The Evesham Township School District Board of Education meeting was held on October 24, 2019.
The new teachers contract was ratified. The new contract is a 3 year deal with pay increases over the three years of 3.75%, 3.15% and 3%. That amouts to a little over a 10% raise phased in over three years. The pay increase was made retroactive to July 1st, when the last contract ended. There were also changes in the base medical plan which will result in lower employee contributions.
The resolution was passed by a 6-0-2 vote, with both Ms Barbagiovanni and Mr Fisicaro abstaining as they both have relatives working in the district, so were advised to abstain from the vote to prevent a conflict of interest.
There were two items of new business presented. The first was the effort to find a replacement on the School Board for former member Mr St John, who resigned from the board in September. Mr Fisicaro noted that the ad for a replacement would be placed in the Burlington County Times and the Central Record within the week. The deadline for application is November 11th with interviews being conducted on November 19th at 6pm. It is expected that a new member would be selected that same night after the interviews. Anyone age 18 or older with no claims against the school district and registered to vote is eligible. Questions can be directed to the School Board Administrator John Recchinti at (856) 983-1800 x 5040.
The other item of new business was a resolution was approved to submit a contract for an Interim Superintendent to the Burlington County Department of Education (as Mr Scavelli is retiring effective February 1) for approval. I don't know whether this is a framework of the contract that the Interim Superintendent will be offered when one is found, or whether there is a candidate in mind.
And finally, there was a detailed review of student enrollment throughout the district. As this is usually one of the most talked about topics in town, it was surprising to see so few people in attendance. I have linked the entire presentation at the bottom of this blog, along with the formal Whitehall Demographic study done in January 2019.
Here are some highlights.
This slide shows the actually current enrollment against the 100% FES Capacity standards (the maximum allowed by the state). Some schools are closer to their capacity than others, but of note is that Rice is closest to capacity in terms of sheer numbers, but oddly, Rice was the only elementary school that was completely unaffected by the closing of Evans.
Enrollment over the past 3 years has maintained pretty steady. The current projection for the 2020-2021 school year (not on this chart) is 4,458.
District-wide, the number of students per classroom has remained steady, with minor fluctuations each year in each school.
Mr Scavelli also showed a couple of others slides that weren't contained in his report. And while I like to think that I keep myself pretty educated on enrollment in Evesham, these were slides I had not seen before and frankly, they were pretty cool. (Note: at my day job, I spend a lot of time performing data extraction, analysis and presentation, so take the word 'cool' with a grain of salt.)
The first slide was too big to show on the screen all at once. Take a look at the line that shows year 2000. The column next to that is births, showing 595 births in 2000. Next to that it shows the year those children entered Kindergarten, the 2005-2006 school year, of which there were 408. Next to that is the percentage (408 / 595) of births that entered Kindergarten or 68%. (Obviously some children born here in 2000 move away and others born in 2000 elsewhere move here and enter our schools in Kindergarten, but its a good reference). To the right of that, which I don't have pictures of, are the number of children born in 2000 that entered 1st grade the next year 2006-2007. As many families send their children to private Kindergarten, it is important to track 1st grade enrollment as well. Also on this same chart is the number of children born in 2000 who enter 8th grade in 2013-2014.
By tracking this year after year, it becomes easier to predict enrollment. If 450 children were born in any given year in Evesham and if historically an average of 70% of births enter Kindergarten, it should be easy to estimate how many children will enter Kindergarten 5 years later. Same with first grade the next year, and 8th grade in 8 years.
Mr Scavelli did note one anomaly that occurred recently, which is indicated by his finger in this next slide. While the ratio of births to Kindergarten enrollment has fluctuated between 61% and 80% over the past 20 years, this year it climbed to 93%! Mr Scavelli noted that it bears watching to see if that is a one time occurrence or indicative of a trend.
The Superintendent also had some additional information he wanted to share, so that he could show more detailed information regarding a school that 'required watching'. He didn't use the word concern, but just that the numbers were unusual so should be watched over the next couple of years.
I admit I thought he was going to talk about Beeler. That is a school I have talked about in the past, as it seemed to be a school that had increased dramatically in enrollment since Evans closed, and with much of the new development off Sharp Road zoned there.
But Mr Scavelli wanted to talk about Rice. As noted above, Rice was the only school not affected by the Evans closure. Rice also contains 130 preschool and disabled students from all over town. But Rice is also unaffected by new construction, as only students from Kings Grant and Barton Run are zoned there. Mr Scavelli concluded that this was organic growth in the zone and that housing turnover in the zone appears to be higher than elsewhere in Evesham. There was also a significant increase in manufactured (PAID) enrollment.
