February 11, 2008
Dr. Clark's Comments:
Dr. Clark congratulated the Riverview PTA and media specialist on a successful authors day. She also said she's looking forward to Lakeview's 2nd grade show later this week. She reminded everyone that school will be closed on 2/18 through 2/20. 2/20 will be a teacher in-service day, including internet safety training in the morning and brain gym training in the afternoon. Brain gym teaches physical movements that enhance learning in the classroom.
Dr. Clark said she met with several parents from Riverview regarding the Supervisor of Instruction, who is currently full-time thanks to a school safety grant that runs out in Feb. 2009. At that point, she will return to a part-time (75%) schedule. The Riverview parents want the school board to make this a full-time position from Feb. through June 2009 for an additional cost of $7,500.
Dr. Clark then discussed the annual school budget, which was the main focus of the meeting. Funds are included in next year's budget to continue the focus on problem-based learning and infusing technology in grades 4 through 8 (i.e., smartboards, laptops, etc.). Funds are also included to create teacher leaders to focus on more units of engaging instruction and providing time for teachers to work on creating these units. Comprehensive literacy (of which guided reading is one part) will be extended to 4th and 5th grades. This includes training teachers and purchasing materials to allow the teachers to teach children on their individual reading level, which may be different (either higher or lower) than their actual grade level. They are also working on middle school reading programs for continuous flow when the kids leave the elementary schools.
For the math curriculum, Calendar Math is included in the budget for grades K-8 to help the children retain basic math skills and get them thinking about the way math and numbers work rather than just memorization. This program will be done for 10 minutes every morning. Exemplars Math is also included in the budget and will be used for grades K-8. This is a resource for teachers -- a data bank/search engine with problems for teachers to use including higher order problem solving activities, like those on the NJASK tests. These math programs were recommended by the Lakeview Vice Principal, who formerly worked in Newark's math office. She evaluated Denville's math curriculum and recommended these programs to improve the curriculum and test scores. Dr. Clark pointed out that this budget includes the time for teachers to learn to utilize these new programs because we're working on building the strength of our teaching staff and providing teachers with all the tools they need.
Budget Presentation:
The budget for the 2008-2009 school year includes many new teachers (2nd grade Riverview, 1st grade Lakeview, 4th grade Lakeview, 5th grade Lakeview, LLD Riverview, pre-K Lakeview) and new curriculum as discussed above. However, there were several changes from the draft budget that was distributed at the meeting two weeks ago. Certain new rules required that the budget be recalculated and several items had to be cut to remain under the state-mandated 4% cap.
A serious problem may arise due to waivers. The school board is pursuing waivers for certain costs to allow the budget to exceed the 4% cap when those certain costs increase by more than 4%, such as insurance, benefits, energy, etc. (Note: If approved, the waivers would merely allow us to vote on an increase of more than 4%; we wouldn't automatically get any additional money.) Because we are pursuing over $2M in waivers, the county must review our budget and identify any "unneeded" costs in their opinion. If they find anything in the budget that they consider "unneeded", then they will not allow us to seek the waivers, or reduce the amount we are allowed to seek in waivers by the "unneeded" amount. In the past for other districts, the county determined that courtesy bussing is an "unneeded" cost. (Note: Courtesy bussing means providing transportation for any student who lives less than 2 miles from school, which is about half of all students in our district. The school board is required to provide bussing for any children who live more than 2 miles from school. In our town, courtesy bussing costs $1M per year!!!) If the county determines that our courtesy bussing is "unneeded," they will require us to reduce our budget by $1 million and will only let us seek waivers beyond that amount. Because we must pay the costs for which we are seeking waivers (i.e., benefits, insurance, energy, etc.) we would have to cut programs in order to reduce the budget by $1 million, or put the $1M on a second question to be voted on in April, which would have to be approved by 60% of the voters.
