Parents Urged To Turn Out At Key School Board Meeting Tonight

Parents are spreading the word.

If you care about the future of Montclair's schools, turn out tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the Board of Education meeting at which members will—for the first time—discuss cost-saving and revenue-generating suggestions made by four working groups in recent weeks.

At the meeting—during which the board will begin the arduous process of putting together the 2011-2012 budget—public comments will be taken.

At recent meetings on the budget, and how to plug a $6.5 million gap, there's been standing room only.

Over the past several weeks, four working groups made up of community volunteers have put forth a variety of ways the school district could attract revenue or control expenses going forward.

Here's a smattering of those ideas:

—Allow advertising at Woodman Field.

—Move to a hub-based transportation system so that, instead of children walking one to three blocks to a bus stop, they might walk four, five, or six blocks to a stop.

—Reduce or eliminate bus aides, which would result in a potential savings of up to $271,000 per year.

—Reconfigure school start times in order to reduce the fleet size, which would result in a potential savings of up to $144,000 per year. Under this scenario, one of the middle schools, which now both start at 7:50 a.m., would begin later.

—With special education costs eating up 25 percent of the school board's $110 million budget, insource special education.

But perhaps the most controversial suggestion has been to close schools, notably Renaissance Middle School and Edgemont Elementary School.

The idea has prompted the Mount Hebron Middle School PTA to email an "urgent message" to parents encouraging them to turn out at future school board meetings.

The "rumored proposal provides for the inclusion of the Renaissance Middle school within the Mount Hebron school building," the message said. "The MHMS PTA does not feel this is a viable option. The MHMS PTA has expressed our willingness to accept an equitable amount of Renaissance students within the MHMS family."

In a letter to Superintendent Frank Alvarez and the school board members, the PTA expressed its thoughts on the Renaissance proposal.

Save Our Schools Montclair (SOS) also is expected to be out in droves at tonight's meeting. The grassroots group of parents posted a petition in mid-November at www.ipetitions.com/petition/sosmontclair. As of last week, 585 people had signed it. The group is against the idea of closing any schools and instead would like to see the school board try revenue-generating ideas such as the creation of an endowment to support the schools.

The next school board meeting is on Monday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the atrium of the George Inness Annex.

For a complete look at the materials presented at the previous school board meetings, go here.