Blog Like an Aberdeener

I’m opening my blog to anyone in the community who wishes to write an article. Any local elected official can submit an article and it will be published as is. For everybody else, I prefer opinion pieces that are substantiated with sources and are written coherently. Special preference will always be given to opposing viewpoints. If I believe edits are warranted, the author will be able to review those edits prior to posting.

In all instances, I will require some form of contact information so that I can confirm the author’s identity. All articles can be emailed to Aberdeener@gmail.com.

There’s no secret where I get my information. Although it’s fashionable to think I have a “source” at the township, the reality is far more mundane. Sometimes I hear stories from old timers, often I read the comments on my blog for ideas, but, most of all, I read old news stories and then check if there’s a story behind the story.

Below are the request forms and sites I use the most for my research. If anyone wishes to suggest additional resources, I welcome the input.

OPRA Requests –
Township Version – submit to Karen Ventura
School District Version – submit to Sue Irons
County Version – follow county instructions
(Please note my version of the township OPRA form is slightly different from the version on the township website. My version is less confusing.)

State / County Records -
State Property Tax
County Property Tax
County Tax History
County Property Records
County Municipal Overview

Meeting Minutes –
Aberdeen Township
Matawan Aberdeen Regional School District

Google -
Web
News
Blog
Scholarly Articles
Books
Google Advanced Search

New Jersey State –
Department of Education
COAH
Election Law Enforcement Commission
Business Gateway Service (lists businesses and their officers)

Local News -
Independent
Asbury Park Press
The Courier

National News (editorial) -
Wall Street Journal
NY Sun
Washington Post
Washington Times

Local Blogs -
Matawan Advocate
Matawan Aberdeen Observer
Read All About It >>> Read more!

The Aberdeen Democrats’ Latest Election Filing

I always look forward to the Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee’s quarterly filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The filings often contain interesting tidbits and the latest filing doesn’t disappoint.

According to their 2nd quarterly report, the democrats have not received any political contributions this year (the amount on hand was left over from last year). This isn’t an election year so that would make sense except that, in 2006, the Executive Committee had raised $4,200 by this same point in time (see contributions in 1st quarter and 2nd quarter filings).

Then there’s the new party chairman, Bill Shenton. He succeeds longtime chairman Robert Axelrad who moved to Monroe. Shenton had replaced Councilwoman Gumbs as chairperson of the township’s planning board after she was elected to the town council. He earned a bit of “acclaim” for introducing the “McMansion Bill”, an ordinance that restricts the building height for homes. Unfortunately, he did this after being the swing vote that approved Ciaglia’s request to again subdivide a property, this time on Atlantic Avenue. (Notice the restriction is only on height. Shenton may have felt awkward asking for a size restriction since he lives in a 3200 square foot house.)

Once again, Councilman Vinci is still on the payroll, this time for “Expenses and Promotion” (page 7). He’s collecting over $2,000 a year in quarterly payments. Each payment takes place shortly after the previous quarter’s filing date and has been this way for years. I can’t tell if he’s simply taking money at the earliest opportunity or if he needs it to pay his property taxes.

Former Township Attorney Norman Kauff is still running the show through his wife’s name. Judith Kauff is still the person who signs the checks. Her name had disappeared from last quarter’s filing but it was likely just an oversight.

However, the one item that truly caught my attention was a $250 payment to Charles Uliano (page 7). Looks like they bought an hour of time from the former Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor. Why would the local Democratic Party need a consultation with the former prosecutor? Makes you wonder.

So, a new party chairman, zero contributions, and a one-hour consultation with a former assistant county prosecutor. Meanwhile, Kauff and Vinci are still up to their old games. Yup, the more things change, the more they stay the same. >>> Read more!

Aberdeen’s Financial Wizardry

In 1999, Congress budgeted $4.5 billion in “emergency funding” for the 2000 census. The national census is constitutionally mandated to be done every 10 years yet Congress chose to budget it as an “emergency” to avoid spending caps. 7 years later, Aberdeen Township followed suit and declared the upcoming property revaluations a “Special Emergency” but with two caveats. Aberdeen Township budgeted for nearly twenty months into the future and borrowed $450,000 over a year before a penny of it was needed.
The property revaluation raises several fiscal questions. First, why did we not issue a joint bid with Matawan? Both municipalities used the same vendor, Realty Appraisal Company, at approximately the same time. (Aberdeen delayed the property revaluations to take place after the elections for town council.)

