Howell TRUTH letter to Assemblyman Malone

Dear Assemblyman Malone:

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me yesterday regarding the budget issues in Howell Township. If I was able to accurately express anything, I hope it was that I and the group with which I am affiliated are trying to work with the Board of Education to offer solutions to our present budget crisis but that we are feeling that our efforts are being met more with platitudes, than with genuine consideration.

I am attaching a document below for you that summarizes our suggested cuts along with some revenue generating ideas we have offered to the Board. The attachment was compiled from previous written statements made to the Board at an open public meeting and have been iterated several times in various public venues (Finance, Community Relations and Facilities Committee meetings, for example). The consensus among my fellow Howell T.R.U.T.H. (Townspeople Rooting out Unnecessary Tax Hikes) members is that a well-reasoned "no" is preferable to no response at all, the latter being all we have received to date. It is our hope that you can assist us in holding the Board and the administration accountable for providing the community with a well-reasoned response to these suggestions.

If you are available this Friday morning, Al Miller (Southard Elementary School PTA President) and I would welcome the opportunity to meet you in your Jackson office or at another mutually convenient location.

I would be happy to provide you any additional information you might wish to have in advance of our meeting, including the most recent school closing/redistricting options.

Thank you again for your kind courtesies.

Respectfully,


Howell TRUTH

Our group recommended the following cuts, which align with State law and the adequacy model:
Reduce the number of certified school nurses. The adequacy model states only one nurse per school. Presently, we have 16 nurses for 13 schools. At a minimum, 3 nursing positions could be cut. In addition, the state statutes do not require a certified school nurse in every building. Additional cuts could be made by removing higher paid certified school nurses and replacing them with registered or licensed nurses under the certified school nurses' supervision at a much lower step on the salary guide. Based on present salaries, we project this could save the district approximately $500,000.
Reduce the number of Vice-Principals. The adequacy models provides for zero vice-principals at the elementary level and one per middle school building. We project a savings of $1.3 million dollars due to this change.
Cap professional development at the adequacy level of $785,000. Most of the items from the November Finance Committee meeting had to do with professional development of our staff, including stipends for conducting these in-services and training sessions and the hiring of substitute staff to cover classes while our teachers attended. We exceed the adequacy model in professional development spending by approximately $560,000.
Eliminate an Assistant Superintendent position. The adequacy model calls for one Superintendent and two Assistant Superintendents and we presently have three. This would save an additional $125,000.
Reduce expenditures on hiring substitutes which are in excess of the adequacy model by approximately $200,000.
Reduce number of Child Study Teams. There have been discussions that about contracting our child study team to the Farmingdale School district. If our child study team has enough time on their hands to time serve another community, that means they are not necessary to this community and could save our district approximately $130,000.
Eliminate courtesy busing. Even accepting the administration's representation that, after the township constructs sidewalks and employs crossing guards (at the taxpayers expense on the municipal side), this would save $200,000.
eliminate Media Specialists at the Middle Schools. While the adequacy model calls for media specialists, there is currently no media instruction at the middle school. A lower paid media assistant could provide any resource assistance to middle schoolers while saving this community $210,000.
Moving HMO employees into the Point of Service plan, for another $250,000 savings.
Eliminate travel expenses. A review of the budget shows that supervisors are requesting $3,000 per year for in and out of district travel. A $20,000 savings here, coupled with those mentioned above could save a building and jobs. Are we really to believe that staff will not forgo this “benefit” to keep our class sizes low, an immeasurable direct benefit to our children?
There may be more cuts than these, but these cuts alone could save the district nearly $3.5 million and stop directly impacting the children. After all, the children are not getting any programs back by their school's closing. All they are getting are larger classes sizes, less individualized attention, longer bus rides and too many other unquantifiable, yet significant, impacts to laundry here.
In addition to budget cuts, our group has looked at some ways to generate revenue by better utilizing our alleged excess facilities.
I recently spoke to our local Head Start program, located on West Farms Road, near the Police Athletic League building. That program, as you may know, is for preschoolers who qualify for preschool educational services based on economic need. The program receives federal funding. This program is most interested in partnering with our board of education, as other Head Start programs in the State have done, to provide services to at risk children. A similar mandate is coming down the pike from the State Department of Education and here we have children in our community already identified as in need. Their director, Sarah Wheelan, informed me that she is currently leasing her facility on a year to year basis at the rate of $3,000 per month. Her thirty four students, or 4 instructional sections in “functional capacity speak,” could be housed in a number of our schools where space purports to exist. There is no need to duplicate these services at the taxpayers' expense.
Private day care owners in the community have been contacted about their interest in leasing our building space to operate a day care, perhaps even for our own district staff, and are found to be “very interested” in such an arrangement.
Finally, I spoke to the Township Administrator in Tinton Falls about the pending Laurel Woods/Naval Weapons Station Earle litigation. As you may know, the Navy entered into an agreement with a developer in 1988 to build 300 on base housing units. Those units were restricted to military personnel and their families for the first 20 years of the lease, which expires in 2010. Thereafter, they would be open for public occupancy. Tinton Falls has been educating the military children, although they are really districted for Colts Neck. The litigation involves challenges to allowing unimpeded access to the naval base by non-military personnel for security reasons and who is responsible for educating any children who come to occupy those units.
A decision will be rendered in this litigation soon. Assuming the court allows public occupancy and that the incoming children become Colts Neck's responsibility, at some point that will mean more students to the FRHSD, including the Howell High School. Right now, it could mean an opportunity for our board to negotiate to take those elementary students into our “extra instructional space.” Both the Tinton Falls and Colts Neck districts might be interested in such an arrangement to put an end to its protracted legal fees. It is worth investigating.
The point is that in under two days, I placed several phone calls and found viable options to utilize our alleged extra space and to possibly generate revenue for our financially strapped district. Other options exist that have not yet been researched, including opening our facilities at night, well after the children have left for the day so no security issue, for adult education programs through a vocation-technical entity, Brookdale or some other higher learning institution, who might enjoy the benefit of our touted technology.
All of this underscores the imperative that we not take drastic measures that we cannot easily undo, such as closing a school for which we may have future need.
It is not particularly desirable to cut programs, staff or courtesy busing, or deny funding for new textbooks, or even temporarily give back a portion of salary or health benefits but these are items that can be picked up again, whereas the move to close a school cannot easily be undone. If the public is sufficiently convinced that it must come to that, then so be it. But, I remain unconvinced by the board that such a necessity exists and that all other possible options have been thoroughly investigated because nothing has been reported to the public on these ideas. All we have been told is that the Freehold Regional High School District is not interested in pursuing the use of our facilities to ease overcrowding at the Howell and Freehold Township High Schools, although it is willing to discuss field usage, and that the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission is not interested in discussing leasing our facilities for at-risk preschool services, since it appears that funding will not exist for this “mandate.”
Thank you.