While I'm not looking to start an argument here, I was also against this "Field". The taxes in the town are too high, especially with all the businesses that are here. My elderly mothers home, has been re-assessed so many times and even with NO improvements to it or the property, her taxes are raised. And the town wants to add more burden to residents to improve a FIELD? This town wants to rip out forestry for a high end grocery store, instead of utilizing what is already vacant which will be more tax payer burden on top of it. Granted that store issue is separate, I know. BUt come on, use your heads! There are bigger things to worry about then a field. The taxes are strangling residents as it is. And yet, we have to BUY leaf bags, the township services are thin, at best. And a field is the agenda? A field that most people won't ever see or even use! HOw does this make sense to anyone?

It's a very sad day for the kids of this town. While disappointed, not surprised.

Really? Susy Golderer said "The people have spoken." Funny she didn't here the voters when they wanted Alison Cogan on the BOE. The people vote No because we don't trust this Board.

Oh come on, it is not a sad day for the kids.

People don't want to give this BOE or mayor any significant amount of money to do anything. That's what the vote was about. It's a referendum on the elected officials in this town, it really isn't about fields or kids. Now maybe the BOE can come up with a sensible solution for improving and/or maintaining the athletic facilities that are in need.

After seeing this BOE and mayor operate the last few years, why would anyone believe them when they claim that this project would have not come with tax increases?

Let the parents of the children using the fields pay for the turf.

I have to agree with Mark

The Mayor Fubarred this for so many from the very beginning!!
The fields can and will be fixed I believe less the photo op of for 5 guys with hard hats and gold shovels.

The current BOE didn't deserve approval of this scheme. Maintenance neglect at the fields and grounds committee was compounded throughout Bob Crawford's tenure. Certainly not listening to different points of view continues to plague this town as prices get higher each day.

NO New Taxes. Period.

Get the message, Bd of Ed?

One word.....maintenance. Learn it board of ed cause you clearly don't have a clue how to maintain the things we already have.

I believe the issues are high taxes, doubt in our town representatives (Bd of Ed, Town council & Mayor and other committess) and never-ending development that has not reduced taxes or brought any benefits to the town or it's citizens.

All you crybabies out there complaining about taxes. Suck it up for $30 per year and give the kids something that will benefit them. Saying "no" is just like saying you don't want them to be active and continue to get fat. For those of you that say taxes are too high in Parsippany....go scratch. You should be so lucky they are as low as they are.

There are several reasons for this failure. The people in Parsippany have no faith in this board. We need to vote out Mike Stumulo and his appointee DeIntinis this coming November. Strumolo has not done anything but purposefully divide this board. It was never more clear to the public when Alison Cogan was turned down to take the seat that rightfully belonged to her.
I along with the people of Parsippany do not trust them with our tax dollars. The problem is that we never see any decreases in property after these projects are paid in full. I had no doubt that this was going to fail. We are sick of being taxed to death. The president just increased our taxes so all of the working households are bringing home less once again. I believe that people can't afford anymore increases. We need another plan for these fields as soon as possible.

2 failed plans to improved the high school fields, so what now?

There is so little for the kids to do in this town. So lets take away school sports. The playing fields haven't been maintained properly for years and are now unsafe. The bleachers at Par High are dangerous and should be condemned. Really, sports in the school system should be cancelled. There's nothing to learn from sports. We don't need to teach team work or that commitment and hard work pays off. Lets remove sports from the schools that would save lots of money. Let the kids of this town wander the streets during the day. Maybe get a job that's not there. Yah that's the ticket. We should spend the money we save and increase our police force. That's the way to go. For that matter, we should let the sick and old take care of themselves. Yah that should save some money. I don't want my tax money going towards a senior center, if the seniors want a place to go they should pay for that themselves yah and pay for their ambulances. That's right. I like it. Everyone should just pay for themselves. No need to look out for each other. No need to cover each others backs. Yah lets get rid of team in Parsippany. Then for sure we shouldn't teach it in the schools.

We should be ashamed of ourselves. Go Parsippany, one hell of a place to live. Except if your a kid.

