Dear Editor:

How many can remember when attending school two holidays; Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays? This changing of our first Presidents birthday to Presidents day is a form of tampering with past for private concerns; let me explain. The idea of a holiday is to have an extra day to spend with family or one’s own liberty with time. Washington’s day of birth February 11, 1731 this time period had the Julian calendar in effect. In 1752 the Georgian Calendar replaced the Julian thereby changing Washington’s birth to February 22, 1732. Skipping the exact reason here of why the inaccuracy of days occurred between the two measures of year or our accurate days in complete rotation around the sun then about 10-days, we still have Washington’s Birth; however because of the Ninetieth Congress in 1968; determined to create a uniform system of federal Monday holidays, Congress voted to shift three existing holidays to Mondays and expanded the number further by creating one new Monday holiday.

Washington’s Birthday was uprooted from its fixed February 22 date and transplanted to the third Monday in February, followed by Memorial Day being relocated from the last day in May to the last Monday in May. One newly created holiday—Columbus Day—was positioned on the second Monday in October, as Veterans Day—ousted from its November 11 foxhole—was reassigned to the fourth Monday in October (although rebellion by veterans’ organizations and state governments forced the 1980 return of Veterans Day to its historic Armistice date of November 11). That Washington’s birth date—February 22—would never fall on the third Monday in February was considered of minimum importance. After all, who could ever forget all that George Washington meant to this country?

In fact, Nixon issued an executive order on February 11, 1971, proclaiming the third Monday of February a holiday. That order, however, referred to the holiday as nothing other than Washington’s Birthday. Claims that Nixon had changed the holiday to the more generic Presidents Day apparently stemmed from an inaccurate newspaper account.

Nonetheless, in the final decades of the 20th century, an increasing number of people embraced the term “Presidents Day.” Some states have even adopted Presidents Day as a state holiday in lieu of Washington’s Birthday. Still, the federal holiday on the third Monday of February legally remains “Washington’s Birthday” to this day.

  In conclusion, we have the father our country being thrown into a batch of other men called presidents because of the office held. One other seeming observation is one of the Monday Holidays added to the calendar Columbus Day, calls this man by name, and alleges his discovery of the new world, despite the fact that people were here already. Columbus himself never in his five voyages set foot in North or South America, and spelt the beginning of the genocide of native peoples and the theft of their lands or habitats.

So a foreigner Columbus in name is proclaimed above that of our first President, Commander and Chief of the American Continental Army, the very “iron core of the republic”. Columbus day should then be Native American Day.

The underlying reason for this is a private not only newspaper media hype taken hold, but the idea of a consumers holiday of shopping; so we go from Washington birthdays sales to the sensational Presidents day sales; indoctrinating us into a transition from citizen to consumer and misleading us into our own history as somehow the office of president is no different in time and space from Washington time, as democracy itself without considering of actual changes marches on in some order and exceptional way, after all  it takes is to be American.

New Jersey Being one of the first colonies and the third State to ratify the Federal Constitution should go back to calling it, Washington’s Birthday, not Presidents day. It is a fact Washington spent most of the War Years 1775-1783 right here in New Jersey. The Holiday is Federal Not State and thereby must not be altered by private economic motives, a mere shopping sale day. No State of the Union formed in 1789 or any after should have the prerogative to change the name of this Day, be it the change to the third Monday be sufficient.

Lincolns Birth February 12 was a State Holiday, many states of the old south did not recognize it, and were allowed to do so, because of the subversion of the 13^th & 14^th Amendments and the establishment of Jim Crow in the old confederacy. During my grammar school days, we did recognize both men on their day. Being 10-11 years old in 1961 we were made to “celebrate” be somewhat educated and made aware of 100 years since the civil war, plays, songs, hats both Yankee and rebel, civil war cards, battles but little of slavery; even less were we taught about Washington and the dynamic of his rise to power and his problems with human nature at the time; or how American Indians played such a large part in our Nations beginnings.

 In the final decades of the 20th century, an increasing number of people embraced the term “Presidents Day.” Some states have even adopted Presidents Day as a state holiday in lieu of Washington’s Birthday. Still, the federal holiday on the third Monday of February legally remains “Washington’s Birthday” to this day. In our age of the demise of good government through vested interest, like SuperPacs and elected officials who work to degrade rather enforce civil and common concerns, we need Washington’s Birthday to be restored as such, as he still is for his time and position of birth a great example of a leader, always giving not taking, risking his life and returning the power of the Army to civilian control. It is we who have failed him and our nation for selfish reasons. In the year 2016 the American experiment in my opinion is a failure, as private economic concerns have replaced our quest for good government in the establishment of a democracy; of which we are not. The Great man himself experienced the short-coming of human nature, we fail to honesty examine ourselves, what are we really all about? Don’t believe anyone really knows anymore as our souls, and spirits have been contaminated by corporate power and the influence of money, which is not the value of life itself.

