Reserving Judgment: Looking for the Numbers Behind the BHPSNJ “Success” Narrative

The BHPSNJ Budget continues to be touted as a success by some BOE members and District outlets however the public has not yet seen the details behind the top line numbers.

More interesting arguments came out today – that because other Districts had to go above 5%, BHPSNJ staying under 2% was a success.

What if all of the budgets were misaligned?

What if the budget that was able to stay under 2% was already highly inflated?

Why is the assumption that as costs increase, budgets go up

and not

as costs increase, we have to look at cutting items that make no sense….like $400k in security that is empirically supported to cause more harm than good?

Is staying under the 2% figure while maintaining inflated administrative positions a success?

Athletics is noted at 1% of a +60M budget.  Instruction (which includes athletics on the ACFR) appears to be clustered with other categories.

So how useful are the pie charts the District is pushing out and being advanced in the community without any scrutiny?

Where is the full detailed preliminary budget to provide context to this?

Yesterday we debunked the ‘Berkeley Heights has more buildings’ argument (Westfield has more and a lower per pupil cost). This was the second time in four years that argument has been used.

We submitted an OPRA request to the state asking for the full detail budgets submitted to County Superintendents for all seven districts on our dashboard, responsible reporting means knowing the numbers behind the marketing before telling the public a budget is an accomplishment.

Until we receive those budgets, we’ll remain skeptical and will rely on the data we actually have to continue advocating for a more student-centered, responsible budget.

If there is cause to celebrate, we will, but until we have the full context – the hard numbers connected to real labels, we will continue to report responsibly and factually.

We encourage residents from all communities to review our 7-District Budget Hub and to compare last years spending and priorities to this years decisions so as to make a more informed conclusion.

Thank you for your continued readership and support.