This BOE doesn't listen !!! Early in the Field's debate I offered board president Frank Calabria a local (Parsippany) expert to aid in the solution of this proposal. As always It fell on deaf ears

Robyn, You are right on!!!! This is exactly what they need to do. I have said it to Dr. Gordon, and Dr. Seitz. Preventive maintenance and use local people to do the job....why do we have to use these big school companies to constantly do the roof, windows, floors, repairs. We have tons of local contractors that are fully insured and would do the work at a third of the cost. It's about time the board starts thinking of the schools the way we think of our homes...when we need to get work done, we get a few quotes and take the best route. We have plenty of money in Parsippany....these people cannot figure out to spend it wisely.

Beth Bluj--it is NOT a sad day in Parsippany, it is a NEW ERA, a/k/a Reality & welcome to it!

It's a time for this BOE to buckle down and fix what ails the fields at these schools in a more cost-effective manner so their parents are not TAXED INTO BANKRUPTCY forcing their children to move to less expensive, lower-taxed districts. Parents and taxpayers don't have an endless pile of cash sitting in their living rooms. And Beth, if you and your friends have that pile of disposible cash, feel free to pass the collection hat around. I am sure the BOE will name the fields after you and the gang.

And Nancy, PLEASE be accurate and stop with your baseless ranting -- it is tedious and needlessly mind-numbing. This township had and has no faith in the BOEs OF YESTERYEAR when drawing up this pricy proposal. This fields referendum lacked forethought, due diligence or respect for the taxpayers. And while I do not support Stumolo and voted for Cogan, Nancy -- STOP maligning other new members and unjustifiably associate them until you see them in action. You know NOTHING about how these new members will or will not serve the taxpayers yet. Give the new members a chance. I am confident you, Nancy, were not an expert or Einstein when you first embarked on a new endeavor.

DeIntinis is NO ONE's puppet . And just because you say so, doesn't make it reality. So be a mature adult, blog/write responsibly, stop slandering people, and finally GET IT RIGHT.

What is the Board thinking when they put a proposal to to upgrade tracks and fields at the two high schools to the tune of almost $8 million? What is wrong with grass fields they have been around forever. They still work well. Astroturf has become a requirement for the eletist. We, the homeowners, currently pay high taxes in our town. It has almost become prohibitive to continue tax increases. People have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. Those with jobs haven't seen a salary increase in years. I suggest the Board find an alternative to the $8 million increase by fixing up what is there to make it workable within the confines of existing taxes. WE CANNOT AFFORD HIGHER TAXES!!

And Joe Raich -- You are spot on. If there is anyone on that board who doesn't listen and continuously talks off-topic is Frank Calabria! Sitting at board meetings listening to his off-task comments, pointless interruptions, endless historical commentary and evasive answers to questions asked of him is painful!

So much more school business can be accomplished with more organization, discipline, due diligence, and concentration and less with the mindless, petty and wayward fillibusters at these meetings. An orderly meeting format on this board is non-existent, I hope something is done soon regarding this.

Morristown H.S. solicited $250,000 from the NY JETS.

Deanna McHugh
As a mother of two boys in the district I am very saddened by the outcome. To argue with all the comments unfortunately will not change the outcome. So to my children I feel that the one thing I can do is offer my time to any fundraising project that can help the improvements of these fields. Anyone care to join?

Morristown to my knowledge fundraised for their turf field and as I said- the Jets gave them money. They raised 1 million or so to get the project done. The board and town hall needs to work together and be creative. It can be done but there needs to be LEADERSHIP!

1million got them field and new track.8million???

There wouldn't have been an issue of needing to replace the fields if they had been taken care of in the first. Little to no maintenance are done on the fields. While turf fields are nice, MAINTENANCE still needs to be done first. There is no reason to mistreat the fields and then expect tax payers to fork over more money.

@maurice Sanders...I would rather give you the money the board of ed takes out of my taxes....maybe something would get done with it!!! You know what I mean....and it's true...the board has plenty of money from all our taxes...they just don't know how to spend it properly. It's the old government way...spend $500 on a stapler.

Lets move on enough chatter on this subject.

beth Blug:
you said, Test scores don't mean a thing to but the honor roll does since your kids were on them, correct?

Academic fraud is rife at many of the nation's most prestigious and costliest universities.

At Brown University, two-thirds of all letter grades given are A's.

