Board of Education- June 7, 2010

Board of Education Meeting- June 7, 2010

Budget Cuts

On May 18 the Township Committee voted no increase for the school budget for the upcoming school year. That meant the proposed budget had to be trimmed by $229,306. The Township Committee made recommendations in the areas they thought should be trimmed.

Dr. Purnell agreed with a majority of their recommendations, however there were 5 items that Dr. Purnell thought should not be cut. Those items included the removal of the Business Administrator’s assistant, the removal of the Basic/Remedial Skill Instruction, the removal of after school co/extra curricula activities, the removal of coaches, and the use of $26K from the Fund Balance.

Dr. Purnell felt that none of the items that affected students should be cut. In addition he did not want to use the money from the Fund Balance as he viewed that as borrowing against their future. To address the difference he presented other areas to cut.

• Replace a retiring science teacher with a lower grade, but still highly qualified, experienced teacher.
• Eliminate a middle school teaching position through scheduling changes.
• Elimination of an aide for special education through scheduling changes.
• Eliminate the technology upgrade for 8 printers, 5 laptops, and a server. It was felt that the school could apply for grants for this.
• A further reduction in the supplies budget.
• Reduction of the Reading Street program. Savings were realized since one 3^rd grade class was being eliminated and the school could save $2K by ordering the program on-line.
• Transportation costs for the subscription bus service would be raised by $50 for the first child. There is no increase for additional children from the same household

These reductions equaled the amount proposed by the Township Committee. To make up the remainder of the $229K, the will be a wage freeze on administrative and custodial salaries, and the budget for the new Principal was set at $90K.

For the entire list of cuts see Dr. Purnell's blog.

Summer Projects

Summer projects on the school include work on the roof, upgrading of 4 first floor bathrooms, replacement of the outside door, upgrades to the electronic access, and additional preventative maintenance.

Dr. Purnell’s Trip to Kenya

Dr. Purnell gave a review of his trip to Kenya to assist doctors providing free medical care to the local population. He used his vacation days to accompany his brother, who is a doctor, to assist with the administrative duties while the doctors treated the patients. Because there had been a lot of rain, there was a malaria outbreak in addition to the day to day problems the local population faces with lack of medical care. So many people came that some had to be turned away. For additional highlights from Dr. Purnell's trip see the Observer Tribune article.

County Evaluation of Professional Development Plan

The county officer who did the review was impressed by Harding’s Professional Development Plan. There are six areas. In 4 out of the 6 Harding hit the target. In the other 2 Harding was ranked acceptable.

NJEA and Race to the Top

The local teacher’s union along with NJEA endorsed New Jersey’s application as negotiated with the State Commissioner of Education. Based upon the changes that were made by Governor Christie after the agreement, both the NJEA and local teacher’s union are withdrawing their support.