Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Tie vote kills measure some members said would have helped BOE deal with upcoming vacancies.
The retirement date for departing Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz will remain May 15. At the end of its five-hour meeting last week, the Parsippany Board of Education took up the issue of Seitz's request to move his resignation date from May 15 to June 1, a matter that had been tabled at its Feb. 26 meeting. A tie vote killed the measure. On Feb. 26, the superintendent said the reason for his request was that he realized after submitting his resignation letter that according to state regulations, employees must exit on the first day of a month and that he must use, rather than be paid in cash for, unused vacation time. Board member Michael Strumolo moved that the item be tabled. President Susy Golderer agreed, saying members needed …
Monday, March 18, 2013
School board member was the only one who voted to remove a fifth-grader from his or her class, but said intent was not about 'kicking students out.'
Among the matters considered by the Parsippany Board of Education at its Thursday meeting was one that might have kept a fifth-grade child from sharing the end of the elementary school "moving up" experience with his or her classmates. The superintendent's report of items to be decided included an item requesting that an unidentified fifth-grader whose family is leaving the school district be able to finish the year with his or her classmates. The board voted to allow the request, however, one member voted no: recently sworn-in member James Carifi. Carifi insisted that his vote was not about "kicking [a student] out" of school. "I by no means feel that these such students should be 'kicked out' or not allowed to finish a year or even …
Friday, March 15, 2013
BOE heard presentation on community-wide opportunities for making short- and long-term plans for schools
The Parsippany Board of Education learned about a new approach to strategic planning for the district at its Thursday meeting at the administration building. The body heard a presentation by Dr. Charles Ivory of the Educational and Informational Resource Center, a public nonprofit firm that, according to its mission statement, provides "support services to those who teach, raise, care for and mentor children," including school systems. Ivory was there to sell the board on one of EIRC's offerings: strategic planning workshops, a community-based approach for creating goals for the school district. The company's plan, which Ivory said has been successful in many school systems including the Willingboro and Kingsway Regional districts, is to …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
School board looks for ways to reduce the 2013-14 spending plan
The Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education spent the primary portion of its Thursday meeting looking for ways to reduce its proposed $132.42 million budget for the 2013-14 school year. That discussion was far from concluded at this gathering. The BOE decided to gather for a special budget session on Tuesday, March 19, in order to allow members more time to consider the spending plan and potential cuts in hopes of having a finished budget by the March 28 deadline. The discussion Thursday night was an extended one as various board members bandied a variety of different ideas for line-item reductions. Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz said that if the members wish to leave taxpayers with a 2 percent tax increase, they would have to cut …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
How the school district breaks down the numbers
The nearly $132.5 million preliminary 2013-14 schools budget passed by the Parsippany Board of Education, as described at Tuesday's BOE meeting by Superintendent LeRoy Seitz, maintains all current teaching and extracurricular programs and faculty. It also includes $900,000 in capital improvement projects, the return of media specialists for township elementary schools and $240,000 to cover three full-time school resource officers (a fourth would be paid for by the town). In dollars and cents, this is how the plan breaks down and how it stacks up against the 2012-13 spending plan:
BOE said it will try to keep the tax increase for homeowners to a state-allowed 3.34 percent.
The Parsippany Board of Education approved a more than $132 million preliminary spending plan for the 2013-14 school year by a vote of 6-3 at a special budget meeting held Tuesday night at the district administration building on Parsippany Road. Among those voting no was Board President Susy Golderer. The proposal the school board OK'd is far from its final form. In fact, the plan was different from what Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz presented to the body. The superintendent gave the board options to consider: one that would hold any tax levy increase to the state-mandated 2 percent and another that would raise school taxes by 3.34 percent, which would be allowable under law — and would permit the plan, if approved, to avoid …
Monday, March 4, 2013
The district's financial services advisor said that thanks to rising interest rates, the school board did not lose money by delaying refinancing until after reorganization.
The Parsippany Board of Education, after more than a month's delay, finally adopted an ordinance to refinance its bond debt for capital projects launched in 2006. The vote—which will lead to more than $1 million in collective savings for taxpayers—came at the Tuesday BOE meeting at Parsippany Hills High School. Mary Lyons of government-focused financial services firm Phoenix Advisors LLC explained the nuts and bolts of the refinance plan for the board. According to Lyons, the district currently is paying about 4.46 percent interest on about $34 million in 2006 bonds, which are set to mature in 2016. "Until that time, we have to pay interest to the bondholders," she explained, adding that by refinancing the loan, Parsippany taxpayers can …
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The district's Comprehensive Equity Plan was first implemented in 2007.
From 2007 through 2010, the Parsippany-Troy Hills school district was governed officially by a state-mandated Comprehensive Equity Plan designed to ensure that there is equity in New Jersey schools. The Board of Education at its Tuesday meeting at Parsippany Hills High School voted to continue the plan to cover 2010-13. The plan is the district's statement that it will achieve and maintain compliance with all state laws governing fairness in schools, has conducted an assessment of equality and equity goals at each township school and will correct any form of discrimination found occurring in the district. Though the plan technically expired in 2010, it continued to govern district operations, Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz explained…
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Body approves new effort to raise lagging student achievement at four Parsippany schools.
The Parsippany Board of Education okayed new action plans at its Tuesday meeting at Parsippany Hills High School to improve performance at four township schools that did not meet 2011-12 progress targets. The plans were approved as part of the omnibus Superintendent's Report of items voted on by school board members. The report stated that Brooklawn Middle School and Central Middle School did not meet some progress goals in mathematics. Lake Hiawatha Elementary School and Littleton Elementary School came up short in meeting some academic goals in English language arts. Each school will be the focus of new strategies to get student performance in needed designated content areas back on target, according to the school district. The …
The money, for the next year, would cover roof repairs and other fixes at district schools.
Tuesday night's Parsippany Board of Education meeting at Parsippany Hills High School kicked off 2013-14 budget discussions with the presentation of a proposed $1.2 million district spending plan for school facility repairs. The proposed cost breakdown was reported as follows: Superintendent of Schools LeRoy Seitz advised the board to ignore the $300,000 cost for long-term track replacement. Instead he urged the board to employ short-term fixes to repair the high school tracks for the year, at a cost of $3,300 for Parsippany High and $3,500 for Parsippany Hills. As for the total projected cost, $1.2 million, Seitz said there was no getting around it. "That is the absolute minimum amount a district this size should have in the budget," he …
steve revette
12:16 pm on Wednesday, March 27, 2013
So whose fault is that they don't know the rules? more ›