Tonight's Middletown Board of Education voter referendum passed by a resounding margin.
Yes - 2951 71.82% No - 1158 28.18%
The election results can be view on the Monmouth County Clerk's website... HERE
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
You can always rely on the uninformed voter to fall for such scare tactics as, 'one or done' and 'critical'
Regardless, when the board elections are held, the Board of Education members up for reelection will have to defend this need and having never mentioned it prior to the referendum. Not a one should be reelected
Because the BOE handles far more of our tax dollars and is responsible for the education of every child in Middletown, far more qualifications should be required and researched before a vote is cast for any individual seeking election to the BOE.
An uninformed voter and an ethically challenged BOE member are threats to the quality of education in this town.We can certainly improve on the participation of voters and the worthiness of those who serve.
Whenever and wherever control of money is involved, the temptation to interfere is difficult to resist for the political hacks in this town. There are times this has been problematic.
Now it is time to be vigilant and concerned that the money is managed properly and that is used for exactly the purpose for which it was approved.
It seems only 8% of eligible voters in Middletown voted. Apathy, coupled with little promotion of the vote and limited voting hours, continues to be a big problem for our town.
No one should kid themselves here, the BOE got just what it wanted when the scheduled this referendum. They wanted a low voter turnout to ensure that the referendum was past. There was no need to spend money on a referendum when a question could have been placed on the June primary or November general election ballot. The BOE didn't do this because the increased voter turnout for those elections would have spelled doom for the referendum.
I am surprised you would say something so ignorant Mike. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of passing this referendum because it made sense.
It was over 70% in favor of passing the referendum. You didn't know a darn thing about this less than a week ago. Just a day before the vote, on Monday, you asked two of the most basic questions that 5 minutes on the district website would have answered for you.
Now you are complaining? How many BOE meetings do you attend? Have you been to any since they tried to boot the Harmony principal? Can you name the BOE members without a scorecard? Do you know who is a shill for the MTEA? Do you know which ones always vote together?
You are no different than the other posters here who don't participate, have zero idea what is going on but still manage to find things to complain about. And apparently your opinion is worth as much as theirs.
You want them to wait until November? Why? If they waited until November the work couldn't begin on the roofs until the spring of 2015, a year from now. Meanwhile the damage from water continues to pile up and we would have to spend more money to make interim repairs. Now that it passed the work can begin this summer.
You're right, the BOE got what they wanted because it was the smart thing to do. And the vast majority of the people who cared enough about it to vote agreed with them.
I agree Mike and WELL said. We need to get more parents involved and starting questioning the BOE more. I wish Linda Baum would turn her attentions to this group.
Hold on here and lets' get a few things straight as you are wrong on multiple things.
1.The BOE did not need to spend money on this election but did so because statistically, March referendums have a higher chance of passing.
2.We heard nothing of the 'critical' nature of schools until January and the referendum was sprung on the people. If the schools were in fact 'in a critical state' show where this was discussed in the BOE minutes prior to January. None of the roofs are collapsing and none of the damaged areas were critical PER THE ARCHITECT
3.The website information is appallingly lacking so you cannot fault anyone for not being sure.
4.Nothing in this referendum will fix what will be a critical issue in that we have too many kids in some schools. Why couldn't they add more to the referendum to include some construction or something to fix this issue? We did hear 'scheduling' so you can only imagine what that is going to entail.
5.The presentations were filled with blatant lies to get people's emotions up like, 'rates are not staying low', 'if you care about the kids', 'if it doesn't pass the money goes to other districts', oh there were plenty
6.all repairs were being done in the budget so there was no need for this referendum and the referendum
7.You say the BOE did a good job. Are you insane with that comment? No one should think that never hearing about 'critical issues' until less than 2 months before referendum vote is a BOE doing a good job.
8.The work would have gotten done regardless of the grants, IN THE BUDGET.
9.PTA's were sending emails in support to people within a week of hearing about the referendum. No one has a problem this? How could they know what the issues were a week after any public mention of a referendum?
The BOE used scare tactics and it worked. People should be ashamed for being so gullible and ignorant of what is in front of them.
Like someone said above, time to move more attention to what this group is doing and replace every one that comes up for reelection because in NO WAY SHOULD SCHOOLS GETTING THESE GRANTS BE A BADGE OF HONOR. THESE GRANTS VALIDATE THAT THE BOE HAS DONE A HORRIBLE JOB MANAGING OUR SCHOOLS.
