Resident wants BOE to show plan was carried out

'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Maybe. But when your tax dollars are paying for the "gift," a look to see what you're getting is a good idea.

The East Brunswick Board of Education says the 2009-10 budget will not raise property taxes. Let's look. What is already in place is wasteful and could be cut to reduce taxes.

Inter-office mail is delivered by staff driving small school buses. A bus for one or two people and two dozen large folders. If the reason is to get more use out of the buses, implying a lot of idle time, maybe purchase of the buses was a mistake. Fix it. Use the buses for students, or sell them and contract out the service and use a more fuel-efficient vehicle for mail delivery.

How does a sub-zero refrigerator/ freezer and an expanded, renovated lunchroom in the Board of Education building benefit the students? All schools already have kitchen facilities. Why not use them more efficiently instead of delivering lunches? How many trucks will be needed for that? The schools each serve in several shifts, (Chittick serves three). Will there be three deliveries, or will the food sit from first to last?

How will eliminating preventive maintenance save money in the long run?

Common sense says that you pay for maintenance to prevent a large expenditure later. Common sense also says that when you own a house, you know that sooner or later it will need major work. When it does, do you contact your neighbors and say: "I just remodeled my kitchen and bought a new car. Now I need a new roof, and I need you all to give me money so I can pay for it."? I don't, you don't, the board does.

A few years ago the budget was defeated and the Township Council ordered a $2 million cut. The following spring, Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro spoke at a PTA meeting and said that the cut saved each family about $5, and as the items were necessary and would appear in a future budget, taxpayers hadn't saved anything at all.

The final irony is that while the budget is available for public scrutiny, the financial reports are not. In my opinion, the board is the most publicly held "company" there is and should be required to provide financial data to the "stockholders" (taxpayers).

Ask me to vote yes for any future budget after you show me that the plan was in fact carried out.
Taryn Zelesny
East Brunswick