School Budget Staff Reductions and Cuts

The Haddonfield Board of Education’s tentative budget for 2010-2011 was attempting to cover a $1.4 million shortfall when we lost our state aid. That loss of $1.5 million was added to our shortfall, and after a lot of negotiations among school board members, resulted in the proposed 3.25% tax levy and budget that the public will vote for on April 20th.

The 2010-2011 budget eliminates the following positions and programs:
• 2.5 Administrators
• 3 Secretaries
• 1 Grounds
• 2 Clerks
• 1.5 Maintenance
• 1.75 Physical Education Teachers
• .2 Orchestra
• .25 Health Instructor
• .5 Kindergarten Teacher
• Freshman Sports
• Middle School Basketball

The above cuts represent $720,000 in savings. In addition, this budget calls for:
• Outsourcing Custodial Services, $300,000 savings
• Operations Savings of $115,000
• Energy Reductions of $64,000

The program and position reductions equal a savings of approximately $1.2 million.

The specific administrative positions are ½ of an Athletic Director at HMHS, the Coordinator of Guidance, and the Director of Custodial and Security. The Athletic Director will now be a part-time position and the other half of their time will be spent teaching physical education. Nick Baker will be taking on the Guidance Coordination as part of his responsibilities. I have been told that the children will still receive the same amount of guidance – the time spent with the children will not be impacted by this change. The Director of Custodial and Security position has been eliminated completely – that position is no longer necessary with the outsourcing of custodial services. While the position has been terminated, the person filling the position, Sandra Horwitz, has been named the new principal for Central School, and Roger Bowley’s contract as principal was not renewed.

High School students who are playing a sport may opt-out of physical education during the semester of their sport. We have yet to see if children will decide to opt-out or not. Freshman Sports have been eliminated, because neighboring towns have also been forced to eliminate their programs. There will not be a Colonial Conference on the Freshman level. Hopefully the children will be able to join the JV teams or we can create a school-based program in certain sports that will not have travel costs. This is all likely to impact the school’s no-cut policy. Middle School basketball has been eliminated, but the town’s basketball program includes students through 8th grade. I have heard many parents hoping that town sports programs will expand to include 9th graders.

Reading Recovery for grade 1 has been eliminated, but it has been replaced by a literacy program that will cover grades 1 and 2. I’d like to learn more about the new program, but so far supporters are very hopeful that this will be able to offer services to even more children and provide 100% grade level literacy by the end of grade 2.

The elimination of the .2 health instructor will be covered by holding high school health classes in a college-seminar style with much larger class sizes. This recommendation came about from conversations with college professors who regard high school students unprepared to learn in a college lecture style environment.

Apparently the unemployment benefits that will be necessarily paid to those who lose their positions have already been calculated into the cost savings.

I was not able to cover every reduction: feel free to post a comment and I will do my best to research the answer for you and reply.