Board of Education and Township Committee Meeting on Monday Night

Joint meeting with the Board of Education will occur on Monday followed by a committee meeting.

Monday is going to be a big night for local meetings.  There will be a special joint meeting of the Township Committee and the Board of Education at 6 p.m. in the Media Center at Dayton High School. Following the joint meeting, the Township Committee will meet on its own at 7 p.m at the Municipal building. In addition, there will be a special meeting of the Township Committee  on Monday, August 6 at 7 p.m. According to an announcement on the township website, the purpose of the meeting is to award contracts for the turf field project and 2012 paving projects and other action as may be deemed necessary.

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Fencing Parents Plead for Budgetary Support

Chatham High varsity sport caters to students who might not participate in other sports, parents say.

Parents of students on the the Chatham High School fencing teams asked the Board of Education to consider providing funding for the sport in the 2012-13 school budget. Currently in its second year, the sport is now funded entirely by parents at a cost of $450 per student, including equipment rentals. Participants are waived the $100 activities fee, but if they participate in any other student activity they must pay the fee. In its first year, the sport had a combined roster of 33 boys and girls. This year the roster has grown to 44 participants. Jill Perrin, whose son J.C. fences on the team, said they expect the team to grow to 60 athletes next year. Theresa Burns, who has two boys on the team, said seven new participants this year—one …

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New President, Members, for School Board

Pat Venezia again becomes president.

At the Springfield School Board’s 2011 reorganization meeting, the board swore in a new president and welcomed two new members. Springfield Schools Business Administrator Matthew Clarke swore Steven Friedman and Scott Samansky into their first terms on the Board. Steven Wolcott, who took over the remainder of the term left after Board member Donato Circelli resigned from the Board in 2009, started on his first full term and was elected as Vice President of the Board. All three members ran unopposed as candidates. Board member Pat Venezia became President of the Board. It is the second presidency for the veteran board member. “I feel honored that my peers think enough of me to ‘vote’ me in,” Venezia told Patch.  This is my second …

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EduNation: A Patch Report on our Schools

Springfield's Schools Weather Budget Storm

Parents and officials say past cuts helped prepare for loss of state funding; review of some programs and practices mixed.

Things could be worse. It's not as bad here as it is elsewhere. We're in good shape for the future.  Those were the prevailing sentiments of conversations about Springfield's schools with parents, teachers and school officials alike. Where neighboring school districts like Westfield and Cranford have undergone considerable turmoil to meet their budget requirements, shedding staff and trimming programs, Springfield has weathered the budget storm in relatively calm waters.  That's s somewhat surprising, considering that Springfield lost all of its state aid in last Spring's state school budget cuts, and that the district, like all New Jersey municipalities, is facing a looming 2 percent cap on local property tax increases. Nonetheless, with …

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Springfield Board of Ed Meeting Recognizes Student Achievements

A low-key meeting devoted to end-of-year acolades

The June 7 meeting of the Springfield Board of Education was quiet. Board President Irwin Sablosky noted that "it's a great thing when the longest part of a Board of Ed meeting is student recognition. We're proud of the quality of our Springfield students and staff." Indeed, a good part of the meeting was devoted to Superintendent Davino's list of the various successes of Springfield students in the arts and in sports:  Dayton students were recognized by the Paper Mill playhouse, with nominations in the theater's "Rising Star" awards program (called the New Jersey Tony Awards for students.) Among those nominated from the March 2010 Dayton production of "Little Shop of Horrors" are Matt Rottenberg, who received an honorable mention as Best …

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Communication Called Key in Education Shared Services

Bramnick gathers experts to discuss shared services.

Discussions of the pros and cons of shared services for local school districts dominated a state legislative sponsored panel discussion Thursday evening. The group of eight, speaking at Union County College in Cranford, touched on issues surrounding how school districts can share services with other districts and with the town government. Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who sponsored the round table, said he organized the gathering due to the current economic situation, which has included declining revenues for local government entities. "We are in a crisis," Bramnick said. "I need a solution." The panelists agreed that shared services is possible if the entities sharing the service agreed to work together and have discussions on …

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Board Of Education Members Sworn In

Four new board members took their oaths on Monday.

At the School Board meeting held on Monday, April 26, board members welcomed new and returning members to the board. Incumbent board members Patricia Venezia, Steven Wolcott and Irwin Sablosky were sworn in alongside new board member Scott Silverstein. Venezia, Wolcott and Silverstein were elected to three-year terms. Wolcott, who last year was appointed by the board to take the place of out-going board member Donato Circelli, won a one-year term to play out the rest of Circelli's tenure. All candidates ran unopposed.

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Parties Blame Each Other For Lack of Action on Bill Delaying BOE Budget Vote

State constitution permits Bramnick to try for special session, assemblyman says Democrats won't budge. Dems blame Christie.

While the state constitution provides an avenue for Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) to force a legislative vote on his bill to extend April 20's Board of Education election to provide districts with more time to handle budget cuts, Bramnick said legislative Democrats have blocked the option. Bramnick has filed a bill to extend the election date, a measure sought by school boards statewide grappling with Gov. Chris Christie's decision on March 16 to cut state aid to local school systems. Decisions on what had to be cut from the budget needed to be completed in a week and finalized a week later.  At the same time, Bramnick said his bill, co-sponsored by Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver), was dead on arrival since the …

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School Budget Cuts: How Neighboring Towns Are Dealing

A rundown of the budgetary changes other local districts are making to overcome the state aid cuts.

Springfield and other local school districts have been scrambling to reduce their budgets since Gov. Chris Christie announced last week that state aid would be slashed across the state, causing many districts to lose several million dollars in anticipated funding. Because each district is dealing with these cuts differently, we thought it would be of interest to you to see what budgetary decisions our Union County neighbors are making. Westfield The proposed budget includes 30 layoffs, with most being centered in classroom positions. Ten paraprofessionals are being eliminated, along with three librarians, guidance counselors at each intermediate school, two fine arts teachers, a basic skills teacher, six elementary school teachers, a …

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District Presents Tentative School Budget

Projected tax increase of just below 4 percent from last year; calls for administrative lay-offs.

Shortly before turning off the lights for the budget presentation, Springfield Schools Business Administrator Matthew joked that the lighting was appropriate, as the district was "already in the dark." The joke underscored the fluid nature of the budget. Quickly cobbled together after last week's surprise announcement that Springfield schools would receive no state aid, Clarke and school board members emphasized that the budget could still change dramatically pending information from Trenton and elsewhere. "We weren't ready for a 100 percent cut in state aid," Clarke said early in the presentation. As it stands, the budget for 2010-2011 is $34,428,058, which is a decrease of $1,888,102, or about five percent, of the previous year's budget…

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