$3 Million / Ps

Today I read a couple of the local blogs. The voters in the April 21st election sent a strong message to the ‘business-as-usual’ faction in the City. Their message was simple: we want our School District to move in a new direction!

Again, when I put information out in the community that I find to be truthful and correct, there are still those who want to challenge that information by attacking me, saying that I am still not really telling the truth.

One blogger mentioned that the mismanaging of 3 million dollars by the past school administration is a lot of money, and I agree with him. So let me explain in detail this mismanagement error:

This error occurred during Paula Howard’s administration. This error was made by a staff member, not by her. She was just as surprised as I was when we were alerted to this error. This was the year when $1.8 million was not put into the budget for one of the Plainfield charter schools. The $3 million I am discussing are the salaries that were not used during that time. The Board did not fill these open salary positions, thus leaving open positions totaling 3 million dollars.

However, it was not presented to the State in that fashion, therefore the State could have taken this one of two ways, false information, or a legitimate error. Therefore, when I presented this case to the State and Commissioner Davy of the New Jersey State Department of Education, we were able to use from the $3 million, which was accumulated by not filling those positions, $1.8 million to correct the error in the School Board budget.

Again, a lot of this was on the borderline of sending the State misinformation, but the State chose to receive it as mismanagement. So the State could have come up with two outcomes. They had to decide whether this was done fostering criminality or mismanagement. I with the State chalked this poor accounting up as mismanagement.

Ps

The new formula for calculating the awarding of State-aided school funding that I support has been widely criticized by a handful of bloggers who do not have a clue about the formula. Under this new formula, the City of Plainfield will receive from the State over $100 million dollars. This funding, along with the Federal Stimulus funding from Washington, ensures the there will be more money coming in for our New Jersey schools, as well as their programs and expansion, provided they can prove their need for such support. This is a crucial principle of accountability, making towns like Plainfield more responsible.

This new formula says, “Show us your need, and we will support you", which defeats the attitude of drowning problems with money. Our State has seen the negative brunt in blindly pouring money into a school district without calling it to be accountable. This new formula now calls for these school districts to be responsible with State funding, ensuring the progression and advancement of our children’s education.