Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Community Members,

The time is now.

Today, the voters of Fort Lee will decide on the $30.2 million in desperately needed repairs to our schools. If approved, this vote will fix the cold classrooms, leaking roofs, cracked boilers, burning motors, drafty windows, and much of the general state of disrepair of our schools, thus allowing us to enhance our programs and afford the children of Fort Lee the quality educational opportunities they deserve.

Caring and not caring are contagious. I ask each of you as members of the Fort Lee community: please remember to vote tonight from 2:00 – 9:00 p.m. I also implore you to remind your friends and neighbors to vote as well. Regardless of your vote, by your actions and words today, show your friends and neighbors that you care about our community, and they will care too.

Lastly, I remind you that the only way to succeed in anything is to give everything. If, like me, you are tired of cold classrooms, leaking roofs, cracked boilers, burning motors, drafty windows, and the general state of disrepair of our schools, all I ask is that you do all you can. Speak up today, for I fear what we fail to say today will be deafening for the future of our schools and the future of the children of Fort Lee.

We all count and count on each other; the time is now.

With Fort Lee Pride,

Mr. Steven Engravalle
Interim Superintendent of Schools
EngravaS@FortLee-BOE.net

I hope that Mr Engravalle's message gets across. But we all need to give it a push! Call and text your neighbors and friends and get them out to vote! Turnout of parents, in particular, is going to mean everything today.

That allegation has absolutely nothing to do with the need to make repairs in the schools. Shame on you for raising it. Further the board of ed not the superintendent would control the funds with a strict capital budget

Again I ask why are the polls not opened earlier in the day. Those of us who start work in the afternoon are unable to vote.

The schools need to be fixed. In fact, they need to be expanded. While this needed band-aid for our ailing schools will help, it is far short of what is necessary.

Hopefully, the effect on school population of the new buildings being allowed to be developed in town are fully vetted, unlike 100 Old Palisades with its 255 apartments that sent a surplus of children to School #1, M.S. and H.S.

The Mayor and Council were absent from the 1st and 2nd attempt to pass the referendum. Were they against it then? If so, they should have said it. They are for it now, only because of the community being so vocal about it.

Notwithstanding the failed leadership of the Mayor and Council with respect to the education system in town, more importantly the Board of Ed is fully responsible for putting us all in the uncomfortable position we are now in.

Consider the boilers and roofs at a minimum. Everyone knows they have a lifespan. So, when that time comes up, which that day of reckoning has, we should have a reserve.

Guess what. No reserve, but School Board did just give the former Superintendent a $50K bonus for leaving the school system early for what I understand, cashing in his unused sick days.

Al Norton and Martha Cohen have been phenomenal supporters of this community along with those that are mentioned in the below letter to the Borough.
A FL advocate, Howard Pearl takes it home in his posting here:
http://fortlee.patch.com/blog_posts/pearls-of-wisdom-91d4d765

One has to assume the polls are not open all day because of the cost. That's another thing the penny punchers in town complain about

If memory serves me correct, the polls were opened all day for one school based election and the numbers were no different, I guess its ROI for added cost and I am sure the Dept of Elections has regulations as well.

The last referendum was on Apr 27 to approve the school budget by 55 million. The Original bill/Vote was not passed in Nov. when the polls were opened all day to all voters. To get around this because obviously we were all wrong the first time a special referendum vote was held on april 27. The hours were only from 2pm to 9pm and the bill was only passed by three votes. So I think that it does matter what time the polls open and close. I also dont think it has anything to do with cost but is specifically planned that way to eliminate certain votership.

I should have been a little more specific, I was referring to several years ago, not recently......there are always absentee ballots, so the issue is not of exclusion but of choice.

Alls I know is that in a normal election the voters are given the entire day. And their is a reason for that. I am not an absentee voter and should not have to cast one to be heard. I should be able to get up in the morning and cast my vote.

Congratulations Fort Lee for passing the Referendum. Thanks to all the voters, Board of Education, Administration, Mayor & Council, PTAs, Homeowners Association, KPAC and all the many volunteers who got the word out. We will now be able to upgrade our infrastructure and bring our science labs into the 21st century.

hallelujah! for once we can be proud to have done the right thing. thanks to all those involved!

