Incumbents succeed, but school budget fails
BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer



ABERDEEN - The hotly contested $59 million Matawan-Aberdeen school budget was defeated by voters on April 18, making it the fifth-straight year the towns' governing bodies will review it and recommend cuts.

The proposed $59 million school budget would have hiked the tax rate 18.25 cents in Aberdeen and 15.69 cents in Matawan.

Though the budget was defeated by more than 660 votes, all three incumbents won re-election. Patricia Demarest and John Barbato defeated challenger Michael Vail for two open seats from the Aberdeen delegation of the Board of Education. Gerald Donaghue ran unopposed for one seat from Matawan.

Vail did not expect to win, but was pleased with the 946 votes he garnered, just 23 votes shy of Barbato. Vail said that he had hoped to win, but unseating Barbato, an incumbent with 14 years on the board, would have been a daunting task.

"The two incumbents I've faced, one of them has been on the board for 14 years," Vail said. "From an expectations standpoint you have to be reasonable."

Vail called the campaign a "tremendous learning experience," and one that he would like to do again, but said it was too early to tell if he would definitely run next year.

"You can't be out in front of people enough," Vail said of what he has learned about campaigning. "You have to be meeting people, talking to people, telling them what your plans are and what they need."

Vail said that he got into the race because he felt the budget process required someone with financial expertise. He said that the fifth-straight defeat shows that the public is sending a message to the board that they are not satisfied with their spending practices.

"I truly believe the public has no faith in the budget being put forth," Vail said.

He said that a good educational system is in the best interest of the entire community, but some attention needs to be paid to the taxpayers' needs as well. He said that this year's budget fell short of addressing the concerns of taxpayers not utilizing the school system.

Vail said he hopes to see the board work together better in the future, and that responsibility will fall squarely on whoever is chosen as board president.

Demarest won her second term on the board with 1,085 votes. She said she was grateful for all the voters who supported her on election day.

She plans to focus on the immediate issue of budget cuts that the Matawan and Aberdeen councils will make in the coming weeks to make sure that no cuts are made to school programming.

In that vein, Demarest wants to begin planning for next year, which includes a superintendent review process, setting board goals for the coming year and creating programs for students at risk of performing under potential.

Demarest said that a better working relationship with the state and more support from them for middle-income districts previously lost in the state aid shuffle should be paramount concerns for the board.

"These are tough times we live in," Demarest said. "I hope the Legislature hears the voices of the people. We are on the verge of change. I am confident they are going to start looking at the funding formula."

For now she will make the best of what the board has to work with.

"You can't be discouraged," Demarest said. "You have to put one foot in front of the other. I am happy for what we do have."

Though Barbato has sat on the board for 14 years, he said that it is always exciting on election day. He thanked the people of Aberdeen for his re-election.

"I am very thrilled and honored that the people of Aberdeen see fit to have me there for another three years," Barbato said.

Barbato said that he will focus on upgrading communication between the board and the public.

"The word doesn't get out on the good things that happen in the district," Barbato said. "We need to find better ways."

He would also like to focus on improving communication between the board and the parents in the district. Barbato wants them to feel comfortable approaching them.

Citing Superintendent Bruce Quinn's positive relationship with Matawan and Aberdeen's governing bodies, Barbato said he expected the upcoming budget discussions to be "amicable."

Barbato thanked the people who supported his campaign and re-elected him.

"I will continue to not let them down in that area," Barbato said.

Donaghue ran unopposed for his fourth term as part of the Matawan delegation on the board with 459 votes. He could not be reached for comment.

Vote of the people should stand when school budgets go down
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/23/06
Voters are fed up, defeating more school budgets - 256 - than have been defeated since 1994. Meanwhile, Gov. Corzine and members of the Legislature are stalling on property tax reform and making excuses.
Politicians set it up so your vote means nothing. Defeated school budgets can be reinstated by your municipal governing body. In the rare case the municipality agrees with voters, rejected budgets can be appealed to Trenton, which can overturn voters and municipalities.

Does it make sense our men and women in uniform are dying to establish democracies in foreign countries while in Jersey a legitimate vote of the people can be overturned by unelected bureaucrats you never heard of?

This also demonstrates what a crock home rule is. If there were any home rule, the vote of the people would stand. Home rule is a joke trotted out when political trough-swillers can't think of any legitimate reason to oppose changing the status quo that's making them rich.

