with Mr. Hunter, president of Local 242 FMBA Superior Officers Union who proceeded to blast the council and manager. His allegations, ranging from emails from the interim manager instead of face to face negotiation to non-specific budget proposals were adequately fielded by interim manager Greg Fehrenbach, although by that time hardly any fire department personnel had stuck around to hear it.

Council member Hameeduddin urged those in attendance to raise the level of discourse - an admonition that would have served everyone better had it been prior to the majority of the room saying their piece and leaving before a response could be uttered.

A former candidate for council spoke and embodied the faulty reasoning that the council would do well to ignore. To paraphrase her comments: I'm pro union and once a union gives in a little, they keep on giving. So therefore, the town shouldn't fire anyone.

I have nothing but good things to say about our Fire Department. I have found them to be professional, prompt and effective no matter how large or small the task. The members of the Council also live in this town and know their value as well and I firmly believe would never jeopardize the safety of Teaneck's citizens. They need to ignore the rhetoric and look at the facts. What would be the ramifications of cuts to the Fire Department? Would response times really be increased? [It would be nice if they'd share that information with the public as well].

While he wasn't able to comment as to the particulars of the negotiations so far, Mr. Fehrenbach mentioned that the proposals from the Fire Department included deferred payments which would simply be exacerbating the fiscal crisis and passing the problem on to next year's council. Mr. Gussen also stated that the council would not permit schemes such as those currently on the table in Hackensack in which pension payments are deferred until next year.

and then there was the School Budget

As for the school budget, the town is, as Mr. Fehrenbach stated last night, between a rock and a hard place. Due to the 4% cap limiting the township from raising our taxes and the reduction of Federal Funding coming into the school district, cuts need to be found and the voters decided that $78 million is not the correct number for the budget.

It should go without saying that firing teachers is never popular, but as heartfelt as some of the pleas were that it's always detrimental to lay any classroom teachers off, the facts say otherwise. As was mentioned previously by Alan Sohn, the school board is projecting the number of regular full-time students on the rolls will drop to 3,408 in October 2009, from 3,617 in 2008 and 3,705 in 2007.

That would translate (at 20 kids per class) to over 10 teachers and that's before we even consider raising class sizes. And the bottom line is that the situation is only going to get worse. Birth rates tend to follow economic trends and people have started to have fewer children than in years past. The Teaneck public school system has already started to see the trend manifest itself in reduced enrollment and when that trend meets the current (dare I say the word) depression the further reduction will lead to a large number of teachers being laid off. Holding that opinion doesn't make one anti-education or anti-teacher, it's just math!

As mentioned on TeaneckSchools.org, "On March 4, the Administration presented a preliminary (Part 1) Personnel Budget Overview for 2009 - 2010 which included the potential for a reduction in force of 15 teaching staff members in grades 1 - 6." Where did the 15 teacher reduction go in the final budget?

With administrators in every subject, this would appear to be a place to start saving. A friend with kids in the public schools mentioned that she suspects that the reason the school system is so top heavy is that this is the way the Board deals with older teachers who have become dead weight - they upstream them out of the classroom. A spate of retirements is expected in the next few years which should help, but we need action now. I hope that the council makes wise decisions that are fiscally responsible even if they are unpopular.

Mock Trial Again Denies Constitutional Rights

This message was passed on for discussion. For background, Teaneck's Torah Academny of Bergen County won the 2005 New Jersey State Champions and received a lot of press coverage both in the Tri-State Region as well as overseas for its efforts to gain accommodations to participate in the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina without being required to compete during the Sabbath. An alternative competition called the American Mock Trial Invitational was created in 2006 by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers to address concerns of religious commitments by participating school teams by scheduling the competition during the middle of the week.

Attached below is an email from someone who asked that the following letter be passed on:

Alan Sohn

The national high school mock trial organization once again has denied students the right to compete in the annual championship solely based on their religious practices. In 2005, after Teaneck's own Torah Academy of Bergen (TABC) was given a minimal accommodation at the national championships, the organization resolved never again to accommodate Saturday Sabbath observers. Representative Rothman and 51 others in Congress voted to condemn the national organization and New Jersey and North Carolina have been boycotting the national competition. Now, Maimonides School of Brookline Massachusetts has been shut out of competing because its students are Saturday Sabbath observers. It is time for all principled people to join voices with good people from all walks of life who have been objecting to blatant discrimination from an organization and school activity meant to educate about the most basic and fundamental principles of our constitutional democracy.

Ten years ago, TABC placed third in the state's high school mock trial competition. Already back then in 1999, the New Jersey bar recognized that the national competition would be problematic for Jewish schools because the championship was held on a Saturday. New Jersey asked the national organization, known as the National High School Mock Trial Championship (NHSMTC) to alter the schedule and accommodate Sabbath observers. NHSMTC refused. When TABC won New Jersey's championship in 2005, the school and state officials asked for a simple accommodation whereby two of over a hundred trials would be held on Friday instead of Saturday. NHSMTC would not budge and refused the request. That year the championship was being held in North Carolina and when North Carolina officials got wind of NHSMTC's stubborn stance, they insisted on the accommodation. The story of TABC's challenge can be viewed on the following you tube video clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vrFRjU-uZs

NHSMTC responded by adopting a resolution that it would never again accommodate Saturday Sabbath observers. It did so even though the accommodation did not affect the competition. Various members of the NHSMTC board resigned and the states of New Jersey and North Carolina withdrew from NHSMTC and began an alternative competition that holds its championship during the week rather than on a weekend. Today no New Jersey or North Carolina school participates in the NHSMTC annual championship. The Congress of the United States has condemned NHSMTC and urged accommodation for Sabbath observers. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-25 The congressional hearing on this subject can be viewed on CSPAN. http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8111188

