Saturday, February 26, 2011
Closing Arguments Scheduled for Wednesday, March 2
Education Law Center finished calling witnesses on Friday, Feb. 25, and closing arguments in the remand hearing are scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, at 2pm at the Bergen County Courthouse.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Melvin L. Wyns is an expert in New Jersey Public School Finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001),is the only witness today. He was retained to analyze the reduction of state aid and the impact of level of accuracy in the current spending level SFRA.
SFRA (School Funding Reform Act) is a statute and as I was reading the statute I found this to be particularly interesting: “The State in addition to any constitution mandates , has a moral obligation to ensure that New Jersey’s children, wherever they reside, are provided the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed any school funding formula should provide, resources in a manner that optimizes the likelihood that children will receive an education that will make them productive members of society”. It seems to me that the State has been failing our children for a long time. Since the beginning of this trial I have heard testimonies over and over on how the lack of funding has hurt children across the State of New Jersey.
For example, Mr. Wyns testified today that Trenton was above adequacy in funding in 09-10. Now with the current level of funding, it is below adequacy. The districts with the highest At-Risk students lost the most in state aid. Mr. Wyns had a power point that he explained in detail which I could not see and could not catch it all, but I did ask David Sciarra if it would be posted online and he said it would be on their website. I would suggest that you look at it because it was quite interesting. The spending adequacy in current year shows 72% are being educated in districts that are defined as being under adequacy. Mr. Wyns stated that if fully funded most districts after 3 years would be in adequacy. See Mr. Wyns' certification with some of the data, but not the Powerpoint.
The other thing in the SFRA statue I found interesting is “The Constitution of the State of New Jersey states that the Legislative shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the state between the ages of Five and Eighteen years'. The State must provide, and they have a Moral Obligation to ensure, that children in Public Schools have a thorough and efficient education with resources to make them productive members of society. Well they failed. Our children are not getting what they are supposed to be getting under the current budget and may not get it with the proposed budget for next year. The State has not even provided all the necessary resources that kids need to pass the test that they have imposed. What is wrong with this picture?
I am rooting for our children.
SFRA (School Funding Reform Act) is a statute and as I was reading the statute I found this to be particularly interesting: “The State in addition to any constitution mandates , has a moral obligation to ensure that New Jersey’s children, wherever they reside, are provided the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed any school funding formula should provide, resources in a manner that optimizes the likelihood that children will receive an education that will make them productive members of society”. It seems to me that the State has been failing our children for a long time. Since the beginning of this trial I have heard testimonies over and over on how the lack of funding has hurt children across the State of New Jersey.
For example, Mr. Wyns testified today that Trenton was above adequacy in funding in 09-10. Now with the current level of funding, it is below adequacy. The districts with the highest At-Risk students lost the most in state aid. Mr. Wyns had a power point that he explained in detail which I could not see and could not catch it all, but I did ask David Sciarra if it would be posted online and he said it would be on their website. I would suggest that you look at it because it was quite interesting. The spending adequacy in current year shows 72% are being educated in districts that are defined as being under adequacy. Mr. Wyns stated that if fully funded most districts after 3 years would be in adequacy. See Mr. Wyns' certification with some of the data, but not the Powerpoint.
The other thing in the SFRA statue I found interesting is “The Constitution of the State of New Jersey states that the Legislative shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the state between the ages of Five and Eighteen years'. The State must provide, and they have a Moral Obligation to ensure, that children in Public Schools have a thorough and efficient education with resources to make them productive members of society. Well they failed. Our children are not getting what they are supposed to be getting under the current budget and may not get it with the proposed budget for next year. The State has not even provided all the necessary resources that kids need to pass the test that they have imposed. What is wrong with this picture?
