Superintendent: Gov. Thrusting Students into NJEA Feud

Madison Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Richard Noonan said by urging voters to reject certain school budgets, Gov. Chris Christie is "thrusting students into the crossfire of his feud with the NJEA."

Noonan's comments came at the Board of Education's most recent meeting on Tuesday, a day after Christie asked the state's residents to vote down budgets in districts where teachers have not agreed to wage freezes.

"I just don't see how citizens should want to support a budget where their teachers have not wanted to be part of the shared sacrifice," Christie was quoted as saying in The Star-Ledger at a Princeton news conference on Monday.

The BOE had already asked all Madison school bargaining groups to take a freeze, but "we don't have the legal authority to impose one," Noonan said while reading from a prepared statement.

Board of Education President Lisa Ellis also made it clear the freeze request was not made to appease the governor.

"This was certainly not because the Governor demanded it, but in the hope we could restore positions, programs cuts," Ellis said. "It certainly was not at his request."

Of the three unions asked to take freezes (teachers, administrators and facilities) only the facilities group has officially accepted the request.

The comments of both Christie and Noonan came one week before the April 20 school budget vote and election. The state in March took all aid from Madison, and reduced the debt service aid that it had promised when the district referendum project was passed.

Though there are no contested elections this year, as only one candidate is running for each of the two open seats, the budget vote will have a wide impact in Madison.

In addition to the proposed budget, there will be a second question asking voters if they wish to restore both the position of visual and performing arts supervisor, held by Stacy Snider, and the Madison Junior School's interscholastic program. The question would need 60 percent "yes" votes in order to reinstate those two items.

Also, if the overall budget were to be defeated, the Borough Council would then step in to make adjustments, something both BOE members and parents have previously said they do not want to see happen.

"New Jersey, by almost any state-to-state comparative measure, has one of the most successful public educations systems in the country," Noonan said. "... This is something the administration should be working to preserve, not dismantle."

Noonan finished his statement by asking Madison residents to support the budget, in contrast to Christe's comments.

"A failed budget may assist the administration in making certain political points, but it hurts no one more directly and deeply than our students."