Now, the Maimonides High School of Brookline Massachusetts has won the 2009 Massachusetts mock trial championship and is slated to represent that state at the NHSMTC competition to be held in Atlanta Georgia on May 8-9. http://www.gabar.org/nhsmtc/ The event is being sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the Georgia state bar and actual Georgia judges and Georgia courtrooms will be used for the trials. Maimonides asked the NHSMTC to accommodate its team the same way TABC was accommodated in 2005. The NHSMTC board refused, citing its resolution not to alter schedules for Sabbath observers. The Anti Defamation League has written to the NHSMTC objecting to the failure to provide a religious accommodation. The Attorney General of Georgia has also expressed his disappointment with the NHSMTC. Noted civil rights lawyers Nathan and Alyza Lewin are representing some of the Maimonides' students and their parents and have asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation of the NHSMTC. Both the ADL and Attorney General Baker's letters are attached. [NOTE: The letters described are not attached to this post - AS]

The competition is nearing. Now is the time to stand with the states of New Jersey and North Carolina and demand that NHSMTC (an organization that is supposed to be devoted to teaching about the values and ideas of our cherished United States Constitution) not engage in religious discrimination. Make your voices heard to Attorney General Baker in Georgia (tbaker@law.ga.gov) and to Mr. Jeff Bramlett (bramlett@bmelaw.com), respectfully asking that Georgia insist that the NHSMTC accommodate the Maimonides' students.

Some Thoughts on the Election

After thinking for a day about the results of the election, here are some scattered thoughts:

The Flaws of the Tenure System.   All this discussion about the flaws of the tenure system are conceptually interesting but eradication or modification of the tenure system is not a something  that can be solved on the local level, regardless of who is on the Board.  I don’t see the opportunity for immediate savings here. 

Savings on the Horizon?  I’ve been hearing that a spate of retirements are expected in the next few years.  This will probably provide some relief to the system over the medium term, also regardless of who is on the Board.

Class Size.  While I personally like the fact that classroom sizes rival those of private and charter schools, this is an area where adjustments can produce savings in the short term.  I have no idea what the optimum class size is.  When I was in school during the baby boom, the average class size was about 30 kids, which, I contend is too high, based on the amount of time I spent doodling on my sneakers without anybody noticing.  Someone, who is an expert on matters of educational efficacy, once told me that studies have found that kid is better off in a larger class with a better teacher than a smaller class with a lousy teacher.   Unfortunately, tinkering with class size does nothing to solve the problem of lousy teachers.  Luckily, in my experience, a vast majority of the teachers are quite good.  It would seem to me that the price for increased class sizes would be paid by lost junior level teaching positions and the possibility of the degradation of educational quality for the type of at-risk kids who need a lot of teacher face time. 

Too Many Administrators.  I’m not in the educational business so it’s hard for me to speak to the question of how many administrators are needed.  My sense is that this issue relates directly to the tenure problem and that if you can’t fire people, but they no longer have the stamina for class teaching, you have to do something with them.  Perhaps the anticipated retirements will help here.

Sharing of Services.  There appears be significant overlap between the youth-oriented services provided by the Board of Education and the Recreation Department.  Many of these services are already provided to residents on a fee basis, but I would look here for ways to eliminate duplicative offerings to reduce administrative overhead. 

A School Board Election Recap

It's always easy to make predictions with excellent explanations for why you're right, especially about the past. I correctly predicted first and last place, but I had considered theories under which any of the other 24 combinations of second through fifth could have played out.

The preliminary results of the April 21st School Board election, based on Tom Abbott's box score (which does not reflect absentee ballots and doesn't list the number of voters) shows some interesting results.

A Recap of the Box Score
Incumbent Gervonn Rice won re-election with 1,941 votes. Newcomer Herbert Burack was in second with 1,894 and incumbent Dr. David Diuguid also won re-election with 1,837. Falling short were Howard Rose with 1,769, Patricia King-Butler with 1,167 and Dr. Porfirio Rodriguez with 747.

First through fourth places were separated by only 172 votes, just over 4% of the vote (assuming that budget yeas plus neas equals total votes). Patricia King-Butler was well behind in fifth, 670 votes out of the money, while Dr. Porfirio Rodriguez was almost 1,100 votes behind. Howard Rose (note of disclosure, a candidate whom I supported) was 68 votes behind Dr. David Diuguid in fourth place.

Incumbents have struggled in recent years, with Barbara Ostroth unseated by newcomer Sebastian Rodriguez in 2007. While both incumbents won re-election this year, the pattern by which the longest-serving incumbent gets fewer votes was repeated, with Dr. Diuguid receiving about 100 fewer votes than top-vote-getter Gervonn Rice. Diuguid came in third, behind newcomer Herbert Burack

The Budget Fails
The budget, which had passed by 94 votes last year, failed by a margin of nearly 700 votes this year, about 57%-43%. The budget "passed" (more yeas than neas) in 14 of Teaneck's 21 election districts:

This year, the budget failed narrowly in Districts 1 (voting at Firehouse #3, failing by 7 votes) and 21 (at TJ Middle School, 8 votes short) and failed by wide margins at Districts 9 by a 2-1 margin (at BF Middle School, failing by 111 votes), 10 by a 4-1 margin (at Whittier, failing by 248 votes), 11 by an almost 10-1 margin (also at Whittier, by 358 votes), 12 by a 4-1 margin (at Temple Emeth, by 157 votes) and in 18 by almost 2-1 (at Teaneck High School, failing by 88 votes).

Interestingly, the budget failed in 8 of 21 districts last year, with the results the same in all districts but at much narrower margins, with the changes of passing in District 9 by 2 votes, and failing in 14 (voting at Bryant School) and 16 (at Presbyterian Church); The biggest margin of rejection in 2008 was in District 11, where the budget failed by an almost 4-1 margin, but by only 57 votes.