School budgets always have items they can take out in case of defeat. They'll cut $1,000 from a $100 million budget and call it fixed. If your local government tries that stunt or if it overturns voters, take 'em out in the next election. The alternative is more taxes.

And send new blood to school boards. Incumbents ran unopposed too many times. These are the nimrods who ask for things like $340,000 to start a varsity ice hockey program and $5.8 million to install artificial turf at four high schools, as property owners are working two or more jobs and struggling to put food on the table and buy gas at around $3 a gallon.

The moronic hockey and turf proposal comes from the poster boy for wasted property tax, Burlington County's Lenape district. It's the one that spent $1.5 million on politically connected lawyers and more than $100,000 trying to keep secret what the lawyers did.

Since voters consistently say property taxes are the state's biggest problem, why isn't the Legislature working on it? Candidate Corzine talked about calling a special legislative session during his first 100 days. Didn't happen. The Big Excuse is the budget process. That's good until July 1 when the budget has to be in place. Will there be another excuse then?

As 101.5 FM radio newsman Kevin McArdle pointed out, there are 27 legislators on budget committees. That leaves 93 lawmakers who could be getting serious about property taxes. The best Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, could come up with is that lawmakers are meeting with constituents and getting an earful. Well, duh! He's been in Trenton since 1987.

And yet he and his cronies have to travel to find out we've had it with property taxes. Travel is easier for Roberts than you. He has a state car with gas and insurance paid for by taxpayers. His phony sincerity on serious issues like property taxes has worn thin. In his 19 years here, the problems have worsened while he feathered his nest and looked concerned.

Roberts, like many lawmakers, is in the pockets of party bosses and special interests like the teachers union, which is why nothing gets better. Gutless, all of 'em.

New definition: Used to be oligarchy best described New Jersey's political setup. That's rule by a few for their own advantage. Nowadays the collection of Trenton public trough-swillers can best be described as a kleptocracy. That's a government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.

Blogosphere: Starting today you can share opinions and see input from other readers about our wretched kleptocracy and the world in general. You asked for a Politics Patrol blog. You got it. It will be updated daily. The journey starts at this Web site: www.app.com.

Free at last: Tax Freedom Day is that date that marks the end of the time all of your income for the year goes to pay for federal, state and local taxes. This year it's April 26. Unless you live in the Kleptocracy of New Jersey, in which case it's May 6.

New Jersey workers have to put in more days to pay the extra taxes that come from living here, things like Joe Roberts' car and gas and insurance. With all the tax hikes Corzine and the Legislature are planning, next year it should fall about July 4 - which could be a positive thing, a reminder another revolution is called for.

ON THE WEB: To read and respond to Bob Ingle's blog, go to www.app.com and click on the Opinion section.


Bob Ingle is Trenton bureau chief for Gannett New Jersey newspapers. He can be reached via e-mail at bobingle@app.com and heard on New Jersey 101.5 FM radio at 5 p.m. Fridays.

Mat-Ab candidates list key issues in board race
BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer

Aberdeen
ABERDEEN - This year's candidates for the Matawan-Aberdeen Board of Education are looking to make finance and community involvement the core issues in the April 18 election.

Michael Vail, 37, is looking to unseat incumbents John Barbato, 50, and Patricia Demarest, 42, for spots on the Board of Education. Gerald Donaghue, of Matawan, is running unopposed.

John Barbato

Barbato has sat on the board for 14 years and said that he has been around long enough to know that the board must act as one unit and not have individual goals.

"Collectively we need to set those objectives," Barbato said. "Once we agree on these goals, we all need to be proponents of them."

He said that the board's main priority should be providing academic opportunity for the students, and the board, and the community should be proud of the results.

Barbato said that by changing around the schedule at Matawan Avenue Middle School, the district is able to provide more academically enriching programs without added expense to the taxpayer. He also cited adding additional enrichment and basic skills classes at the elementary schools among the board's achievements.

Barbato said he is above all most proud of the results new Principal Michael D'Anna has had on the high school.

"He set the tone for the direction of that high school," Barbato said. "The community is reacting so positively."

Community support is very important to Barbato.

"Parents need to feel their children are sage and in an environment conducive for learning," Barbato said.

On the whole, Barbato said that communication between the parents and the board is essential, and that the board should act as liaison between the administration and the public, saying that it "can always be done better."

"Our goal should always be as an extension of the community," Barbato said.

