A meeting of the Evesham Township School District School Board took place on Thursday March 28th. The meeting began with recognition of 4 students from the middle schools who sat on the dais with the school board, recognized as 'Superintendents for the Day'. The students spent the day travelling to a few of the local schools, sitting in on meetings, and of course, the highlight of the day, going out for lunch. Several local TV stations did feature stories on the children; here is the video from 6 ABC News.
There followed recognition of some special achievements for a couple dozen students for All South Jersey Band, Olympic Conference Band and the wrestling teams from both middle schools.
Board Solicitor Donio gave a presentation on School Board member ethics. This is a presentation he gives every year, advising the school board members of their duties as members and cautioning them about their conflicts of interest, and their social media usage. The slides from the presentation can be viewed here.
Some items of note that were passed last night:
The fees for 2019-2020 ECC were approved. The full fee schedule can be viewed here.
Previously the board published an RFP for 'Ground Maintenance and Snow Removal Service'. In other words, they wanted to see if the Grounds Maintenance, which was currently being done by district employees, could be outsourced to save the district money. This is part of a district wide effort to scrutinize all expenses due to massive aid cuts from the State of NJ. Item 9.14 rejected all bids for outsourcing 'Ground Maintenance and Snow Removal Service', as there was not a sufficient benefit to district.
During public comment, there were a few speakers that expressed support of our ETSD busdrivers and spoke against outsourcing. There were questions that were posed to Superintendent Scavelli. During his response, Mr Scavelli stated that the 'goal is not to privatize'. The goal is to look at all expenses and see if there is savings to be found anywhere. The district will be keeping their fleet of buses along with the bus yard and crew of mechanics. The district will still remain responsible for maintenance of the buses even if the drivers are outsourced.
Some of the speakers spoke very negatively of private busing companies during the meeting (as well as during the last meeting). Mr Scavelli noted that currently one third of our students are bused by a private busing service (Hillman) and the district receives periodic complaints about both in-house and private drivers. The contract with Hillman has been renewed several times over the past decade.
He stated that as part of any bid, the private company will be required to offer a job to all current busdrivers and it will be up to the drivers if they want to take the offer. (While Mr Scavelli didn't mention it, I have heard from a few drivers that this would probably be both a pay cut and offer reduced benefits.) He noted that there were some drivers nearing the 25 year threshold to allow full pension and they would be kept on as district employees to reach that status.
The RFP has not yet been completed so it has not yet been put out to bid.
Votes on the agenda items were all 8-0 (Ms Ryan was not in attendance) except where noted. The agenda can be found here.
Item 6 (approval of minutes), Mr Mehigan abstained form 6.2 and 6.3 as he was not in attendance for those meetings.
Item 9, Mr Fiscaro and Mr St John voted no to 9.11. Mr Fiscaro said he had a philosophical issue against item 9.11. Mr St John stated the resolution did not properly summarize what the bill A-3395 would do. 9.11 passed 6-2. Mr Fiscaro voted no to item 9.12 as well. Ms Everhart abstained from 9.4 as her board member travel was included in the resolution.
Item 10, Ms Stone abstained form 10.8.
I considered ending the blog here. But I think its important for everyone to understand the budget issues the district will face both this year and for the foreseeable future.
The above chart shows the expected reduction in aid from the state. For the 2019-2020 school year, the district will receive $689,530 less than the prior year. The board needs to come up with cuts to get the district under budget with less money, or raise taxes. The district is restricted to a 2% increase in taxes, unless they wish to put an item on the ballot for election day asking for a greater than 2% increase.
The following year, after all those cuts for 2019-2020, aid goes down another $861,912 for the 2020-2021 school year. So after all the cuts that are made for the current budget, if everything else stays exactly the same (with no inflation on items that are required, like gasoline, food, pencils, and no health care increase), the district needs to find another $862K worth of cuts. And the year after that, it needs to find another $1.2M worth of cuts on top of what was already cut.
At the recently held Lenape Regional State Aid Reduction Forum, the following slide was presented:
The current administration has made clear that no decision on future cuts has been made at this time, though it should be readily apparent that painful decisions will need to be made. And while they may not be sounding the alarm bells, other districts faced with similar cuts are.
"Toms River officials say 400 staff cuts, elimination of kindergarten and extracurricular activities will result if state aid cuts continue" (1) Toms River, NJ
"Dozens and dozens of teacher and staff reductions, elimination of student resources and non-mandated programs and the slashing of athletics that will leave many students out in the cold. On top of this could be an increase in class sizes that will make teaching and learning an even greater challenge than it current is." (2) Brick, NJ
"School officials are weighing the option of privatizing and outsourcing paraprofessional services... Other pending decisions including closing and consolidating Cheesequake Elementary School..." (3) Old Bridge, NJ
"[Springfield Superintendent Craig Vaughn] stressed that difficult decision may be needed concerning staff, class sizes and programs over the next several years..." (4) Springfield, NJ
"Freehold [Regional] is heading towards a 'financial cliff'. To cover costs for this school year, they will be drawing down their reserve funds to 'dangerously low levels', jettisoning teaching staff, gutting transportation and cutting school activities... Freehold Regional will be eliminating staff from most departments; increase class size significantly; and cutting student services like 'social, emotional and psychological supports." (5) Freehold, NJ
"[Superintendent McCue] said the reduction in state aid could result in the elimination of programs, classroom materials and/or employees... To handle the loss of state aid last summer, McCue said, classroom supplies were reduced, programs were cut and the employement of two police officers as in-school security was no longer an option...closing one of the district's four schools could be an option in the future" (6) Eatontown, NJ
(1) https://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/toms-river-sends-27-buses-support-our-students-districts-rally
(2) https://wobm.com/students-staff-take-action-to-save-our-schools/
(3) http://www.centraljersey.com/news/paraprofessionals-in-old-bridge-schools-may-be-outsourced-due-to/article_c9ab1b00-9ca8-5d3e-8642-bc22e47c2317.html
(4) https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190215/school-districts-come-together-to-fight-state-aid-cuts
(5) https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/19/02/11/eight-school-districts-sue-doe-and-treasury-over-cuts-in-school-funding/
(6) http://www.centraljersey.com/news/atlantichub/stories/eatontown-school-administrators-decry-reduction-in-state-aid/article_e0b2377d-241f-5f0d-96a3-ad8cf21cad50.html
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