State senate challenger Mark Alexander believes the town's zero percent increase in state aid is unacceptable.
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Wednesday, March 6
The following letter was written by Mark Alexander, of Montclair. He is a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and current candidate for the New Jersey State Senate in the 34th District. Last week, the New Jersey Department of Education released State aid funding figures for school districts in the coming fiscal year. Overall, I was pleased to see Governor Chris Christie increase education funding by $97.3 million. Investing in our children is important, and I am glad the governor recognized the importance of giving our students all they need to succeed. However, I was dismayed that Montclair again received an overall zero percent increase in education aid. As I read this news as a father and taxpayer, I wondered, "Why we didn…
Here are the top stories in Montclair from this past week.
Montclair’s teachers union and school board are expected to resume contract negotiations Friday. The Board of Education accused the union of demanding excessive salary increases and an unsustainable contract for Montclair taxpayers Tuesday, the first day of a "work to contract" tactic in which teachers walked off school grounds at precisely 2:52 p.m., refusing to stay after hours. More than 250 Montclair teachers and other staffers packed into a tense and often raucous Board of Education meeting Monday night, as union officials said teachers would not perform any duties beyond the letter of their contract until a new deal is reached with the district. Montclair Police are looking for a 22-year-old resident who led officers on a car chase…
Local schools will get $6.5 million in state funding for the 2013-14 school year, the same amount it took in last year.
The Montclair school district will receive the same amount of state aid in 2013-14 as it did this year. Gov. Chris Christie’s office released the state aid figures for school districts in New Jersey for 2013-14 on Thursday afternoon, which included an increase of about $93 million from last year’s numbers. In what was widely anticipated by local school administrators, there will be no change in state aid next year. The Montclair school district will get $6.5 million in state aid for the 2013-14 school year. This figure includes $4.1 million for special education, $1.1 million in transportation aid and nearly $750,000 for security aid. The state aid will be factored into the district’s $111.5 million preliminary budget presented by …
What I See
9:08 pm on Saturday, March 9, 2013
Wow. The BOE has offered to cover the 17 aides whose COBRA is running out after 18 months. When my family had the option of paying COBRA after the BOE took away our medical insurance, it would have cost us approximately $1600 per month (which would have amounted to $28,000 for 18 months). Instead, we chose private insurance at $950 per month (a total of $17100 for the past year and one-half). The… more ›