Turnout! Turnout! Turnout!
The biggest tale of the tape was the jump in turnout, from just under 9.8% last year to 15.8% this year. As in the old real estate adage, it was the location!, location!, location! of these votes that made the difference in both the Board of Ed and the budget vote.

While 14.3% of voters turned up in District 8 last year and 12.6% in District 3, only 6.9% of registered voters in District 11 bothered to vote last year, just percentage points ahead of the 6.8% in District 2, though oddball District 15 had minuscule turnout of 5.9%. The 399 voters who exercised their right to vote in the four West Englewood districts represented 8.2% of registered voters there. The Northeast's 469 voters in its four districts amounted to a turnout of 9.9%, just above the Township average.

The 2009 turnout increase saw almost 1,800 more people vote than the year before. While District 8 (last year's leader) saw turnout jump to 21.7% and district 3 increase to 15.3%, many districts saw little increase in voter turnout. District 1 had 8.7% last year, but only went up to 9.7% yesterday. Only 8.3% voted at District 2 this year, an increase of 26 voters from last year's near laggard value of 6.8%. The 101 people who turned out in District 11 last year at 6.9% of the eligible voters, soared to 446 voters at a 28.0% turnout. the 1,402 voters in West Englewood represented the addition of 1,000 voters and a turnout rate of 26.5%. triple the year before's percentage. The Northeast had 549 voters, an increase of 80 from 2008, and a turnout of 10.4%, half-a-point better than the 2008 level.

More than any other factor, it was turnout that told the story. If turnout rates were equal in all districts, Howard Rose is in, Herbert Burack is out and the budget passes.

Votes per Voter
While we were all given three votes to select members of the Board of Education, the average voter chose 2.32 votes per voter, with signs of possible bullet voting. Most districts were near the average, several much higher (one perhaps shocklingly so, though there is a perfectly reasonable explanation) and a few much lower.

By my calculations, every voter in District 13 (at Bryant) voted for exactly three candidates and those in District 14 (also Bryant) cast a staggering 3.15 votes per voter (likely due to many budget non-votes), District 2's voters (Firehouse #3) cast 2.94 votes per voter, District 17 (Rodda) cast 2.87, District 7 (Lowell) cast a ratio of 2.86, while 2.80 votes were cast by District 6's voters (at Classic Residence).

By contrast, voters in District 11 (Whittier) voted an estimated 1.66 votes per voter, while the ratio was 1.74 in District 10 (also Whittier).

The Candidates (in order of finish)
Gervonn Rice (1,941 votes) won partially by winning the most districts of all six candidates, and by coming in the money (ranked first, second or third) in 15 of the 21 districts. She won 8 districts outright, took second in 2 and came in third in 5. She came in fourth, her worst showing, in Districts 9, 10, 11, 12, 18 and 20, which closely track the districts that rejected the budget. Rice edged fellow incumbent Dr. David Diuguid in only 10 of 21 districts, losing by moderate margins where she lost but winning by significant edges in Districts 13, 14, 16 and 17, the primary districts in the Northeast, where she received support from 77.2% of the voters. In the four West Englewood districts (9 through 12), Rice received 19.5% of the voters.

Herbert Burack (1,894 votes) was this year's hare, winning the same six districts in which Rice came in fourth, but falling out of the money in all of the 15 other districts, including fourth place in 3, fifth place in another 3 and last in 9 districts. The districts where Burack had the least success were the Northeast districts 13, 14, 16 and 17, where he eked out only 8.6% of the votes, getting only eight votes in District 13 and just breaking into double digits in the other 3. West Englewood's four districts gave him 1,206 votes, representing 86.0% of the voters there and 63.6% of the votes he received township-wide.

Dr. David Diuguid (1,837 votes) played the role of the tortoise, winning re-election with a slow and steady approach. He was in the money in all but one district, winning three, coming second in six and third in another 11. He was out of the money only in District 15, where he was a single vote behind Howard Rose. Diuguid came in third in three of the Northeast's main districts and second in the fourth, all of which were won by Rice. In West Englewood, Dr. Diuguid came in third in all four districts, behind Howard Rose, winning 24.5% of the voters there.

Howard Rose (1,769 votes) fell just short, 68 votes behind Dr. Diuguid. He won three districts, 5 (American Legion), 6 (Classic Residence) and 8 (Lowell), all located south of Route 4. He came in second in eight districts (including all four in West Englewood) and third in another three. He was out of the money in seven districts, coming in fourth in six districts (including three of four in the Northeast) and fifth in one (the other Northeast district). Where Rose won, he didn't win by big enough margins to edge into a seat.

Patricia King-Butler (1,167) came in a distant fifth. She did not win any districts, coming second in Districts 13, 14, 15 and 16 and third in District 17. King-Butler came in fourth in six districts, fifth in nine and last in one. The bulk of her support was in the Northeast, where she received 34.9% of her overall votes in the four main districts, receiving 85% of Rice's votes in Districts 13 and 14, about 75% in District 16 and 60% of Rice's votes in 17. King-Butler came in a distant fifth in the four West Englewood districts, receiving only 12.3% of the 1,402 votes cast there.

Dr. Porfirio Rodriguez (747) was not a factor township-wide, but showed signs of support in small pockets of the community. Dr. Rodriguez started off fast, if you looked at results in district order, winning District 1 with 46 votes and a margin of 3, but didn't finish in the top three in any other district. Dr. Rodriguez finished fourth in three districts, fifth in six and last in eleven districts.

