"Districts are permitted, but not required, to set aside funds into capital or maintenance reserve accounts briefly described below.
1. Capital Reserve – The capital reserve account allows a district to accumulate funds for future capital projects. Once funds are deposited into a capital reserve, they may only be used for capital projects and are not available to be used for general district expenses. The maximum amount that may be placed into a capital reserve is the district share needed for projects included in the long-range facilities plan prepared by the district. Deposits into a capital reserve can be budgeted in the annual budget, or can be made by board resolution between June 1 and June 30 with unanticipated revenue or unexpended appropriations.
2. Maintenance Reserve – The maintenance reserve allows a district to accumulate funds for payment of required maintenance expenses. Once funds are deposited into a maintenance reserve, they may only be used for required maintenance expenses. Deposits to a maintenance reserve can be budgeted in the annual budget, or can be made by board resolution between June 1 and June 30 with unanticipated revenue or unexpended appropriations.
3. Emergency Reserve - The emergency reserve allows a district to accumulate funds for payment of expenses for emergency circumstances that were not budgeted for the year. The maximum balance permitted in an emergency reserve is the greater of $250,000 or 1% of the general fund budget not to exceed $1 million. Deposits to an emergency reserve can be budgeted in the annual budget, or can be made by board resolution between June 1 and June 30 with unanticipated revenue or unexpended appropriations. Withdrawals from the emergency reserve require approval from the Commissioner of Education, unless the withdrawal is necessary to meet an increase in total health care costs in excess of 4% over the prior year.
Note that if a district has applied and received Commissioner approval to exceed the annual 4% tax levy cap, then that district is not allowed to make deposits into the capital, maintenance or emergency reserves for the year in which the approval was granted. School districts are also allowed to keep an unreserved surplus of a maximum of 2% of their general fund budget for items that may arise during the year."
I don't see anything in there that says they must "budget and spend" on a yearly basis. I see that they can't use the Captial Projects money for anything other than Capital Projects and that each district may keep a maximum of 2% of their general budget in reserve for unexpected expenses. I also see that Districts who exceed the 4% tax levy cap can not make deposits into a Capital Projects reserve. It is my understanding that Ridgewood does not exceed the 4% tax levy cap.
As much as the BoE lackey's wants to assert the opposite, the district is allowed to have a capital reserve maintenance fund. Please refer to NJ State DOE:
http://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap23a.pdf
Need an example? Teaneck just had a drawdown from their capital reserve fund for extra ordinary repairs:
http://www.teaneckschools.org/v2/download.php?file=823
Specifically, page 9.
The real question to the BoE is WHY have you not established a capital reserve fund, as allowed by NJ DoE, and WHY are you not funding it??
Do NOT treat me, nor the concerned citizens of this Village as the imbeciles you think we are.
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22 comments:
Wow do I hope it is the same seven schmucks posting that it is time to show the BOE they need to be fiscally responsibl by voting no. Awesome idea - this way in five years, we need to spend not $48mm, but $60mm, and interest rates will be closer to 6% - 7%. Great idea. What a bunch of ignorant a$$holes. I have tried to be polite but the NO posters here are all full of it. Spreading lies about the Sueprindendent having a paid for car, etc.
BTW - take a look at this everyone who thinks we have too many administrators: The NJDOE Comparative Spending Guides found on the NJDOE web site shows that we have fewer administrators to students than many districts and our cost per student is lower than many districts in the 3500 students and above districts...
None of you have been able to explain how a NO vote on this Capital Improvement project helps send a message about being fiscally conservative with an operating budget. All it would show is that we have a town full of people with no long term vision! The flipping schools aren't going to just magically fix themselves!!!
Just re-open Glenn, just redraw boundary lines. A bunch of asinine drivel spoken by people with no idea what any of these would either entail, or whether it would solve any problems.
BTW - I don't even have children in the schools yet nor do I have any affiliation with the Bd. of Ed. I just know I moved here for amongh other reasons a quality school system and would like to keep it that way.
Bravo, thanks for the info.
When the first bond for the high school failed, I asked Micheal Porro, then president of the BOE, why we didn't set aside money for capital projects. He told me we were only allowed to set aside 2% a year for capital improvements. I did a little research and found the same thing this poster found. A district can set up a capital reserve account outside the yearly budget. In fact, the district could have a second item on the ballot, along with the yearly budget, requesting taxpayers put aside money into the reserve fund. Michael said he would look into it. Here we are bonding for capital improvements again. This is the 4th time in 10 years. Something is seriously wrong with the way we run our public school system.
