AUDITS, VOTES AND SIGNATURES HELP SAFEGUARD SCHOOL FUNDS

The ultimate responsibility for protecting the public’s money, however, falls on the shoulders of the school trustees. “Any time a district spends money, it has to be authorized by the board of education,” said Tom McMahon, the State Department of Education’s Assistant Commissioner of Finance on a recent article in The Record. “The board has to sit and approve the payment of a bill, then the actual check has to be signed by three people”. The board president, the treasurer, and the business administrator are required to sign the checks with original signatures, not stamps. Unfortunately, the past Board of Education presidents in Englewood have not signed or personally stamped any checks. This issue was addressed at the Board of Education by our co-president Eugenia Vogel. We are happy to report that David Matthews, the new board president agreed to personally stamp or sign checks. David Matthews is a CPA and works as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch. The Board of Education has hired a new firm of auditors. We are happy to report our public school will have approximately 1 million dollars more to spend in the classroom. This million dollars was set aside in the budget for the construction of the temporary prefabricated facility to house the pre-kindergarten students. We sincerely hope they will use these million dollars wisely.

The EHOA Board has been lobbying intensely to have the lawsuit between Englewood, Englewood Cliffs and Tenafly School district dropped. This ongoing lawsuit has cost homeowners and taxpayers approximately $7 million in legal fees to date and did not get anywhere. It is our belief that Dwight Morrow High School should merge with Bergen County Technical School. Bergen Technical School runs one of the best public high schools in the State. They have different levels of learning and provide excellent educational programs. Numerous students from Englewood attend the Bergen Technical Schools. Dwight Morrow has a capacity of 1500 students and less than 600 are attending to date. The school has a 28 acre campus and a magnificent building that is under utilized. The County will contribute $1 million to the Englewood public school system if the merger takes place. The only condition is to drop the ongoing lawsuit against Englewood Cliffs and Tenafly. This proposal has been on the table for some time. However, Mayor Fader, Superintendent and the appointed board disregarded this offer and chose to continue the lawsuit. We hope that the elected Board will make the necessary arrangements with Bergen County Technical School. Englewood is “the paradise for lawsuits” and its citizens are sick of them.

We do not agree with the contract granted to a Public Relations consultant in the amount of $60,000 a year or $5,000 a month for our public school system. This PR consultant will produce four newsletters a year and make press releases. We consider this sum very expensive. The four newsletters are mailed to over 11,000 residents and the mailing costs are paid with our educational dollars. The best publicity that the school could have is good test scores. The magnet schools which were the idea of Mayor Fader and the Superintendent are nothing but spin. We have been in contact with honor students at the high school who were asked to sign up for the magnet program and after a few days of classes they refused to return. The magnet concept will not improve the scores, will not bring students to the high school and it will cost millions of dollars. Only if Bergen Tech comes in will our high school succeed.

The assistant superintendent was not given tenure and she will be leaving the district at the end of the summer program. The Board of Education has to look for an assistant superintendent who has the experience and is able to take over the district in the superintendent’s absence. Elected board members Robert Kolhagen, Lazaro Carvajal, Reverend Spencer and Shirley Smith are doing a good job. David Matthews our board president is doing a good job as well.

Reminder: The Superintendent of Schools may call for a special referendum on construction of new facilities for the sum of $20,800.000 of which $11 million are for pre-kindergarten facilities. By law the superintendent can call for four referendums in one year -- two every six months. Public school officials have to advise the County Board of Elections 75 days including Saturdays and Sundays before voting day. Also by law, this type of referendum must be 20 days before or after any other election. In the survey that we mailed in our last issues, from the 367 homeowners who answered, all agreed that the cost of $11 million for a pre-kindergarten facility was way too high. The Board of Education has not discussed in public nor voted on this issue to date. The state could pay up to 40% for the cost if they agree with the expansion plan. To our knowledge the state has not received the construction plans.

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