School District Correspondence continued Page 2

continued

Challenging the Board and District administration, asking if everything was done in order to reduce the impact of the recent layoffs – is a good thing. That is a right protected by the First Amendment. The School Board and the Administration should have considered every option before reducing the staff by 17%. If the Board of Education had been asked that question, and if then those who had questions had then listened to their answer, they would have discovered the following:

Once finalized that the School District had to cut $7.2 million from next year\’s budget, the District administrators met for many days, going line by line through the $40 plus million budget. Every expenditure, every position, was reviewed and discussed. Then, suggestions were made, building by building, what could be eliminated as a tally of the savings was kept. Once the $7.2 million was reached, the administrators looked at the cuts and discussed the impact of those cuts on their programs and the children. At this point, only positions were discussed, NOT individual personnel. Several more meetings allowed the administrators to continue to review their decisions, making adjustments when needed, all the while keeping an eye on the $7.2 million required by the state.

Once this list was finalized, the Superintendent\’s office began a review of all personnel records, making sure dates of hire, current and previous positions held, certifications earned, were accurate. Then, the task of putting names with the positions, adhering to the complicated rules of certification, \”bumping rights\”, tenure laws and years of service ensued. When a preliminary list of names was established, building principals, district administrators and finally NJEA representatives reviewed the list, assuring that all rules and laws were observed. When needed, legal counsel was consulted. Finally, the Superintendent brought the recommendations to the Board\’s personnel committee, who questioned and reviewed decisions made, finally making their recommendations to the full Board of Education.

So you can see, more than a little thought was put into the process.

As to some specific recommendations recently suggested that could save the district money, and thus perhaps could save additional positions, the following more accurately responds:

• Closing of Highland Park School and moving the children into the high school at 3 pm or eliminating the program – GHS runs a full complement of programs after school. Moving the program to GHS would interfere with those operations AND removing those students from the high school building has resulted in

a. reduction of violence and vandalism at GHS and

b. has attributed to the success of the students who enroll at HPPS.

c. It has also contributed to the reduction of the dropout rate – which was
6.8% and is now 0.2 %.

Neither the Board nor the District is willing to compromise violence reduction or the overwhelming success of the students enrolled in the program. Not everyone fits into a traditional high school program and Gloucester City Schools has found a way to make sure all of its students succeed. Every child is important!

see page 3