A View From Evesham's July 2019 Enrollment Analysis
October 2019 Enrollment Report
2018-2019 Demographic Report
The new teachers contract was ratified. The new contract is a 3 year deal with pay increases over the three years of 3.75%, 3.15% and 3%. That amouts to a little over a 10% raise phased in over three years. The pay increase was made retroactive to July 1st, when the last contract ended. There were also changes in the base medical plan which will result in lower employee contributions.
The resolution was passed by a 6-0-2 vote, with both Ms Barbagiovanni and Mr Fisicaro abstaining as they both have relatives working in the district, so were advised to abstain from the vote to prevent a conflict of interest.
There were two items of new business presented. The first was the effort to find a replacement on the School Board for former member Mr St John, who resigned from the board in September. Mr Fisicaro noted that the ad for a replacement would be placed in the Burlington County Times and the Central Record within the week. The deadline for application is November 11th with interviews being conducted on November 19th at 6pm. It is expected that a new member would be selected that same night after the interviews. Anyone age 18 or older with no claims against the school district and registered to vote is eligible. Questions can be directed to the School Board Administrator John Recchinti at (856) 983-1800 x 5040.
The other item of new business was a resolution was approved to submit a contract for an Interim Superintendent to the Burlington County Department of Education (as Mr Scavelli is retiring effective February 1) for approval. I don't know whether this is a framework of the contract that the Interim Superintendent will be offered when one is found, or whether there is a candidate in mind.
And finally, there was a detailed review of student enrollment throughout the district. As this is usually one of the most talked about topics in town, it was surprising to see so few people in attendance. I have linked the entire presentation at the bottom of this blog, along with the formal Whitehall Demographic study done in January 2019.
Here are some highlights.
This slide shows the actually current enrollment against the 100% FES Capacity standards (the maximum allowed by the state). Some schools are closer to their capacity than others, but of note is that Rice is closest to capacity in terms of sheer numbers, but oddly, Rice was the only elementary school that was completely unaffected by the closing of Evans.
Enrollment over the past 3 years has maintained pretty steady. The current projection for the 2020-2021 school year (not on this chart) is 4,458.
District-wide, the number of students per classroom has remained steady, with minor fluctuations each year in each school.
Mr Scavelli also showed a couple of others slides that weren't contained in his report. And while I like to think that I keep myself pretty educated on enrollment in Evesham, these were slides I had not seen before and frankly, they were pretty cool. (Note: at my day job, I spend a lot of time performing data extraction, analysis and presentation, so take the word 'cool' with a grain of salt.)
The first slide was too big to show on the screen all at once. Take a look at the line that shows year 2000. The column next to that is births, showing 595 births in 2000. Next to that it shows the year those children entered Kindergarten, the 2005-2006 school year, of which there were 408. Next to that is the percentage (408 / 595) of births that entered Kindergarten or 68%. (Obviously some children born here in 2000 move away and others born in 2000 elsewhere move here and enter our schools in Kindergarten, but its a good reference). To the right of that, which I don't have pictures of, are the number of children born in 2000 that entered 1st grade the next year 2006-2007. As many families send their children to private Kindergarten, it is important to track 1st grade enrollment as well. Also on this same chart is the number of children born in 2000 who enter 8th grade in 2013-2014.
By tracking this year after year, it becomes easier to predict enrollment. If 450 children were born in any given year in Evesham and if historically an average of 70% of births enter Kindergarten, it should be easy to estimate how many children will enter Kindergarten 5 years later. Same with first grade the next year, and 8th grade in 8 years.
Mr Scavelli did note one anomaly that occurred recently, which is indicated by his finger in this next slide. While the ratio of births to Kindergarten enrollment has fluctuated between 61% and 80% over the past 20 years, this year it climbed to 93%! Mr Scavelli noted that it bears watching to see if that is a one time occurrence or indicative of a trend.
The Superintendent also had some additional information he wanted to share, so that he could show more detailed information regarding a school that 'required watching'. He didn't use the word concern, but just that the numbers were unusual so should be watched over the next couple of years.
I admit I thought he was going to talk about Beeler. That is a school I have talked about in the past, as it seemed to be a school that had increased dramatically in enrollment since Evans closed, and with much of the new development off Sharp Road zoned there.
But Mr Scavelli wanted to talk about Rice. As noted above, Rice was the only school not affected by the Evans closure. Rice also contains 130 preschool and disabled students from all over town. But Rice is also unaffected by new construction, as only students from Kings Grant and Barton Run are zoned there. Mr Scavelli concluded that this was organic growth in the zone and that housing turnover in the zone appears to be higher than elsewhere in Evesham. There was also a significant increase in manufactured (PAID) enrollment.
A View From Evesham's July 2019 Enrollment Analysis
October 2019 Enrollment Report
2018-2019 Demographic Report
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