To any BOE reading this, there were 1200 no votes and you better believe those 1200 want someone new now----tick tock tick tock till reelection because angry voters get out
I have no issues whatsoever with the referendum passing. I still have a son in the school system for the next 5 1/2 years and he will benefit just as everyone else will. My issue was with the process.
My statement was fact and historically holds true. How many residents ever voted in school board elections prior to moving the election to November this past year? About the same 8% or less of all eligible Middletown voters, that's who! The BOE did an excellent job of telling all the PTA moms, faculty and students that this election was important and was in every bodies best interest to support the referendum. If they risked holding the referendum in June or November the likelihood of it's passage wouldn't have been as great due to larger voter turnout.The BOE therefore would have had to do a better job at explaining to the general population why everything on the "wish" list needed to be done and by whom. It would have been a more transparent process.
When you spring this kind of information on people in February and expect them to make an informed decision in approx. 4 weeks without any kind of real information other than 1 sided propaganda, people tend to vote based on emotions rather than on informed opinions.
If the referendum had been placed on the June 3rd primary ballot the BOE would have still had plenty of time to start repairs, if they had all their ducks in a row. And if the referendum failed it could have been placed on the ballot again in November. It wouldn't have cost anything extra.
And for your information, yes I can name all the members of the BOE and who is the MTEA shill as you call them.
Anon 5:56 You are spreading the same misinformation virtually verbatim that someone called "MaverickMom" was spreading on Middletown Patch.
Let me pick one item rather than dignify all of them with a response. To suggest that there is $32 million in a budget of $150 million that could be used for these repairs is just as ridiculous as everything else you have been saying for weeks.
These repairs are going to be done over the next two years. In order to do this work "in budget" without the $32 million that we will get from the referendum we would have to fire about 175 teachers for those two years to have the money "in budget" to do the work.
Mike, I don't follow the TC as closely as I thought you did. But seeing how you are so willing to comment about things regarding the BOE with such authority when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about calls into question the things you say about the committee and frankly everything.
You, and everyone, had ample opportunity to find out anything you wanted to know about this referendum. You made zero effort until a week before the vote. How dare you accuse the administrators of "one sided propaganda" when you are too lazy to even find out what they were saying. Did you request an interview with Dr. George? Did you even bother to call central office with your questions that you posted here Monday?
There is no possible way that the work could have been completed this summer if they waited until June to have the referendum. Now that it has been approved the administrators must put out requests for bids. The bids must be prepared by the architects so the expensive process could not begin until the referendum was approved. Then, once the bids are received they must be reviewed, the contractors vetted and the board must vote to approve the contract. This process could take months. There is no way the work could have been completed this summer if the referendum was held in June.
Educate yourself Mike. You perform a disservice to our community when you spread misinformation like this. This is why people have such a negative opinion of our school administrators. People who don't know what they are talking about and make no effort to educate themselves put forth misinformation on the Internet and it gets repeated as if it were fact.
What about using deferred taxes to fund repairs in the future; or, use deferred taxes to pay down the debt associated with the bonds? The township committee takes anywhere from one million dollars to two million dollars a year from the taxes collected to fulfill BoE budget requirements -- this has been happening since at least 1998. It occurs because the township is on a January to December budget and the BoE is on a July to June budget. The township committee has legally taken well over $30 million from funds collected in the name of the BoE. I wonder if the BoE membership knows what deferred taxes are?
what you have said is absolutely false. There is so much wrong in what you posted I'm not sure where to begin. Which board member are you?
I love how extrapolate using 32million all at once in the 150million budget. Oh that is a good one.
Refute anything the other poster said if you can
There was not enough time to educate people on this referendum. From it's first public mention to the vote was less than 2 months. There were people in the Shoprite asking about the referendum the week before the vote because they hadn't heard about it.
Again, refute anything the previous poster said if you can.
You are a great example of what someone said earlier by 'uninformed'
Are you actually saying we needed to pass this now so the work would be complete this summer? Here is what you said, 'There is no possible way that the work could have been completed this summer if they waited until June to have the referendum'
Let's face it, this BOE is inept or incompetent and make no excuses for them. In the last couple of years those who are and have been serving seem more interested in serving the politicians in this community than they are in serving to provide the best education for the children of this town.
Has BAM and their ilk been good for our school system and our kids ????
