BY: Caryn Shaw, president, Moorestown Township Board of Education
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and safe 2021! The Board of Education is welcoming the New Year with hope. The board held its annual reorganization meeting on Jan. 5 and welcomed back incumbents Lauren Romano and Jack Fairchild and former board member Mick Weeks, to serve three-year terms. I was honored and humbled to be elected as board president. I am excited to work with Lauren Romano, who was elected as vice-president.
These are still very difficult times living during this pandemic. The pandemic’s impact has been felt in every area across the district and our community. Students and staff members have transitioned from a typical in-person education to remote/hybrid learning. Families have demonstrated extraordinary support and flexibility in working as partners with their child’s teachers and principals. I commend the tremendous work of everyone in our district, working tirelessly to ensure we continue to keep our students safe, while providing the best education and the necessary supports they need to get through these unbelievably trying times. There is still much work to do as we continue to navigate the remainder of the pandemic and provide students the supports they will need during the recovery. While there are more challenges to come, I am impressed by and grateful for our whole community’s efforts and ingenuity. Hopefully, we can build upon the silver linings we have seen come out through this pandemic, such as innovation, resilience, grit, compassion, creativity and build our future on some of the positives. I am confident we can all work through this together.
The board will continue to submit articles for the Education Monthly column to provide the community with a better understanding of the various board committees and highlight the work of these groups. Our board’s standing committees consist of Communications, Curriculum, Finance & Operations, Leadership and Policy. Each month the committee chairs will alternate writing this column.
Additionally, the board is continuing our commitment to address racial inequality through our Ad Hoc Committee on Exploring Race and Racism as well as our Community Engagement Forum series on “Exploring Race and Racism in MTPS.” The goal is to shed light on the places in our district that racial inequalities exist and to create action steps to address these areas.
With budget season in full swing, the administration is working on budget recommendations. As always, the budget will be concerning as we are approximately $800,000 over the allowable 2 percent tax cap without including any additions of new staffing, programs or facilities requests. Additionally, this year there are reductions in revenues, such as facility rentals and increased costs due to COVID-related expenses. We are still waiting for state aid numbers as well as health insurance rates. Administrations’ recommendations will be reviewed by the board at a workshop in March and again in April at the public hearing and budget approval meeting. The next board meeting will be virtual on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.