I am rooting for our children.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Clifton Superintendent Richard Tardalo On Hot Seat
The continuation of the hearing on Thursday Feb. 24th started with Judge Peter Doyne summerizing the State's major elements of proof which include:
ELC went on to question every single cut the district had to make, especially since the community rejected the proposed budget to include a 4% tax levy in response to the state's budget cuts. Mr. Tardalo noted that through negotiations, the City Council only permited a 1.3$ tax levy which prompted the cuts he was trying to avoid such as:
Judge Doyne finalized the questioning with asking if the superintendent had the additional monies that were cut, how would he have used said money to help the District? Mr. Tardalos response was that he would place more Basic Skills Instruction and Saturday Programs. His supervisors and media services would not have been let go. Over all most of the programs would not have been altered.
At this point, the Deputy Attorney General Jon Martin began to question the witness and focused on pointing out what positions the Superintendent did have available to him from his 1400 employees, 900 certified staff, 180 teacher aides and para professionals which Mr. Tardalo was asked to elaborate the roles and costs of various positions. He consistently alluded to teacher negotiations and evaluations. Mr. Tardalo chose not to speak on the issue consider the hearing was a public forum and discussing his views on the matter may affect negotiations down the road. As the state continued to question Mr. Tardalo, he always found his way back to teacher efficiency and evaluation, of which Mr. Tardalo would repeat his refusal to comment.
Judge Doyne tried to get around this issue with asking if as an educator, did he agree that there can be a improved performance of our students if our schools were readily able to discharge the 5-8% least capable teacher? What has happened in the past when you try to fire such a teacher? Mr. Tardalo responded that there are some things that can be done like refusing to provide promotion or raises but firing a teacher can be a very costly issues. So Judge Doyne asked whether the reason why discharging a teacher due to poor student performance was not on the table at the moment because of cost? Again, the superintendent could not answer due to the aforementioned limitation of upcoming contract negotiations.
The state continued their line of questioning to note that some of their issues such as increasing class size was happening before the current budget cuts and ultimately making the case that Clifton is an efficient district but there are still areas it can manage with less money.
For Friday Feb. 25th, Melvin L. Wyns will be the only witness called. The hearding will begin at 10 a.m. He is an expert in New Jersey public school finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001).
- Inefficient Time to show proof that the education budget cuts has not hindered the "through and efficient clause"
- Due to economic crisis, cuts were equitable throughout all districts
- Sufficient funds per district to manage itself accordingly
- Federal funding is considered as appropriate alleviation of the budget cuts
- There is little connection between Performance and Funding
ELC went on to question every single cut the district had to make, especially since the community rejected the proposed budget to include a 4% tax levy in response to the state's budget cuts. Mr. Tardalo noted that through negotiations, the City Council only permited a 1.3$ tax levy which prompted the cuts he was trying to avoid such as:
- Supervisors
- Media specialists
- Professional Developent
- Literacy series
- Math series
- Pay freezes, even for the Superintendent, who contractually did not have to take a pay freeze but opted to do so
- Cut freshmen athletic teams and some intermural programs
- Significant increase of class size
- And much more
Judge Doyne finalized the questioning with asking if the superintendent had the additional monies that were cut, how would he have used said money to help the District? Mr. Tardalos response was that he would place more Basic Skills Instruction and Saturday Programs. His supervisors and media services would not have been let go. Over all most of the programs would not have been altered.
At this point, the Deputy Attorney General Jon Martin began to question the witness and focused on pointing out what positions the Superintendent did have available to him from his 1400 employees, 900 certified staff, 180 teacher aides and para professionals which Mr. Tardalo was asked to elaborate the roles and costs of various positions. He consistently alluded to teacher negotiations and evaluations. Mr. Tardalo chose not to speak on the issue consider the hearing was a public forum and discussing his views on the matter may affect negotiations down the road. As the state continued to question Mr. Tardalo, he always found his way back to teacher efficiency and evaluation, of which Mr. Tardalo would repeat his refusal to comment.
Judge Doyne tried to get around this issue with asking if as an educator, did he agree that there can be a improved performance of our students if our schools were readily able to discharge the 5-8% least capable teacher? What has happened in the past when you try to fire such a teacher? Mr. Tardalo responded that there are some things that can be done like refusing to provide promotion or raises but firing a teacher can be a very costly issues. So Judge Doyne asked whether the reason why discharging a teacher due to poor student performance was not on the table at the moment because of cost? Again, the superintendent could not answer due to the aforementioned limitation of upcoming contract negotiations.