The Neighborhood Watch
For the sake of convenience, I will divide Teaneck into three "neighborhoods", all of which have some strong (or not so strong) common characteristics. West Englewood includes the four districts 9 through 12, north of Route 4 and west of the CSX tracks. The Northeast includes districts 13, 14, 16 and 17, which are also north of Route 4, but east of the tracks. The newly-coined moniker SoRoFo includes the 12 districts South of Route Four, and was conceived in a state of caffeine-fueled mania, after drinking about 290 of the 300 cups of iced coffee I bought at Dunkin' Donuts yesterday on the solemn occasion of Iced Coffee Day; The Espresso shots were probably a mistake and they were supposed to last at least a week or two. District 15, which covers the area around State Street oftened called "The Apartments" is an oddball district including a wide mix of more-transient residents who are far less likely than those of all other districts to be registered voters and (if registered) turn out to vote in numbers far smaller than other districts, leading to results that are rather muddled and tell little about trends. I will ignore the district in some calculations and lump it with the other four Northeast districts on other occasions.

To be continued (and edited) as time and data permit.... I will continue the recap today, adding absentee votes when they come in and getting the actual number of voters from the "tapes" at the Municipal Building. Let me know what your thoughts are so far and if there are any other stats we Wednesday Morning Quarterbacks may want to analyze.

Details on turnout (overall, by district and by "neighborhood") was added at 1:00 PM

Alan Sohn

Election Results

Rice: 1941
Burack: 1894
Diuguid: 1837

Howard Rose 1,769
Patricia King-Butler 1,167
Porfirio Rodriguez 747

Budget fails 2314 (57.4%) to 1718 (42.6%)

*** absentee votes have not yet been tallied

Why I am voting "no with an explanation" on the School Budget

Teaneck spends too much money without a decent return on its investment. Unless of course your student scholars are in the top quarter of their class.

Many in this forum have said that "it's important that you vote yes because schools need adequate budgets to educate our kids." The fact of the matter is that voting against the budget is NOT a question of whether or not an individual supports kids, education or schools, but whether you agree that $78 million is adequate.

A few facts:
1) The comparative spending guide says that Teaneck ranks higher than anyone in spending. Perhaps we are mismanaging our facilities.
2) The Board of Ed initially stated that they would cut 15 teaching jobs and then dropped that number down to 7. What happened to the other 8? The District is predicting at least 200 fewer students. At under 20 students per class, that's a minimum of 10 teachers, right?

I believe in classroom spending, but I question why there are administrators in EVERY SUBJECT? Why are our schools so top heavy?

When you step into the booth tomorrow there is one question you need to answer. Is $78 Million the right number? But unlike most elections when the results are an end game (a particular resolution is passed or defeated), voting no on the school budget allows you to explain why.

After the budget is defeated, you get to make your case to the Town Council. You get to tell them that you voted no, not because you want to gut the schools, but because you think that $78 million was the wrong number and it should be $77.5 or $58. You can tell them that they should remove a particular item from the budget or adjust the spending on another.

Basically, you get to vote "no with an explanation". Voting no on the budget isn't a disaster for the schools. A sub-committee of the town council has already been formed to meet with a sub-committee of the School Board in order to determine what changes (reductions) should be made to the budget before the Council sends it to Trenton for final approval.

I think that if the township HAD to do more with less it would find a way. I also think that they aren't going to try on their own. So tomorrow when I go into the booth, I will vote no with an explanation - and let the Council know exactly what that explanation was.

More Endorsements

While many in town agree that now is the time for the public sector to exercise fiscal restraint, two tired arguments get hauled out each year that only serve as a distraction:

Tired Argument 1: "Teaneck spends more per pupil than towns with higher NJASK scores."

Unless a candidate has the magic bullet that will permit Teaneck to reduce spending while at the same time matching the test scores of, say, Ridgewood or Tenafly, I don't understand why is it relevent to conflate spending and test scores or why Teaneck should continually be compared to other towns to which it is not comparable.

It is particularly galling to hear this complaint coming from candidates who:

1. have apparently never given any thought to ways to address the achievement gap, the key issue affecting test scores in Teaneck.
2. have not bothered to vote once in school board elections during the last five years.
3. admitted to not bothering to review the budget prior to attending candidate forums.
   

Tired Argument 2: "Private schools do it better for less money."

Based on all the banter on this and other blogs and numerous recent press articles, it would appear that even this article of faith may not, in fact, be true. Even if we could adjust for the major obvious difference that private schools can choose who they educate and can reject students who don't meet minimal standards of achievement, ability or behavior, the only way we will ever be able to fairly compare public and private schools would be:

1. for private schools to be completely open and transparent about their finances, and
   
2. for private school students to take the same standardized tests that public students are forced to take.

Until the above conditions are met, don't talk to be about private schools.

That said, my endorsements for school board are as follows:

Incumbents, David Diuguid and Gervonn Romney Rice have proven prudent and worthy stewards of our children's educations. They have both demontrated a vital responsiveness not only to questions of fiscal accountability but also to the equally crucial issue of educational accountability. I have nothing else to add to Alan Sohn's fine recommendation of Howard Rose, except to say that if you want evidence of Howard's fiscal prudence, take a look at his tiny homemade lawn signs. This man is not a profligate spender.

An Endorsement and an Invitation

I am supporting the candidacy of Howard Rose for a seat on the Teaneck Board of Education, and I invite you to meet Howard at my home today, Sunday, April 19th at 7:00 PM and to vote for him on Election Day, Tuesday, April 21st, when the polls will be open from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

Community service is provided in Teaneck by a relatively small number of people who devote long hours to help make our township a better place. For years I have seen one person stand out among those who are most actively involved. Howard Rose is a Cedar Lane business owner. He is a five-year member on the Teaneck Planning Board, providing guidance, experience and knowledge in dealing with the requests that come before the board. He had been a 10-year member, and served for two years as Chairman, of the Cedar Lane Special Improvement District working with our local businesses. He has been a volunteer and sponsor of the Teaneck Film Festival and is a Board Member of Teaneck Comes Together, a group that organizes activities for students at Teaneck High School and elsewhere.

I have worked together with Howard during his three years on the Teaneck Financial Advisory Board and seen his diligent efforts in making careful recommendations to balance services and control spending for our municipality. He has been one of the too few individuals from the public to consistently attend and participate in the Teaneck Public School budget meetings over the past few years and would bring his prior professional background of 25 years of fiscal experience in educational settings to the Board of Education.

