top of page
Search

March 17th Meeting Recap - Budget Approved, Board Goals Set, But Transparency Takes a Hit—Legal Fees and OPRA Logs Under Scrutiny Again

  • Writer: Kathie Schwartz
    Kathie Schwartz
  • Mar 20
  • 4 min read



The March 17th RIH BOE meeting was about an hour and a half long. The livestream archive is available for listening. 

 

Preliminary 2025-2026 Budget Presentation

The Tentative Budget was presented at a high level, with little line-item detail. The overview is that the portion of the budget raised by local taxes will stay within the 2% cap, the district did not use any Banked Cap or the Health Care Waiver available to raise it further.

 

The local tax collection is distributed amongst the three towns based on assessed home values. As usual, Franklin Lakes pays the most for the district high schools (despite sending the least number of students), followed by Wyckoff, then Oakland. In 2025, Franklin Lakes RIH school tax will go up, while Oakland and Wyckoff tax will go down (this calculation is also based on proportionate assessed home values).

 

The budget cited increased Revenues from Investment Income, Cell Tower Revenue and $200K increase in state aid, and decreased Expenses for Utilities due to the solar panels (paid for under the Energy Savings Improvement Program (ESIP) approved in 2022) being connected and generating the anticipated long term energy savings. Other line items mentioned were a 10% increase in health insurance funding costs.

 

Earlier this week, I had sent an email to ask the district to discuss what would happen if the U.S. Department of Education is eliminated and our federal funding goes away. In 2024-2025 User Friendly Budget, Federal Funding Revenue amounted to almost $700,000 primarily for our most vulnerable students in the district’s Special Education programs.  The statements made by administrators during the 2025-2026 budget presentation stated that ’the district is prepared that if funding goes away, we will still be able fund the programs'.  The presentation stated: "The budget anticipates this potential situation and has a built-in plan to stay budget neutral, ensuring no impact on student programming.”   To me this seems a bit like double taxation, we’ve paid our federal taxes and expect something to come back to our district, but in case that money doesn’t come from the federal government, our local district will also tax us to cover those same programs. I hope I misunderstood the district’s statements that they have baked a loss of federal funds into the local tax increase for 2025-2026.  As a taxpayer, I don’t want to pay for the same thing twice.

 

Several Board members asked questions, but the public could not hear the questions. In the future I hope the Board can use a microphone so the full discussion can be heard.

 

I still have more questions on the budget, more to come. The final Budget Public Hearing will be on April 25th.

 

Board Goals

A lot of work was done between BOE meetings by the Ad Hoc Committee, led by John Kinney. The four goals and action steps proposed by the committee were read aloud and will be voted on at the April 7th meeting. The goals appeared to be specific and measurable. Kudos to this Board for finally setting goals for itself, as none have been set for the past few years.

 

The link to the Proposed Board Goals is attached below.

 

Public comment

A lifelong resident of Oakland made a passionate statement about the need to address the enrollment disparity between the high schools, with some specific suggestions to address culture, drive pride and boost enrollment.

 

Board discussion

 

Legal Invoices

Audrey Souders again addressed Legal Bills, and stated the Board’s new Special Counsel has recommended that the district cease posting legal bills on the website and instead only respond to individual OPRA requests. No reasoning or rationale for the lack of transparency was offered. I find it particularly odd, as all of the information can still be obtained by anyone who asks for it. I will continue to OPRA request all the legal invoices and post them on my website for anyone interested, link below.

 

Ms. Souders stated that the OPRA logs, which were posted and then removed, will be put back up on the district website.  In addition, she stated that the district will begin posting legal vouchers showing payments to attorneys and will continue to post pie charts of how legal expenses are split.

 

RFP for new Legal Counsel

Melissa Kiel, who was absent at the last meeting, stated her opinion that it's not true that the bills skyrocketed due to use of Porzio and she cited numerous reasons (excuses) for the high bills.

 

Kim Ansh really took the cake when she stated her objection to the Board’s walk in motion to search for new legal counsel (approved at the last meeting): “The district needs stability, and switching law firms, especially for no legitimate reason, is not a good business decision.”  The irony of that statement, coming from the person who made the January 5, 2023, motion to terminate our 20-year long term legal counsel, for NO LEGITIMATE REASON, is quite unbelievable. 

 

Doreen Mariani joined Kiel and Ansh and said "I think it would be best if we reconsidered" [the RFP].

 

However, the Board did not reconsider or cancel the RFP for new legal counsel which can be viewed on the district web link below.

 

All motions on the agenda passed without any discussion. All were unanimous, with exception of Ansh and Mariani abstention on E6 RHS 005, citing not enough information given to the Board.

 

 

 

 

Link to legal expense analysis and legal invoice from 2021-2024: https://rihboardwatch.org/legal-fees#transparency-expanded-analysis


Drop Me a Line, Let Me Know What You Think

Thanks for submitting!

RIH Board Watch

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey  07417

Email: RIHBoardWatch@email.com

bottom of page