At Harvard, 50 percent of all grades were either A or A- (up from 22 percent in 1966); 91 percent of seniors graduated with honors. The Boston Globe called Harvard's grading practices "the laughing stock of the Ivy League."

Eighty percent of the grades given at the University of Illinois are A's and B's.

Fifty percent of students at Columbia University are on the Dean's list.
The Obama administration announced that 10 states, including New Jersey, were granted waivers from having to adhere to federal No Child Left Behind standardized testing benchmarks.

The waiver comes at a fortunate time for Parsippany. Eleven of the district's 14 schools did not meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards as of the end of the last school year.

How do you get higher standing in the top schools in New Jersey? You water down the federal No Child Left Behind standardized testing benchmarks.

Schools certainly do have an immoral code to live by.

What I find most sad is how poorly this referendum vote was announced in the town. No voter in my household received the usual polling notice that comes prior to an election. One was delivered to us only today. The only place I knew that listed voter locations was Tabor Pizza. Perhaps if the town wanted a 'true' vote it should have done a better job of making the information for a proper vote available. Whether or not the final outcome would have been different, I do not know. However, I am very angry that the town of Parsippany did such a poor job of ensuring ALL voters were notified properly. I can't help but wonder if it was done on purpose to ensure that YES votes prevailed - that clearly backfired. This has only added to my frustration with both the Township's and Board of Ed's administrations. I love living here and love my neighborhood and schools. I wish we could get past the crookedness and focus on what is best for the children - any and all improvements to their education - from the arts, music and media, sports, bringing back foreign languages at the elementary level and so much more.

g - let's agree to disagree and move on. I am spent and don' feel like dragging this out any longer. Your priorities are one and mine are another and we will never be on the same page and that's ok.

Turf needs to be replaced every approx. 15 yrs on lawns, on a football feild could be far less that would mean before it's paid for it needs to be replaced.

There is a batter way to pay for these fields. Lets the business pay. Do you know that the business in the town do not pay any education taxes? This includes all the apartments owners. There are so many kinds lives in these apartments and uses township school system. I think it's fair if they pay their share as well.

This referendum was soundly defeated , but not for any single reason. There are so many factors that led to this this defeat, and most of them are listed above. In short, the changes were deemed non-essential during a challenging economic climate, there was discomfort and distrust with the way that this entire process was handled, going back to the original "Field Of Dreams" concept, (by the way, just who are the "Turf Our Fields Committee", anyway?) and there is an overall lack of faith in the Board Of Education's handling of such a big-ticket item.

However, the reaction of the Board Of Education to the defeat - shock and surprise - is very disconcerting, as it shows a glaring disconnect with the community that it serves. Mr. Mancuso and Ms. Orthwein, I'd like to suggest that you and your fellow board members re-acquaint yourselves with the people that elected you, as it seems that you have no idea what they are thinking. You can do this by talking less and listening more. Your reaction does not inspire confidence.

continued...

To the proponents of the fields, this is not "a sad day for the children" as has been said. Nothing has been lost. One method for achieving what you would like to see has been rejected. That's not the end of the world. A majority of people in this town agree that something must be done for our fields, but do not see this plan as the solution. That in itself is a big win, as until recently the sorry state of our high school fields was not on anybody's radar. Now its the talk of the town.

As for the hard core opponents, especially Mr. Crawford, this result is not a mandate being loudly heard. It is many voices, with varying concerns, expressing numerous opinions. This is not a validation of your efforts. You are among the majority, but do not represent us, nor do you speak for us. In fact, there is a fact that has been mentioned in this forum, I don't believe that it has been given the attention that it deserves. The sad state of our fields can be attributed to yourself, and those who served with you. The people entrusted you with the responsibility to oversee and maintain the investment that we have made in our facilities, and you let us down. You failed in your elected responsibilities, and as a result we are in this position today. If I were you, or any current or prior board member who has served over the last five to ten years, I would not be crowing too loudly today.

continued...

It would be nice if the hard core supporters on both sides would just be silent for a while and realize that most often the answers - as well as the majority - lie in the middle. This town and this board need to look around at what other towns have (successfully) done regarding the modernization of athletic fields, and adopt what works. The boards' illusion that they have all of the answers must be recognized for the fallacy that it is. In short, if we are to take anything away from this experience, it is that we, as taxpayers, must pay much more attention to what is happening with our money, and we must demand that our elected officials treat those dollars with the respect that they deserve.