The next question is why did we borrow $450,000 over a year before we needed the money? A bond was sold to Columbia bank in December, 2006. The revaluations weren’t scheduled until 2008 and we still haven’t made any vendor payments. At 3.87% interest over a 13-month period, that’s over $20,000 in unnecessary interest payments on a five-year note.

Perhaps the township borrowed the money early to lock in a low interest rate. If so, why didn’t they purchase an interest rate swap instead? An interest rate swap is similar to a futures contract – If interest rates go up, your profit offsets the higher cost of borrowing. Furthermore, 40% of the principal is being paid back before making the first vendor payment. We borrowed $450,000 to pay Realty Appraisal Company but will only have $270,000 on hand when the first bill comes due.

The next question is why did we borrow any money at all? The township has over $3 million in the bank for reserves - that's 40% of the township's annual tax revenue (budget - sheet 39). We could have just “borrowed” the money from ourselves and paid it back into our own accounts with interest. Why give money to the bank?

(As an aside, this was a nice win for the bank. Columbia lent the money to the township, which then deposited the money in Columbia. The bank not only profited from the interest spread but was able to add to its reserves and increase its ability to make other investments. To its credit, the bank is a significant contributor to the Educational Foundation.)

That leads to the larger question of what we’re doing with our money. I share everyone’s concern that we don’t trust our elected officials to make investment decisions on our behalf. Still, why wouldn’t we purchase short term (2-5 yrs) AA corporate bonds that offer higher interest rates? How secure is the bank? If the bank fails, the FDIC insurance would only cover $100,000. Who do you trust more? Columbia Bank or bonds issued by AIG?

Maybe the township could reserve one day a month to brainstorm how to save us money. They’d still have the rest of the month to continue their free spending ways. >>> Read more!

Where Our Teachers Go To School

This past year, half of the teachers in the Matawan Aberdeen Regional School District, who acquired masters degrees, attended Marygrove College. According to Wikipedia, Marygrove is a Catholic liberal arts college “sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” and “committed to fostering Christian values”.

Have our teachers found God or a way to game the system? Marygrove is located in Detroit Michigan. It awards masters degrees through a distance learning program. These teachers, like so many others in our school district, got their masters degrees through the internet.

During the 2007-2008 school year, eight teachers received masters degrees. Among these eight teachers, 75% of them got their degrees from attending classes online. Four teachers attended MaryGrove College and two attended Walden University. (I blacked out their names.)

As previously discussed, there is no evidence that advanced degrees improve learning. On the contrary, participants in Teach for America (primarily recruited from top universities), despite lacking experience or advanced degrees, perform far better than the average teacher.

That three-quarters of our teachers are now getting their masters from online universities is one reason we’re not getting any bang for our buck.

Using Marygrove as an example, the masters program is 30 credits and takes two years to complete. The total cost is $11,700 minus the $3,000 reimbursement from the school district. Talk about return on investment. After $8,700 in school expenses, the degree recipient receives $7,500 (adjusted upwards annually) for the rest of his teaching career.

As for the teacher’s newfound degree, it’s a Masters in the Art of Education. No, I don’t know what that means, either, but, to obtain a Masters in the Art of Education for Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment, K–12, a teacher must take courses in

• Teacher as Leader
• Understanding Teaching and Learning
• Instructional Design
• Effective Assessment
• Teacher as Researcher

Perhaps I’m just old fashioned but, in my day, teachers were expected to know the material they taught. Not all experts are great teachers but every great teacher is an expert in his field. These fuzzy courses have zero relationship to the material being taught.

I’m not the only person who doesn’t recognize these masters degrees. Marygrove lost its accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) over two years ago. Walden never even received professional accreditation for their masters program.

That’s right. We’re giving teachers a $7,500 raise for degrees that not even teachers recognize. It’s no surprise these teachers are all attending the same online schools. They likely found the cheapest/easiest track to a higher pay grade. The University of Phoenix, the nation’s largest online school, requires forty credits to Marygrove’s thirty and charges nearly $200 more per credit.

Kudos to Ms. Jennifer Barsi and Ms. Zebunisa Saeed. They went to real schools and got real degrees in real disciplines. Ms. Barsi received a masters degree from Kean University in Teacher of Handicapped. Ms. Saeed got her masters from Rutgers University in Mathematics Education. Too bad they represent a small minority.

