Districts Future and Finances the Focus of BOE meeting

As the continue to look at their budget for the upcoming school year there was more discussion about what should be done with at Wednesday's meeting. 

Superintendent Enid Golden said she had three goals for the additional money. Golden said the she would like to see the money go for improving the district's technology, decreasing class sizes in the schools and closing the district's achievement gap. 

With the district getting an increase of just over $1.2 million in state aid from last year Golden said she was looking for $500 thousand of that to be put into technology. While there were no specifics given about what that money would go for, Golden said it will help the district's move forward with its goals.

"We have really fallen behind with our technology," she said. "I think that we're losing out on some very exciting educational opportunities for our students and I think there's a huge need in the district now to start getting our technology back to where it was because there's just so many opportunities out there."

In addition the superintendent said she would like to see $250 thousand be used for reducing class sizes in the district. That money would mostly be used in the primary grade levels from kindergarten through second grade. In talking with principals at those schools there were concerns about having 25 students in those classrooms at the current staffing levels. The money would be used to put a teaching assistant in those classes to cut down on the teacher to student ratio.

Golden said the ideal maximum class size for first and second grades would be 22 per class but the district also does not know yet what the total enrollment numbers for the 2012-13 school year will be yet. 

When it comes to closing the achievement gap, Golden said this was a chance to work on an important area for all the students in the schools. "We always feel very proud that our general education students are significantly higher in Howell Township in terms of student achievement in the state tests," she said. "We feel very proud that we look at our surrounding districts and we see how our population does and we compare very favorably."

She said the district's scores are also good when compared to similar districts in their statewide district factor groups. 

The "disparity," she said is for some of the "economically disadvantaged" and minority students with others in the district. "In some grade levels and some subject areas it can be as much as a 30 point discrepancy between how our economically disadvantaged children scored and how our general education children scored."

With programs in place to work on that gap already Golden said she would like to see a more specific effort to work on closing the gap going forward. "We've really embarked this year using our data warehouse and what that allows us to do is to really drill down on very specifically what the deficiencies are," she said. "I think having that program will really help us target the needs in each school."

The principals of each school, she said will be working with her to find what will work best to address the issues in their schools to fix this area of concern for the district. 

When it was time for the board's comments they were largely in favor of the priorities Golden presented. 

Mary Cerretani was the first to speak and said she supported Golden's ideas. She especially focused on the lower class sizes which she said would allow the teachers to give more attention to the younger students in the district during their developmental years. 

She also commended Golden on the ability to improve the district's technology. "We're starting to get so behind the times now we're not going to be able to continue to have our prestigious national recognition that we have had," she said. "I think now that we have the opportunity to do it and we have been able to keep the tax levy down I think that this is fabulous and it's about time if we're able to do something for every aspect of our population."

Patrick Dowling said he was glad to see that the district would have enough extra money to put back into the classrooms to help the students. 

One member with some concerns was Jeannette Smith. "I think the priorities are very good, the only problem is that I don't have enough details," she said. That includes objectives for the technology improvements and what can be done to help reduce the achievement gap. "I have a hard time just setting down the chunk of money for technology if I could only understand what it is that money's for," she said.

Al Miller also agreed with the proposals by Golden and said he believed working with the education committee they could get more details to put the money to good use. 

Board President Tim O'Brien also supported Golden's initiatives and said closing the achievement gap was "one of the most critical," and called the technology a "means to an end." He said he also wanted to see what specifically would be done with the money to solve the issues the district is facing. "As we go forward I'm sure there will be a lot more substance and details," he said. 

One area of concern for Board Vice President Suzanne Brennan was the fact that while the money from Trenton will help in the upcoming year there are no assurances that the money will be available in future years. "I am concerned about the sustainability of that," she said. 

Brennan, a parent of students in the district said when it came to the achievement gap she believed it was important to have parent involvement to help guide how the changes will be made. Golden said she will make sure that is part of the process. 

John Van Noy was also supported the priorities. "I think that we will enjoy the fruits of establishing these priorities in the coming year," he said. Seeing what districts across the state and the country are doing with technology Van Noy said he believes the upgrades Howell can do will greatly benefit the students.

The final member of the board to comment was Stephen M. Levine who was also excited by the premise of the improvements the district can make. "You ain't seen anything yet, In terms of the staff, the administrators of this district," he said with a laugh. 

Levine said that while they were three separate goals, he believed they were all under one umbrella of having "outcome based," benefits for the students.

The board is scheduled to meet again on March 28 at Middle School North.