Few people realize just how much work a school media coordinator does, an emotionalMary Lowndes told the Monroe Township Board of Education last week.
“All in all, we are more than an extra pair of hands,” she said.
But her job as media coordinator at Monroe Township High School, along with four other district media coordinator positions, were eliminated at the May 5 board meeting, part of the board’s effort to cope with the loss of nearly all of the district’s state aid this year.
Media coordinators “multitask” and assist librarians, faculty and students. They maintain patron files and arrange events, Lowndes told the board.
“The elimination of these five positions will no doubt impact libraries of all the schools,” she said. “It’s a great loss. I believe this cut will have an impact on students and faculty. I hope there’s still time to reassess this.”
The Township Council on May 4 ordered the school board to cut $1,510,000 from the defeated $80.6 million tax levy portion of the $90 million budget. School officials came up with enough cuts to meet the suggested reductions, newly election board President Lewis Kaufman said after the meeting.
“At the end of the day, the board members, the Township Council and all the stakeholders wanted to be able to walk away with as limited scarring as possible,” Kaufman said in an interview a few days later. “Based on the collaborative effort between the board and the Township Council, I think that goal was achieved. Everybody came to a meeting of the minds. Cuts are always hard to stomach.”
The original budget called for the layoffs of 22 employees. Those positions, which include the media coordinators, world language teachers, two vice principals, paraprofessionals, technology support and several other teachers, will still be eliminated, Kaufman said.
Voters turned down the tax levy by a vote of 5,637 to 4,474 in the April 20 school elections. It was the third defeat in three years. And Kaufman doesn’t want a repeat next year.
“We need to make sure we don’t put the Township Council in this position again,” he said. “We have to be much more aggressive to get the vote out. Let’s not kid ourselves. This is not the end of hard times. We have to change how we do business.”
The board approved a number of other cuts to meet the $1.5 million reduction ordered by the Township Council. The largest item pared was $453,221 in general instruction supplies. The summer enrichment program was eliminated for a savings of $107,932. Supervisor salaries fell by $150,000, since supervisors agreed to a voluntary salary freeze and one supervisor position was eliminated. Supervised field trips were cut by $122,000. Professional development and the use of outside consultants was slashed by $102,390. Textbook purchases were cut by $185,469.
School officials are also postponing the implementation of a new science program and cutting classroom equipment purchases, according to a punch list provided by school Business Administrator/Board Secretary Wayne Holliday.
“There’s a couple of other things we are looking at to cut the budget even more beyond what was laid out before the town council,” Kaufman said. “This board has to be way more proactive and look at other avenues to cut costs without impacting the classroom. There are those opportunities in any school district.”
That can happen with less obvious savings, like eliminating paper pay stubs, a move that could save the district close to $40,000 a year, he said.
“That’s a big ticket item,” Kaufman said. “You don’t have to work hard, you just have to work smarter.”
School officials have struggled with a nearly 95 percent cut in state aid since Gov. Chris Christie released the aid figures in March. Holliday called the cut “incomprehensible.” Monroe took the second biggest hit in state aid for school districts in Middlesex County, losing more than $4.4 million. The district will receive only $238,696 for the 2010-11 school year.
And while school officials had hoped the Monroe Township Education Association, which represents the district’s teachers, might agree to a salary freeze for the upcoming year, that has not happened so far, Kaufman said.
“I don’t know where it’s going to go,” he said. “We’ll have to see how that plays out. I don’t know how highly motivated they will be now.”