Howard's goal of "academic excellence" and "fiscal responsibility" is to provide a quality education for our children and a cost-conscious eye on expenditures, and he has the knowledge, background and temperament needed to make this happen.

The bulk of this letter was published in the most recent issue of the Suburbanite. As well as another letter from Councilmember Adam Gussen, there were a number of unpublished letters posted to the paper's web site (see here), with messages of support for Howard from former Board of Education Trustees Janet Abbott and Tasha Morton, as well as kind words from former Council candidate Audra Jackson. Former board member Ned Goldman had a letter endorsing Howard published a few weeks ago. The breadth and scope of this support, coming from people with widely divergent opinions on many issues facing Teaneck, demonstrates the fruit of the hard work that Howard has put into better understanding Teaneck's public schools and in reaching out to all of Teaneck over the past several years.

On Election Day, Tuesday, April 21st, we will elect three members to the Teaneck Board of Education, and I proudly support Howard Rose for election.

I invite you and anyone interested in meeting Howard and hearing his views and opinions about the future of the Teaneck Public Schools, to join me at a cottage party to be held at my home, located at 752 Cottage Place (off of River Road) on Sunday, April 19th at 7:00 PM. Please feel free to pass this post on to any other Teaneck resident who may be interested in hearing from Howard.

Reach me on my cell phone at 201-895-3732 or by email at alansohn@gmail.com with any questions.

Alan Sohn

Support Your School Budget

Suburbanite Opinion 4-15-2009

It's time to vote on the school budgets. Superintendents and school boards made presentations to their residents hoping for support April 21. We hope everyone does support their school district's budgets.

It's understandable to want to just say no when you see the millions of dollars that your school board is asking you to approve. The weak economy has caused people to lose their homes and has others fearful of what could still happen if things get worse.

But it's important that you vote yes because schools need adequate budgets to educate our kids. Saving a little bit in more budget cuts this year can harm you in the long run. When a budget is rejected cuts could be forced on the district. The schools could never recover what was lost.

Salaries, pensions, and some other costs rise every year, yet the school boards have no control over them. So those increases cut into other areas in the budget. Areas that are controllable like curriculum, textbooks and maintenance can suffer. The state imposes a four-percent cap on annual budget increases. So if a district loses parts of its curriculum or some teaching positions one year then it's difficult to bring them back because it would force the budget increase to top the four-percent cap.

The economy is bad, but schools need their money. Support of the school budget shouldn't be seen as giving the school boards blank checks. We hope everyone tried to be as efficient and fiscally responsible as possible. Regardless of the economic climate, money shouldn't be wasted. There are probably some districts that could have done a better job with their budgets this year, but most school boards and administrators knew what needed to be done. They tried to use their limited resources to find the best way to support our kids. When you walk in the polling booth April 21 you should give your support too.

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money, Education, Money, Money

Herb Burack
1564 Sussex Road
Teaneck, New Jersey 07666
Email – Burack4Teaneck@gmail.com

April 1, 2009

Dear Neighbor,

As you know, the Teaneck community, just like countless other communities across the country, is facing substantial economic challenges and an uncertain financial future. Far too many of our families are out of work. Those who are fortunate to still have their jobs have seen their salaries frozen, bonuses withheld, and medical benefits dwindle. While our families are struggling to cope with these life altering issues, the Teaneck teachers hit the jackpot, having been granted a whopping 12% increase over 3 years. In addition, the Teaneck school budget, which has already topped $93 million, contains a proposed 4% increase.

What does that mean for us? Simply speaking, it means that our real estate taxes, which are already among the highest in Bergen County, are going up again. The Teaneck schools' spending machine is spinning furiously and turning a blind eye to the fiscal difficulties that have befallen us.

Consider the following - Regardless of whether or not your children attend Teaneck's schools, almost 60% of your tax dollars go to the school system. The cost per student is approximately $18,500 - more than $4,000 per student higher than comparable school systems.

As a member of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, I am part of a community which at times has been somewhat apathetic when it comes to civic matters. Enough is enough. We cannot sit idly by while the Teaneck schools make bad spending choices with our hard-earned tax dollars. Tough times require tough choices, not business as usual. It is time for a change and it is time to make our voices heard.

As a Teaneck resident, I believe in a strong school system for a strong community. However, the Teaneck school system is failing and its financial decisions are at odds with the economic realities that face us. I believe in a reallocation of resources in order to reduce the achievement gap and improve upon the current failure of middle school students to pass state mandated standards. We need to strive for educational excellence, while at the same time remaining cognizant of the need for fiscal prudence and a sound economic strategy.

I am running for the Teaneck Board of Education because I think that we could do better. I have a pragmatic approach which I believe can help put an end to the free spending practices of the current board. We need to curb unnecessary spending and eliminate the excessive waste that has permeated our school system. We need an infusion of new ideas coupled with common sense values. We need a fresh vision that is committed to bringing about change.

I am therefore asking for your support on Tuesday, April 21st. Please take a couple of moments on April 21st to go to the polls and cast your vote for change, fiscal prudence, and a new vision. Vote for Herb Burack for the Teaneck Board of Education. The
polls will be open from 7 AM until 9 PM.

Thank you in advance for your support, your trust, and your vote.

Sincerely yours,
Herb Burack

Teaneck Council Appoints New Manager

At tonight’s council meeting, William Broughton was officially appointed as Teaneck’s municipal manager effective May 18th. I’d like to join the Teaneck Council in welcoming him back to Teaneck.

