By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
Students in the Manville School District will need to be re-registered in order to meet the planning needs of the district. There are about 1,300 students currently in the Manville School District in the four schools including the full-day kindergarten. The schools are faced with limited resources and a real potential for reaching maximum capacity in most of the district buildings.
According to a statement that was recently release by the school district, implementing this process was recommended on Dec. 14 by the Facilities and Finance Committee to the full Board of Education.
Board President Heidi Alles stated that this process,”is recommended in order for BOE to properly plan for the needs of the district. It is imperative that we leave no stone unturned when it comes to the management of our school district and the planning of our district for the future. Enrollment is a key element in future planning for the district as it relates to facilities, personnel and programs. Re-registration will give the district baseline information for budgetary considerations. That, in a nutshell, is what we were elected to do.”
When discussing the actual process with the board, Ms. Alles stated that the re-registration should be considered an operational initiative that will be managed directly by Superintendent Johanna Ruberto at the request of the board.
”Under the direction of Dr. Ruberto, this process will be managed with integrity,” Ms. Alles said.
Ms. Alles also said that the board, “Will follow the law and do our best to make this as easy as possible for our parents and staff. It is a tremendous undertaking, but given the dire financial crisis we are facing in education, it would be unfair to start cutting programs for our kids before we make absolutely sure we have covered all the bases.”
Ms. Alles said this was one of the committee’s ongoing concerns with trying to do the 2011-2012 school budget. They are faced with the critical decisions that will need to be made in building the budget and without all the data, the board will need to make the right choices and would not be in the best interest the children or taxpayers.
Dr. Ruberto said that all board members were in support of the initiative, as were members of the public who attended the meeting last month. She will be providing additional information as the it becomes available.