From curriculum to budgets our district is being sorely mismanaged by administrators. Our elected representatives refuse to ask the hard questions or hold our administrators responsible for their lack of competence.
It is time we consider electing people who think outside the box who won't settle for the status quo or believe everything they are told by Cottage Place.
Yes, because suing the district helps the budget a whole lot.
348, you lose your argument when you call dissenters 'schmucks' and a$$holes.
First, who said a five year wait? How about reworking the plan and resubmitting in April? Is the BOE afraid that things will get worse and they get shot down?
Joe Alvaro is right as far as outside the box thinkers. Mike Porro was on the board when it last functioned best. He was not always liked, but he was a straight shooter. The same could be said of Dr. Stokley. Since those times, I have watched the each succeeding board capitulate because it wanted to avoid all that messy negotiation with the REA - not to mention the 'windfall' Porter squabbled on the onset of state caps. He avoided pissing off the union because the surplus needed to be eliminated.
As far as Glen goes, I have a question: I wasn't here when it closed, but it WAS an elementary school before. Why can't adjustments be made to districts now 20 years down the road to reflect the shifting of time?
No, the BOE wants to build build build. Have you gone in front of the planning board and ask to expand your house? The folks there are against expanding any footprint of your house 90% of the time. You wind up spending a minimum of 10k just to get a simple variance.
So, future parent, you can vote yes and I would never try to force you to vote otherwise. Plus, as my neighbor, I wouldn't resort to calling you a schmuck. You bought a bill of goods on the state of education in this town. As a recent poster stated, that 'quality' label on Ridgewood schools was earned 30 years ago and has been in the toilet for the past 10. Trust me - I have had kids in the schools for 15 years (and still in). In no way are they getting an excellent education. You could have bought a similar experience in a dozen other Bergen county towns.
I wouldn't mortgage my future 4 times over the last 10. Why would I blindly vote yes to add more classes just a couple of years since the last expansion?
There is no doubt that these lean economic times have brought the failures by the BOE to the surface. But like any major issue that we in Ridgewood face (Valley expansion, Graydon Pool, math curriculum), you have two sides. My side says stop the waste, retool the project and come back in April.
30 years ago NJ was known for having terrible public schools. I don't remember anyone saying "except Ridgewood." Those happy childhood memories are from your dreams. And Ridgewood was not as well kept. A lot of the old homes were run down. The home revolution and migration started in the early 90s.
Glen Rock took back a school that they had been renting out to a preschool. The school seemed to be in good shape but they still had to put money in it. It was a single story school like Glen. They did a great job and the families that walk to school every day are happy. Maybe our board should ask them for advice.
625 are you a total idiot? 30 years ago you said you lived in RIDGEWOOD not new jersey ,the Schools were in the top 1% in the whole country and the Village was the envy of everywhere , NOW its become just another jersey shit hole ,the last 10 years the town has been run into the ground by SHIT management ! and yes the VC and BOE suck so deal with it ,as James Rose used to say the problem is you live here ! DONT even dare talk such stupid trash talk about this town !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6:25, you must be a bitter, old Ridgewood wannabe. Ridgewood was always on the list of top public high schools in the country back in the 60's and 70's. People who moved here from New Trier and Evanston high schools in Illinois deliberately sought out as fine a school as they were coming from, and it was always Ridgewood. Unfortunately the "Tradition of Excellence" has been nothing more than PR bullsh** for the past 10 years.
3:48 do us a favor and go crawl back under whtaever rock you came from. rude comments are unwelcome
thanks 67 , whats important for all the newbies and I dont mean newbies in a bad way, is to understand that everything about the whole town not only the schools had "Tradition of Excellence" ,you need to lean about it when it ment something ,not an empty PR phrase
From New York you were just another Jersey town. Actually, I never even heard of Ridgewood.
Just like today, you only think that you are special because you live in Ridgewood. People are not looking at us in awe.
could you please elaborate on the decline of "a tradition of excellence"?
11:41, you gave yourself away.
First you used the accusatory "you" in maligning us Ridgewoodites, but in the end you became one of "us". Idiot.
If some of the posts above reflect the writing and debate skills of the parents of our children then we don't have to work very hard to educate our children anyway. To me, insults, swear words and pointing fingers are a sure sign of someone who is uneducated and ignorant. Since we are speaking of our kids education why don't we start by modeling the way we would like them to communicate. Ultimately aren't we preparing our kids for the workplace? Don't know about where you work but some of these posters would not last very long where I work and no I don't work in a wimpy place. I work with intelligent folks who have little time for hotheads and bullies.
