March 19, 2006

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

We are asking for your attendance to stay plugged into the events impacting our community relating to public education.

Event: MarlboroCARES Meeting
Date:   Thurs., March 23, 2006
Time:   7:30 p.m.
Place:  Shimon Klein Residence 
            19 Jamie Ct Morganville
Guest: Honorary Guest Kevin Isreal (Chief of staff for Assemblywomen Jennifer Beck) 

Topic:

As you may well know the ’06-’07 school budget was presented by the Marlboro Superintendent of Schools, Dr. David Abbott, to the Town Council on March 2, just after the Board of Education tentatively adopted the budget on February 28 of this year. The highlights of this presentation are in short:
 
1. The projected assessment of student enrollment is expected to increase over the next five years to include some 700 more students over our current approximately 6,300 and so – more space is needed.

2. The school budget is expected to increase dramatically from last year – from approximately $69.2 million to approximately $74.76 million without accounting for “courtesy busing”

3. Courtesy busing is being presented as a second question in the budget to bring the projected budget under the maximum cap permissible by Trenton as “courtesy busing” is not one of the core budget requirements capped. Courtesy busing is defined as anyone requiring busing within two miles of school and impacting 40% of the overall student population of Marlboro.

What is a bit harder to find out is in fact what the details of the budget are and why they are increasing SO DRAMATICALLY year over year. The details are not on the Marlboro Board of Ed website, the Township website OR in the winter edition of School Notes. We regard this as yet another reason why MarlboroCARES must exist.

We know because we have been attending the public meetings that the main drivers behind these increases are clearly population growth, special needs costs, increased fuel costs, increased costs of teachers salaries and benefits and increased administrative costs. To understand these increases we must engage in direct dialogue with our elected officials on both the Board of Ed side AND on the township council/mayor/state assemblypersons.

We would like to share with you what we know so that you can be fully informed of the issues that you are being asked to vote on in April.

Joining us at this week’s meeting is a special guest -Chief of Staff for Assemblywomen Jennifer Beck’s office – Kevin Israel and we expect our usual participation from selected member of the Board of Education.

It is imperative that we come together as a community to make sure that our children receive the education that they deserve and that the welfare of our community is preserved.

Broader Agenda

1. What is MarlboroCARES ? (Eductional not-for-profit founded on building a forum for members to learn -- for the members to share the learning with the broader community and to come up with creative solutions to education challenges facing our community.

2. What is MarlboroCARES doing to make an immediate impact on our educational community?

A. Computers in the classroom
B. Autism walk within our community

3. April’s School Board Election and Budget Vote.

4. What were some of the issues that were discussed at Gov. Corzine Recent Budget Speech that will have a direct impact on our public schools? 

Please forward this email to your friends in the community. Please RSVP by email so that we can get an idea who will be in attendance and so that we can make necessary arrangements to accommodate everyone.