Rumson mom 'brews' rollback of school budget law

BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

PHOTOSBY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Owen Doherty, 7, rehearses for a benefit concert for the Coalition of Families for Excellent Education (COFFEE). Below, Vince Mottern, Hightstown, accompanies Stevi Incremona, 15, Fair Haven, who will also perform at the May 5 fund-raiser. COFFEE, more than what's in your mug, is on the move to save New Jersey's public schools.

COFFEE, which stands for Coalition of Families For Excellent Education, is a grassroots organization started by Rumson resident Kimberly Newsome, a stay-at-home mother of four who has made it her mission to get state school budget restrictions amended.

S-1701, a state law that went into effect over the summer of 2004, places restrictions on increases in annual school budgets, the amount of surplus a school district can carry from year to year, and how much can be spent on district administration.

"This problem isn't Rumson," said Newsome last week. "This problem isn't Monmouth County. It's affecting the whole state."

Last year Newsome organized a forum to discuss the impacts of S-1701 on local school districts.

Newsome said she realized that although she may be getting the message across at the local level, she was not reaching the decision makers in Trenton.

That's when she started COFFEE, a registered nonprofit that is dedicated to educating families about public school funding in New Jersey.

"In order to get parents from Bergen County to Cape May to be informed about what's going on with S-1701," she said, "it takes money."

The first fundraising event will take place on May 5 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank and Newsome has invited every legislator in the state, including those who support amending S-1701 and those who are defend it as effective property tax relief.

"Almost all the legislators from Districts 11, 12 and 13 have already confirmed they are coming," Newsome said, naming Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (R-12), Sen. Ellen Karcher (D-12), Assemblyman Michael Panter (D-12), and Assemblyman Sean Kean (R-11).

"Every one of these guys is working toward the same end," she said. "This is a bipartisan effort."

The event is a concert featuring Broadway performers like Ron Sharpe, who was a member of the Broadway cast of "Les Miserables," and John Rochette, who performed in the national tour of "Phantom of the Opera" and as a member of Blue Man Group.

Other performers scheduled to perform include Barbara Russell, of Broadway's "Les Mis"; lyric soprano Lucia Baratta; vocalist Gerd Nowaczyk; and Vince Mottern, who performed in national tours and is the music teacher at Deane-Porter School in Rumson.

Newsome has also booked local talent including three voice students in the Performing Arts Program at Red Bank Regional High School: Matthew Krenz, Taylor Deehan and Alexandria Howley. Stevi Incremona, an eighth-grader from Fair Haven, will also perform.

Students from Deane-Porter Elementary School will join their music teacher, Mottern, in singing songs about the value of education.

"Vince Mottern composed a series of original songs about education," said Newsome, "and the children will sing them including one called 'Can't Wait to See My Teacher.' I almost cry when I hear that one."

Newsome said that although she can see the value of finding a way to cut property taxes, she doesn't think S-1701 is the way to do it.

"I can understand the frustration and I can understand the anger about property taxes," she said, "but not funding schools properly is not the way to do it. Not passing the school budgets is not an answer either."

About half of school budgets throughout the state failed to be approved by voters on April 18, including the budgets of the Rumson, Red Bank, Long Branch and Oceanport school districts.

"The cuts for next year are going to be significantly worse than anticipated because so many school budgets went down this year," she said. "If it wasn't for S-1701, Rumson would have had $500,000 in surplus to [pay for] a new roof for the school."

Newsome said that some families in Rumson received only a $50 rebate check after S-1701 took effect in 2004, which was money taken out of the surplus to comply with the restrictions of the new law.

She said that every district in the state is suffering the effects of the budget restrictions and that people are looking for ways to help.

"Taxpayers, parents, everybody sees that there is a crisis in public education," she said, "and they are jumping at the chance to help. They can help by writing letters to the legislators who are standing in the way of amending 1701."

Newsome said that although changing the school funding process would be a good way of alleviating the negative feelings between taxpayers and school districts, S-1701 needs to be amended immediately, because of the immediate harm that is being done.

"There have to be intelligent people out there," she said, "who can come up with a way to fund schools, and the state should follow that formula. But we have to take care of this now, because our schools are being hurt now.

"People are mad. People are frustrated. People are angry," said Newsome. "They want to know what's wrong with school districts. They are being asked to choose between their hearts and their homes, between their children and their wallets. That's not right."