Aides, Adult School, Others Will Be Out En Masse To Fight Budget Cuts

Instructional aides. Nishuane Elementary School parents. Adult School of Montclair employees. They—and others fighting against budget cuts—will be out en masse tomorrow night at a special Board of Education meeting to discuss finances.

Last week, Schools Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez outlined a spending plan for the district that would slash $4.5 million in staff and from programs and services.

Indeed, his proposed $109,049,941 million budget for the 2011-2012 school year would cut more than two dozen teacher aides, outsource another 170 aides, slash courtesy busing for 950 students, and impose a "pay-to-participate" fee for all high school students.

However, to the delight of parents, his plan would not close any of the district's 11 schools and it would keep the full-day kindergarten program intact.

But that proposal assumes the district will continue to receive $3.5 million in state aid—an assumption that's far from guaranteed.

As a result, school board members told Alvarez to go back to the drawing board and come up with a Plan B that assumes the district will receive no state aid.

And members of the public have been asked to come out tomorrow night to offer their thoughts and suggestions.

The employees of the Adult School of Montclair are just one group urging the public to come out tomorrow night to show support for that institution.

On its website, ASM notes that it has always been self supporting through tuition, receives no money fromt the town, and has saved $60,000 over a period of five years "through careful planning." ASM's three full-time staff members are employees of the Board of Education and, as such, have received health care.

The board will now ask that ASM cover all health care costs. Additionally, ASM pays a rental fee to the Board of Education for space in the high school on Monday and Tuesday nights. Projected fee increases, for health care and rent, will deplete the school's fund balance in less than two years, employees say.

ASM is asking that it be allowed to meet increased rental fees incrementally.

In addition, parents from Nishuane Elementary School are expected to turn out tomorrow night amid rumors that the school's assistant principal position will be cut.

"This position has multiple roles to help all children perform at their best for entry to Hillside and the ongoing population," said parent Sidney Simon. "In a nutshell, the Assistant Principal is responsible for all levels of school-based early intervention programs—academic and behavioral—for all students."

Finally, school aides will be continuing their fight against outsourcing.

Aides say that the privatization of classroom assistants would impact all students and would result in a large turnover of experienced school staff and the loss of quality, talent, experience, and loyalty among staff members.

They say the result of outsourcing would be the hiring of part-time temporary workers, changing regularly, working with the district's students.

The district won't know what aid it can expect until sometime shortly after Feb. 22. But the school board expects to approve a tentative budget at a Feb. 28 meeting.

The special school board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15 in the atrium of the George Inness Annex, 141 Park Street. The agenda is here.