Bernards Students & Parents Pay The Price When Resources Are Mismanaged: Letter

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Lawrence Rascio, a candidate running for the Bernards Township Board Of Education, wrote this letter to the editor:

The current Bernards Township Board of Education and Administration has a perception problem. When challenged on publicly available financial information they instinctively perceive it as a threat and invariably take a defensive posture. Why? What are they hiding? What are they incapable of explaining? Their proxies will say publicly of those who ask legitimate questions, "well they've never worked in a school system, so they have no idea how to run a school". That sounds good until one considers that Section D of the Code of Ethics for NJ School Board Members which states "I will carry out my responsibility, not to administer the schools, but, together with my fellow board members, to see that they are well run." In other words, it’s not the Board’s job to run the schools but make sure the schools are well run. It doesn't take a master’s in education or any field to recognize inefficiency, financial irresponsibility, and a lack of accountability. In fact, recognizing and eliminating these is necessary for the financial survival of any entity whether it be a Fortune 500 Company, or a lemonade stand.

Recently, the Bernard’s Board of Ed approved a $111 million dollar budget marking a significant increase from just two years ago. During the public budget hearings, a long serving Board Member, Ms. Gray asked another Board Member, "What would you propose forgoing? Because that's the hard part. It's easy to sit here and say that but what should we cut? Which class? Which teacher? Which program? I'm very curious."

Ms. Gray's statement offers a clear and disturbing look into how the current Board Of Education thinks. Her statement implies that cuts could only come from areas that directly affect the students. "Which class" "which teacher" "which program"? I'd like to help satisfy Ms. Gray's curiosity by asking some of the same questions I asked back in April:

Why is our median teacher's salary just $1,000 above the state median of $72,500 while our senior administration salaries average $43,600 or 30% above the state median for equivalent positions?

Why do our administrators and supervisors’ salaries rank so high compared to state medians while our teachers rank 293rd?

Why since 2019 have administrators’ salaries and benefits accounted for over 47% of the increase in cost per pupil while classroom instruction has accounted for only 14%? Is it costing us more to educate our kids because our administrators are demanding more compensation?

Why would the Board Of Education and Administration spend $40,000 on a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant when that money would go a long way in hiring an additional Special Ed aide which we’ve recently learned is needed due to an unexpected uptick in special needs registration this fall? DEI certainly has merit but not at the expense of maintaining a top level Special Ed program.

Do we need 2 assistant superintendents with one earning $206,000 per year and the other $187,000 despite declining enrollment? Wasn’t Bernards a higher ranked and better performing school district with roughly 15% more students back in 2015 before we hired a second assistant superintendent?

Why do we have a vice principal for every grade from 6 through 12 each making on average $140,000 or approximately $8,000 more than the state median. Bernard’s employs 7 more assistant principals than the number one school district in the state (Millburn) despite them having 2 more schools than us?

Why are rank and file teaching positions the only ones at risk for termination as enrollment declines?

Why do we spend $1.2m more per year than Millburn on Administrators' salaries DESPITE them having 2 more schools than us? Perhaps that factors in to their ability to pay their teachers on average 20K more than ours?

Why would the district hire a full-time HVAC technician for over $100,000 per year plus benefits? Without even seeing the numbers I can tell you that is an irresponsible long term financial decision. The long term cost of this hire will reach into the multiple millions over time. So rather than reintroduce Mandarin as a foreign language, a skill that would undoubtedly better prepare our students for the challenges they’ll face in the future, the Board and Administration decided not to contract out the HVAC repair work?

The current BOE should be held accountable for creating an overstaffed and overpaid administrative staff. This is not a question about spending money or even the size of the budget; everyone knows it takes significant money to maintain a stellar school system. This is a question of whether the money is being spent wisely. Of course the District needs to retain and maintain a best in class Administration just as any company needs to hire and retain top level managers in order to be successful. By reprioritizing our spending we can have more money for academics and the special needs of our children as well as for athletics, music, drama, the arts and improved teacher pay. There is an undeniable correlation between Bernards being the only district in the area with such a top-heavy management structure and being the only district in the area where the girls ‘softball team has no field.

Services and facilities can certainly be improved with better allocation of resources. It’s not complicated, the school district is no different than any other $111,000,000 corporation. Every corporation has a corporate structure which includes a CEO (Markarian) that reports to a Board of Directors (the BOE) to whom the CEO reports to. It is always the Board’s job to hold management accountable and make sure they’re acting in the best interest of its shareholders (parents and students). Unfortunately, the current Board Of Education has little to no real world business acumen and as a result serves as nothing more than a rubber stamp for the administration. Unless this changes Bernard’s Township will lose its greatest asset, the quality of its schools.

— Larry Rascio