For those who don’t know him, the following excerpt is from a May 8, 2007 Bergen County Sheriff’s Office news release:

Chief Broughton Comes Home To Teaneck
HACKENSACK - Chief William Broughton of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office returned to his alma mater this past Friday to take part in Teaneck High School’s Career Day. A graduate of Teaneck High School and a former Captain in the Teaneck Police Department, Chief Broughton spoke with students about the benefits of a career with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and how the education he received in Teaneck’s public school has helped him achieve his professional goals.

[Additional material added 4/14 7:30 PM]

From the Bergen County Sheriff's Office Executive Staff page:

Chief William Broughton

Chief William Broughton has more than 24 years of experience in law enforcement. Prior to his appointment by Sheriff McGuire as Chief of Sheriff’s Officers, Broughton served as a Captain in the Teaneck Police Department, in addition to serving as Commander of that agency’s Detective and Youth Bureaus.

Working in conjunction with Executive Undersheriff Ralph Rivera, Chief Broughton is responsible for supervising the activities of all Sheriff’s Officers. He oversees security operations at the Bergen County Justice Center, ensuring a safe and orderly environment for the courthouse’s judges, administrators and millions of visitors. Additionally, Chief Broughton is tasked with managing the Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation which houses the BCSO’s Detective Bureau and its Crime Scene Unit which provides advanced forensic investigation services to 70 of Bergen County’s municipalities.

Chief Broughton is a Certified Public Manager, a graduate of the Bergen County Police & Fire Academy, holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from the New Jersey City University as well as a Masters in Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickenson University.

Who is "Michael Stark"

I was attending my daughter's 4-0 soccer win representing Teaneck over Monroe-Woodbury, that had been rescheduled to tonight due to a beetle infestation at Benjain Franklin Middle School's soccer field last week. Unfortunately, I missed this evening's Council workshop meeting.

It appears that the subject of July 4th festivities were discussed and the issue that Independence Day this year will be a Saturday came up for discussion. Helpfully, I was cc'ed on an email providing details of the discussion that Michael Stark had sent as a letter to the editor of the Suburbanite:

From: mstark1@vzw.blackberry.net

Mayor Feit does not speak for the Jewish Community of Teaneck. He is our Mayor, not our god.
How dare he try to change the July 4 date to accommodate his own personal agenda. As a real American, I appreciate and respect July 4 and Teaneck should celebrate on the actual day. I am glad the Council pushed back and fought Feit on his silly idea to change the date. Mayor Feit has embarrassed the Teaneck Jewish Community by speaking for us without consulting anyone and obviously having no knowledge about the importance of the day. I apologize to my Teaneck neighbors. Shame on you Mayor Feit.
Michael Stark
A Proud American
Teaneck
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

This is not the first email I and other Teaneck residents have received from Michael Stark. I had most recently heard from Michael Stark last April about his threats to expose anti-Team Teaneck activities in a letter that he planned to send to the Suburbanite. He had two letters that I know of that were printed, one in the March 12, 2008 issue of the Suburbanite in which he is described as "Tired of dirty dozen attacks" and wrote another letter two weeks later, signed as Michael Starks, that was given the title "Group seems to be destructive".

There's only one problem. It seems that Michael Stark does not exist. There are 19 people named Michael Stark listed in phone book records in New Jersey, but none live in Teaneck. The state's only Michael Starks lives in Linden. There is no one with the first name of Michael among any of the nine people named "Stark" or the seven named "Starks" in Teaneck in a phone book search.

Despite being "A Proud American", he doesn't appear in any of the voter registration files I've received from the Bergen County Board of Elections. A search of property records in Teaneck shows four property owners named Stark and two named Starks, none of whom are named Michael or have a name that could correspond to Michael.

I'm sure that it's possible that there is someone named Michael Stark who has an intense interest in Township politics, actively attends Council meetings (remember, tonight's meeting was not televised), isn't registered to vote, rents an apartment or lives with his parents (so he doesn't own any property) and only uses a Verizon cell phone so he doesn't have a land line that would appear in a phone book search.

An alternative explanation is that Election 2010 has already begun and the anonymous instigators are starting to come out of the woodwork.

Anyone have reason to believe that this person exists?

Does anybody know how to trace a Verizon email address to its source?

Will the real Michael Stark please stand up?

Alan Sohn

Profiles of the Other Three Board of Education Candidates

The most recent issue of the Teaneck Suburbanite included an item providing profiles of the other three candidates for the Teaneck Board of Education. Voters will choose three candidates from the six running for office to fill three-year terms of office as well as voting on the budget for the 2009-10 school year. Click here for a consolidated article at the Suburbanite's web site with profiles of all six candidates.

Herbert Burack

Sussex Road resident Herbert Burack has lived in Teaneck for 28 years. He is a clinical pharmacist in New York City and has a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and a master’s in pharmacy from St. John’s University.

Burack describes himself as an outsider trying to fix a broken system. He notes that Teaneck students are failing in almost all areas and that many are passed through the system without achieving a solid education.

He describes the system as "an economic disaster, money spent unwisely."

At PTO and BOE meetings he said he has observed that parents of all races are dissatisfied with the system.

Burack would explore making the Yeshiva system, which his own children attended, a model for Teaneck schools.

"There is an educational gap between the private and public schools, but it isn’t because of money or one group being smarter than the other. The two systems are different and I do not see why the Teaneck system cannot model itself on the private system," he said.

He acknowledges, however, that it will take hard work and first rate teachers and administrators to make the achievements of white and minority students equivalent.

Parents need to be more involved with their children, he said.

Burack also seeks to make the board more transparent and the district more inviting to parent participation.

Porfiro Rodriguez

Porfiro Rodriguez, of Ramapo Road, is seeking his first term. Rodriguez taught Spanish and social studies in New York City public schools for 19 years and for the past six years has taught Spanish in the East Ramapo Central School District.

He has a BA in political science and Spanish from SUNY at Buffalo and an MA and D.Ed. from Teachers College at Columbia University.

As the father of two pre-school age children, Rodriguez is concerned that Teaneck scored in the lower half of the state school report card.