Being an "extension of the community" also means keeping tabs of the finances. Barbato said that means looking at spending in the district and dealing with the state.

"We should always be cognizant of how much it will cost," Barbato said in regards to budgeting. But he said that the state, which he and Donaghue petitioned years earlier for more funding, must find a better way to help districts like Matawan-Aberdeen.

"It has always been a bone of contention," Barbato said. "Something has to be done at the state to rectify it."

Patricia Demarest

Demarest is seeking her second term on the board and said that her main concern is the way the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has affected students most at risk of failure.

She said that she would like to fine tune some of the new programs in order to make sure that those students who are not doing as well as others are given better opportunity to excel. She said that NCLB focuses on the total number of students and not enough on those on the bottom tier of success.

Demarest also wants to promote greater levels of communication between the school and the parents. She suggested organizing workshops and more hands-on interaction between parents and students in school, such as parents coming into the classroom not just to observe their children but take part in their education.

It is all in an attempt to make education more of a priority in the home despite parent's busy lives.

"Life is busy," Demarest said. "If you don't stop and take a breath, time goes by and nothing gets done."

Demarest would also continue to make district finances a priority. She would like to see programs that create "positive cash flow," such as the privatizing of the cafeteria food that occurred recently. That move allowed enough money to be saved that the district purchased new cafeteria tables.

Demarest said that some of the new programs in the budget, such as the alternative school that is being proposed, would fall under positive cash flow because it allows other districts to pay for this service and save money for taxpayers because it is being handled in-house.

Demarest believes the board should put the hammer to the nail and get things done.

"People should stop complaining and put in programs that meet our programming needs and create cash flow," she said.

Demarest also has a plan to boost math skills by putting basic skills teachers into the regular classrooms to help students on a need-by-need basis instead of taking kids out of regular classes when they may only sometimes need basic skills. She feels that would be a way to allow basic-skills children the ability to catch up with the rest of the class.

Most of all, Demarest wants to create a climate conducive for education.

"Education is not like painting a house, where the next day, it looks beautiful," Demarest said. "It takes time for [programs] to bloom. I want to be there to fine tune them, and celebrate when we see the results."

Gerald Donaghue

Donaghue is running unopposed for his fourth term to fill one seat from the Matawan delegation to the board. His main concern is bringing back the human element into the school district and fostering it in students.

"I want to get kids more involved in the community," Donaghue said. "It will build up the kids' self-esteem, doing things for other people, if we can implement the human element a little more."

Donaghue said that outside elements have affected them more than previous generations citing security and a lack of state aid as large issues that affect every student across the board. As the chairman of the finance committee for his entire tenure on the board, Donaghue said that security measures in the schools are important as well.

He said that the district replaced old video cameras with new ones, increased outdoor lighting in parking lots and locked doors during school hours, all because the safety of the children is paramount.

"You don't want to fall asleep on anything," Donaghue said. "It's like drills - if you keep doing them every day, it becomes habit."

Donaghue wants kids to be able to be kids and make mistakes so that they learn from them.

"We have to remember we are dealing with kids and they are going to mess up," Donaghue said of the school's zero-tolerance policy. He said that he is not against it but feels that it does not always do the students justice.

"I just want to give the kids a chance," he said.

The other big issue is state aid, which has remained flat for several years. Donaghue feels that the state aid program, which was reconfigured in the early 1990s, made it harder for middle-income districts like Matawan-Aberdeen to keep up.

Donaghue said that when the state aid was changed, they began issuing money based on the affluence of particular ZIP codes. That would put the Matawan-Aberdeen District in the same financial bracket as more affluent towns like Lake Ridge and Cheesequake. Neither town pays into Matawan-Aberdeen, yet the state aid is the same.

"From jump street I think we got a raw deal," Donaghue said.

Donaghue said that the Abbott ruling hurt middle-income districts, essentially making state aid black and white. He would like the state to be more even.

"I don't see the consistency from the state," Donaghue said.

Michael Vail

Vail has two children in the district and is running for the first time for the school board.

Vail said that he would like to use his finance background to help create a more cost-effective budget, focusing on creative ways to save money. He said that he was not happy with the way the budget is put together, and feels that having someone on the board with a finance background would be an asset the board currently lacks.

Vail said he understood much of the budget is salary and benefits increases, but in terms of the discretionary spending, he feels the board can do more with less.

