Not even 30 days into 2014 and already the Evesham BOE has made some big decisions concerning the future of the district for the coming months and years.
As a result of the votes taken at the Jan. 23 meeting, Evans Elementary will remain open throughout 2014, the district will not participate in the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program in 2015–2016 and plans to open a district-run daycare later this year will proceed.
The biggest exchange among the board came during the new business portion of the meeting when board member Kevin Stone made a motion to eliminate further discussion of the long-debated potential closing of Evans School.
Board member Sandy Student seconded the motion, but before the board discussed the actual merits for and against the closing of Evans, Vice President Joseph De Julius asked William Donio Esq., the board’s solicitor, to discuss the parliamentary ramifications of adopting such a resolution.
Donio said it was his opinion that a vote of ‘yes’ in the majority form would prevent the board from considering closing Evans again until the end of the board’s term on Dec. 31, 2014.
“You can’t keep bringing things up that go down for a vote in front of a deliberative body, Donio said. “So something that gets an up or down vote gets one vote, and you either pass and that’s going be the rule for you or if it fails, then you couldn’t bring it up later.”
Board member Lisa Mansfield admitted it was an emotional issue, but argued she couldn’t support the motion without at least waiting until the end of February when it will be known how much money Gov. Christie will allocate in state aid for the district.
“Nobody wants to close a school. But in the seat I sit right now, I don’t just represent Evans, and until I have all the pieces to the puzzle, and that includes the last piece which is state aid, for me to make a decision to take something off the table before I have all the pieces, I’m not doing my due diligence,” Mansfield said. “It’s foolhardy.”
Board member Dave Silver argued Evens should remain open, basing his decision on his belief that closing the school would allow negativity to trickle down and eventually lower the morale of the entire community.
“It’s not an option for me,” Silver said. “There’s changes we’re going to have to make, it’s coming. There’s going to be some restructuring, but closing a school is not healthy for this community. It’s not healthy for our kids. It’s not healthy for our teachers.”
After more back-and -forth discussion between the board members, the final vote was 5–3 to approve the motion, with Joanne Harmon, Silver, Kevin Stone, Nichole Stone and Student voting in favor, with Trish Everhart, De Julius and Mansfield voting against.
The board also held a vote on whether to approve the implementation of a full-day daycare program in the district later this year.
District business administrator Dennis Nettleton presented his studies on the proposed program. He said the cost of starting such a program would be $60,000, it would at first serve 90 children and the program would need to be approved now in order to compete with other daycares and be ready to start signing up children in March.
Student expressed the most skepticism toward the program, mentioning the close proximity of other daycare programs in the area, the amount of research Nettleton had left to do and the feasibility of creating a program that could attract the public in such a short amount of time.
“These are just some of the questions I have in the back of my mind,” Student said. “I’d rather wait 30 days to see everything comeback and have that competitive analysis.”
The eventual motion to move forward with program was made by Mansfield and seconded Harmon. The final vote was 6–1 to approve, with De Julius, Everhart, Harmon, Mansfield, Silver and Nichole Stone voting yes, Kevin Stone abstaining, and Student voting no.
Also at the meeting was discussion for the board to submit an application to participate in the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program for 2015–2016 school year.
The board discussed demographic studies that showed student enrollment trending downward, and opened the discussion to public comment.
Multiple citizens spokes, including parents from outside of the district who are already sending their students to Evesham schools by paying tuition, school officials extolling the virtues of the choice program and those concerned about class size and tax costs.
However, when it came time to put a motion forward to submit the application forward, no board member did so, and so the motion was not voted on, and an application to participate in the program for the 2015–2016 school year will not be submitted.