The state continued their line of questioning to note that some of their issues such as increasing class size was happening before the current budget cuts and ultimately making the case that Clifton is an efficient district but there are still areas it can manage with less money.
For Friday Feb. 25th, Melvin L. Wyns will be the only witness called. The hearding will begin at 10 a.m. He is an expert in New Jersey public school finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001).
Court Schedule for Friday, Feb. 25
On Friday, Melvin L. Wyns will be the only witness called. His testimony will begin at 10 a.m. He is an expert in New Jersey public school finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001).
Wednesday’s court session started by Judge Doyne asking for clarification on a few things from previous testimonies. State’s attorney did not do a good job in clarifying those issues and, in fact, Judge Doyne had to repeat the question a few times. Although Judge Doyne said he did not want to but had to agreed with David Sciarra on his comment about the lack of funding level and how it impacted the poorest districts. The reduction was done off the formula and was not consistent.
The first witness was Walt Whitaker, Superintendent of Buena Regional School District. This district was one of the 17 Rural Districts that brought a lawsuit against the State on the basis that rural school district suffered as must as urban school district. And listening to him talk about what they lost it sounded like a page from Paterson. They lost music and arts, technology and no world language for K-5. Mr. Whitaker gave a very detailed and lengthy breakdown of his district and what they lost.
Mr. Frederick Jacobs was the attorney doing the questioning because he was one of the attorneys involved with the lawsuit. There were a few times that Judge Doyne had to stop him because he kept bringing up NCLB but he did say he would allow it if he could tie it into SFRA. Judge Doyne asking the State if they had any objections and they did not. At times it seemed that Judge Doyne asked more questions and did more objections than either side. So with that being said I hope that Judge Doyne do the right thing by All Our Children.
The first witness was Walt Whitaker, Superintendent of Buena Regional School District. This district was one of the 17 Rural Districts that brought a lawsuit against the State on the basis that rural school district suffered as must as urban school district. And listening to him talk about what they lost it sounded like a page from Paterson. They lost music and arts, technology and no world language for K-5. Mr. Whitaker gave a very detailed and lengthy breakdown of his district and what they lost.
Mr. Frederick Jacobs was the attorney doing the questioning because he was one of the attorneys involved with the lawsuit. There were a few times that Judge Doyne had to stop him because he kept bringing up NCLB but he did say he would allow it if he could tie it into SFRA. Judge Doyne asking the State if they had any objections and they did not. At times it seemed that Judge Doyne asked more questions and did more objections than either side. So with that being said I hope that Judge Doyne do the right thing by All Our Children.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Court Schedule for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (2/23-2/25)
Education Law Center will begin to call witnesses on Wednesday. Walt Whitaker, Superintendent of Buena Regional School District, is scheduled to testify at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. On Thursday, Richard Tardalo, Superintendent of Clifton Public Schools, will testify at 9 a.m.
On Friday, Melvin L. Wyns, an expert in New Jersey public school finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001), is expected to testify.
The Thursday and Friday schedules are still tentative, and additional witnesses may be called. Court may be in session on Saturday. Check back for more information.
On Friday, Melvin L. Wyns, an expert in New Jersey public school finance and a former Director of the NJ Department of Education’s Office of School Finance (1988-2001), is expected to testify.
The Thursday and Friday schedules are still tentative, and additional witnesses may be called. Court may be in session on Saturday. Check back for more information.
Monday 2/21 proceedings
Six inches of snow didn't stop the court proceedings as the State rested its case.
Thanks to John Mooney of NJ Spotlight for the coverage: find his article here.
ELC begins its case on Wednesday, 2/23.
Thanks to John Mooney of NJ Spotlight for the coverage: find his article here.
ELC begins its case on Wednesday, 2/23.
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