(Link for Last Month's SB Meeting Summary, in case you missed it)
The meeting tonight began on a somber note, with a moment of silence for Patricia Barton, long time teacher in the Evesham Schools. Her obituary can be found here.
Next Danielle Magulick gave a presentation on the 'State of the Schools'. The presentation contained a lot of test scores regarding 'No Child Left Behind' and PARCC. It seemed the presentation was heavy on presenting the numbers, with analysis to follow at a later time. She seemed satisfied that Evesham results were consistantly at or above NJ averages, though I question whether 'average' should be benchmark we measure against. The 'data review' process will follow, and hopefully there will be another presentation at a later time.
One item that was specifically called out was the success of the Reading Recovery program. 72% of Reading Recovery students were successfully discontinued from the program, meaning they no longer needed it. In addition, as Evesham schools are a training site for the program, 21 teachers from other districts were trained in Evesham, generating slightly more than $40,000 in revenue. That also means that Evesham teachers that were trained (or will be trained in the future) are done so at no cost, as opposed to having to send them outside the district for training.
The floor was then opened to the Board for questions. Mr Student then asked a question about enrollment and capacity. Mr Scavelli explained that we are still in line with projections. Evesham Schools added two paid classrooms (I believe these are pre-K, but if someone could clarify) that were not included in any of the demographic studies, but if you remove those two classes, current enrollment is within 6 students of the projection.
Mr Student then asked a question about how we 'earmark' YALE revenue. Mr Recchinti advised it gets listed as 'Miscellaneous Revenue' on the balance sheet - it doesn't specifically get earmarked. Mr Student asked another question about paying the broker $146,000 for the YALE lease, which is almost 20% of the revenue, and whether we should be paying that all in Year One of a 5 year lease. If YALE goes bankrupt and breaks the lease, we'd still be out the entire $146,000. Mr Donio, the Evesham School District Attorney, advised he would look into the contract to see if that entire amount needed to be paid in Year One. Mr. Student also asked what if something unforeseen happened to the building, such as damage to the roof, how would that affect our revenue? Mr Recchinti pointed out that if the roof were damaged, we would have to pay for repairs regardless of whether YALE was in the building or if the building was unoccupied.
The vote passed 9-0, with Mr McGoey abstaining from 10.1 to 10.11 and Mr Student abstaining from paying the real estate commission.
Mr Scavelli then spoke at length regarding the opportunity to move the district to a new medical plan, the South Jersey Health Insurance Fund (SJHIF). He was very detailed in the section and I did my best to take notes, but forgive me if I get anything incorrect.
Mr Scavelli began with some history: the Evesham Township School District was with Independence Blue Cross (IBC) through 1996, at which time IBC was no longer allowed to write policies in NJ. IBC created a subsidiary called Amerihealth which could write in NJ and continued to insure ETSD thorugh 2010. In 2010, Governer Christie reduced state aid to schools, and premiums would have increased 33% if ETSD stayed with Amerihealth. The district moved in 2010 to the State Health Benefits Plan. The district broker continues to shop the district every year, but has been unable to find a comparable health plan that would save money. 'Comparable' is the key word, as the district can't move to a plan that does not have comparable benefits due to contractual obligations.
This year, however, an opportunity has presented itself to save some money. The State Plan the ETSD is in will have premium increases of 13% for 2018. The South Jersey Health Insurance Fund would be an 11% increase over what we are paying now. The new plan would be allow members to choose either AETNA or Amerihealth - currently members are with Horizon.
Mr Scavelli asked for a motion to apply for coverage. The application is non-binding. The district will continue to do its 'due diligence', and if anything is amiss, they are not bound to the new policy. But the SJHIF can only accept a few new districts this year. Currently Medford, Moorestown and Mount Laurel districts are in this plan, and Voorhees just approved a resolution to apply for coverage. Time is of the essense.
Mr Fisicaro, Ms Barbaviovanni and Mr McGoey all abstained from the vote, due to relatives in the district. The vote passed 6-0.