"I am not so sure how creative they are being in saving money," Vail said, adding that Aberdeen in particular is "a terribly expensive place to live."

If elected, Vail said that he would also like to curb poor academic performance early and fix it. This would mean a different approach of "being proactive in identifying weakness in academic performances earlier," he said.

Vail would also like to find ways to get the community more involved in the education of the students.

"We need to do a better job of enrolling the community in the process," Vail said.

In regards to the reason people are not involved, he said "I don't know if it is general apathy or helplessness."

The Board of Education elections will be held on April 18. Polls open at 1 p.m. and close at 9 p.m.

Field money could have been better spent elsewhere

While year after year, I have voted against the school budgets, I did this proudly as a taxpayer, parent, father of school-age children and the husband of a special education teacher. Why would the parent of a child in the Matawan-Aberdeen School District vote against the budget that helps educate his children? I did this proudly for all of the taxpayers without children and for those who cannot afford to live here due to the out-of-control school costs that are 65 percent of our tax bill.

On March 27, I attended the Board of Education meeting where I stayed just long enough to know that no matter what question I asked or statement I made as a taxpayer, resident or proud graduate of this same school district, the deck was stacked against fiscally responsible decisions. The overwhelming presence of athletic parents and intramural players, in their uniform shirts, was touching and an excellent pressure tactic.

The money to be spent in this district on a football field does not educate, and will similarly not increase our test scores, not stop or prevent school violence, not fix the computers that do not work properly or explain away the math scores, which have our school district now ranked below the state average. The $1.4-plus million dollar football field improvements were voted on improperly and under a fraud perpetrated on the taxpayers of Matawan and Aberdeen. This will be money spent without a full and complete explanation of the construction, possible hazards or future maintenance costs to even those board members who blindly approved it.

Irresponsible financial decisions have been prevalent in our district in the past with no official accountability. Let us review just a few examples - no one was held accountable when the restroom/snack bar at the high school football field had cost overruns, which brought the total of a seldom-used building to $500,000. When the 1993 referendum of $8 million tax-dollars funded only 75 percent of the proposed and promised renovations and programs, nobody knew because the board and both town councils kept it a secret from the public. Who approved a school name banner with columns at the front of the high school, which cost taxpayers $80,000? I am certain there were many such expenditures and vast monies wasted that, if properly checked, could have installed a new high-tech field at each and every school in the district.

If this Board of Education wants to keep up appearances with other districts, they should start with improving the test scores first.

Joseph P. McAleer

Aberdeen

The timing and costs were right to begin field upgrades
Guest Column
Bruce Quinn

The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional Board of Education has just entered into a lease-purchase agreement to provide repairs and upgrades to our high school athletic fields. Subsequently, there have been quotes made, articles written, letters to the editor and other comments against the decision for improvements to our athletic complex. It is evident that many misunderstandings need to be clarified.

The first misunderstanding is that we are spending $1.5 million on a football field. This is not accurate. The lease purchase covers a lot more than artificial turf. The first $300,000 is for the replacement of the track surface. The track repair project was approved two years ago by the Board of Education by a vote of 9-0. The entire board, then and now, understood and supported the need for this project. The surface of the track is now worn out. There are places where the surface is worn to the bare concrete below. Our two town councils authorized $125,000 for the track repairs in April 2004 after a second question was defeated. The project turned out to be quite more expensive and includes additional track areas like the long jump, triple jump and pole vault. This $125,000, previously authorized, is being re-appropriated into the budget to assist with paying for the first-year lease payment.

The lease purchase also includes lights for the main stadium. Most high schools have had lights or added lights so that more people can attend school sports events. We wish to provide our public and students with that same opportunity. In January, the full board voted 8-1 to approve the engineering specs and to receive bids to add lights to the stadium. The lease purchase includes $204,208 for the new lights.

Among the many reasons the current grass surface has failed at the stadium is that the underground systems have deteriorated. The drainage system and the water supply system both need to be replaced. The lease purchase also includes $210,261 for the repairs to the subsurface systems.

These figures are accurate because the board sought bids and has awarded contracts for these improvements. Between the track repairs, the subsurface repairs and the lights - all of which nearly all of the board approved - the total is $714,469.

A decision on how to repair or replace the field surface needed to be made. The board's facilities committee discussed this on numerous occasions and received information from our engineer on the matter, and unanimously agreed we had to do something for this fall. It was estimated it would cost $225,000 to install a new sod surface over the entire football field. The bid for a new artificial surface was $619,555.

