The Monroe Township Board of Education once again discussed a school reopening plan at its meeting on Aug. 12, after another order from Gov. Phil Murphy regarding fall instruction.
Superintendent Thomas Coleman explained that under Murphy’s most recent order, school districts will only open for all-remote learning if there are health and safety issues that would preclude a hybrid model.
Coleman explained to the board that the Monroe district has met all safety standards from the state Department of Education checklist and is awaiting survey results on whether there will be enough staff to reopen schools.
Only 3,568 surveys have been answered out of 6,000 issued to parents, but partial results show that 59 percent of them prefer hybrid learning and 39.3 percent prefer a fully remote option.
The parent surveys were to close on Aug 14, and for parents who had not yet chosen an option, their child will automatically be placed in the hybrid program.
Despite Coleman’s announcement of preparedness, board members still had questions about the upcoming school year.
“There are three questions we have to be able to answer,” said incoming Superintendent Dr. Susan Ficke. “Can the district meet all the standards? Do we have the personnel, and does the board feel comfortable signing off on the plan to open?”
Coleman read statistics that show only 5 percent of staff have applied for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which means they have received written medical documents explaining why they cannot return to the classroom in the fall.
“This is a small proportion of our full staff,” Coleman said. “We may have to think outside the box, but we won’t know that until we have the final numbers next week. In the grand scheme, that simple math seems like we should be able to do this.”
On the subject of personal protective equipment, Coleman said there has been an order for $45,000 worth of wipes and 50 gallons of hand sanitizer.
The district has also started working on plans for substitute teaching, including hiring a group of 180 substitute teachers who will only service the Williamstown school district. That will keep cross contamination between schools at a minimum.
In other news:
- The board discussed the effects of reduced state aid on the 2021 budget for the school year. Members had to decide how they were going to make up for that loss in the budget for next year. The district originally received $2.7 million more than its regular yearly aid, but the current reduction in state funds will amount to $1,909,819, leaving the district with $800,000 additional state aid. The board was given five options to reduce the budget for the 2021 school year: They included using an unassigned general fund surplus to maintain the current budget, requesting a withdrawal from the emergency reserve, withdrawing from the maintenance reserve or reducing the appropriations budget altogether. The board decided on a combination of options, including using a general fund surplus to keep the current budget intact as much as possible and reducing some budget appropriations. In total, the district will save $947,500 with those two options. This remaining total will go back into an unassigned general fund that allows for the start of full-day kindergarten and a renovation budget for Holly Glen School, with no teacher layoffs. Coleman also told the board that even with the reduction in state aid, school taxes were raised by only 1.5 percent instead of the average 2 percent.
- The next board of education meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Aug 20.
