Patch Chat: School Board President Shelly Lombard Talks About Pre-K, Budget, And School Closings

In a lengthy interview Wednesday, Montclair School Board President Shelly Lombard shared her thoughts on a wide range of topics, everything from the budget to school closings to tenure. A dynamic speaker, Lombard recently told a packed school board meeting that she'd like a greater focus placed on Montclair High School. Indeed, at the board's next meeting on December 20, MHS Principal James Earle is scheduled to make a presentation on the expansion of small learning communities at the high school.

When it comes to the budget, 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 costs going forward. The aim: plugging a $6.5 million budget gap.

Here's what Lombard had to say about it all:

Q) The Township Council just said last night that it won't be able to continue funding the Pre-K ... is there any way the school board can get involved in this issue so that the Pre-K might be able to stay afloat?

A) We are forming a subcommittee to look at our relationship with the Pre-K, or to figure out what our relationship with them is and should be. It's my understanding that the land and building belong to the board of educaiton but the Township borrowed money to fix it up. We pay a portion of their operating budget. We get four classrooms in exchange for that. We have three board members who will look at this issue. But, to be honest, I don't know if we can take on anything else right now.

Q) When talking about the school board's budget problems, people often wonder why you can't just reopen negotiations with the teachers' union?

A) Teachers had a three-year contract set to expire this year. [Last year], the teachers agreed to reopen negotiations and this year our most senior teachers agreed to forego their salary increase, which gave us about $900,000. In return, we had to give them an extra year on their contract. In 2011/2012, all teachers are set to get an average 3 percent raise. And teachers agreed to pay .5 percent of their salary for healthcare. Historically, teachers have gotten an average 4 percent salary increase. When this was being negotiated, it was basically volunteers up against professional negotiators. It was David versus Goliath. Now 3 percent sounds like a lot but it was a break from what teachers were used to getting in the past. The contract is over after 2011/2012. It's easy to say we should reopen the contract but they have to agree to it, and we have to give them something in return. Both sides have to agree.

Q) What about our aides? Will you privatize them?

A) We're looking at privatizing aides and we looked at it last year as well. It's hard to swallow this morally. But we're in a conundrum. There are simply no pleasant options. It's not a done deal but it's definitely on the table. We're not taking away aides. We can't survive without aides. But privatizing them is a bit like using a temp agency. You may not have the same aides. But don't forget. Aides can keep their jobs ... but they would lose their benefits.

Q) Obivously the big issue on everyone's mind is the closing of schools. Do you think Edgemont and Renaissance will close?

A) If you look at this town, there have been a lot of small schools so, in the past, it's been impossible to consolidate. At the old Rand [Elementary School], there was one room used as a cafeteria, an auditorium, and a gym. Edgemont is not much better. They are crammed in there like sardines. Now we have [Charles H.] Bullock Elementary, a new school with space. Maybe we'll put some kids in Bullock and some kids in Nishaune, which also has space. It makes sense to consider consolidation. We couldn't do it before but now we can. Bullock can't accommodate all Edgemont kids but some. If Renaissance was closed, some kids would go to Glenfield and some would go to Mount Hebron. Renaissance serves a fairly small population. Is this the most effective way to spend taxpayer money? I think it serves something like less than 4 percent of our students. It's a great school for sure. But we have to hold our nose and make hard choices.

Q) What about school tours?

A) We'll likely push back the tours ... we'll be trying to make decisions on these issues in late January sometime.

Q) What about the school buildings themselves ... what would happen to the Edgemont building if the school closed?

A) We wouldn't sell the Edgemont building. I can't sell my own house in this environment so it wouldn't make any sense. At one time I thought we could use the building for special education students, but now I think it's more likely we'd rent it out. We certainly don't want a big empty building sitting there in the middle of a neighborhood.

Q) When it comes to revenue-generating ideas... what do you think of the pay-to-participate proposal?

A) This transfers the burden from taxpayers to people actually using the services. If you go through the college application process, you know that colleges need to see more than transcripts ... they need to see that kids have interests. We don't want to close down sports and extracurricular activities. I could see charging $100 a year ... that would cover all outside activities.

Q) What about other fundraising ideas?

A) People say we shouldn't do too much commercialization. But if we had advertising at Woodman Field, for example, we could have ads facing trains and away from the students. There are ways to do this. Also, we are looking at our no-alcohol-on-school-property policy. Montclair Rocks and other groups and events pay money to have their fundraisers elsewhere because of this policy. We need to look at this.

Q) What about the insourcing of special education?

A) We have a lot of support for insourcing of special education students. We wouldn't have a separate building for this. The inclusion model seems to be the popular one. People don't want their kid going to a school just for kids with disabilities. The draw would be that we would create something so that kids would have some inclusion time. And this would benefit our students as well ... it's important they learn to get along with people who are different from them. I'm not sure where we would do this. We have two classes at Bullock right now where [special ed] kids from outside the district come. That's already happened. This kind of thing not only saves the money spent on private tuition, but it saves on busing costs as well. The inclusion model could be done at any school ... not just at Bullock. We hired a new special ed director to replace one who left and this new director starts in January. We also have a new consultant who has been around for about a year. They will be looking at this area. Maybe instead of one kid going to speech therapy, perhaps two will go together at the same time. We'll be looking at all sorts of ways to save money. Remember that special ed is 25 percent of our budget and 17 percent of our kids. This is an important area to look at.

Q) What happens if the application for the charter high school is approved in January?

A) In a place like New York City or Newark or Orange, this kind of thing might not have a budget impact. These cities get a lot more state aid than we do. In those places, charter schools don't really impact taxes. But in Montclair, if they take 200 kids, they will be getting 90 percent of the per-child allocation ... the allocation is about $15,000. But our costs don't decrease by the same amount. If you have five kids leaving a high school calculus class to go to the charter school, we aren't going to be getting rid of that calculus teacher. Our costs don't go down and it will impact taxes.

Q) What about the idea of turning full-day kindergarten into half-day kindergarten?

A) I personally think half-day kindergarten is my least favorite cost-cutting option. I'd love to take this off the table but a few board members want to keep it on there for now. I don't like this idea.

Q) What about making changes to busing ... such as having kids go farther to reach a bus stop?

A) Busing will be on the table. It has the element of shared sacrifice. It's not an easy option though. We'll have to look at the impact on schools and the impact on the ratio/balance in our schools.

Q) With all the talk of budget troubles and school problems ... why would anyone with children want to move to Montclair?

A) Our magnet system still provides a choice you don't get elsewhere. I would never want to get rid of it. It really supports real estate prices. You can buy a house here and you can move anywhere in town. Even if you close an elementary school, you still have five options. The magnet system ensures diversity.

Q) What about the high school? You yourself have a high school student. What's needed to make it better?

A) We need to expand the small learning communities there [there are two now] so that people also have choice at the high school level. These communities are like 'houses' in the middle schools. And I believe the instruction is very uneven at the high school. I think Mr. Earle is taking this on. Some people will say that every teacher is excellent at the high school. It simply can't be. How can you address this? You can withhold raises. Also, there is a big push on to change the tenure law ... to make tenure contracts renewable after five years. Right now if you get tenure you have it for life. But your tenure might not be renewed if you aren't doing a good job [under new proposals]. If [Gov. Chris] Christie can make changes in tenure, that would be good. I do think a lot of teachers at the high school are excellent though.