Washington Twp. Board Approves $41.2 Million Budget, Mulls Cuts (NJ)
June 18, 2010
An angst-ridden board of education voted unanimously in favor of a $41.2 million budget for the 2010-2011 school year in the wee hours Wednesday, well after most of the 60 people who attended to protest cuts had left.
But the conflicted board agreed only on the numerical total of the K-8 budget, which would cost $4,959 for the average home assessed $438,600. Members remained conflicted on how the money should be allocated.
Board member Perry Kwok was absent.
Roughly half of the eight members present favored retaining all administrative posts.
The other half, however, still lean toward abolishing one such post and reallocating that money to restore a world languages program, beef up technology, restore full-time special education aides, buy science supplies or otherwise do something that directly impacts instruction.
"I feel there are three legs to a stool," said board president Michael Rec, "and in this case those are teachers, programs and administration. We’ve cut the first two and I believe we ought to cut one administrator, too."
He said that he is not anti-administration but rather pro-balance. Specifically, Rec seemed to favor not filling a currently vacant $142,000-a-year assistant superintendent’s position, saying he had faith that new Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Mohre would be able to lead the district effectively even with the cut. The position also would save $15,000 annually in benefits.
According to Rec, the move could have the effect of forcing the district to creatively
share som e services or reallocating the assistant superintendent’s duties among others on staff.
"I need to put my stake in the ground and live with it," he said.
The passed budget reflects an original $2.1 million in state aid cuts and, following a defeat at the polls in April, an additional $1 million in cuts set by the township committee after its review. By law the committee’s dollar figure on cutting stands firm, though its recommendations on where to cut are not.
Last month the committee, which spent $7,000 for a Wiss & Company audit of the school budget, used that analysis to recommend cutting $475,800 in administrative salaries and benefits, including a $98,800-a-year facilities manager position. The committee said its intent was to "avoid adjustments that directly affect instruction or class size."
Members of the public were agitated and discontent that the $41.2 million budget up for a vote Tuesday night reflected no cuts in administration. Particularly, a contingent of 13 full-time special education aides, all from Long Valley, who work in all four schools attended. In the last two weeks, the aides, some of whom have worked for the district for decades, discovered they are slated to lose their benefits and full-time status as of June 30, for a savings of $195,000 in their benefits alone.
The aides said they are paid from $17,000 to $23,000.
"We’re a bargain, honest to God," said aide Michele Allison, pointing to a chart provided by the board of education that details the cost per special ed student that the district incurs whenever a student is educated outside Washington Township schools. Those costs can be as high as $113,936 per student.< ;br />
"My son has special needs, and we were rushed to sign his IEP (Individualized Education Program) without full knowledge," said parent Rich Mistkowski. "The cut in the special ed aides is coming out of the blue. For the last several months, we never heard anything about special needs being cut."
Mohre replied there would be no cuts and that, where one aide formerly worked full-time hours, now two part-time aides would fill the same hours.
"What are you losing?" he asked the crowd.
"Continuity," some aides called out in reply. Their spokesperson, Sue Waskis, said that as a group they worry that some children could, under the new plan, have as many as four different part-time aides per week.
In reading a statement for the group, Waskis said, "The combined salaries of six full-time aides equal one administrator."
Mohre offered his apologies to the aides.
"I know it hurts," he said, "but we are doing our best to provide jobs. Every full-time
aide is guaranteed a job. That’s not true of everyone in the district."
Conversation also turned to teaching world languages up to the fifth-grade level using Rosetta Stone language learning software, which would cost the district $30,000 for the 2010-2011 school year. Mohre said the program is intuitive and used in the Ridgewood public schools in Bergen County, which report good results.
But Rec worried that Rosetta Stone is an option districts turn to when they’re under duress and that they’re n o match for a live teacher. Other members, including Michelle Skurchak and Pete Graziano, also expressed uneasiness with reliance on a computer program.
During the five-hour meeting, Mohre, backed strongly by board member and former teacher Kathy Koop, pushed consistently and often to retain all administrative positions.
"The quality of your education is going to erode over time," he told both the board and the public, holding that every administrative position directly impacts the quality of education for every child in the 2,700-student district.
"Once we sacrifice it (the position of assistant superintendent), it’ll be very difficult
to put it back in," Mohre added. "We have to begin immediately to think of the next budget cycle. We need to position ourselves for the future."
But Graziano was not convinced.
"I’m concerned about the budget in front of me now, not some budget of the future," he said. "We haven’t hashed out the options creatively at all. We seem to be able to tell aides to work part time with no benefits. How about sharing some of the pain?"
At times the meeting grew very heated.
Resident Mike McSharry told the board, "The township gave specific recommendations which are being ignored. I’m disappointed."
But Skurchak, who took umbrage at the assertion that the board does not listen to the public, said to think the township committee knows more about the education process than the board of education is "ludicrous."
&#x 0A; "We hire experts to give us knowledgeable information," she said. "These guys have PhDs. And we do listen to the public. We are the public. We have kids in the school system, too."
When voices from the public groaned and someone yelled, "That’s offensive," Skurchak replied, "You know what? Then you guys run for office."
Board member Cathleen Compoli noted that the budget, as it currently stands, does not impact class size at all, an accomplishment the board worked hard to achieve.
At the end of the night, the board agreed to consider not filling all five administrative vacancies currently open – assistant superintendent, dean of students, two principals positions and one assistant principal position.
Mohre warned the district is already understaffed administratively using standards set by the state Department of Education, that consequences come with all positions that go unfunded, and that he didn’t want administrators working till 9 or 10 p.m. making sacrifices and mistakes.
Rec warned he would not vote to fill all five administrative vacancies.
"If we do that," he told his colleagues, "I’m going to be very disappointed."
The Washington Township school district comprises Long Valley Middle School, Old Farmers Road School, Flocktown-Kossmann Elementary School and Benedict A. Cucinella School.