Board majority approves lower tuition for J'burg Two members say board wrongly stifled their questions BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer Jamesburg taxpayers will be spared about $400,000 in tuition costs for students sent to Monroe Township High School. The Monroe Board of Education voted Jan. 23 to use its own rate for students and charge Jamesburg $13,715 per student, which excludes interest costs from the 2003 bond referendum to build the new high school. If the funding formula passed down from the state was used, the cost per student would have been $1,500 to $2,000 greater. Transportation costs will add between $750 and $1,000 to the tuition rate, according to School Business Administrator Wayne Holliday. "It is not a matter of if the Jamesburg Board of Education will be charged for interest on the new high school; it is a question of when Jamesburg will be charged interest on the new high school," Holliday said, according to a tape recording of the Jan. 23 board meeting. Holliday said that when the funds from the 2003 referendum were received, he immediately invested the money, resulting in earned interest that was returned to the taxpayers of Monroe. By law, the same cannot be done for Jamesburg, he said. "By charging Jamesburg, it was considered at the community level to be not fair or equitable," Holliday said. Holliday added that it would not make sense to charge Jamesburg interest on a building that its students are not yet able to occupy for another three years. Board member Rita Ostrager opposed the board's decision. "Monroe residents are not occupying that building until 2011, and we're paying the interest," Ostrager told the Sentinel. She went on to say that about 40 percent of Jamesburg's school budget comes from state and federal sources, but for Monroe, only 10 percent comes from those sources. Board member Amy Antelis, who supported the rate decision, disagreed with Ostrager's logic. "It doesn't cost theMonroe taxpayers anything, and we have to work with our neighboring towns," Antelis told the Sentinel. The board voted 6-2 to approve the tuition rate, with Ostrager and Kathy Leonard voting against it. Patrice Faraone, Jamesburg's representative on the Monroe board, abstained from the vote, as did Marvin Braverman. Leonard said before the vote that she had questions regarding the measure, but Antelis made a motion to call the question and bring it to a vote, as she said the issue had already been discussed at two previous meetings of the facilities, buildings and grounds committee. Board Attorney Bertram Busch affirmed that such a motion could be made. "How long do you drag this out," Antelis said after the meeting. "I felt like, really, there was nothing to discuss. All of the information had been presented to everyone, including the audience." The vote on Antelis' motion was also 6-2, with the same actions taken by board members as in the tuition vote. Leonard revisited the issue toward the end of the meeting, saying that although she attended one of the meetings at which the topic was discussed, she did so as a member of the public, and was unable to ask questions. "This is supposed to be the forum where I ask those questions, and I was trying to, because I needed rationalization on whyMonroe taxpayers are going to have to foot that $400,000 bill," Leonard said. "I don't think Jamesburg should have to foot it either, but that's the state formula." Faraone took issue with Leonard's statements, saying that Jamesburg is less affluent than Monroe, and does its fair share to contribute to the district. "I thought we had a good relationship, and I'm a little surprised that you found that not to be a rational explanation," Faraone told Leonard at the meeting. Ostrager said she had no problem with the way the vote on the tuition rate turned out, but was unhappy with the fact that discussion of the issue was halted. "Two-thirds of that board decided they didn't even want us to ask questions," Ostrager said. "It's critical that we can talk at this board table, and we can't, and that terrifies me. This is the foundation of our democracy. I know it sounds extreme, but we're starting to lose all of that. It's not discussion. It's not open government." According to "Robert's Rules of Order: The Classic Manual of Parliamentary Procedure," by which governmental entities formulate their guidelines, the motion made by Antelis was permissible. As long as two-thirds of a governing body agrees to suspend debate on a given topic, such action can be taken.