The last order of business was recognizing Barbara Olt, a long time employee with the Evesham Township School district in various capacities. September 1st marked her 50th year with the district. She was recognized with flowers, a plaque, and a very long proclamation/resolution (which was approved 9-0). After the meeting, coffee and cake was distributed to everyone, and it was quite delicious. And I think that was the first time I have ever seen all 9 board members smile at the same time!
School Board Elections
November 7th, 2017 is Election Day. We will be electing 3 school board members. (The board has 9 members, 3 members are elected to 3 year terms every year). The three seats up for election currently belong to Sandy Student (who is not running), JoAnne Harmon (who is not running) and Elaine Barbagiovanni (who is seeking another term).
The meeting tonight began on a somber note, with a moment of silence for Patricia Barton, long time teacher in the Evesham Schools. Her obituary can be found here.
Next Danielle Magulick gave a presentation on the 'State of the Schools'. The presentation contained a lot of test scores regarding 'No Child Left Behind' and PARCC. It seemed the presentation was heavy on presenting the numbers, with analysis to follow at a later time. She seemed satisfied that Evesham results were consistantly at or above NJ averages, though I question whether 'average' should be benchmark we measure against. The 'data review' process will follow, and hopefully there will be another presentation at a later time.
One item that was specifically called out was the success of the Reading Recovery program. 72% of Reading Recovery students were successfully discontinued from the program, meaning they no longer needed it. In addition, as Evesham schools are a training site for the program, 21 teachers from other districts were trained in Evesham, generating slightly more than $40,000 in revenue. That also means that Evesham teachers that were trained (or will be trained in the future) are done so at no cost, as opposed to having to send them outside the district for training.
The floor was then opened to the Board for questions. Mr Student then asked a question about enrollment and capacity. Mr Scavelli explained that we are still in line with projections. Evesham Schools added two paid classrooms (I believe these are pre-K, but if someone could clarify) that were not included in any of the demographic studies, but if you remove those two classes, current enrollment is within 6 students of the projection.
Mr Student then asked a question about how we 'earmark' YALE revenue. Mr Recchinti advised it gets listed as 'Miscellaneous Revenue' on the balance sheet - it doesn't specifically get earmarked. Mr Student asked another question about paying the broker $146,000 for the YALE lease, which is almost 20% of the revenue, and whether we should be paying that all in Year One of a 5 year lease. If YALE goes bankrupt and breaks the lease, we'd still be out the entire $146,000. Mr Donio, the Evesham School District Attorney, advised he would look into the contract to see if that entire amount needed to be paid in Year One. Mr. Student also asked what if something unforeseen happened to the building, such as damage to the roof, how would that affect our revenue? Mr Recchinti pointed out that if the roof were damaged, we would have to pay for repairs regardless of whether YALE was in the building or if the building was unoccupied.
The vote passed 9-0, with Mr McGoey abstaining from 10.1 to 10.11 and Mr Student abstaining from paying the real estate commission.
Mr Scavelli then spoke at length regarding the opportunity to move the district to a new medical plan, the South Jersey Health Insurance Fund (SJHIF). He was very detailed in the section and I did my best to take notes, but forgive me if I get anything incorrect.
Mr Scavelli began with some history: the Evesham Township School District was with Independence Blue Cross (IBC) through 1996, at which time IBC was no longer allowed to write policies in NJ. IBC created a subsidiary called Amerihealth which could write in NJ and continued to insure ETSD thorugh 2010. In 2010, Governer Christie reduced state aid to schools, and premiums would have increased 33% if ETSD stayed with Amerihealth. The district moved in 2010 to the State Health Benefits Plan. The district broker continues to shop the district every year, but has been unable to find a comparable health plan that would save money. 'Comparable' is the key word, as the district can't move to a plan that does not have comparable benefits due to contractual obligations.
This year, however, an opportunity has presented itself to save some money. The State Plan the ETSD is in will have premium increases of 13% for 2018. The South Jersey Health Insurance Fund would be an 11% increase over what we are paying now. The new plan would be allow members to choose either AETNA or Amerihealth - currently members are with Horizon.