"We need to concentrate on closing the achievement gap, but also on presenting a challenging curriculum to top performing students," he said. "All our children deserve a world class education, and we have to set high expectations."

He sees himself as contribute his expertise as a career educator to the board.

Rodriguez seeks also to improve communications between the district and the community.

He notes his disappointment by the board’s failure to provide timely progress reports. In adapting the schools to the needs of the 21st century, he emphasizes especially improving math and science instruction.

Rodriguez also proposes creating dual language programs for native English speaking children in Spanish/English and Hebrew English. He would begin instruction in the early grades with 50 percent of class time in each of two languages.

Howard Rose

Howard Rose, of Northumberland Avenue, is a 29-year township resident. He is the owner of Brier Rose Books on Cedar Lane and for more than 25 years was an administrator at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Cardozo School of Law and other academic institutions. He has a bachelor’s degree from City College and a master’s in counseling from Manhattan College. Rose serves on the planning board and the financial advisory board and is a member of the board of directors of Teaneck Comes Together. Both of his children attended the district schools, K-12.

Rose believes that his background in academic administration, which includes fiscal management, will be an asset to the board.

He favors curriculum reform but prefers to build on existing programs rather than fashion new ones.

"Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, we should be greasing the axle of the wheel we have already in order to facilitate student instruction," he said.

The ACT Initiative is a step in the right direction, Rose said, but he seeks greater accountability, noting that for several years the board has informed residents that the results are not yet available. "Change unmeasured is change unconfirmed," he notes.

Rose also seeks to improve communications between the district and parents. "We need to spark a sustained dialog by ongoing programs that teach parents the educational skills to engage their children."

Request to Amend the Current Binding Interest Arbitration Laws

At Tuesday night's council meeting, the resolution below passed by a 4 to 3 vote. Council members Feit, Gussen, Hameeduddin & Katz voted in favor. Council members Honis, Parker, and Toffler voted against it. There was no discussion at all by the council before the vote. Nor can I recall any discussion of this at an earlier council meeting.

Regardless whether one agrees or disagrees with the resolution, there should have been some attempt to reach a consensus. Sending such a resolution to the governor passed on a bare majority will carry no weight.

What is particularly baffling is the final paragraph which states that the resolution will be sent to the legislators of the 39th district. Perhaps the council members who voted for the resolution feels that the three Republicans who represent the 39th district better reflect their views than the three Democratic legislators of the 37th district who represent Teaneck. Perhaps it was just a typo

Diversity or Division?

Doug Glanville is a former professional baseball player who grew up in Teaneck (his parents still live here) and played most of his nine-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies. Since retiring, he has written a number of erudite columns for The New York Times called "Heading Home", most of which have some connection to baseball with a greater commentary on society as a whole.

A few days ago, my Google News Alert notified of an article Glanville had written, and I initially assumed that the mention of Teaneck would be a passing reference, of the sort "Glanville, who grew up in Teaneck, N.J..." and that the article would be about baseball and little more. The article I read, "The World in One Game" covered the recent World Baseball Classic, with Glanville commenting on how baseball has benefited from the influx of cultures around the world, as players from all nations and races are integrated into the sport. He contrasted the changes in baseball with his experiences growing up here, in Teaneck:

Part of the reason this experience is so moving to me is that I hail from a small town (Teaneck, N.J.) and this particular tone — people from all walks of life working together — was set for me from the time I went to kindergarten. Teaneck is known for having the first high school in the United States to voluntarily integrate its student body, in 1965. But more importantly, they took that fact and improved on it.

So I grew up in a community committed to learning how to communicate across cultural and religious lines. Cottage parties would fill up a neighbor’s basement to discuss Jewish and African-American relations, meet-up groups would form to decide how to celebrate various cultures at the high school, dialogues and community sessions were constantly challenging people to learn outside the box. The town decided that it was stronger as a cohesive unit than as a scapegoating machine that fell upon the ease and comfort of stereotyping. It took control of its destiny and found a way.

My baseball team in high school was ethnically diverse. Unfortunately, it was not uncommon for us, when traveling to some nearby towns, to hear from opposing fans exactly how uncomfortable our smorgasbord of cultures made them feel. Once, one of my teammates got tired of verbal abuse from a spectator who had gone on for an entire game, and yelled back at the offender. After the game, this fan’s husband (who happened to be dressed in business attire) waited near our bus and kicked one of our players in the chest. He capped that off with some racially inappropriate comments.

But the entire team banded together and stood firmly behind our teammate in support. It wasn’t because he was black, or our captain for that matter — he was our teammate. That moment demonstrated how it’s possible to avoid making decisions based on the side of the tracks you live on or what box you check to describe your race in a questionnaire.

After I left Teaneck High School, I didn’t see quite that kind of commitment — people working together to make diversity a strength — until I put on that major league uniform. I still believe it is the best lesson baseball can give us.

Glanville, born in 1970, grew up in a Teaneck that was still basking in the afterglow of its role as the first community to voluntarily integrate its schools, an effort documented in the feel-good story Triumph in a White Suburb written in 1968 by township resident Reginald G. Damerell.

The Teaneck that Glanville described most certainly existed, but did not survive unscathed. I moved with my family to Teaneck a couple of years after Glanville had graduated from Teaneck High School, and while I knew few of the details of the 1965 integration, I certainly knew about the aftermath of the shooting death of Phillip Pannell and the bitter protests that ensued.

Once I became more involved in Teaneck affairs, I saw many people who were still carrying on the vestiges of the earlier work in building bridges between Teaneck's diverse communities. But I also saw those who believed that a divisive approach would better allow them to pursue their own objectives. After all, a bridge that took many years to build can be taken down in seconds with a few sticks of dynamite. This is best (or worst) seen in how our recent elections have been marred with shameless appeals to ethnic particularism.