Driving up from South Jersey I got to cast my vote at 8:55 at Moore House.Thanks to all manning polls for your hard work.

Thank you Fort Lee voters for finally showing that we are a caring community, with responsible citizens and that apathy does not have to rule. Let's use this positive attitude to now move forward into the future.
Special thanks to Mr. Engravalle and the BOE for their dedication to this project, to the Mayor and Council who showed their unilateral support, and kudos to all those active community members who were so instrumental in the success of this endeavor.

Doesnt matter Tracy, If the votes dont go the way they want it to they'll just keep holding referendums until they do!

RMG- Of course they would have always continued until they designed a program that was approved by the public. The schools are in disrepair and overcrowded, and we left a lot of grant money on the table. The facts don't change because of a voted down referendum....it would have been a crime if they hadn't. If you feel strongly enough, and know that you cannot make the voting times, you do have an option, mail in ballots--- almost 100 people took advantage of this process for yesterday's vote.

And thanks to everyone at Med West! I have no doubt that we were responsible for the excellent turnout in District 7!

Is there a map or database available on the web that identifies what district various locations in Fort Lee are assigned to? It looks like districts 1, 3, 5, 9 and 18 were the only ones with a majority voting against the referendum. I'd be curious to see if that sheds a light on which populations were opposed. It amazes me that they can flip their middle finger to the schools even when the need is so obvious and the cost impact so modest.

http://www.fortleenj.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98&Itemid=150
Page down on this webpage and you can access the PDF.

I am from 5 and a little surprised myself, especially because I paid taxes for all their kids to go through the schools long before I had kids!!! Its part of our responsibilities as home owners and Americans.

Where was the Fort Lee Board of Education during these past years when these "repairs" and "upgrades" could have been done over the due course of time. Guess that's Fort Lee politics for you. Wait until the situation becomes intolerable, then scramble, instead of planning ahead.

In response to Zachary's comment, the Democrats in Fort Lee and the Board of Ed. have been "Flipping their middle finger" to most, if not all, of the residents. Why do you think we pay high taxes and see very little in return? Can anyone say CORRUPTION?

Valid points Ray, but the fact remains that the children of today should not have to suffer for the corruption and ineptitude of days past. That's democracy, for better or worse, when it comes to who gets elected and re-elected, the voters get exactly what they deserve. If they're dumb enough to re-elect a terrible leader because he's from the right political party or because he's the incumbent, or if they're dumb enough to toss out a an incumbent who's actually doing a good job, then so be it. I think it was Churchill who once said that the best argument against democracy is to spend five minutes talking to the average voter. But that's the best system we can come up with so far.

Ray; Compared to other similar Bergen County towns, I don't believe that Fort Lee's taxes are notably high. We have a lot of ratables in town (for better or worse) that keep our taxes relatively low. What specifically would you like to see in return for your taxes that you are not getting?

Why was school # 2 not mentioned in the line up of repairs needed? My child is a student at this school and classes are done in hallways and closets. Heat is an issue as well. All the schools are in Great Need of Work. Not enough space and over crowding are the problems in all the schools in Fortlee. How can school #2 be left out? JMiller

Jordan: It's obviously triage. When you don't have enough money for everything, you have to address the most urgent needs first. And expansions and efforts to deal with overcrowding were basically off the table with this much-reduced referendum, whichis essentially just for repairs. This while thing will no doubt come back to haunt us, and have to be addressed again in the future, which is why it's such a shame that the larger bond issue was voted down in the first place!

In response to Jordan: The citizens of Fort Lee defeated the two major referendums. School #2 would have benefited as would all of the schools. By passing this reduced referendum, the town is now relegated to a band-aid approach to repairs and upgrades, with no new classrooms included. With Centuria on the horizon, the highest probability is that the BOE will be forced in a few years to request a new referendum, specifically targeting areas such as School #2 and new classrooms. Getting a 2nd referendum through this community in such a short period of time is going to border on the impossible, unless there is a change in attitude in the population, i.e. until the residents recognize that our children deserve the best possible learning environment.