Athletic programs get boost in spending

Budget includes funding for varsity

volleyball and ice hockey teams
By:Sally Goldenberg
   The Hillsborough superintendent’s recommended school budget answered the pleas of athletic supporters who have rallied the board for more programs, while ignoring a request for a library media specialist.
   The $85,809,120 budget proposal, which Superintendent of Schools Robert Gulick presented to the Board of Education Monday night, calls for a 14.16 percent increase in athletics, bringing the total recommendation for athletic programs to $1,025,858.
   Dr. Gulick included two new sports – ice hockey and volleyball, which parents and students have requested during recent board meetings. Last year’s budget initially included the teams before the Township Committee cut the defeated budget by $1.23 million.
   Onka Drive resident Bob Lysyj thanked the board for including the ice hockey team.
   "I’ll support any kind of programs for the kids," said Mr. Lysyj, who has pushed for the inclusion of an ice hockey team.
   Recalling last year’s opposition to the $400,000 FieldTurf – a synthetic surface to replace the high school’s grass at Noonan Field – Dr. Gulick recommended the board include the turf on the April 15 ballot as a second question. This would allow residents to vote on the budget and the field separately.
   When the township sliced the budget last year, the turf was among the items to go. Athletic Director Rocky Forte said he would therefore prefer to have the public vote on the turf as a second question.
   "We’ll be more successful in getting the whole athletic community out to support that than we would if it were in the budget," Mr. Forte said.
   However, pleas of the district’s elementary school librarians for a library assistant were unheard.
   Dr. Gulick said he was unable to incorporate the position, which was shifted to a full-time position at the Auten Road Intermediate School when that school became a school for fifth- and sixth-graders this year. The assistant would rotate among the six elementary schools on a six-day cycle
   Several elementary school librarians came before the board in October to request that the position be reinstated, claiming a part-time assistant would free them up from administrative tasks that prevent them from ordering books in a timely fashion.
   Meryl Schwartz Holcombe, the library media specialist of Sunnymead School, told the board in October that she is swamped with clerical duties that the library assistant performed last year.
   "I really feel my principal responsibility … is to work as a teacher," she had said.
   Triangle Elementary School Principal Charlene Weicksel said that the assistant helped the librarians catalog, order and store new books.
   "It is lovely to have services that would free up our teachers to do more intense work with our children. Is it a necessary thing? No, but it certainly enriches and enhances (the library experience for students)," she said.
   Dr. Gulick had told the librarians he would try to incorporate the position into the budget, which would have cost the district just shy of $35,000, according to the proposed budget.
   "With regard to the library assistant, I don’t take issue with the fact that those ladies who run those media centers could benefit from assistants," Dr. Gulick said. He said he anticipates the librarians could garner parent volunteers to do the work. "I think that the library media specialists will get more assistants. The help that the individual media specialist would receive is very limited."
   Ms. Weicksel said about 35 parents do assist in the Triangle library on a regular basis, but added that an employee would have an inherently stronger time commitment to the job.
   Board member Chris Pulsifer disagreed with Dr. Gulick’s decision not to fund the position.
   "I really would like to see that put back in," he said, calling the job "invaluable."