15 comments:
You can always rely on the uninformed voter to fall for such scare tactics as, 'one or done' and 'critical'
Regardless, when the board elections are held, the Board of Education members up for reelection will have to defend this need and having never mentioned it prior to the referendum. Not a one should be reelected
Because the BOE handles far more of our tax dollars and is responsible for the education of every child in Middletown, far more qualifications should be required and researched before a vote is cast for any individual seeking election to the BOE.
An uninformed voter and an ethically challenged BOE member are threats to the quality of education in this town.We can certainly improve on the participation of voters and the worthiness of those who serve.
Whenever and wherever control of money is involved, the temptation to interfere is difficult to resist for the political hacks in this town. There are times this has been problematic.
Now it is time to be vigilant and concerned that the money is managed properly and that is used for exactly the purpose for which it was approved.
It seems only 8% of eligible voters in Middletown voted. Apathy, coupled with little promotion of the vote and limited voting hours, continues to be a big problem for our town.
No one should kid themselves here, the BOE got just what it wanted when the scheduled this referendum. They wanted a low voter turnout to ensure that the referendum was past. There was no need to spend money on a referendum when a question could have been placed on the June primary or November general election ballot. The BOE didn't do this because the increased voter turnout for those elections would have spelled doom for the referendum.
I am surprised you would say something so ignorant Mike. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of passing this referendum because it made sense.
It was over 70% in favor of passing the referendum. You didn't know a darn thing about this less than a week ago. Just a day before the vote, on Monday, you asked two of the most basic questions that 5 minutes on the district website would have answered for you.
Now you are complaining? How many BOE meetings do you attend? Have you been to any since they tried to boot the Harmony principal? Can you name the BOE members without a scorecard? Do you know who is a shill for the MTEA? Do you know which ones always vote together?
You are no different than the other posters here who don't participate, have zero idea what is going on but still manage to find things to complain about. And apparently your opinion is worth as much as theirs.
You want them to wait until November? Why? If they waited until November the work couldn't begin on the roofs until the spring of 2015, a year from now. Meanwhile the damage from water continues to pile up and we would have to spend more money to make interim repairs. Now that it passed the work can begin this summer.
You're right, the BOE got what they wanted because it was the smart thing to do. And the vast majority of the people who cared enough about it to vote agreed with them.
I agree Mike and WELL said. We need to get more parents involved and starting questioning the BOE more. I wish Linda Baum would turn her attentions to this group.
anon 5:56
Hold on here and lets' get a few things straight as you are wrong on multiple things.
1.The BOE did not need to spend money on this election but did so because statistically, March referendums have a higher chance of passing.
2.We heard nothing of the 'critical' nature of schools until January and the referendum was sprung on the people. If the schools were in fact 'in a critical state' show where this was discussed in the BOE minutes prior to January. None of the roofs are collapsing and none of the damaged areas were critical PER THE ARCHITECT
3.The website information is appallingly lacking so you cannot fault anyone for not being sure.
4.Nothing in this referendum will fix what will be a critical issue in that we have too many kids in some schools. Why couldn't they add more to the referendum to include some construction or something to fix this issue? We did hear 'scheduling' so you can only imagine what that is going to entail.
5.The presentations were filled with blatant lies to get people's emotions up like, 'rates are not staying low', 'if you care about the kids', 'if it doesn't pass the money goes to other districts', oh there were plenty
6.all repairs were being done in the budget so there was no need for this referendum and the referendum
7.You say the BOE did a good job. Are you insane with that comment? No one should think that never hearing about 'critical issues' until less than 2 months before referendum vote is a BOE doing a good job.
8.The work would have gotten done regardless of the grants, IN THE BUDGET.
9.PTA's were sending emails in support to people within a week of hearing about the referendum. No one has a problem this? How could they know what the issues were a week after any public mention of a referendum?
The BOE used scare tactics and it worked. People should be ashamed for being so gullible and ignorant of what is in front of them.
Like someone said above, time to move more attention to what this group is doing and replace every one that comes up for reelection because in NO WAY SHOULD SCHOOLS GETTING THESE GRANTS BE A BADGE OF HONOR. THESE GRANTS VALIDATE THAT THE BOE HAS DONE A HORRIBLE JOB MANAGING OUR SCHOOLS.
