BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.––A wide, ringing chorus of support greeted Superintendent of Schools Raymond A. Gonzalez at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, with colleagues deriding Township Councilman Thomas Sears’s recent public call for him to resign as “ignorant,” “irresponsible,” and “inappropriate.”
Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr. and Township councilmen Peter Calamari and Steve Cascio took to the mic at the board’s public comment session to throw their support behind the work of Gonzalez and the Board of Education and opportunities for the schools and towns to work together.
“Please continue with your fantastic work,” Cascio told Gonzalez and the board. “If there’s anything that the township can do please don’t hesitate to contact us. We want to work together collaboratively as opposed to being, for lack of a better word, adversaries.”
Birkner took Sears head on in his remarks.
“For someone to call for the resignation of the superintendent is irresponsible. It’s disheartening. I just can’t even believe that occurred. It’s not just a superintendent; it’s a board and superintendent, and anyone in elected office should know that. […] I think it’s a pretty ignorant statement I read this morning,” Birkner said.
Board of Education President Darlene Mandeville introduced a resolution seeking a vote of confidence for Gonzalez, to which most members of the board added their own glowing testimonials.
“The Westwood Regional Board of Education emphatically supports our superintendent. As superintendent all initiatives are in direct response and through the direct action of the Board of Education in its efforts to serve the educational interests of the two communities that comprise the Westwood Regional School District,” Mandeville said in part.
With Gonzalez sitting in the heart of their rank on their dais atop the high school auditorium stage, the motion carried unanimously. It will be forwarded to the county and state, Mandeville said.
Sears had used part of his time at the Aug. 21 township council meeting to scorn Gonzalez over a contentious student parking issue and planned and proposed capital projects.
At the outset of that meeting, Sears asserted Gonzalez is “anti-Washington Township” and “has no interest in this town. […] He really should step down.”
Reached for comment a day later, Gonzalez said that he is “not in a position to speak about the opinions of another.”
He said he is “fully committed and proud to serve the educational interests of the two communities that comprise the Westwood Regional School District.”
At Thursday’s BOE meeting, he added at his microphone that “With one hundred percent confidence and one hundred percent passion that’s one hundred percent heartfelt, I am a true believer and a true champion of the Westwood Regional School District, and that belief and that passion is shared between the Township of Washington and the Borough of Westwood.”
He added, “I believe wholeheartedly in everything that we’re doing in this district to make this district proud, to make our community proud, but equally, if not more importantly than anything else, to make out students proud.”
Before he wrapped up his remarks, he said, “I know that we’re taking the right approach and that we’re doing it for the right reasons.”
Sears, who was not present at the BOE meeting his comments had seemed to galvanize, has long criticized Gonzalez over student parking at the junior-senior high school, at 701 Ridgewood Road, and the district’s latest capital projects.
One of of those projects, a nearly $24 million dedicated middle school proposed for Third Street in Westwood, got a firmed-up referendum date at Thursday’s board meeting – a special election Dec. 12.
Because the district is planning to roll in a bit more than $13 million from its capital reserve fund, and other money will be coming in from state debt service aid, voters would actually be paying down approximately $8 million over 20 years, or $14 added to taxes for every $100,000 of assessed home value, a district attorney at the meeting said.
Mandeville and Gonzalez also spoke about the parking problem that has frustrated Sears, other town officials, and school neighbors in the township.
At its previous meeting, the township council revised the township parking ordinance to limit parking on up to 16 streets near the school to two hours during the school day.
The move was a response to a year of pitched complaints by residents who say some students who lack spaces on campus – or who choose not to use them – drive and park erratically, rudely, and dangerously in the neighborhoods.
No juniors are guaranteed spaces on campus, and there are fewer spots for seniors than there are seniors enrolled.
Asked whether Gonzalez might have a point about students licensed to drive needing to be held accountable for their own driving, as he suggested to the Pascack Press in earlier coverage, Sears replied, “Why torment the community? It’s a simple, easy fix for school leadership.”
With school starting shortly, Gonzalez has said it appeared that there would be enough spots on hand for those families that applied for a campus parking space under a lottery system.
School leaders have said 400 parking spaces would be needed to accommodate every junior and senior driver, but there are competing needs for space and some grounds are protected wetlands.
Approximately a dozen residents spoke out against the ordinance change, fearing it will expose them, their guests, and contractors to fines for parking in front of their own homes.
They said they would bring their concerns to the Board of Education meeting on Aug. 24 but, perhaps preempted by a report from Mandeville on the district’s efforts to accommodate student parking, none did.
Millions in spending; questions over taxes
Against this backdrop, the district plans to spend $3 million on a maintenance facility and concession stand at the high school.
The final presentation regarding the maintenance facility took place at a November 2016 public meeting, and the Board of Education approved the submission of the project application to the state Department of Education (NJDOE) that December.
“After the review of the project application by the NJDOE and the delineation of wetlands by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), we received all requisite approvals to proceed,” Mandeville told the Pascack Press.
“As required, our design specifications were also submitted to the Washington Township planning board in February of 2017,” she added.
The permit for the work is confirmed to be on the way, Mandeville reported at the meeting.
In an interview, Sears followed up on his concern about the bigger middle school, saying he was not convinced the project is needed or that taxpayers would be well served by it.
He said the fact that 63.54 percent of the 2016 total tax levy went to the school system “is outrageous. […] Why are our taxes so high for the schools? Why?”