The School Board meeting on January 24, 2019 begain with the annual "Preliminary Budget Presentation" by Superintendent John Scavelli. This is the first iteration of the 2019-2020 budget that will be finalized in the spring. The presentation slides are available here and the agenda for the meeting can be found here.
The district is facing substantial reductions in state aid this year and subsequent years, totalling $9 million by the 2024-2025 school year. The budget being assembled now has a reduction of $689,530 in aid this year, on top of the reduction from last year of $815,227. Superintendent Scavelli warned, in response to a question from Mr Fisacaro, that it is possible that reductions will be increased as enrollment is expected to decline further next year.
The district has an aggressive goal to maintain all instructional programs while maintaining current class sizes. The current average class size in the elementary schools is 18.5. It is expected to increase slightly to 19 for the 2019-2020 school year.
The district is expected to use up most of its 'banked cap' for next year, which will result in an increase in the tax rate. While the size of the budget actually decreased slightly (total expenses have gone down), the amount of money needed from the taxpayers has gone up, due to the reduction in state aid.
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| Preliminary budget in 4th data column |
The tax increase required would be $0.0099, raising the tax rate from $1.1782 to $1.1881. For the average home assessed at $272,700, this would be an increase in taxes of $26.89 per year.
Item 6, approval of minutes, passed with the following abstentions: Mr Mehigan abstained from 6.2, Ms Stone abstained from 6.1 and 6.3, Mr St John abstained from all. (Members abstain from approving minutes from meetings they were not present at.)
Items 7 and 8 both passed with a 9-0 vote.
Item 9.12 brought a lot of discussion. This item was to authorize spending $13,500 to approve a contract with the Transpar Group to provide consulting services for busing. This money is to look at our current transportation arrangement, which is a hybrid of outsourced and in house busing, to see if there are possible savings to be had. While $13,500 may seem excessive for a consultation, our Operations/Transportation budget for 2019-2020 is $4,504,487. (Operations/Transportation includes more than just busing - it also includes custodial, and maintenance).
The Transpar Group describes their 'School Bus Consultants' services like this:
"School district-operated, contracted, and mixed operations all have potential benefits as well as shortcomings. SBC can help you understand your system and draw comparisons to alternatives. Our logical approach establishes a clear path forward from analysis to implementation, ensuring a positive impact on the school transportation services provided to your students. We offer as-needed assistance or a completely facilitated, four-step process including an evaluation of feasibility; detailed planning; managing the transition; and follow-up oversight until a new and improved steady-state is achieved."
There was a lot of discussion among board members regarding this item. Ms Knoll stated she was nervous about the idea of outsourcing bus drivers. Mr Mehigan said he was in favor of the hiring the consulting group as a member of the finance committee, but was opposed as a board member. Ms Ryan stated she was against outsourcing but understands the duty to look at all options. Ms Stone was opposed to spending the $13,500 and thought the money could be better spent elsewhere. Mr St John felt it would be irresponsible not to at least check to see our options. Mr Fiscaro noted that he had spent most of his school board time 'railing against privatization', but that due to state aid cuts, there are hard decisions to be made. Ms Barbagiovanni noted that when this came up in the finance committee, it was decided to look at all non-instructional expenses, and no one on the finance committee objected to this contract. She was surprised that finance committee members were raising objections now.
During open public comment, there were quite a few bus drivers in attendance who chose to speak, expressing their concerns and stating that the care they give the children of the district is something that cannot be outsourced.
Item 9 passed 9-0 with the following exceptions: Mr St John, Ms Barbagiovanni, Ms Everhart, Ms Knowll and Ms Ryan all abstained from 9.4 (board member travel) for their expenses only. Item 9.12 passed 7-2, with Ms Stone and Mr Mehigan voting no.
Item 10 passed 9-0.
There were two items under New Business. Board President Mr Fiscaro asked for a motion expressing the School Board's support for NJ Assembly Bill 4864 and NJ Senate Bill 3330. Those two bills were introduced by our local state representatives in support of changing the law regarding day cares in public school. The bills are entitled "Permits use of public schools and school distric property for certain child care services for children younger than school age." This would have the effect of saving the Teddy Bear Academy. The vote passed 9-0.
The other item under new business was 'Superintendent's Contract'.
Because this was on the agenda, there were quite a few speakers who spoke out in support of Mr Scavelli, some parents, some teachers, some principals.
Mr Fisacaro asked if any member wanted to speak and none did. He then closed new business. There was no vote, and the meeting moved on to open public comment.
So what happened?
I had been under the impression that at this meeting, there would be a vote on whether to renew the Superintendent contract. Since even before the election last November, I've been trying to predict how the board would vote. Since neither Mr Fisacaro nor Ms Barbagiovanni could vote on the Superintendent (due to family members employed in the district), there were 7 members who could vote and 5 would be needed to renew the contract.
It turns out my understanding of this process was incorrect.
According to NJ law, the renewal or non-renewal of the Superintendent Contract is governed by the following:
"At the conclusion of the term of the initial contract or of any subsequent contract as hereinafter provided, the superintendent shall be deemed reappointed for another contracted term of the same duration as the previous contract unless either: a. the board by contract reappoints him for a different term which term shall be not less than three nor more than five years, in which event reappointments thereafter shall be deemed for the new term unless a different term is again specified; or b. the board notifies the superintendent in writing that he will not be reappointed at the end of the current term, in which event his employment shall cease at the expiration of that term, provided that such notification shall be given prior to the expiration of the first or any subsequent contract by a length of time equal to 30 days for each year in the term of the current contract."
The simplest translation of that is the following: there are three options as a Superintendent contract is winding down.
- Have a vote to renew the superintendent, possibly changing the terms
- Have a vote to non-renew the superintendent Because of the 5 year length of the current contract, this would need to be done at least 150 days before the end of the current contract on June 30, 2019 (30 days per year of the contract). 150 days prior to the end of the contract is February 1, 2019.
- Do nothing
It is the third option that was exercised. By law, if neither option 1 or 2 occurs, the superintendent is 'deemed reappointed for another contracted term of the same duration'. In other words, his contract was renewed for another 5 years.
Other items:
- The Evesham Education Foundation's Wine Dine and Win event is scheduled for February 2 at the Mansion in Voorhees. For more information, visit the Evesham Education Foundation website.
- The annual demographic study by the Whitehall Associates has been released and can be found here. I've written extensively about enrollment in the past, and this new report doesn't really change anything. You can read my most recent post about enrollment/demographic numbers here.
- Jerry Boland, principal at Beeler, was among the ETSD employees that are resigning. He was offered a job out of state.
- The School District is currently conducting an online community survey related to their strategic planning initiative. The survey can be found here.
- There is a meeting in support of the Teddy Bear Academy scheduled for January 30 at 6 pm at the Marlton Middle School library.
- The next meeting of the ETSD School Board is on Thursday February 28 at 7 pm.
- 2019 Tax Ratables (which comes from the township) stands at $5,266,523,659, up about $20 million from last year.
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