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Millburn superintendent Christine Burton testifies before the Joint Committee on Public Schools 10-19-21...'
Joint Committee on Public Schools Testimony
October 19, 2021
Good morning, Chairman Rice, Assemblywoman Jasey and members of the Joint Committee on Public Schools, I’m Christine Burton, Superintendent of the Millburn Township School District. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today on behalf of my district and the Garden State Coalition of Schools regarding the preparation for the start of school, the challenges we faced and the support that districts could use in helping to successfully keep schools open and moving forward.
As we started the new school year, we were excited to be back in-person for a full day of school. We were also cautiously optimistic about how students and staff would transition back from being in a variety of hybrid and remote schedule modalities over the last 1 and a half school years.
We focused on three main areas in our planning for the start of school: mental health supports, curricular revisions and the start time.
To prepare for the mental health concerns, we engaged with additional mental health consultants that work at all of our 8 schools throughout the week during this school year. Federal grant funds were used to help offset the costs for these mental health professionals that provide one-on-one counseling for students, professional development for staff and in-home support for families.
Over the summer, we addressed the essential content standards and assessments in our curricula with the full understanding that our students, on some level, would need review, refreshers and reteaching in order to have the pre-requisite skills and knowledge to effectively engage in their new grade level or course.
With regard to time, as part of a multi-year district wide investigation, we were able to take the first step in a later start time for our schools. We knew that stamina would need to be built up for a full day of school and having a slightly later start time with more sleep would be advantageous for students.
What were the challenges?
What we didn’t prepare for was the magnitude of the bus driver, teacher, substitute, lunch aides and crossing guard shortages. We had to combine buses and eliminate some of the subscription busing to gain drivers to service the mandated routes. We have a substitute service that is finding very limited numbers of substitutes during recruiting events. In terms of teachers, World Language was the hardest teachers to find, which caused our staff to teach additional periods and we also went to a virtual vendor to continue to provide for our World Language program.
What support can districts use?
In the realm of transportation:
The federal CDL guidelines regarding the requirements for bus drivers is fairly strict in what a driver needs to be able to do in order to drive a school bus.
The under-the-hood and mechanical requirements in order to fix a vehicle applies to what a truck driver needs to do and not a school bus driver, that would call for a backup bus if they broke down. Legislative advocacy focused at the federal level would help in making bus driver requirements commensurate with their duties in driving a school bus. Also the new training requirements will not allow the school districts or school bus contractors to train new drivers and will therefore need to seek out Federal DOT approved instructors, taking more time and resources to secure.
On the personnel front:
I understand that there is legislation in the pipeline to allow for individuals with 30 credits to be a substitute vs. 60 credits requirement. This measure would open up the availability of more candidates. The NJDOE and districts around the state have known for several years that we would eventually have to deal with a teacher shortage and that eventuality is here today.
It would also be helpful to have additional staffing at the state level who could help expedite the criminal background check process. Even if we are able to find personnel to fill vacancies, the fingerprinting and criminal background check adds weeks to the process of getting the personnel in our schools. This entire process is a multi-layered endeavor that is tedious and was much easier when the local police station was where you went to be fingerprinted in order to teach.
Regarding the engagement with the NJDOE on reports and NJSMART submissions, the current electronic software system is woefully in need of an upgrade. For example, last week the Oct 15th submission was due. The wait time for processing the NJSMART submission took a good part of a day just waiting around for an error confirmation that literally added days to the process.
With Covid related requirements:
In our district, our nurses have been responsible for all of the Covid protocols and contact tracing procedures in conjunction with the DOH. Now, they have to also be responsible for the most recent Covid data collection reporting. They have to keep elaborate sets of spreadsheets beyond the district Covid dashboard of positive cases and those testing each week. The latest Covid data reporting requirements are overwhelming my most resilient staff, my district nurses.
Regarding Covid executive orders for masking, vaccines, and testing, we will stay the course as it stands today. We have had in-district testing for our students, staff and families since February of this year and will continue for the foreseeable future.
We have a majority support in our district for masks in our schools and approximately 95% of those eligible have been vaccinated. I want to acknowledge our community that has partnered with us to support the health and safety of our staff and students in order to keep them in school for a full day of teaching and learning.
Members of the Joint Committee, thank you for your time, attention and opportunity to share this testimony with you this morning.
