Letter from the Editor from Georgia Fisanick of Warren Township
Teacher, Watchung Hills Regional High School

Voters in many towns around the local area have acted in a short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive mode by rejecting local school budgets.

In the Watchung Hills Regional High School District, the budget must now be revised and win approval from the township committees. I can only hope that the township committees will show more understanding of the need for us to support our schools and the very negative impact that poor support for education will have on our property values.

As a 30-year resident of Warren Township, I have paid off my home and it represents a major portion of my life’s savings. By rejecting the additional paltry $71 increase in school taxes that the proposed budget would have incurred for the average Warren home owner, you have potentially reduced the selling price of my average Warren home by several thousand dollars.

Why would a family with young children want to move to a town that does not support its schools when other towns that do are close by? Fewer potential buyers means that our household valuations will stagnate. It is even more staggering when you realize that our per student cost is already the lowest of any comparable schools in our tier. This is a case of pennywise and pound foolish.

Let’s make the math absolutely clear. In comparable neighboring districts that had no increase in enrollment, budgets went up approximately 6 percent. This covered the inflationary increases in salaries, heating costs, health benefits, etc. that we all are experiencing.

On top of that, Watchung Hills’ enrollment is increasing by 6 percent next year. It costs money to supply those students with books, papers, additional teachers, etc. Do the math: 1.06 X 1.06 =1.1236 or a 12.4 percent increase in the budget. Just what was requested.

What you don’t see because of considerable belt tightening that went into the proposed budget is the extra costs for heating, security, maintenance, etc. that come with completing the construction and having to actually pay for the upkeep of the expanded physical plant.

As a teacher at Watchung Hills, I know that if the township committees in our sending districts choose to require more cuts, it is my students who will be the real losers. They will lose athletics, clubs, coaches, faculty advisors. They will be taught in larger classes and get less personal attention. There will be fewer guidance counselors to help steer our kids to good college choices. There will be no money to maintain and upgrade computer equipment, no new books in the library, and the tattered textbooks we currently use will get considerably more worn and outdated. New science labs will sit with unstocked shelves, and our students will not have the materials to make art, do experiments, or learn to cook.

There is something we can do. Ask your neighbors to rethink this issue. Please contact the members of your township committees in the Watchung Hills sending districts and tell them you want them to not be short sighted, and to support the budget at the proposed levels.

Tell them that you want to live in a community that supports education and its children.

Georgia Fisanick
Warren Township
Teacher, Watchung Hills Regional High School