By Ruth Luse, Hopewell Valley News
Perhaps Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education might consider cost-curtailing measures similar to those taken by officials of two neighboring school boards — Lambertville Public School (LPS) and West Amwell Elementary School.
Although not part of a regional system like Hopewell Valley’s, LPS and West Amwell do share a superintendent and a business administrator. The boards were able to come to an agreement on salary freezes for both employees. And, the LPS board and the West Amwell board also decided to freeze the salaries of their individual principals. Both districts will keep salaries at the 2008-2009 rate in the 2009-2010 school year.
(Elementary children who attend these schools, as well as the elementary children of Stockton Borough, go to South Hunterdon Regional High School (SHR) for grades seven-12. Stockton has a school board that oversees what goes on at the historic building on Route 29. SHR also has a school board with elected representatives from the sending districts. Some day, people in Hunterdon County may decide to consolidate some of these small districts.)
LPS and West Amwell boards decided on the freezes in an effort to deal with the recession.
Efforts like these in the education community are a sign school officials there do understand what taxpayers are facing. As West Amwell Board of Education President Cynthia Magill said: “People need to see that we’re all pulling together to get through a very, very hard time in our history.”
The freeze also will affect spending at the two schools. The result could be, for example, fewer field trips, finding creative ways to fund a yearly sixth-grade trip to Camp Fairview in Sussex County, and asking teachers to request only those supplies essential to their work.
We know decisions like these are tough, but they are being made everywhere these days in both public and private sectors. Those who have been affected appreciate the efforts of others to also work and live with less.
Less anticipated money from the state to fund school programs and concerns about worried taxpayers were major reasons for the decisions made by these two Hunterdon school boards. School officials throughout the state would be wise to consider similar steps if they have hopes for voter support of budgets April 21.
School districts expect to find out March 12 what kind of money they will get from the state to support their budget plans. Most districts probably should not look forward to any nice surprises when those figures come out, because the state doesn’t have money to spare.
If the economy and the state’s ongoing financial malaise continue to be concerns, schools — state aid or not — would have to find less expensive ways to do a good job of educating children.
