Voters Interviewed at Polls Split on School Budget

Paramus voters hit the polls Wednesday to decide the fate of a and to select for the Board of Education.

Voters were mixed in their support of the budget.

Some, like Cathy and Jim Smith, felt the Paramus school district was a good place to spend the money.

"It's a good school system," Jim Smith said outside of . "Our kids all went through it."

Others, like Anne and Tony Szabo, who have lived in Paramus for 35 years, felt the budget was too high. Tony Szabo said costs had spiraled higher over the past few years.

Amit Saha, who voted at , called the budget "overblown."

"$79 million—$15,751 per student," he said. "It's too high an expense."

Naturally, those who were concerned about the size of the budget said they were looking for candidates who would control costs. Wendy Grabowski, who has lived in Paramus for 35 years, said she hoped the Board of Education would strike a balance.

"Hopefully they'll keep the budget down but take care of the kids and see that they really get the good education they deserve," she said. 

Grabowski said the taxes resulting from the school budget were especially burdensome for seniors, whom she said were struggling to stay afloat financially. But not all seniors opposed the budget. Joseph Fried, who has been a Paramus resident for 50 years, said it was important to keep funding the school system.

But while he was in favor of the budget, he hoped the newly elected Board would be responsible stewards of the money.

"I hope that the people that are going to be on the Board won't just grab the money and spend it because they have it," Fried said.

The budget isn't the Board of Education's only responsibility. This year, they'll also have to select a replacement for James Montesano, the Paramus superintendent who is leaving for the Nyack, N.Y., school district at the end of June.

Mario Sicari, a former Board of Education Trustee, said Montesano would be hard to replace.

"The Board of Education is going to have a really tough time finding a qualified person because of the mandatory caps that the governor put on," he said. "The field is thin as it stands and it's just going to make it more difficult. It was difficult three years ago when we found Dr. Montesano and I can imagine it's only going to be more difficult now."

The specter of the governor, who is pushing for broad reforms in education policy, hung over many Paramus voters. 

The Smiths, who oppose Gov. Chris Christie's reforms, thought passing the budget would serve as a retort to the governor.

"If all the budgets pass, that'll send him a message," Cathy Smith said.

For John Ten Hoeve, the Board of Education's responsibility moving forward would be to challenge any state attempts to dilute the quality of education in Paramus.

Ten Hoeve, a former teacher, called education an important national issue.

"The United States, every statistic you read, we're falling behind year by year by year in terms of our international competitive level," he said. "And where are you going to change that? You're going to change that at the local level. To start, that's where you're going to change it. And you're going to change it by doing whatever you can to improve the quality of the education in town."