Summary of Evesham Township School Board Meeting 10/26/2017 - Updated Enrollment stats and tax appeals
Each year, all 4th grade students at MES are in attendance
for a naturalization ceremony in the school cafeteria. This year, 17 people from 12 nations were on
hand to become naturalized US Citizens.
The children study the topic as part of their social studies curriculum. The program is spearheaded by 4th
grade teachers Laura Nichols and Andrew Battle, along with Principal Julio
Feldman, himself a naturalized US Citizen who was in attendance, who during the
video recalls his own naturalization ceremony in 1970 at age 20.
The video is interspersed with some quick interviews with
some of the 4th graders and what it means watching the
ceremony. The most moving part of the
video is that the children notice that when the new citizens receive a small
American flag, they are all smiling broadly.
An article from the Courier Post regarding the ceremony can
be found here.
Following the video, a presentation was made by
Superintendent Scavelli on the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability
Continuum (NJ QSAC). This is a review by
the NJ Department of Education that is on a 3 year cycle. This is the final year for the current QSAC,
as it is being revised for the 2018-19 school year.
The QSAC evaluates school districts in five areas:
Instuction and Program, Operations, Fiscal Management, Personnel, and
Governance. (Long live the Oxford comma!).
There are two different ways the township is measured, the ‘District
Performance Review’ (DPR) which is completed every 3 years and the ‘Statement
of Assurance’ (SOA) which is completed every year. Evesham was determined to be a ‘High
Performing School District’, signifying that it satisfies at least 80% of the
weighted performance indicators in each of the 5 areas.
Enrollment:
Next there was a presentation on current enrollment.
I’ve been struggling with how best to present the
information on enrollment. In reading
views of the residents of the town on Facebook, there seems to be two possible ways to look
at enrollment
1) Was closing Evans a mistake?
2) Where are we now?
The first involves revisiting the last couple years of
contentious school board meetings, comparing and contrasting different
enrollment projections to determine which is more accurate and making
predictions about the future.
The second involves looking at where we are today, and how
that compares to last year before Evans closed.
At some point, I think I would like to look at the former, but since I
don’t have a copy of the Sundance Projections, I cannot do that. So for
today, I will focus on ‘Where are we now?’
Regardless of which projection was more accurate, Evans is closed and we
must plan for the future. This was also
the focus of the presentation by Mr Scavelli.
There were several things to note before presenting the numbers:
- A new study by Whitehall Associates is commissioned by the Board of Education every year. The School Board is continually looking at current and future enrollment through this lens.
- The projections for Whitehall include only ‘Approved Developments’. Any new construction that is ‘Approvable’ or ‘Potential’ are not included. I do not know if Sundance uses that same criteria.
- Information on ‘Approved Developments’ comes directly from the Town.
- Between the 1/15/2016 demographic report (which was used for the Evans vote) on page 12 and the most recent 2/13/2017 report page 12
The slides from Mr Scavelli's presentation are here.
Evesham is still down 1,010 students from our high in the
2002-2003 school year. Current
enrollment is 4,426. This includes 20
children who were added as paid tuition classes – these were not included in
any projections, but were added over the summer when it was apparent that we
had excess capacity in the schools to support them.
For the 2017-18 school year, we have 21 more students district-wide, but fewer in the elementary schools.
Average class size is lower for K-5. Last year, there were 45 K-5 classrooms with more than 20 children. This year, there are 20. They are concentrated in the upper grade (3rd grade has 6, 4th grade has 4 and 5th grade has 9.)
In my opinion, this is the most important demographic – are the
classes coming in bigger or smaller than the classes leaving the district? Mr Scavelli noted that we will get additional
children from development and from housing turnover, but the higher grades are
currently significantly larger than the lower grades.
There were a few questions from board members when the
presentation was finished. Mr Mehigan
was asking about how Whitehall adds new development impact onto the 5th
year only. Mr Scavelli explained that in
the projections, Whitehall adds the 'net development impact' children onto the 5th year
only, but when Mr Scavelli presents the numbers, he manually adds 20% onto each
year. This is why the projections in his
presentation don’t match the Whitehall projections.
Mr Student stated that when the vote to close Evans was
taken, they were relying on a demographic report which showed fewer projected students
than currently projected. ‘So our
resolution was flawed?’ he asked. Mr
Scavelli explained that all demographic reports are based on the information
received from the town regarding new developments. After the vote was taken, the school district
received updated information on approved developments and a new projection was
done.