To any BOE reading this, there were 1200 no votes and you better believe those 1200 want someone new now----tick tock tick tock till reelection because angry voters get out
Anon 5:56,
I have no issues whatsoever with the referendum passing. I still have a son in the school system for the next 5 1/2 years and he will benefit just as everyone else will. My issue was with the process.
My statement was fact and historically holds true. How many residents ever voted in school board elections prior to moving the election to November this past year? About the same 8% or less of all eligible Middletown voters, that's who! The BOE did an excellent job of telling all the PTA moms, faculty and students that this election was important and was in every bodies best interest to support the referendum. If they risked holding the referendum in June or November the likelihood of it's passage wouldn't have been as great due to larger voter turnout.The BOE therefore would have had to do a better job at explaining to the general population why everything on the "wish" list needed to be done and by whom. It would have been a more transparent process.
When you spring this kind of information on people in February and expect them to make an informed decision in approx. 4 weeks without any kind of real information other than 1 sided propaganda, people tend to vote based on emotions rather than on informed opinions.
If the referendum had been placed on the June 3rd primary ballot the BOE would have still had plenty of time to start repairs, if they had all their ducks in a row. And if the referendum failed it could have been placed on the ballot again in November. It wouldn't have cost anything extra.
And for your information, yes I can name all the members of the BOE and who is the MTEA shill as you call them.
First time ever we have seen eye to eye!
Anon 5:56
You are spreading the same misinformation virtually verbatim that someone called "MaverickMom" was spreading on Middletown Patch.
Let me pick one item rather than dignify all of them with a response. To suggest that there is $32 million in a budget of $150 million that could be used for these repairs is just as ridiculous as everything else you have been saying for weeks.
These repairs are going to be done over the next two years. In order to do this work "in budget" without the $32 million that we will get from the referendum we would have to fire about 175 teachers for those two years to have the money "in budget" to do the work.
Mike, I don't follow the TC as closely as I thought you did. But seeing how you are so willing to comment about things regarding the BOE with such authority when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about calls into question the things you say about the committee and frankly everything.
You, and everyone, had ample opportunity to find out anything you wanted to know about this referendum. You made zero effort until a week before the vote. How dare you accuse the administrators of "one sided propaganda" when you are too lazy to even find out what they were saying. Did you request an interview with Dr. George? Did you even bother to call central office with your questions that you posted here Monday?
There is no possible way that the work could have been completed this summer if they waited until June to have the referendum. Now that it has been approved the administrators must put out requests for bids. The bids must be prepared by the architects so the expensive process could not begin until the referendum was approved. Then, once the bids are received they must be reviewed, the contractors vetted and the board must vote to approve the contract. This process could take months. There is no way the work could have been completed this summer if the referendum was held in June.
Educate yourself Mike. You perform a disservice to our community when you spread misinformation like this. This is why people have such a negative opinion of our school administrators. People who don't know what they are talking about and make no effort to educate themselves put forth misinformation on the Internet and it gets repeated as if it were fact.
What about using deferred taxes to fund repairs in the future; or, use deferred taxes to pay down the debt associated with the bonds? The township committee takes anywhere from one million dollars to two million dollars a year from the taxes collected to fulfill BoE budget requirements -- this has been happening since at least 1998. It occurs because the township is on a January to December budget and the BoE is on a July to June budget.
The township committee has legally taken well over $30 million from funds collected in the name of the BoE.
I wonder if the BoE membership knows what deferred taxes are?
@ anon 5:57
what you have said is absolutely false. There is so much wrong in what you posted I'm not sure where to begin. Which board member are you?
I love how extrapolate using 32million all at once in the 150million budget. Oh that is a good one.
Refute anything the other poster said if you can
There was not enough time to educate people on this referendum. From it's first public mention to the vote was less than 2 months. There were people in the Shoprite asking about the referendum the week before the vote because they hadn't heard about it.
Again, refute anything the previous poster said if you can.
@anon 9:57
You are a great example of what someone said earlier by 'uninformed'
Are you actually saying we needed to pass this now so the work would be complete this summer? Here is what you said, 'There is no possible way that the work could have been completed this summer if they waited until June to have the referendum'
WOW
Let's face it, this BOE is inept or incompetent and make no excuses for them. In the last couple of years those who are and have been serving seem more interested in serving the politicians in this community than they are in serving to provide the best education for the children of this town.
Has BAM and their ilk been good for our school system and our kids ????
so anon 5:56, we're waiting
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