School Budget
By LINDSAY HICKS
Cherry Hill Sun
3/2/2007

School board finds fat trimming a difficult process as discussion continues

Cherry Hill Public Schools administrators answered the Board of Education’s recent request and added $3 million back to its proposed 2007-2008 budget, sparking exploratory questions from board members at the Feb. 20 budget work session.

Superintendent David Campbell met with administrators at all levels after the board requested he put $2.99 million back into the budget he presented Feb. 7, including $500,000 for facility improvements.

District leaders still must await numbers from the state before making any definite decisions, but the administrators added 53.5 positions back from the original proposal, according to Business Administrator Tom Redman. The original budget proposal called for cutting 79.3 positions.

Campbell made clear the administration doesn’t endorse the new recommendations, after two hours of discussion about the necessity of a middle school technology class, an increase in fifth-grade class sizes, cutting back hours of the full-time director of research position and other proposed changes.

If approved, the district would also cut two ninth- and 10th-grade English teachers and slightly increase class sizes in the two grades, according to Redman.

“We were asked to meet a board’s expectations, and we have met those expectations,” he said, noting timing has not allowed for the development of plans regarding replacements, especially given the possibility that everything could change in a week.

Gov. Corzine was expected to release individual districts’ funding data for the upcoming school year the week of Feb. 26.

Until then, district officials throughout the state can only speculate, something he said the administration does not want to do.

After reviewing their budget binders, board members expressed mixed opinions regarding the decision to drop a technology class from the middle school and the potential of adding one more child to every fifth-grade class and cutting teachers to save money.

Some of the cuts led to questions about the possibility of conducting assessments of programs – the first of which concerned the addition of three special education teachers.

Other assessments various board members requested before making a decision regarding the budget include a comparison of the performance of young students taking a foreign language to others who spend more time on core curricula.

Board member Bob Russo asked about the impact of offering foreign languages in lower grades, after the administration added back six elementary school Spanish teachers it originally cut.

As conversation about fact-finding and assessment began, the administrators also made clear to the public they planned to reduce the director of research to part-time.

Campbell said he hopes to move the director of research back to full-time, explaining that keeping the responsibility in-house would save money in the long run.

In the meantime, the superintendent stressed his trust in principals’ recommendations.

They know the individual needs of their students and school best, he said, and decide how to spend equal amounts of money given to their schools.

Everyone knows the challenge for every educational leader is to improve students’ education while keeping costs low for taxpayers, he added, noting that any positions they choose to cut would have an impact on the district.

An impact administrators feel the district can handle involves cutting three teachers by adding one student to each of the district’s fifth-grade classes.

In 2006, Cherry Hill fifth grades averaged 23.3 students per class compared to a state average of 21.3, according to the state report card.

Nobody can calculate the exact impact from the proposed increase until August, Campbell reminded the board, but it would likely only bring the size one student above the current maximum in one case.

Don Bart, director of Support Operations, said the increase in fifth-grade class size would save the district three sections throughout the district while not resulting in bumping a class to another school.

The board voted against pursuing further examination of class size increases, despite member Susan Badaracco’s suggestion that some classes in lower elementary grades have 14 students.

Discussion then turned to the administration’s recommendation to drop the middle school’s exploratory technology class.

Students would attend two more physical education classes per week instead, Lawyer Chapman, assistant superintendent of elementary education, clarified.

“I would like to know what’s going to happen for the students on the wrong side of the digital divide,” Board member Donna Cohen asked, referring to students without access to computers at home. “When this is gone, how will we serve them?”

Kirk Rickansrud, principal of Carusi Middle School, explained the principals decided to get rid of the class because many kids are already advanced, and classroom teachers infuse computer education into everyday curriculum.

The computers currently used for the class would go into the classrooms, he said.

Principals check lesson plans to make sure teachers are exposing their students to computer programs, he said, in response to Cohen’s concern about how the district will ensure it meets state standards.

“Someone has to embrace and monitor that,” she said, adding teachers must be careful not to confuse lessons needed to meet benchmarks with using technology as a teaching tool.

Badaracco responded she feels sure principals and teachers will make it happen.

According to a district spokeswoman, the board has not decided when it will re-address the budget. It was expected to make a decision regarding the future of the district’s International Baccalaureate program, however, at this week’s meeting.