The East Annex room at Moriarty High School was full for the meeting, but no one from the audience made a statement about the budget. The board members themselves reiterated their support of Stowe after a lengthy executive session. Richardson said that at that time, the district had no budget for maintenance or custodians, classrooms were getting crowded and teachers hadn't had a significant raise from the district in several years. The state mandated a 9 percent raise the year before Stowe was hired, but that didn't come from the district, he said. The budget approved May 25 is essentially the same amount the district has worked with before, and teachers will have seen more than a 9 percent raise in salary in the past two years, student-teacher ratios have dropped and test scores have improved, he said.
Some people forget how it was before.