Mr Scavelli asked for a motion to apply for coverage. The application is non-binding. The district will continue to do its 'due diligence', and if anything is amiss, they are not bound to the new policy. But the SJHIF can only accept a few new districts this year. Currently Medford, Moorestown and Mount Laurel districts are in this plan, and Voorhees just approved a resolution to apply for coverage. Time is of the essense.
Mr Fisicaro, Ms Barbaviovanni and Mr McGoey all abstained from the vote, due to relatives in the district. The vote passed 6-0.
The last order of business was recognizing Barbara Olt, a long time employee with the Evesham Township School district in various capacities. September 1st marked her 50th year with the district. She was recognized with flowers, a plaque, and a very long proclamation/resolution (which was approved 9-0). After the meeting, coffee and cake was distributed to everyone, and it was quite delicious. And I think that was the first time I have ever seen all 9 board members smile at the same time!
School Board Elections
November 7th, 2017 is Election Day. We will be electing 3 school board members. (The board has 9 members, 3 members are elected to 3 year terms every year). The three seats up for election currently belong to Sandy Student (who is not running), JoAnne Harmon (who is not running) and Elaine Barbagiovanni (who is seeking another term).
Joining the incumbent, there are 4 additional candidates
seeking your vote for school board, listed below in the order they will appear on the ballot:
·
Elaine Barbagiovanni
· Lea Ryan
·
Jayesh Parikh
·
Ben Roberson
·
Janis Knoll
School Board elections are 'non-partisan' elections. It is important to understand what that
means. Candidates are not running as
members of a particular party. Only their
names are listed on the ballot, not a party.
This doesn’t mean that candidates don’t belong to parties. Most Americans belong to a party. It just means that issues on the school board
frequently transcend party politics. It is unfortunate that party money does still infiltrate ‘non-partisan’
school board elections. While I haven’t
seen evidence of it this year, at least $7000 in donations to school board
campaigns came directly from major party campaign funds last year.
It is important for voters to get to know the candidates as the election is a little more than a month away. There is one final School Board meeting
before the election on October 26, 2017.
Attendance is encouraged – you can get a sense of how the School Board
operates, see the interplay between members, and understand exactly what it is you
are electing. Ms Barbagiovanni will
obviously be there, and other candidates frequently attend, should you have
questions for individual candidates. At the meeting on 9/28/2017, Ms Barbagiovanni, Ms Ryan and Ms Knoll were all in attendance. I did not see Mr Roberson or Mr Parikh.
There are still plans to have a ‘Meet the Candidates’ night,
yet there is no date set at this time.
There are two websites available that have reached out to
all the candidates for surveys. The surveys can
be found here and here. Four of the five candidates provided answers to each of these
websites. (Only Mr. Parikh did
not. He provided no response to
either). While some might object to the sites in question as partisan, the links above are to view the
candidates written statements in their own words. While some of the answers are boilerplate,
others give some insight into how a candidate thinks.
Additionally, all candidates were invited to speak at
the most recent meeting of the Evesham Democratic Party, regardless of
political affiliation. All members of the public, again regardless of party affiliation, were also invited to attend. Three of the five candidates chose to attend – Ms. Barbagiovanni, Ms. Knoll and Ms. Ryan. Mr. Parikh did not respond to the
invitation. Mr. Roberson had stated he would
attend, however the day of the meeting he changed his mind, stating on Facebook, that he didn't want to attend an event sponsored by a political party.
Finally, please do you own research on candidates. The school board election got particularly ugly and bitter last year and it looks like as of this morning, we may be in for a repeat. While I don't expect it to reach the same levels of acrimony, don't believe everything you read on social media. Read the candidates statements, go out and meet the candidates, ask them questions. They all have contact information on their surveys that I linked above. If they want to represent you, they should be willing to take questions from you. And please be sure to vote on November 7th.