(Note that the annual budget only requires 50% approval, but the state requires that any second questions -- to go above and beyond the 4% cap -- be approved by a super-majority of 60%.) The potential cuts would include eliminating all capital projects, eliminating all new curriculum initiatives (i.e., calendar math, exemplars math, guided reading in 4th and 5th grades), eliminating some courtesy bussing, eliminating all new staff, and eliminating some existing staff. This is a potentially serious issue and we will have to wait for the county review to see what happens. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the county won't object to courtesy bussing!!
Board Comments on the Budget:
Al Gellene expressed his concern about not providing enough funding in the special ed budget. We received new students this past year and had to find money for their out-of-district tuition, costing $60-70k for 3 kids for half a year. We need to make sure we provide enough funding for any new special ed students who may enter our district next year. $100k is included in next year's budget for this purpose.
Seth Johnson noted that this budget focuses on smaller class sizes and additional staff, which creates space issues within the school. The libraries at Lakeview and Riverview will most likely be partitioned for small group instruction (requiring waivers from the state for "substandard space"). Music may have to be moved onto a cart. Capital projects will be kept to a minimum to keep the budget down. The windows will be completed at Riverview, fire suppression upgrades at all 3 schools, exterior wall repair (brick repointing) at Valleyview, and bathroom tile repair at Lakeview. This budget also continues to fund a grant writer, who has been very successful at obtaining additional money for the district.
Public Comments on the Budget:
Mr. DeCesare commented that each new program must be evaluated for effectiveness after one year. Mr. Forte requested that the board include $7,500 in the budget to make the Supervisor of Instruction full-time next year at Riverview. However, Dr. Clark later commented that the budget was extremely tight and she didn't know where they could find that money without cutting a program. Tina Smith asked about the recent test scores in the papers, and Dr. Clark responded that the principals put together an action plan to improve math scores and they are currently working those plans. I asked that the Board notify the public as soon as possible regarding the county's review of the budget, so the public can be kept informed of any programs that must be cut per the county's requirements. Barb DeLuna asked why computers, laptops, and smartboards were included in the budget when the 4th and 5th grade classes already had them, and Dr. Clark responded that these items were intended for new 4th and 5th grade classes that will be added next year.
Budget Vote:
The budget was unanimously approved by the school board for submittal to the county/state. Mr. Gellene commented that the state keeps moving more and more financial responsibility to the towns, such as pension costs, but they're not giving the towns any way to raise the additional moneys needed for these costs. In fact, the state keeps putting more and more restrictions on the school boards (4% cap, supermajority needed to pass 2nd questions, etc.) even though costs keep going up each year. Several board members voiced their appreciation to the committee for a job well done under difficult constraints.
Other Board Business:
Among other personnel issues, the Board approved hiring a part-time instructional aide at Riverview effective 2/1/08 to provide 1st grade reading assistance due to the large class sizes (25 kids per class). The calendar for the 2008-2009 school year was presented and it mirrors the high school schedule as much as possible. And the revised Harassment Policy was read for the second time to include cyber-bullying (emails, texting, etc.) occurring both on and off-campus.
Public Comments:
Mr. DeCesare asked if the IDE program had been evaluated after one year and again reiterated that any new programs to be implemented next year must be evaluated for effectiveness after one year. Barb DeLuna asked if the board considered putting policies online, to which the Board replied that they had considered it but did not intend to do so at this time. She also asked whether there was a formal date for the referendum, and the Board explained that there are only 4 dates per year set by the state when you can have a referendum. The date we're aiming for is September 9, 2008. She asked about certain board members' absenteeism, to which the Board replied that they were not concerned at this time. And she asked when information would be available regarding the Board's evaluation of the IDE program, but no date was set. Tina Smith commended the board for a job well done in preparing the budget and asked what the public can do to help the town "catch up" to other districts in our area. The board responded that the public helps each time they approve a second question because that increases the base from which next year's 4% cap is calculated. She also asked whether PTA funds or a private donation could be used to provide the additional $7,500 to make the Supervisor of Instruction position full-time at Riverview next year.
The board noted that certain budget items could be funded by donation, such as books or equipment, which could then free up $7,500 in the budget to fund the Supervisor of Instruction position.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting will be held on Monday, February 25th at 7:30 at Riverview.