The board voted 6-3 to proceed with the artificial surface. They did this because of several advantages. First of all, the artificial surface allows for the entire project to go into a lease purchase program. With low interest rates - locked in at 3.91 percent - the project cost can be spread out over five years. It will only cost $260,000 or 1 cent in this year's tax rate, for the entire project. That 1 cent goes to 1.2 cents for the next four years. A grass field could not be lease-purchased and the entire project would have had to be paid in this year's budget for 3.6 cents on the tax rate to cover the $939,469 cost.

If the board put in a grass field, all we could play on the field is the five varsity, five junior varsity and five freshman home football games for the school program. Our local Pop Warner football team also plays up to four home games on five Sundays during the fall. It is this amount of wear and tear that helps damage the surface. In wet weather - as we had this past fall - the damage is even greater. One only has to look at the new grass fields at Middletown North and St. John Vianney to see the kind of beating grass fields take.

On the other hand, a turf field will be lined for not only football but for soccer as well. We can play 10-12 varsity boys and 10-12 varsity girls soccer matches on the field with no worry about playing conditions. Our local soccer league can use the field for travel teams in the fall and spring or even for the older children's recreational program. Our band can be guaranteed hosting its competitions without fear that the field will be ruined from a football game. Therefore, playability was a major factor in the decision.

Finally, there is the issue of maintenance and repair. The turf field will cost the district only $2,500 per year to brush the surface to keep it in top shape. The field is guaranteed for eight years and is expected to last 15-20 years. A sod field will cost $45,000 a year to mow, line, seed, weed and fertilize. Sometime around the eighth to 10th year of use it is likely the entire sod surface will have to again be replaced from overuse.

So in the long term - as well as in the first year - it was a better financial decision to approve a turf surface. It is not a luxury, but a better solution for our students and our public. It is financially right and it allows our students and our community more opportunities to participate in athletic programs.

We are not alone in making this decision, as other high schools - such as Raritan High School in Hazlet, Holmdel High School, Middletown South, Toms River North, Toms River East and Toms River South - have all joined Neptune High School, which was the first in our area to move into the turf field era. We have worked hard to improve the inside of our buildings in the past few years. It was time to do the right thing outside as well.

One other point must be made: our budget is at cap. The capital outlay portion of the budget is outside the cap. If the project were not included, the funds for this could not be spent on academics. In fact, the result of doing nothing would add costs to the regular budget, as all football and track and field competitions would have to be played at other schools. We have not sacrificed educational programs to make these needed repairs.

Bruce M. Quinn is the superintendent of schools for the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District

Voter will oppose Mat-Ab school budget

Well here we go again, Aberdeen and Matawan. It's that time of the year, when our school board pleads to the public to pass the upcoming budget because of the "kidz" (isn't that how they spelled it last year on all the lawn signs?). The residents of both Aberdeen and Matawan will shoot it down again, then comes the creative wording in the newspapers by the powers that be (who want each of us to spend more money): "We don't think our residents understand the importance of the budget, and what it means and exactly what the budget is providing. We need to reach out to the community and educate them."

Yes, please educate us, we need that. With our narrow minds (probably a lack of education from the Mat-Ab School District), we will not be able to see that once again our hard-earned money will go toward increased taxes for a budget that illustrates just how much a school district can waste money. Do we need to be educated on how to waste money? I think most of us have been doing that the past few years by our taxes rising mostly because of the school budget. But yes, I guess I was smart enough to buy my home, work out a mortgage payment, but not smart enough to understand a budget.

Let's start off with comments regarding creating an alternative school for students with special needs. OK, how much is that going to cost? I don't see the price tag on the Mat-Ab School District Web site on how much is required.

Is the high school field really in that bad shape? Can the school district correct the field to be in working capacity for less than $1.45 million? A turf field would be great, but maybe this isn't the year for this. How about we look toward the next few years to implement this, and look at lower cost-effective ways to repair the field that we have today?

How about the new sports that will be offered this year, that were not in last year's budget? A librarian for each of the seven schools? Again, maybe this isn't the year for these new programs and salaries.

Personally I would like to see the current budget and the proposed budget posted on the Mat-Ab School District Web site. It might help educate us residents in understanding what is in the budget, and why it is so important. Other school districts in the state of New Jersey post their budgets to their Web sites.