11:41,,,you are a TOOL! and nobody gives a flying sh@t what the new yawkahs think about us
10:18 AM - Can't see the forest because the trees are in the way?
Laurie Goodman attempts to explain about the capital reserve account over on her blog. Apparently we have one. who knew?? http://lauriegood.blogspot.com
I read Laurie's post:
http://lauriegood.blogspot.com/2009/11/refresher-course-on-boe-budget.html
I noticed that
1)She doesn't mention TRB directly, calling it "another local blog". To do so, with her ideology, would grate on her nerves to no end.
2) She mentions that a) it IS legal to have a capital reserve account for large expenditures b) Ridgewood has had one since 2000, but she has no idea of its funding.
3) She falis to understand the reason why a district should save for things that wear out (like buildings) - it's always to borrow money than save.
*** I don't mean to interrupt, but think of it this way - if your child(ren) are in a school for x years and the asset has a y year life, theoretically you should pay for x/y*pct of tax ratable share. By bonding vs. budgeting, you foist a $62mm liability upon the residents of the future. Think of it as having the person who buys your used car pay for your loan while you drive it.***
3) Laurie touches the third rail of the Ridgewood school district - salaries and benefits. If I were sure that she and her other boardmembers would negotiate the hell out of the union and start a staff reduction plan for the BOE & duplicate school positions, I'd consider voting yes.
It's too much of a gamble, but we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
I am currently watching the BoE meeting. The referendum came up. They discussed it for a total of FIVE minutes. Brogan said to come to the next public forum at GW on 11/30 to talk about the referendum. Goodman wanted to correct the record in TRW that BF would not be turfed. Hutton said if you want to know why there should be turf, just walk across Stevens field. Brogan(?) said (for a half-minute) that the referendum is more than just fields - and then the talk turned to turf again. Vallerini said that there is no way to change the referendum. (Then, what's the point to discuss anything, as Brogan said at the opening, other than to push for a 'yes' vote)
It seems to me that the BoE wants you to come to the forums or BoE meetings so they can regulate/control the message. Some of the detractors of this blog seem afraid that we may develop an opinion without the proper spin applied by the BoE.
At least, I didn't hear 'lets do it for the kids' once...yet!
It is in-comprehendible to rationalize how this school bond which would debt the residents out for 25 years, makes any common sense at all. Neither would this be in the best interest for the residents, nor for the children. The yes’s are giving their kids an education of ‘get what you want now’ by spending your way into debt, credit and bankruptcy. Probably influenced by how they learned, to get all they wanted, instead of responsible prudent planning.
The argument of the current ‘we want it NoW’ ‘its for our kids’ movement, as shown in previous thread posts, is so out of sync with today’s fiscal morals, especially when one takes into consideration that is exactly how our countrys economy has gone. The national debt at $11 trillion was driven by greed, mortgaging out beyond ones means, shelfish lifestyle believing that one could live on credit forever. The yes’s argues says ..."all of these are symptoms of a much larger problem: government waste, NJ is corrupt, fight to change it, locally with our village gov, till then," the yes’s “don’t want to wait for it to be fixed"(in Trenton)... Do the yes’s not get it? and live in their own bubble world? only believing what the BOE tells them? They want everyone else to support them. We are all treading on thin ice, do they want to sink us all? The fixing the waste problem starts locally in the community. NJ is the #1 highest property tax state in the nation.
We all know NJ faces an $8 billion shortfall next year, if they cancel the promised monies for this, we get stuck to pay for it, what would the yes‘s respond to that, The yes’s say “they’re willing to pay the extra to live in ‘elite’ RIDGEwood. This No says don’t bankrupt the town, the taxpayers and take the rest of us down with you.
Instead, ask for support of only necessary repairs, redistricting, consolidation, cutbacks, stricter NJTA negotiations on salaries, plan for capital reserve account for large expenditures (find out what’s in it!) and yes Cut the Fat. Prudent review of fiscal planning is needed as voiced by many others. My vote stands a strong No, even if they took the turf out. Come back in spring with a sensible revised budget. Thank you.
this bond stuff is pure bullshit. its a tax increase. what about all the PRIOR bonds that 'only cost 500 per year' etc. when they are PAID OFF MY TAXES NEVER GO DOWN. So cut the lies and BULLSHIT for once.
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