Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Sports and extracurricular activities are restored; Child Study Team members will be outsourced.
The Bloomfield Schools budget crisis has largely been averted, school officials announced this week. Following a Tuesday afternoon agreement reached with health insurance company Cigna, Bloomfield School officials announced that the majority of staff jobs slated to be lost have been restored. In addition, programs relegated to the chopping block, including sports and extracurricular and after school programs, have been restored. Bloomfield Schools Superintendent Jason Bing told the hundreds gathered in the BHS auditorium for the final public hearing on the budget that Cigna had earlier that day agreed to defer a $500,000 payment from the district. Bing said the payment, part of a $2.1 million settlement the district owes the insurance …
Sunday, March 24, 2013
A look back at the stories that mattered this week in Bloomfield.
Bloomfield Democrats Kick Off Campaign Season Democrats from throughout Essex County packed into the banquet room of the Essex Manor on Friday, March 15, for the Bloomfield Democratic Team Kick-Off. Franklin School Parents Illustrate Crowded Classrooms This month, many Bloomfield parents are worried about what their children’s classrooms would look like if the teacher layoffs forced students to crowd into shortstaffed classrooms. A group of parents from Franklin Elementary School tried to find out, stuffing 28 first graders into a Franklin classroom and documenting the situation with pictures. Superintendent Bing: School Staff Layoffs Reduced to 54 The number of Bloomfield School employees facing possible layoffs has been reduced, …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
A parent bemoans the prospect of a schools austerity budget and hopes that the future brings a community rallying together.
Getting your life in order is like Winter; it's a time consuming thing, and you don't get out much. So, after a long hiatus from sticking my nose into public business, I celebrated Spring by attending the March 19 Board of Education meeting. Now I confess to being a bit dibble-brained when it comes to district budgetary matters; whether I'm being hoodwinked and railroaded or whether folks are telling it to me straight. Frankly, I've always been satisfied with letting the vocal armchair-math-whizzes of the community duke it out at these meetings. I'm more of a 'broad strokes' kinda guy, myself. PowerPoint slides give me a splitting headache. But the other day I was sitting in the cramped cement-block office of Mr. Dave Tiene, my son's …
Monday, March 18, 2013
Students cram into Franklin School room in mock crowded class.
This month, many Bloomfield parents are worried about what their children’s classrooms would look like if the teacher layoffs forced students to crowd into shortstaffed classrooms. A group of parents from Franklin Elementary School tried to find out. They gathered 28 first graders into a Franklin classroom. The results, they believe, are disconcerting. Parents said the tighter gathering of students increased noise levels. Once they packed in enough desks to accommodate the students, they said there was no room in the class for reading carpets and bookshelves and that they were not certain where students and teachers could store backpacks and lunch boxes. The parents also brought up safety concerns ranging from germs and lice outbreaks from…
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Head school administrator addresses concerns in contentious BOE Meeting
In a Power Point presentation that relied extensively on comments from Bloomfield Patch, Bloomfield Schools Superintendent Jason Bing explained the current school budget crunch in front of an auditorium packed with teachers and parents on Tuesday night. In the presentation, Bing explained his view of the events that led to the current budget shortfall and argued why the job cuts are being proposed. Bing, on his second budgeting cycle as Superintendent, said Bloomfield schools have been historically underfunded, with the district relying on federal and state money for basic expenditures. “We spend nothing on our kids,” Bing said. After studying past budgets, Bing concluded that the district has been underfunded for eight years. As an …
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Districts across New Jersey await state aid figures this week with uncertainty.
The Bloomfield School District faces the deadline to submit the 2013-2014 budget to the county next week with uncertainty as to whether $85 billion in federal "sequestration" spending cuts will be stopped by Congress before Friday. The release of the state aid figures triggers a sequence of events related to the budget process, Heinegg said, including the Board of Education approving the proposed school budget on March 5. The budget is due to the county for review next week. New Jersey could lose nearly $12 million in funding for primary and secondary education if Congress fails to halt the “sequestration” by Friday, according to figures released by the White House. When Gov. Chris Christie authorized giving New Jersey schools $850 …
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
School Superintendent Jason Bing and School Business Administrator Michael Derderian outlined the working 2012-13 school budget at the April 2 township council meeting
School Superintendent Jason Bing presented a working 2012-13 budget for review to the town council last night saying, "It was a very tough budget cycle." Bing’s presentation was a recap of the March 24 BOE public hearing, where he said homeowners with an average assessment of $280,300 would have to pay $244.17 more in taxes, or about $20 more per household per month, according to the proposed budget. He said the majority of the school district’s fund balance was depleted last year in an effort to achieve the budget’s zero balance. That will not be possible year. Bing said the district had struggled in 2011 with statutes that the state mandated but didn't fund. An example was the Anti-Bullying Act implemented this year that cost schools…
jackiem
9:03 pm on Monday, April 15, 2013
how much more are they going to raise our taxes!!???? you are going to force people to loose their homes!!!! how about a pay decrease for the the superintendent!!!!!!!!!! more ›