The 2006 elections featured this type of rhetoric in email sent by people who know far better, pushing Orthodox voters by insisting that "[i]t would be in our common best interest to get these guys elected", solely based on what the writer acknowledged as a rumor that "[t]here are candidates running who would be happy to take down the eruv." An effort by the Advisory Board on Community Relations to address these divisive campaign tactics was rejected by the Township Council for consideration at a Council workshop meeting shortly after the new members took office.

I am still nauseated by the May 2008 issue of The Jewish Voice and Opinion that I found doing some Passover cleaning, with the front page blaring the unattributed claim that "[t]he perception of many residents is that one group of candidates will be 'good for the Jews' because they are also beneficial for the township as a whole, while another will threaten the wellbeing of the Jewish community by dividing the town and targeting the Orthodox."

While I am equally bothered by unaddressed remarks about the "gas chamber", what offends me about the statements cited above is that they are intended to represent me as a member of Teaneck's Orthodox community as part of a divide and conquer strategy.

In participating in the Teaneck Community Project (also known as the "Visioning Process"), the hundreds of participants were asked to list Teaneck's greatest assets and its greatest causes for concern. Diversity came up at or near the top of both lists.

While Teaneck, its municipal government and its public schools all face genuine issues, it is clear that there are no uniquely Black or White, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, or Hispanic or Asian solutions to Teaneck problems. With a school board election just over two weeks away and a municipal election in just over a year, I sincerely hope that there will be candidates seeking Teaneck solutions to Teaneck's problems. Maybe Doug Glanville's vision of Teaneck still exists, after all these years.

Alan Sohn

Hootenanny!

This Saturday night. April 4th at 7 PM Temple Emeth's Congregational Havdallah service will be followed by the Religious School's Annual Book Fair.

The reason I mention this event is that the entertainment will be provided by Route4West, a 6-piece country-bluegrass-soul-blues band in which I play squeezebox along with five guys, several of whom are named Dave.*

So y'all come on by, and share in some good ol' time southern-style Havdallah hospitality, browse awhile, buy some books, support the religious school, sing, dance, nosh...

*Howard Bowler, Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Sundry Other Stringed Instruments

Dave Gertszberg, Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals
Josh Kammerman, Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Percussion, Vocals
Dave Kohane, Guitar and Vocals
Jim Lowinger, Guitar

Profiles of Three Board of Ed Candidates

Here are brief profiles of three of the six Board of Ed candidates prepared by Howard Proznitz in the Suburbanite. The other three candidates will be highlighted next week.

David Diuguid

David Diuguid is seeking his third term. The Johnson Avenue resident holds a BA from Harvard and a MD from Cornell. He is a physician at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Diuguid has lived in Teaneck since 1990 and has two children who have graduated from the district.

Diuguid said that he had several conversations about the achievement gap with former Superintendent John Czeterko. "Those discussions led to the ACT Initiative to deal with the gap in achievement and to bring levels up for students of color to those of whites and Asians," he said, noting that existing programs need to be expanded and tools measures developed and to assess progress.

"We have always done well with top students but we have issues dealing with the middle group who have been allowed to drift," Diuguid said.

Even before the ACT Initiative, he noted, the district had developed small learning academies in the arts, sciences and a business within the high school.

Other achievements during his term on the board include changing the honor roll to give special credit to students for taking more difficult courses and raising the minimum grade point average to participate in extra curricula activities from a 1.0 to 2.0.

Patricia King-Butler

Patricia King-Butler is seeking her first term. The Ramapo Road resident grew up in Teaneck and attended district schools. She moved back to the township 14 years ago and has three children currently in the system. King-Butler is an educational administrator at Long Island University. She has served as co chair of the PTO/PTA council and as PTO president of Lowell School and Benjamin Franklin Middle schools.

King-Butler would seek to improve student achievement by looking at specific areas where students are do well and where they fail and attempt to uncover the cause of the problem "Often we look at more abstract things instead of what is actually happening in the classroom," she said, noting that she would look at areas such as currency of textbooks and pedagogy.

Much work needs to be done to strengthen the ACT agenda, she stated. She notes that as a working mother she has been involved for many years attempting to improve the system. She sees the need for greater involvement between principals and the PTOs and she would seek ways to build more effective parental involvement, including developing more committees and workshops.

Improving communication between the district and parents is another goal. "We have not developed a culture in which parents can get information readily," she said.

Gervonn Romney Rice

Gervonn Romney Rice, of Bogert Street, is seeking her second term. The lifelong township resident went through district schools, K-12, and has three children in the district at Hawthorne, Benjamin Franklin and the high school. Rice has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Rider University and works as a sales representative for State Farm Insurance.

She had served as president of the Bryant School PTO and was co president of the PTO/PTA Council. Prior to joining the board, she was a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee for the ACT initiative. She is currently on the board of the Teaneck Special Education Advisory Group (SEPAG) and previously served on the executive board of Special Parents of Teaneck (SPOT). She is also on the executive committee of the Bergen NAACP.

Reducing the achievement gap is a top priority for Rice, but she emphasizes the importance for all students to be given the opportunity to develop to their highest potential and for all to meet the same standards of accountability.

"We have no less expectation from any student regardless of demographics," she said. During her term on the board, goals have directed in five specific areas, all focused on student achievement. Rice also wants to achieve better communication so that parents and the community at large find a welcoming environment in the schools.

Next School Board Candidates' Debate

The next School Board Candidates' Debate will take place at Teaneck High School in the third floor Student Center on Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.

All six candidates running for the Teaneck Board of Education this spring have been invited to attend. This debate is widely recognized as a professionally-run, non-partisan debate, presided over by a professionally trained moderator. In addition to statements by the candidates, the public has ample opportunity to ask questions.

The forum is co-sponsored by the Teaneck League of Women Voters and the Teaneck Council of Parents and Teachers.

Did anyone attend last week's debate? Any reflections or observations?