What on earth in materials cost $8 million to redo 2 fields??? Before that it was some 13 million.

Mike Begley: Thank you for your well-reasoned comments on this.

Dave Comora: Seems like Jannerone Field with improvements would be a possibility.

I am sure the fields were adequate when they were built. Failure to maintain them caused them to deteriorate. I don't think the project was voted down because of the $30 tax. I am sure some people voted no because; this is not the time to acquire debt, did not want the children to play on toxic turf, inadequate maintenance would continue.

Mr. Begley
Thank you for your comments and most of them are on target. However, you appear to have confused my volunteer role as one of nine Board members (each with a single vote) with the paid role of the Superintendent whose responsibility it is to manage the school district. And has been stated numerous times before, the nine BOE members, over the past number of years, had to make some difficult choices when it came to how money should be spent in the District. What you may not know is that a number of the decisions the BOE made regarding capital improvement projects resulted in the State picking up 40% of the projects' costs. With the limited dollars that were available walking, away from that type of funding would have been irresponsible
With regard to my "opposition" to the Referendum please be good enough to review my comments which consistently called on the BOE to provide additional/sufficent information about the costs and potential impact of the Referendum that was being put before the voters. If you attended the BOE meetings or read the answers provided on the District web site you might agree that the information provided was less than sufficient. And by the way I have yet to receive the mailer sent out by the District.
One final point- no one is "crowing" but many of us would like to find a way to solve the issues that have surfaced. Not sure how active you have been in the past but now how about rolling up your sleeves and joining that effort

When our high priced supertendant submits his budget, how much money is alloted to maintain the field?

Mr. Crawford,

My wife and I have been quite involved in the schools, with my wife leading two PTA's, and working together on the board of our PGT program. Unfortunately my involvement was curtailed a few years back by a double lung transplant. However, with the way things are going right now, it may be time to start going to meetings.

Regarding my opinions on your BOE service, you were more than one of nine - you were the chair of the committee tasked to oversee buildings and grounds. I understand the limited budget, the win/win scenario of the capital improvements that are state-subsidised, as well as Marlene's persuasiveness. But Bob, you were in the position to flag areas of need, and with your constant attendance at PHS games, those needs were in your face on a regular basis. You're not a shy man Bob. And when you see things wrong you are quite adept at making yourself heard. Yet I don't recall ever hearing anything from you about the shape of our fields, and as chair of buildings and grounds that was right up your alley, budgetary constraints or not.

Now I know nothing about the internal politics of a nine-person board, or of those involved in working side by side with other board members, Dr. Seitz, and Marlene on the buildi gs and grounds committee. But I do know that if your idea of chairing was to march in lock-step with district management, then you were not up to the position at all.

Continued...

It seems to me that your responsibilities on that committee would certainly include the identification of facilities in poor shape and requiring improvement, and communicating that information to district management, as well as to your fellow board members. Perhaps these items get pushed down the list due to budgetary contraints, but they must be documented, if only to avoid allegations such as mine, and of many others in town, that the BOE was asleep at the wheel during this time, and let the fields degenerate to their present condition. You've said that Marlene guided you, and that Dr. Seitz was responsible for managing the district. But your commitee plays a key role in that equation Bob, as the check and balance over the district's spending power. You were not in that position to follow - as chair you were there to lead. If nothing else, to tell everyone else involved that you had a laundry list of issues that, while not being immediately addressed, were on the radar screen. I don't recall anything like that being said about the fields, and that's a fail for you and the other board members at the time. But since you were the chair, and you're obviously capable of making yourself heard, it reflects even more on you.

Mike
How about meeting me for a cup of coffee sometime this weekend? I suspect we might have more in common than we think Name the time and the place and I'll be there. I look forward to talking to you and sharing some ideas
Thanks
Bob

Mike Begley: Previous Boards refused to listen to Bob Crawford when he made B&G reports,and being a 1 vote of 9 got lonely. Bob deserves " the Profile in Courage " award during these troubled times...