When one President is not unlike any other we only prolong our own problems and fail to see into ourselves, progress without evolution has allowed people to serve technology rather than technology serving the people. 2016 looks like Washington made a big mistake; he however is none the less for it as his example can still inspire those who wish to call themselves American. Ideas of Liberty and actual needs shall not be replaced with motives of overly exceeding profits

Nick Homyak
Lake Hiawatha

Dear Editor: 

Last week I received a flyer from the teacher’s union lobbying the public to support its position in the ongoing teacher contract negotiations.

I have no doubt that the statistics listed in the flyer are true. However, I found many of them to be either irrelevant to the negotiations, or selectively presented in such a way as to be misleading. In some cases they also took advantage of the public’s inexperience with the teacher salary scale and the school budget in general.

For example, at first glance I thought that teachers averaged only 0.8% salary increases over the last five years. It took a second reading before I decided that they were only talking about teachers who were at or close to the maximum negotiated salary for a teacher. Every job in the school district is subject to some maximum salary amount, starting right at the top with the superintendent. Why would it be any different for the teachers? The public understands the concept of limited raises or even no raises for employees who are making the maximum allowable salary for a particular job position. Why didn’t the flyer state the average for “all” teachers for the past five years instead of just “senior” teachers. Not doing so was misleading.

Another statistic says that senior administration received an average increase of 3.5% in 2014-2015. Most likely that number represents the highest raise that senior administrators have received in recent years. The fact that the flyer shows the highest rate for administrators rather than an average rate over a period of time, and the flyer never shows an average rate for all teachers which could be used for comparison purposes, again seems to be misleading.

The statistic that the superintendent received a one year 11% increase in salary falls into the irrelevant category. Even with that 11% increase, the superintendent position is being paid 20% less today than five years ago. How does a position whose absolute salary has gone down over recent years draw away budget dollars that could be used to pay teachers? It doesn’t.

The next statistic relies on the public’s lack of familiarity with how the school budget works. On the surface, taking $500,000 from the “Teacher Salary” account sounds like a terrible thing. But in reality, budget money is routinely shifted from areas where actual expenses are less than budget estimates to areas where actual expenses exceed estimates. Budget estimates are set before the beginning of the fiscal year. In most cases there is no way to know how much will actually be spent on any given line item. As a result, budget amounts are usually estimated a little on the high side to protect against unforeseen expenses. Last year the district paid the teachers every dollar that they were contractually entitled to. The fact that the Board put aside more money than they needed to accomplish this should be of no concern to the teachers. The Board met its obligation. What remains should either go into surplus or be returned to taxpayers.

As a taxpayer, I totally approve of the $40,000 for a negotiating attorney. The last time that the Board tried to save money by negotiating without assistance resulted in disaster. It was around 2009 at a time when the Great Recession had just begun to take hold. The governor had already frozen the wages of state employees and there were massive layoffs in both the public and the private sectors. But the Parsippany district contract gave teachers raises of 4 – 4 ½%, leaving the public in disbelief. A few months later when nearby towns were negotiating contracts in the 2-2 ½% range, it became clear just how bad the Parsippany contract was. Today, because of the 2% cap on the budget, the Board cannot simply pass on the costs of a 4% increase to the public. Any amount beyond 2% must come out of other budget items such as building maintenance or iPads. The Board’s main obligation is to the students, and under current budget rules the Board can no longer afford to enter into a contract that would disproportionately reduce student related line items. A negotiating attorney is necessary to insure that the Board does not enter into a contract that would be detrimental to the students.

The 2015-2016 budget will increase by about $2.5 million as a result of the 2% cap. The flyer asks “Where does the money go?”, yet it omits one of the biggest expenditures. The increase in Medical Benefit premiums alone will eat up almost half of the 2% cap. The remaining half is all that is left to support increases for all the other budget categories including teacher salaries.

In order for the public to determine whether the teachers have been treated fairly or not, meaningful statistics must be provided. For this purpose, I ask the Board to provide the following information at the next Board meeting, and in the Q&A section of the Board website.

• What is the average salary increase received by Parsippany district administrators over the last five years?
• What is the average salary increase received by Parsippany district teachers over the last five years?
• How do the average teacher salaries for the Parsippany district compare to the average teacher salaries for other K thru 12 districts in Morris County, adjusting for differences in average length of service?

Bob Venezia