Tonight’s Board of Ed meeting was advertised as the unveiling of the superintendent’s budget proposal for 2012-13. Although there may have been some angst over what might be cut from the budget, there was not much drama there. Thanks to a vastly improved projection on the district’s pension and health costs, the superintendent was able to avoid deep cuts, or alternatively, proposing an override budget.
The big surprise came at the very beginning of the meeting when two-term incumbent and three-time former BOE President Steve Kaplan announced that he does not intend to seek another term on the Board. Mr. Kaplan made a somewhat lengthy statement as to his reasons and his feelings about his service on the board, so I suggest that everyone take a look at the video when it becomes available in the next day or two.
As a final note of interest, Superintendent Stark announced that he would voluntarily freeze his own salary for next year — the final year of his current contract.
The budget process has now officially kicked off, and as I said in my previous blog post, there will be several opportunities for the community to learn more about what is being proposed and to offer feedback to the Board before it adopts a final version of the budget on April 16th.
Jeff Diamond serves on the Blind Brook Board of Education. This blog presents his point of view and does not represent the opinion of the Blind Brook Board of Education.
