March3 , 2008
Dr. Clark's Comments:
Dr. Clark thanked everyone for their help with Read Across America Day. Mr. Johnson later discussed the activities held at Riverview School and Lakeview School to celebrate this day.
Dr. Clark attended a county-wide meeting last week on QSAC (the NJ Quality Single Accountability Continuum, which is an accountability standard by which schools will be graded on each component of school district effectiveness). Denville was originally scheduled to be evaluated during the 2008-2009 school year, but we've been pushed back to the 2009-2010 school year because the county doesn't have enough staff to evaluate everyone at the same time.
Dr. Clark also attended a county-wide meeting called by the prosecutor's office for all superintendents and police chiefs. The school districts are subject to a Memorandum of Agreement with the prosecutor's office regarding reporting issues to the police department. In the past, schools were required to automatically report weapons and any sexual situations to the police. Now, the county prosecutor informed the superintendents that most of the discretion in whether or not to report an incident has been taken away, and school districts are now required to report everything to the local police immediately. This includes threats of violence, fights, etc. Even rumors heard in the school hallways must be reported. The same is true for DYFS reports and anonymous reports are no longer permitted. The purpose of this is not to create a police record for every kid who makes an inappropriate comment in school, but rather to make sure incidents are investigated completely and our children and our schools are kept safe. Dr. Clark said once an incident is reported to the local police, the police may ask what the school is doing to investigate and that may be enough, or the police may take over the investigation. This new policy will be communicated to all the principals in our county at a meeting in April. This new policy is effective immediately.
Curriculum and Instruction:
Four out-of-district placements for new special education students were approved for over $138,000 plus transportation for the remaining portion of the school year. These new students will have to be included in the special education budget for next year for the full year's tuition. This situation illustrates one of the difficulties in developing a school budget -- there's no way to predict when new students will move into Denville and whether or not they will require out-of-district placement. The Board must have enough money in the budget to cover new out-of-district placements that may move into our district next year.
Budget Changes:
As I reported in previous meeting summaries, our district requested several waivers for next year's budget. A waiver may be requested (must be approved by county/state) for costs that increase by more than 4% in one year, such as energy, insurance, etc. The waivers do not guarantee additional money. They merely allow the district to ask the voters to increase the budget by more than the state-mandated 4% cap to cover these costs. As a district, we have requested over $2 million in waivers. The board was recently informed that one of our waivers has been denied, and we are still waiting for a determination on the remaining waivers, although Dr. Clark heard that some of our waivers will be approved and others will be denied.
The waiver that was denied was for healthcare costs. Denville does not participate in the state plan. Instead, we have an individual plan which provides more flexibility to our teachers and our district. Our healthcare costs are increasing by more than 4% this year so we requested a waiver in the amount of $236,000. However, the state plan is not increasing by more than 4% this year so no waivers will be allowed for healthcare costs in the state, regardless of whether or not a district participates in the state plan. The county called on Thursday afternoon and required us to cut $236,000 from our budget by the end of business that day. Money was cut from many areas of the budget, including special education, training, curriculum, and one teacher was cut from the budget.
Mr. Gellene questioned the waiver approval/denial process and asked why there were no regulations explaining under what circumstances a waiver would be approved or denied. He wanted to know if this policy is being enforced the same in every county, is there an appeal mechanism, etc. The Board authorized Mr. Gellene to call the County Commissioner's office for more information on this issue.
The board noted that if additional waivers are denied, the board will most likely have to include a second question when we vote on April 15th. When the state responds to our requests for waivers, we understand that they will make a recommendation about what we cut or put on a second question. Mr. Casse stated that courtesy bussing is the last thing he'd want to see on a second question because the children cannot walk to school in our town. Mr. Gellene raised several questions regarding the second question because if something fails in a second question, the board is not allowed to add it back into the budget. Therefore, if courtesy bussing fails a second question, could we provide a subscription bus service? If so, could we subsidize the subscription bussing cost? Last time, they charged $180 per child for subscription bussing, but the actual cost is closer to $500 per student. The board will have to look into these issues.
The board expects to receive the final waiver decisions by the end of next week. A public meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 24th at 7:30 pm at Riverview to discuss the budget only. No other business will be conducted at this meeting.
Public Comments:
I asked how much money is still pending in waivers, and the Board responded that we have approximately $2 million still pending in waivers -- $1.45M capital outlay, $170k energy, $69k insurance, $95k pension, and $219k general (I didn't quite catch this category). I also asked whether the teacher that had been cut from the budget was one of the proposed new teachers or an existing teacher, and the board said they hadn't made that determination yet.
Mr. Grant questioned the tax rate per $100 that the board used to calculate the tax impact of the new budget. The budget spreadsheet distributed by the board used the tax rate of 1.0892 and Mr. Grant stated that the actual tax rate is 2.45. The Board replied that they used the tax rate provided by the town, and they later clarified that the 2.45 tax rate referenced by Mr. Grant is the total tax rate for the town (including municipal taxes, county taxes, open space, etc.) whereas the 1.0892 represents that school district's impacts on taxes only. The Board is only required to calculate the district's impacts on taxes, not everyone else's impacts.
There were several questions about the budget spreadsheet distributed by the board. In summary, the spreadsheet does not show all of the information necessary to follow and confirm the board's calculations and we asked that they clarify these numbers on the spreadsheet in the future.
There were also several comments about the importance of bussing for safety purposes.
Barb DeLuna asked if there would be any meetings regarding the referendum prior to the submittal to the state at the end of March. The Board replied that there would not be any meetings prior to the submittal, but there would be several meetings after the submittal to share the details of the plans with the public. Barb also questioned the square footage of the new school and renovations to existing schools. The board replied that the new school building presented by Mr. Somjen was 139,000 square feet, but he is currently working to reduce the square footage. The Board also clarified that any renovations to the three existing schools would not add any square footage to the existing schools.
Lynn Randt(sp?) asked how long it would take to build the new school if the referendum passes, and the Board replied that it would take a total of 3 to 4 years (1 year for drawings and 2-3 years to build, depending on weather).
Next Meeting:
The next school board meeting will be on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 7:30 pm at Riverview School. There will also be a special budget meeting on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 7:30 pm at Riverview School. Please mark your calendars!