No wonder fewer than half of our seniors pursue a four year college or university. They don’t value education any more than their teachers do. >>> Read more!

An Agenda in Plain Sight

“The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple”
- Edgar Allen Poe, The Purloined Letter

I have recently been accused by several people of having an agenda. The allegations are true. I do have an agenda, but not the one they suspect. Like Edgar Allen Poe’s Purloined Letter, my agenda has been hiding in plain sight all along. From the township, I want honest service. From the school district, I want parents to be empowered to determine the best education for their children. Once both goals are met, I’d like to retire from blogging.

During the recent school board elections, there was a “scandal” when one of the board members solicited campaign contributions from school employees. The only reason it was considered a scandal was because it violated a BOE bylaw. In contrast, Aberdeen Township doesn’t haven any constraints against seeking campaign contributions from township employees.

In the 2003 municipal elections, the democratic candidates had Township Attorney Norman Kauff’s wife help manage the campaign (she was one of two people authorized to sign checks). How could anyone expect the Township Attorney to promote and defend the township’s interests when his wife takes a leadership role in the local Democratic Party? Worse, it was common knowledge that Kauff’s wife was operating on his behalf.

Then came the stories of pay-to-play, a developer’s tax deal, and a councilman being paid “consulting” fees for his own re-election campaign. Not one response from the township to defend or explain why. If silence is consent, these misdeeds must have had the township’s blessings.

In the school district, it’s been a battle against the bureaucracy. Spending is out of control. Student performance is in the bottom 25% for the county. And the district’s big idea is Response to Intervention (RTI).

After being presented evidence that RTI was more likely to hurt students than help them, the district chose to forge ahead. Following the political saw that good news doesn’t wait, the results from RTI must be quite troubling.

The district had initially agreed to provide preliminary results last March. That has since been postponed to September. Meanwhile, without any firm evidentiary basis the program works, RTI has been fully funded for another year.

What’s my agenda? I want parents to decide what’s in their children’s best interest. I want to know that my elected representatives are acting in our best interests. I want to spend more time writing novels and screenplays that nobody wants to read.

My sole political allegiance is to our community. In last year’s municipal elections, I voted for both Democrats and Republicans. I’ve been a fierce critic of all school board members.

Last month, I reluctantly adopted a temporary policy to tone down the articles, not target any council member, and restrict comments to those with aliases. Since then, readership participation has dwindled to a trickle.

At the end of this week, I will gradually remove those restrictions. Some of the articles will be taking a sharper tone. No public person will be immune from criticism. Readers will once again be able to post anonymous comments.

That does not mean there will be zero standards. Comments attacking "private" individuals or using outrageously offensive language remain forbidden. Nor will I allow commenters to intimidate others from posting comments. In the coming weeks, I hope to develop a comments policy similar to the one at RedBankGreen.com.

I will also begin opening the blog to other voices. Aberdeener.com has always encouraged opposing viewpoints but now I wish to invite others to publish articles, both news and opinion, as well.

All people are now welcome to submit articles of relevance, particularly our public servants. Any person wishing to submit an article only needs to email me at aberdeener@gmail.com, include his name, a one-line bio (i.e. “Plumber, 20-year Resident of Aberdeen”), and a phone number to authenticate he is who he claims to be. No anonymous articles will be accepted.

For those people who feel they’ve been unfairly attacked and unable to defend themselves, this should remove any perceived barriers. Particularly, elected officials will be able to have their voices heard, unedited and unfiltered, through this website.

Opposing viewpoints will always be given special consideration. While I am grateful for and encouraged by those who share my views, I prefer open debate.

To that end, I will also be creating a resources page. Many people have been wondering where I get my information. There's no secret. I will post the resources I use including websites and sample OPRA requests.

Lastly, our elected representatives have been able to ignore this blog because relatively few people read it. Many have also engaged in a whispering campaign, hoping to neutralize the blog before it grows large enough to have a real impact.

I intend to begin marketing the blog later this year. I think this blog reaches 150 homes in Aberdeen, 2% of households. My goal is to reach 10%. If I’m going to be judged, let it be by my own words and actions.

Aberdeen has such awesome potential. I look forward to the day I can relax and witness its triumphs. >>> Read more!