Montclair Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Penny MacCormack, sends out a monthly newsletter titled Straight from the Superintendent. In this edition she discusses the proposed Montclair Schools budget for the 2014-15 school year, includes a summary of Chief Human Resources Officer Felice A. Harrison’s presentation on the District’s Enrollment Report and the Annual Violence and Vandalism Report, and a summary of Watchung School teachers’ presentation:
Highlights of the March 3rd Budget Workshop
Chief Operating Officer Brian Fleischer Expands on the Preliminary Budget for 2014-2015
Brian updated the Board on the district’s finances and answered questions on the preliminary budget for 2014-15.
The key challenge in formulating the budget was that the surplus which had accumulated in prior years had been spent down, in accordance with NJ law and the guidance of our auditors. As a result, we began this budget season with an $8 million shortfall in funding for next year’s ongoing expenses. Our plan was to take a balanced approach in budgeting that would fund ongoing expenses including salaried positions added in 2012-13 school year and the negotiated and much deserved salary increases for our MEA staff.
We plan to address this deficit in several ways, with the ultimate goals of maintaining the current level of school programs and staffing our children deserve, and supporting our continued implementation of the Strategic Plan.
Our first step in this process was to add $1.5 million of available reserves (fund balance) which narrowed the gap to $6.5 million.
Through a line by line review, we next identified $2.7 million in cost savings, including:
- permanently cutting the approved position for a Supervisor of Recruitment and Retention;
- more aggressively budgeting for health benefits;
- cutting costs for consulting;
- cutting summer scheduling costs;
- cutting custodial and clerical overtime; and
- pursuing staffing efficiencies through more effective scheduling.
This work reduced the gap to $3.8 million.
These reasonable cost savings, while helpful, are still not enough to close the shortfall entirely, and we need to find ways to address the remaining gap. As I mentioned, we thoughtfully and responsibly spent down our budget surplus which, among other things, helped to support a new teachers’ contract aimed at recognizing the invaluable contributions our educators make each day.
Therefore, a modest tax increase is being requested – the first in three years – so we can avoid additional budget cuts that would threaten the strong educational structure we have in Montclair.
Here are the current options, as we see them:
Option A: 4% Tax Levy Increase
- This would result in an additional $171.36 per year per average household, or about $14.28 per month.
- Current teaching levels would remain the same with the addition of three World Language teachers for grades K-5.
Option B: 2% Tax Levy Increase
- This would result in an additional $85.43 per year per average household, or about $7.12 per month.
- Current staffing levels would have to be reduced by $1 million, equal to approximately 15 employees (some of whom would be teachers).
- At risk with this option would be extra-curricular and athletic activities, facility repairs and maintenance projects, and classroom supplies and materials.
Option C: 6% Tax Levy
- This would result in an additional $256.79 per year per average household, or about $21.40 per month.
- This option would allow us to fund more programs, including World Languages, core subject teachers at the high school to reduce class size, kindergarten class size reduction and half-day preschool for Title I preschool students.
It is important to note that over the last three years, Montclair has not raised the school tax levy, while neighbors, such as South Orange, Milburn and Glen Ridge, have seen their average residential tax bill rise between $400 and nearly $1000. Even with a modest tax increase this year, our tax increases remain substantially below what residents in those towns have experienced.
In addition, in his most recent presentation Monday night, Brian presented plans for funding Capital Projects including district-wide security upgrades, a variety of facility upgrades including cafeteria and bathroom renovations at Montclair High School as well as plans for technology upgrades to both prepare our district for PARCC implementation and allow our students to be educated in a technology rich, learning environment. Please see his presentation here for more details.
We are committed to keeping you informed throughout this process and ask that you visit the budget page often for news and updates to the Frequently Asked Questions.
In the coming weeks, I look forward to leading the community in a thoughtful and transparent discussion on the right approach to carry out our education priorities, and ensure we are responsibly preparing each and every one of our students to meet their fullest potential.
Highlights From the February 24th Board of Education Meeting
Watchung Elementary School teachers: “What’s working, What’s not working, and How can we improve?”
We were eager to hear from the Watchung faculty who attended the meeting to share their thoughts on the work they are undertaking. My team and I were pleased to hear they’ve found the ongoing professional development sessions, including the sharing of best practices, to be helpful during this period of transition. At the same time, teachers also expressed concern about the rigor of the Common Core, the pacing of assessments, and the need for expanded support staffing. Finally, they offered some suggestions for how to improve implementation of the teacher evaluation system and thoughts on the district’s need for technology upgrades. We consider all of this feedback in deciding how to allocate and expand resources for educators in the months and years ahead.
Finally, Watchung’s teachers made a point to thank Principal Joseph Schmidt for his dedicated leadership, and I would like to echo that sentiment on behalf of the Board and myself.
Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Felice A. Harrison Presentations on the District Enrollment Report and Annual Violence & Vandalism Report
Felice had her work cut out for her this week with back-to-back presentations on behalf of the Human Resources team and she did a terrific job on both!
District Enrollment Report
Felice outlined the district’s enrollment statistics including an analysis of our school selection and assignment policies. The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) requires us to submit this report in order to receive state aid. Our assignment system for kindergarteners means we will meet the state and district goals for integration. We did not meet our zone targets, however, which we believe was the result of an over-projection of the incoming kindergarten population. We will continue to work on fine tuning the system to more accurately predict kindergarten enrollment.
I’d specifically like to thank Allen Liu, a student at Montclair High School, for his incredible work in creating the algorithm that has allowed us to analyze our district enrollment data in such an informative way. His contributions have gone a long way towards modernizing our systems, and we applaud his innovative thinking.
Annual Violence & Vandalism Report
In her second presentation, Felice presented the Annual Violence and Vandalism report. Fostering a safe environment for our students to learn is one of our highest priorities as educators, and in compliance with NJDOE, we have continued to track all acts of violence and vandalism in our schools. We take all acts of violence, bullying and harassment seriously and continuously work with school leaders to create healthy and positive cultures. While we believe our work can always be improved, our results are in line with districts and schools of similar size. It should be noted that in some cases the numbers appear to be higher than they actually are because the state requires certain incidents to be counted in more than one category.
The full reports are online, and I encourage you to review these and reach out with any questions you may have.
Additional Comments: Structure of School Board Oversight Meetings
Finally, I want to take a moment to address concerns that the Board has structured its meetings in a way that suppresses input from the community. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Often the questions and concerns are addressed in the presentations made at the beginning of the meeting. We welcome, value, and constantly seek the community’s ideas. This is evidenced by the number of people who turn out to speak at these meetings. We know that our constituents lead busy lives, and we respect and are so grateful for the time they commit to help us improve all of our children’s education.
Looking Ahead
While we are energetically working through budget season, I’d like to call attention to happenings around the schools. We are celebrating Read Across America Day and National Women’s History Month. Please be sure to stop by the website later this month to read about our students engaged in these March activities. And please remember that your participation and attendance are both encouraged and appreciated at the next public Budget Workshop meeting this Thursday, March 6th.