Post by admin on Mar 20, 2008 4:41:06 GMT -5
www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS01/803200583/1285/LOCAL09
FREEHOLD — Parents and teachers may breathe a sigh of relief: The borough school district's lone librarian has been restored in the $19.6 million proposed budget.
"The superintendent (Elizabeth O'Connell) decided it was more important to listen to the parents of the community," said district Business Administrator Veronica Wolf.
At a March 3 school board meeting, district officials had proposed eliminating the position of district library media specialist, a job held by Joan Murphy.
Murphy — a tenured teacher certified in elementary education — would have taken a teaching position. A nontenured teacher's contract likely would have not been renewed, Wolf said.
But parents and teachers packed the meeting to protest the cut, which several said would negatively impact students.
In response, school officials plan to present a slightly different budget at 7 p.m. today, when a school board meeting is scheduled for the budget's public hearing and adoption.
Under the new budget, Murphy will stay on as librarian, and the teaching position will not be eliminated.
Instead of adding a full-time art teacher at Freehold Intermediate School, however, that position will be part-time, Wolf said. To pay for that teacher, money will be shifted out of the professional development budget, which generally goes toward continuing education, such as paying for teachers to attend conferences, Wolf said.
The art teacher's salary would be about $22,000, Wolf said.
Still included in the budget are several new positions, including: the restoration of a music teacher, one new teacher each in the second and fourth grades, two instructional aides, a bilingual literacy teacher for the kindergarten and first grades, a resource inclusion teacher to work with mainstreamed special education students, a bilingual learning disabilities teacher, a computer technician and a clerical assistant for the Buildings and Grounds Department.
The budget also calls for the adoption of new literacy texts for the kindergarten through eighth grades and more money for the principals to spend on instruction.
The proposed school budget totals $19,644,174, including about $1.5 million in additional aid promised under the state's new school funding formula.
The tax levy would be $8,435,298, roughly 4 percent higher than the current levy. Of that amount, $7,804,996 makes up the general fund levy that will be voted on April 15.
Property owners would see an increase of 2.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value in their 2008 tax bills, Wolf has said.
That increase translates to about $62.16 more in taxes for the owner of a property assessed at $259,000, O'Connell has said.
The tax rate increase could jump to 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value in 2009, but that is uncertain because of the way the borough splits the tax bill, Wolf has said.
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com
FREEHOLD — Parents and teachers may breathe a sigh of relief: The borough school district's lone librarian has been restored in the $19.6 million proposed budget.
"The superintendent (Elizabeth O'Connell) decided it was more important to listen to the parents of the community," said district Business Administrator Veronica Wolf.
At a March 3 school board meeting, district officials had proposed eliminating the position of district library media specialist, a job held by Joan Murphy.
Murphy — a tenured teacher certified in elementary education — would have taken a teaching position. A nontenured teacher's contract likely would have not been renewed, Wolf said.
But parents and teachers packed the meeting to protest the cut, which several said would negatively impact students.
In response, school officials plan to present a slightly different budget at 7 p.m. today, when a school board meeting is scheduled for the budget's public hearing and adoption.
Under the new budget, Murphy will stay on as librarian, and the teaching position will not be eliminated.
Instead of adding a full-time art teacher at Freehold Intermediate School, however, that position will be part-time, Wolf said. To pay for that teacher, money will be shifted out of the professional development budget, which generally goes toward continuing education, such as paying for teachers to attend conferences, Wolf said.
The art teacher's salary would be about $22,000, Wolf said.
Still included in the budget are several new positions, including: the restoration of a music teacher, one new teacher each in the second and fourth grades, two instructional aides, a bilingual literacy teacher for the kindergarten and first grades, a resource inclusion teacher to work with mainstreamed special education students, a bilingual learning disabilities teacher, a computer technician and a clerical assistant for the Buildings and Grounds Department.
The budget also calls for the adoption of new literacy texts for the kindergarten through eighth grades and more money for the principals to spend on instruction.
The proposed school budget totals $19,644,174, including about $1.5 million in additional aid promised under the state's new school funding formula.
The tax levy would be $8,435,298, roughly 4 percent higher than the current levy. Of that amount, $7,804,996 makes up the general fund levy that will be voted on April 15.
Property owners would see an increase of 2.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value in their 2008 tax bills, Wolf has said.
That increase translates to about $62.16 more in taxes for the owner of a property assessed at $259,000, O'Connell has said.
The tax rate increase could jump to 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value in 2009, but that is uncertain because of the way the borough splits the tax bill, Wolf has said.
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com