In all fairness, if you do contact Business Administrator Charley Shay, he is willing to send a copy of the budget via mail, fax, or you can personally pick it up at his office. Mr. Shay was very helpful in this aspect.

I look forward to seeing each of my fellow taxpayers at the polls, as together we defeat another school board budget.

Fred Moltz

Aberdeen

If budget fails, field will proceed
Critics say Mat-Ab plan puts athletics ahead of academics
BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer

The Matawan-Aberdeen Board of Education sent its $59 million budget to the voting booths with a binding $1.4 million capital outlay contract for athletic improvements in tow.

In a special budget meeting held March 27, the board adopted a proposed 2006-07 budget that includes a $43 million local tax levy, which would translate into an 18.25-cent tax rate increase for property owners in Aberdeen and a 15.69-cent increase for Matawan. Approximately one penny of the tax rate hike will go toward installing artificial turf and new lighting on the high school football field. It is a lease-purchase agreement that must be paid whether or not the budget passes.

And pass it may not. The last four years have seen consistent budget defeats at the hands of voters, even in times when the state's financial condition was better. Board President Catherine Zavorskas implored voters to curb the impulse toward voting down the school budget as a response to sweeping tax increases on the municipal and state levels that do not come up for referendum.

The lease-purchase agreement is essentially a loan to be paid over the next five years at a rate of nearly $300,000 per year. Covering the cost of track repair, artificial turf installation and installation of new lighting, the $1.4 million price tag comes while salary and benefits costs have grown and state aid has remained flat.

Proponents of the field have argued that better sports facilities may be an impetus for students achieving in the classroom by giving them something to be proud of.

"We need this field," Charlie Rogers, a former NFL kick returner for the Seattle Seahawks and a Pop Warner football coach in Aberdeen said at the meeting. "Why do we have to be the last place people?"

Rogers said that for students coming from Cliffwood, college scholarships for academics are minimal.

"They get it [scholarships] from athletics from that part of town," Rogers said.

Rogers said that many districts across the state are installing artificial turf, and that not doing it would put this district at a disadvantage.

"We're going to be the last ones to get this turf," Rogers said, "just like everything else."

Board member Carolyn Williams echoed the idea that better facilities may lead to stronger student achievement.

"We have to do what we can to make ourselves happy and our kids achieve," Williams said. "If this is what will do it, then I will vote yes for it."

Gerald Donaghue said that while the cost is large, and the timing bad, the field was something that needed to be addressed.

"For the nine years I've been on the board, we've never addressed the field," Donaghue said.

Donaghue said that the two municipalities should be helping to cover the cost of this field because they have done things in the past that have cost the school board money.

"We don't have the ratables, we had no land to build on," an impassioned Donaghue said at the meeting. "all the money comes from the residents. In this day in age, we need to work together."

Donaghue said that while development decisions by Matawan's municipal government have brought more students into the schools, the district had to cover the cost of rising enrollment.

"We had to add on to our schools, add new teachers," Donaghue said. "I want a little bit for the field."

Joe McAleer, a resident of Aberdeen, called the field renovation "a boondoggle" and a waste of taxpayer money.

"To waste $1.45 million when we have test scores in the basement, when we have computers in the middle school and school system that do not work ... makes no sense at all," McAleer said.

The three board members who voted against the budget fear that the field renovation cost could come at the expense of academics.

"I will not risk losing teachers or staff for a capital outlay," board member Charles Kenny said at the meeting.

If the budget fails, it will be sent to the Matawan and Aberdeen councils to be analyzed and reduced at their discretion. Kenny said that the councils are limited in how much they can cut because the bulk of the budget falls under required costs such as teacher salaries, benefits and building operational costs.

He fears that the councils will be forced to cut money earmarked for academic improvements because the funds for the field, under the lease purchase agreement, are not allowed to be cut.

Larry O'Connell said that cutting funding to academics would hurt an already struggling academic district.

"I have to admit that I am biased toward academics," O'Connell said. "We're training our kids for the industrial age, in the information age, on the verge of the biotech age."

O'Connell said that he agreed with 95 percent of the budget, but called the field renovations an extravagance.

Board member Kenneth Aitken said that approving the athletic renovations was "the height of hubris" and made a motion to table the lease-purchase approval until after the budget is passed by the public. That motion failed.

"Why can't the people be trusted?" Aitken asked.