The meeting was opened up to questions from the public. The first question was trying to understand,
much like Mr Student, why the projections before the Evans vote showed 2021-22
enrollment of 4,080 and now shows 4,346 (per Mr Scavelli’s presentation). Mr Scavelli explained that the demographer
contacts the township to obtain information on all approved development.
Re-evaluations are done every year.
Another member of the public asked questions regarding
redistricting, that there are currently two schools that are nearing capacity,
and she is concerned that we will have to redistrict. Mr Scavelli responded ‘I don’t share your
concern.’ He stated that since the 4th
and 5th grades are the largest classes, he doesn’t foresee the need
for redistricting in the near future.
After that question the floor was opened for questions from
the general public regarding any topic.
There was none.
Agenda item approvals followed.
For item 8.6, Mr Student asked why there was an increase in
requests for money from the Evesham Education Foundation. Ms Magulick answered about an additional
request of $10,000 for a Tier 3 program.
Unfortunately she was off mic and I was not able to hear any additional
information.
For item 9.22, Mr Student noted that for item 9.10, there
was supposed to be an attachment and there was not. Mr Recchinti explained what the item was, to
arrange for transportation of Special Ed Students.
Also for item 9.22, Mrs Barbagiovanni asked whether those with relatives on the School District health plan needed to abstain. There was a long conversation between her and Mr Donio and whether they needed to understand. I’m not sure documenting that lengthy conversation here will serve any purpose.
Every item in 9.22 passed, but there were some no votes, and
some abstentions due to relatives in the health plan. Mr McGoey and Mr Stone voted no for
9.10. Mr Mehigan, Ms Stone and Mr
Student voted no for 9.13 (appointing a broker to market the districts health
plan).
Under new business, there was a motion to allow attorney
Donio to begin the tax appeal process that was discussed in Executive Session. During the YALE negotiations, the school
board had estimated that when the status of Evans changed to a money making
venture, that the taxes on the school would be $113,000 a year. The township
has assessed the property and determined taxes will be $205,000. Mr Donio believes that the town is taking an ‘aggressive’
approach to taxing the school district and is seeking the authority to appeal
the tax bill He doesn’t want to get into
detail at this time, but believes that there is sufficient grounds to appeal.
Mr Student then spoke, stating he was adamant at the time of
negotiations that the tax estimate was low.
He asked if we win the appeal does the town pay the attorney fees? Mr Donio stated that attorney fees would
probably not be a part of any victory.
Mr Donio believes that any school money spent on attorney fees is not
well spent, but unfortunately sometimes it is necessary. Mr Student passed out spreadsheets to
everyone on the board and asked a member of the audience to bring up a larger
version of the spreadsheet that was laminated at Staples. This larger version was NOT legible from the
audience, and the board members already had printed copies of the same
spreadsheet, so I am not sure what purpose it would have served. Mr Student stated that
additional financial information had come to light just today and he wanted to
bring it to the boards attention. Ms
Harmon chided Mr Student that it was not appropriate, and it was odd that it
came to light today but Mr Student knew enough to have a presentation prepared
with a prop.
The motion to allow Mr Donio to appeal the assessment was
passed 8-1, with Mr Student being the sole no vote.
The floor was opened to public comment again.
A member of the public (who had previously asked about redistricting)
stated that her kids were now at Jaggard and the Jaggard teachers and PTA have
been wonderful. That everyone has been
very welcoming and that she wanted to thank all the teachers, but she knows not
everyone at other schools has been as lucky with the welcome as her family. And she wanted to thank Mr Recchinti and Ms
Harmon for fixing a bus issue.
Ken Mills spoke next, stating that he was disappointed and dissatisfied
about the tax issue, and that he would say so at the next Town Council Meeting. He didn’t like that the Town was trying to punish the school board. He also asked for an update on the Evans
vacancy and trying to lease the rest of the building. Mr Scavelli said that they have had a few
administration meetings in Evans and that the broker is continuing to try to
lease out the building.
Diane Dwzill spoke next and admonished Mr Student for his
stance on the tax issue. “Do you want to
be right or do you want to do right?"
A member of the public (who had previously spoken before
about enrollment) spoke again, asking that plans for redistricting be prepared
for now in case they come to pass, so the same situation that occurred with
Evans closure possibilities being taken off the table and put back on again
doesn’t occur again.
Mr Student plugged an upcoming event for the Evesham Education Foundation called "Wine Dine and Win" scheduled for February 2nd. Information can be found here.