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Pine Barrens Tribune
SPEAKING (Continued from Page 1)
a school district and as a community,” Stow pointed out that whereas in the 1994-95 school year amounted to nearly 40 percent of school funding, with sending communities paying roughly 49 percent of the bill, the state aid in the upcoming school years will drop to less than 18 percent, with taxpayers contributing over 76 percent. Despite that, he said, the budget for the upcoming year will “stay within the two percent cap,” which the district has more or less managed to maintain over more than a decade, and the combined general budget and debt service will still be 1.65 percent less than the current year’s figures. “So, you might ask me, ‘If you are losing a million dollars in funding and you are still coming under the rate there, how are you doing it?” Stow said. “Well, we have an unbelievable staff and an unbelievable administration that worked tirelessly to contain costs.” Stow then endeavored to demonstrate what the Lenape Regional High School District has accomplished and achieved with its current, reduced resources. The budget for the next school year, which was unanimously approved by the board, calls for a total tax levy of $124,522,106, representing a 2.13 percent increase for the 2019-2020 school year, as contrasted with a 2.71 percent increase the year before. The amount consists of a general fund tax levy of $117,776,347, up two percent over the previous year, and a debt service figure (covering things voters have already approved) of $6,745,759, up by 4.52 percent. The economy measures outlined by Stow to compensate for the drop-in state aid included a reduction in health benefit premiums, which he said had “saved a huge amount of money,” eliminating curriculum writing and new textbook purchases, transportation reduct ions, a nd sa la r y brea kage wit h retirements. Reduction of staff through attrition, with six employees due to retire in the next school year not scheduled to be replaced, is another money saving maneuver being undertaken. Additional money-saving measures taken, he said, have involved the elimination of the Lenape North principal’s position in 201516 and of the Cherokee South principal and office manager dur ing the cur rent school year, as well as the use of shared services, including for purchasing, trash and recycling, transportation, insurance, banking, professional development and peer-to-peer student training. Among the achievements of the district highlighted by Stow during the presentation were: • An average graduation rate for its four high schools of 96 percent; • Some 91.6 percent of class of 2018 graduates having continued their education at more than 280 four-year and two-year colleges and universities; • SAT scores at all four district high schools being consistently above state and national averages and among the highest in the region; • Accreditation of all the schools in the district by The Middle States Association Commission on Secondary Schools, which has also acknowledged them as “worthy of emulation in public secondary education.” In addition, Stow noted that the district currently has a total of 242 course offerings; 26 advanced placement courses and 67 College Acceleration Programs (CAPs) in partnership with both Rowan College of Burlington County and Rowan University, with 1,482 of its students taking advantage of those courses during the 2018-19 school year and earning a total of 8,518 college credits. “If you’ve got a kid in college, you know what it costs for a credit,” Stow said, “That
Saturday, May 11, 2019
WWW.PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM doesn’t even the cost of books, which is on top of that. Our kids get that right here in the Lenape District.” Another area in which the LRHSD has progressed, he said, is that of special education, with the number of incoming freshmen in that category expected to increase by 103 to a total of 311 during the 2019-20 school year. Additionally, he said the number of special education students being placed in facilities out of the district have been halved in the past 13 years to 70 in 2018. “That means those students are engaging with our teachers and our students,” he said. “It is better for our kids; it allows us to be more of a community for all kinds of different people. It also gives us the opportunity to save money, because when you consider that tuitions range anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 for one student going out of district, it is an amazing savings for us. “It says something about our staff and administration when we are able to accomplish (special education) programs like this that make parents want to send their kids to the Lenape District, as opposed to sending them out of the district.” Stow noted that since 20 05, special education enrollment has remained steady, while general enrollment has declined. He added that the special education staff since 2005 has been increased to 22 and that some 24 new hires will have dual certifications in both regular and special education. In 2019, he said, close to 75 percent of the teaching staff will be dual-certified. The budget chairman also pointed out that the LRHSD has done all of the above, while managing to keep its administrative costs per pupil at $1,644, or $491 (23 percent) below the state-mandated regional limit, and adding no new programs or staff for either general or special education. “I remember when I was in school, if you came home with a report card like that, you got rewarded,” Stow said. By contrast, Stow noted that, “the state takes money from you.” Stow told meeting attendees that the LRHSD board and administration is “not just simply sitting on our laurels” and “wanting everyone to hear our sob story” about the substantial amounts of aid money the district has been losing. “We are doing everything we can as a community of Lenape Regional District board members, administrators and staff to try to get the message out to everybody that what Trenton is doing is not right, it is not fair and it doesn’t make sense if you really look at it,” Stow said. He added that while legally the state has the responsibility for funding education, it had “backed off that years ago.” T he sit uation has prompted t he superintendent to appeal to the governor’s office and to other officials, he said, and is also what motivated students, staff members and administrators from the LRHSD to rally at the state capital on the final day of hearings on the governor’s proposed budget, as depicted in the video shown to those in attendance, which has also been posted on the LRHSD website. “If we don’t find a better way to create revenue and fix the state’s flawed schoolfunding formula, our state’s and our district’s great reputation for student success is at risk,” Birnbohm said in the video. The superintendent went on to explain to the participating students that the district’s participation in the rally was so that local legislators, and others, making decisions about school funding can hear local voices so that they will understand that “these cuts will hurt programs for students.” “We want to get the governor’s attention, we want to get the Senate Budget committee’s attention, we want to get the legislators’ attention so that they can understand that these cuts impact out students, and that these cuts are real,” Birnbohm said.
After defining the mission of the rally in the video as being “to shed light on the fair funding formula, which is not a fair funding formula,” Estlow encouraged members of the community to become actively involved in the campaign, suggesting, “they can write letters, they can call the governor’s office, they can call New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney’s office and they can reach out to their legislators and join these rallies.” A number of students also shared their feelings about the issue on the video. One of them, Jalen Sampson, a senior in the LRHSD, observed that “people in the communities should kind of take charge a little bit more.” “If people just spoke out about the things that they believe in, and we voiced our opinions and did more demonstrations like the one we’re doing here today, I think that can make a difference,” she said. After showing the video, which drew a round of applause from those present, Birnbohm cited Sampson’s statement in pointing out that the “off-the-cuff” and “unrehearsed” comments from students were all “very passionate,” and that those students had really “learned a lot about the civics process.” After than k ing the students and administrators who attended the demonstration, the superintendent also noted that the event had coincided with the last public hearing on the governor’s proposed budget, and now was the time to be heard since the Senate Budget Committee can either adopt the governor’s budget in its proposed form or propose one of its own, which sometimes happens right up to the end of June. “So we have this window now to reach out to members of that Senate Budget Committee and articulate what is happening here in the Lenape Regional High School District,” she said, noting that district officials would be taking the month of May to do so, and that community members are likewise welcome to
contact lawmakers who are making “decisions right now.” Another topic addressed by Stow in the course of his presentation was that of the role of assistant principals, the need for which he claimed is often questioned by taxpayers. He proceeded to enumerate a lengthy list of “the many hats of an assistant principal” in the district, amounting to 18 functions and responsibilities. Among those he enumerated were supervision of staff in multiple departments and conducting department meetings; ensuring instruction and curriculum reflects best practices; conducting classroom observations and walkthroughs; ensuring that safety and security plans are implemented; completing required district, state and federal reports; supervising extracurricular and assembly programs; conducting parent conferences; overseeing scheduling and implementation of state testing, and enforcing behavioral guidelines.
SURPRISE! Guess who is turning 80 years old on May 13, 2019? HOWARD PARKER! Happy Birthday! ~Anne Parker, Wife.
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