wohopeful Livingston has 9 public schools and a district office. There are approximately 5,700 students. Livingston has 215 employees in the Public Employees Retirement System. Twenty-five of those employees earn less than $14,750 a year but are in the Public Employees Retirement System. Montclair has 10 school buildings and a district office.There are approximately 6,700 students. Montclair has 323 employees in the Public Employees Retirement System. Five of those people earn less than $14,750 a year but are in the Public Employees Retirement System. West Orange has 10 schools and a district office. There are approximately 7,000 students. West Orange has 425 employees in the Public Employees Retirement System . Fifty - five of them earn less than $14,750, have only one job, but are in the Public Employees Retirement System. Even if we adjusted the numbers to account for the differences in population, and one less building in Livingston, Livingston would still have about 150 employees less than West Orange, and Montclair would have about 90 fewer employees than West Orange has. Also, West Orange has 55 people in the Public Employees Pension System earning less than $14,750 a year. Is that law still in effect, that a person in the Public Employees Retirement System who earns the minimum yearly qualifying amount will have their pension based on their top 5 yearly salaries? I think the answer is," Come on, it's West Orange! "

P.S. West Orange school board member Megan Brill was appointed the executive director of the Downtown West Orange Alliance. The previous long - time director earns $59,483 a year. It appears Ms. Brill will start at $50,000 on a 6 month interim basis, increased to $55,000 after the interim basis. There also appears to be $9,000 allocated to pay for an assistant to Ms. Brill. So there it is; Another unpaid school board member receiving their { inevitable } INITIAL? payoff for volunteer services rendered via an extreme example of cronyism, another organization heavily subsidized by the West Orange taxpayers, and of course, $9,000 allocated for an assistant. Come on, it's West Orange!

Jobs, jobs and more jobs. The burgeoning anti - bullying bureaucracy is the latest, but certainly not the last example of government make - work programs: Every complaint must be investigated and then categorized. There has been a 400% increase in complaints since the mandate was implemented. In Belleville, "There have been ELEVEN presentations made. Every employee who spends a significant amount of time with the students takes part in these presentations. Assemblies will continue. There is currently not enough data available, and we don't know yet how it will be presented. It may include socio - economic factors." Every district must have an Anti _ bullying Coordinator, every school must have an anti - bullying committee, and there is a mandated anti - bullying curriculum for all schools. Reporting of incidents, compliance officers, State oversight, curriculum revisions, data compiling { categories, sub - categories etc. }, interpretation and presentation, workshop and assembly presenters,etc. But that is not all of it, not by a long shot: The Star Ledger March 24, 2013 "L.L." has officially been deemed a bully under New Jersey law.What he did will sound familiar to most parents: He called out a girl in his fourth - grade class for having head - lice.The Tenafly school district's only punishment was to give him a book titled "Just Kidding", about how a joke can hurt feelings, a perfectly reasonable response. However, because this boy was written up as a bully, .