I am honored to serve as your new superintendent and privileged to be an advocate for your school district. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me make the transition to Somerville very meaningful.
Previous to this post, I served as the superintendent of Harding Township School and continue to serve as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University. My educational experience includes a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Delaware, a Master’s degree from Montclair State University and a Doctorate degree from Seton Hall University.
Throughout my years in education and coursework, I have learned that successful schools are the product of an inclusive learning environment, in which students, parents, staff members, administrators and community members grow and learn together. One of the strongest research findings in the field of education is that a child’s academic success is related to the connection between the home and the school, whether parents volunteer at the school or regularly help their child at home.
Somerville has an outstanding reputation and an excellent school district. It is my responsibility to continue this tradition and build upon it for further improvements, but I need your help in this process! I will be hosting my first brown bagged lunch on Thursday, February 24, 2011 from noon to 1 pm. The purpose of this program is to provide school community members with an opportunity to share their thoughts, opinions and feelings about the programs and services offered in Somerville. I will also disseminate a needs assessment survey in the upcoming weeks. I urge each of you to take the time to complete the survey.
Communication is essential to the success of any organization and extremely important to me. I plan to maintain this blog for community feedback and input into district happenings. I will also utilize a twitter account (@SchoolSup) to broadcast instant information and alerts.
I look forward to working with you, your children and the outstanding professional staff in the upcoming years in an effort to answer your questions and ultimately continue to improve the quality of education for EVERY child. Thank you for your time and continuing support of Somerville Public Schools.
3 comments:
The NJ Dept. of Ed. posted the projected State Aid to School Districts after Gov. Christie's Budget Address last week (http://www.state.nj.us/education/stateaid/1112/district.pdf). I see Somerville is to receive an additional $370K in Aid as compared to last year. Considering the austerity measures taken last year to deal the public a modest property tax burden increase, could you please opine on your plans for what the additional aid will be used towards in the 2011-2012 school year. Somerville should lead the state of NJ in a good faith effort to restore some of this money to the tax payer who has been burdened with tax increases for at least the past 11 years (I know since I have lived in the district that long). I believe the recognition and future gains in public opinion and sentiment will materialize with this approach, especially when teacher contracts will be up for discussion in the next few years. Without the public's support unions and our teachers of NJ may find themselves in the situation the residents of Wisconsin are now facing.
I apologize that I didn’t respond sooner. My comment approval was set to my old email address. I have rectified the issue.
Thank you for your posting and for the compliments on an austere 2010-2011 budget. As you are aware the additional $370,839 represents only a portion of the overall budget, albeit an extremely helpful source that assisted in bringing the budget under cap. I will attempt to give you a better understanding by describing the major aspects of the appropriation and revenue side of the budget.
Revenues:
In addition to the state aid, the district received $250,000 in concessions from the SEA amidst a three-year contract and $198,301 from a Federal Education Jobs Bill. Unfortunately, we have a reduction in Branchburg tuition revenue of $284,053 due to 35 less students anticipated for the 2011-2012 school year.
Appropriations:
The district is reducing a fulltime administrative position from the superintendent’s office ($130,373). While our special education costs have decreased, we needed to add a resource room position to assist with the individual needs of our students. The district found some savings in the salary breakage from teacher retirements and a reduction in discretionary spending from individual school budgets. The installation of new interior lighting (slated to begin this year at Van Derveer) and installation of solar panels at the middle school have provided for a reduction in energy appropriations due to greater energy efficiency.
Factoring in the re-evaluations, the proposed budget is under cap and reduces taxes for an average residential property by .3% or $15.68/year. The budget provides the goal of tax relief at a time when tax payers are suffering from a difficult economy.
I just found the blog today through the website. This is excellent for our community. You seem very open to input. Thanks for keeping us informed.
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