Lakewood School Board Candidates Tout Fiscal Discipline

Money matters.
It’s the axiom hammered home by every school official who wants to keep in the public’s good graces. And now, to no surprise, it’s the mantra of this year’s Board of Education race, with incumbents touting how much tighter their fiscal belts have gotten since last year and at least one challenger saying there are still more notches to go.Five candidates are vying for three open seats on the Board of Education here, including two newcomers: Yoni Silver and Eli Hasenfeld. They are challenging incumbents Ada Gonzalez, Meir Grunhut and Irene Miccio.

As an outsider, Silver, 38, who has three children in private schools, said he doesn’t have much knowledge of the budgetary process that led to the proposal of the maximum allowable increase for next year - 4 percent - but he speculates that cuts in “wasteful spending” could be made.

“Being on the inside, hopefully I’ll be able to take a look at it,” said the father of five, who works as a sales representative for a plastics company and a property manager in New York. “Taxes are raised every year - other towns don’t see nearly as much of an increase. I feel there might be room for improvement to handle the budget more efficiently,” he said.

Voters Tuesday will vote on a $138.4 million total budget that carries a $72.4 million tax levy and a 3.4-cent jump in the tax rate. A school budget has not passed here in three years. Yet, current administrators and board members point to improved accounting measures, a new business administrator and a new computer system that have pulled the district out of the red. Last year, the district faced criticism for a $1.1 million deficit and teacher layoffs.

“Every year there’s going to be an increase,” said Gonzalez, 58, who is running for her second three-year term, of the tax rate. “The population keeps going up so how can you expect taxes to go down? It’s part of the package. But I’m confident that we have a better handle on things now than before. It took a lot of years to get in this mess, so you can’t fix it overnight. But we have the right people now to do it.”

Miccio, 78, has been on the board since 1977. She hoped to continue giving some historical perspective to a board that has seen its share of ups and downs.

“As a board member, I like to remind them how some things used to be, but we also have to grow with change,” said the retired township employee.

On the budget failings, Miccio pointed out that school budgets were always going to be an uphill battle.

“This is the only tax levy on the public that they can simply say no to,” she said.

Grunhut and Hasenfeld did not return calls for comment.

{APP/Matzav.com Newscenter}

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