Just a Reminder - Deadline for Moving Edison School Board Election Back to April - January 21, 2019!

Well, appreciate all the discussion going on between the Council and School Board Committees' about moving the school board elections back to April but time is running out if they want to make the change.

Looks like a resolution must be passed after the November 2018 election and before the 2019 deadline discussed in the paragraph below.

Although N.J.S.A. 19:60-1.1 (c) provides no statutory deadline for the date of the resolution, if the 2019 school election will be moved from November (2019) to April (2019), written notice of the change in the school election date must be given to the county clerk no less than 85 days prior to the third Tuesday in April to take effect for the 2019 election. For 2019, the 85th day prior to the third Tuesday in April is January 21, 2019.

Seems with school budgets now exceeding $250 million for which we, the taxpayers, pay some 90% of the total bill - that we should have the right to vote on these budgets. This doesn’t even include the Lease purchase agreements they enter into that go around voter approval for capital additions, the ability to automatically raise the tax up to the 2% cap (when they’re not eating into the cap bank) which just allows them to carry forward exponentially the spending inefficiencies in their budgets, the unwillingness to provide info against the budget for staffing which results in this staffing shell-game where they hire non- budgeted staff and hide it from public view in their public budgets, their constantly hoarding state aid meant for tax relief and then there’s their inability to be open and transparent with the public about what they’re doing with all that money.

And yes, the current board members would see their terms shortened if we move the elections back to April - however, seems only fair since the board members who were on when we moved the elections to November saw their terms extended to accommodate the change. Didn't seem to concern anyone at the time.

And really, do we want to believe that the inconvenience to a few board members outweighs the benefits to all the People of Edison of having a say in $250+ million annual School Budgets?

So, with all due respect to the Council and Board of Education Committees', time to make a decision one way or the other and not let politics get in the way of the January 21, 2019 deadline and therefore, deny the people of Edison a chance to have a say in these huge amounts of money being spent by the school district. 

From the NJDoE - Moving November Elections to April:

Anyhoo, here's a chance for the powers that be to do something right for the People of Edison - take it.

Edison Board of Mythomania's Merit Goals for Interim Super?!?

Well, as you can read in past blog posts about O'Malley's Merit Bonuses, not a big fan of the Board's 'Merit Bonuses' because the goals they use to set the bonuses are usually sophomoric and often less than substantive. 

Their qualitative goals are usually a hoot and just showing up for work will usually qualify. Throw in the fact that the Board mistakenly confuses giving bonuses for something that's part of the job you're hired to do - then you get the picture. 

Just sayin,' Merit Bonuses over there on Mythomania Lane - waste of taxpayer money and just a way to get around the Super Salary Cap.

Be that as it may, here's where you can see what the Board sent down to the County Super for approval of the Interims Merit Bonus for 2018-19 School Year. 

You can see the Interims Contract (signed in October, 2018) in the October 19, 2018 post.

It’s not that hard to figure out what the board did here. Looks like they simply took the max bonus 14.99% of his cap salary of $196,584 to get the $29,467.95. If history is any indication of the %’s used, then they used 3.33% for the quantitative goals and 2.5% for the qualitative goals. Assuming there are only 3 quantitative goals and 2 qualitative goals then the computer, language arts and math goals are each worth 3.33% of $196,584 or $6.546.25 and the referendum and security goals are each worth 2.50% of $196,584 or $4,914.60.

In sum, the quantitative goals are worth 9.99% of $196,584.00 or $19,638.75 and the qualitative goals are worth 5.0% or $9.829.20 - for a total of 14.99% or $29,467.95.

Of course, this raises questions about how these individual goals were weighed and where you draw the line between what’s part of the interim super’s job and what extraordinary effort rises to a level for a bonus. Arguably, like in the past, these merit goals seem more like a way to add to the salary cap rather than addressing the substantive issues facing the school district. 

So, that brings his total Salary and Bonus to $226,051.95 ($196,584.00 + 29,467.95) if he achieves all these goals in the time he has until June 30th.

Here's the numbers:

And here's the Merit Goals:

Anyhoo, it's just your money they're not adequately disclosing and informing you of in their December 2018 Action Meeting agenda.