Schools

SOS Parents Remain Committed To Saving Schools

School board members say they'll look at reallocating resources so that more attention is paid to the high school

After attending Monday night's school board meeting, Christine McGoey, who helped start a grassroots group of parents called Save Our Schools, said she still doesn't believe any schools in the district should be closed.

BOE comments "that certain schools may not be 'relevant' or that one school may be more important than another really shows a different perspective than the one SOS takes," she said Wednesday. "The parents we hear from at each of the schools in this system believe their children and their children's schools are all relevant and equally important.

"At the heart of the Magnet School System is the belief that each child is as important as the next, no matter who he or she is," said McGoey, whose children attend Edgemont Elementary School and Mount Hebron Middle School.

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On November 12, SOS posted a petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/sosmontclair. As of Wednesday, 679 people had signed it.

At Monday night's school board meeting, board member Robin Kulwin sought to calm the parents in attenance by reiterating that no decisions have been made and that rumors flying around town about school closings are only, at this stage, rumors.

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"I do not want to close schools," she said. "But we are committed to looking at everything and shame on us if we dont."

But as the meeting progressed it seemed that the idea of closing schools—or at least reallocating resources in some way so that they're funneled increasingly into the high school—is very much on the table.

School board member Shirley Grill spelled it out bluntly: small schools are a luxury in the current economic climate.

"I guess I'm the wicked witch of the west who is advocating the closing of schools," she said. "But if we're going to keep small schools, they must have a financial or educational impact beyond the population they serve."

Grill agreed, though, that a good reason for keeping all the buildings open was to give the school board a chance to entice back those students enjoying out-of-district placements.

But "we must invest in the high school," she said. "We have brought in strong leadership but we may need to bring in more.

"The creation of small learning communities there needs to be put on a fast track," she said.

MHS Principal James Earle is scheduled to make a presentation on small learning communities at the high school at the school board's next meeting on December 20.

Over the past several weeks, four working groups made up of community volunteers have put forth a variety of ways the school district could attract revenue or control costs going forward.

The aim: plugging a $6.5 million budget gap.

Monday night's meeting afforded board members their first chance to discuss the presentations and, as Lombard put it, think out loud.

While a handful of school board members reiterated their support for keeping each and every single school open, Lombard pointed out that not enough people are paying attention to the quality of the high school.

"It's unacceptable that the high school is barely in the top 100 high schools in the state," she said. "If we can save $6.5 million without closing schools, fabulous.

"But if we end up having to close an elementary school there would still be five other attractive options," she said. "When you get to high school you only have one option or your other options may not be very attractive ones.

"In a few years all of you elementary school parents are going to be worried about the high school," she said. "I really think we need to have a discussion about reallocating resources."

For example, she finds it unacceptable that the high school's guidance deparatment employs only 11 counselors for 2,000 kids.

Other school board members also agreed that a greater emphasis has to be placed on the teaching and resources at the high school, something that benefits everyone by helping to keep property values high.

"And Renaissance is a great school but I think it serves too small a population," Lombard said. "We need to make it more relevant to our town. It serves a small and not historically a very diverse population."

Board member Robert Kautz agreed that the district is in a crisis.

"We lost all of our federal funding and much of our state funding and so we're going to have to do this ourselves, and I think we can do it," he said. "We need more volunteerism and more targeted fundraising.

"I have no intention of closing any schools," he said. "We don't want to cut to the point where we've cut to the bone."

In general, it seemed that the school board members were divided over whether they might be forced to close a school. But they appeared in sync when talking about how the high school has been overlooked for far too long. They also seemed to agree that savings could be generated by insourcing special education.

"We can bring some of these kids back ... we have space at the new [Charles H. Bullock] school ... I think we can do a lot with our buildings," Kautz said.

Board members also seemed to agree that savings could be found in the area of transportation.

Several options for cutting costs were put forth Monday night, for a second time.

They included:

—Asking people to formally opt out if they don't plan to use the buses so that routes aren't created with ghost riders.

—Purchasing GPS software for $2,000 that would help central staff create more efficient bus routes.

—Start a walk and bike to school program.

—Cut bus aides at a cost savings of $200,000 to $270,000.

—Eliminate busing at Edgemont and Watchung, which are both more centrally located, at a cost savings of $240,000.

—Eliminate busing at the elementary level for those at 1.25 miles or less at a cost savings of $145,000.


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