ALLENTOWN: UFR district eyes sharing services with Millstone, Roosevelt

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ALLENTOWN — Richard Fitzpatrick, superintendent of schools for the Upper Freehold Regional district, told the school board last week that possible shared services agreements with Millstone and Roosevelt could help plug some of the projected $2 million shortfall in the district’s next budget.
   ”We have had some meaningful discussions with more than one district, and I think there is an opportunity for shared services that the board probably would like to consider,” Dr. Fitzpatrick told the Board of Education on Jan. 5.
   At least part of the solution to the projected budget deficit problem “could come from shared services,” he said.
   A joint shared services committee, composed of UFRSD and Millstone officials, has been meeting in closed sessions for months to discuss how a shared services agreement between the two districts might work. Dr. Fitzpatrick told the board that Roosevelt had recently contacted him about sharing services as well.
   Both Millstone and Roosevelt are using interim superintendents to run their districts, and both want to have a permanent person at the helm by June. A shared service agreement with either district likely would go beyond just the top administrative post. Personnel and services also could be shared in the business, transportation, curriculum and technology areas, Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
   ”All of this would not be done immediately,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. “We would start with the activities that would be easier, and then move to the other items in years two and three.”
   The school board did not comment on Dr. Fitzpatrick’s announcement about Roosevelt. BOE President Lisa Herzer said Roosevelt’s request would be discussed in closed session when the board also is updated on the joint shared services committee’s ongoing talks with Millstone.
   Roosevelt, a K-6 district with approximately 90 students, is specifically looking for a “limited-time” superintendent, curriculum support, staff development and assistance for its business office and school media center (library), Dr. Fitzpatrick said. The Roosevelt district is asking Millstone and the East Windsor Regional School District for proposals as well, he said.
   Roosevelt Borough students in grades 7-12 currently attend schools in the East Windsor Regional district. Millstone is a K-8 district that sends approximately 660 students in grades 9-12 to Allentown High School. Millstone also has one representative on the UFRSD’s 10-member Board of Education.
   The tuition rate for Millstone next year will be $12,481 per student, a decline of $524 per child due to deep program cuts that were made last year at AHS, which directly affect the state formula used to calculate tuition. The new tuition rate was unanimously adopted at the Jan. 5 meeting.
   The drop in tuition revenue, and a declining number of Millstone students, are among several driving factors in the projected $2 million deficit for 2011-2012. There also will be no “tuition adjustments” — tuition debt from prior years — forthcoming in 2011-2012 to provide a one-time boost in budget revenue.
   Other factors contributing to the projected deficit are the anticipated drop in state education aid and the need to provide a 2.95 percent increase in the teachers’ salary account to cover next year’s raises. During last year’s budget crisis, the teachers agreed to a six-month wage freeze in return for a one-year contract extension with a 2.95 percent salary increase in the 2011-2012 school year.
   In other action on Jan. 5, the BOE approved one-year contracts providing 2.8 percent raises for both its business administrator and assistant superintendent. The raises are retroactive to June 30 when their previous contracts expired.
   Under the terms of the contracts, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Stephen Cochrane will be paid $146,934 for the current 2010-2011 year and School Business Administrator Diana Schiraldi will be paid $125,950. Ms. Schiraldi said that both she and Mr. Cochrane must pay the entire 2.8 percent salary increase toward health insurance benefits in their new contracts.
   Mr. Cochrane will pay $4,127 toward health insurance coverage and Ms. Schiraldi will pay $3,550, according to their contracts.
   Dr. Fitzpatrick’s two-year $180,827 employment contract as superintendent doesn’t expire until June 30 of this year, according to the state Department of Education’s online website of school administrative salaries.
   New state-mandated superintendent salary caps, which vary depending on a district’s student enrollment, will take effect Feb. 7 and lower most superintendents’ salaries to $175,000 or less when their contracts are renewed. The rules do permit performance bonuses and extra pay for overseeing more than one district.
   The state’s new sliding pay scale sets the salary of a superintendent of a district of 1,501 to 3,000 students at $165,000. According to the state’s NJ School Report Card website, UFRSD had 2,333 students enrolled last year.