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Read this important article. It is a dramatic example of the conflict brought to a head where the state has not implemented its own school funding law since the 2001-2002 school year, combined with restrictions imposed via S1701. In order to provide a T&E education for its students, Freehold Borough is faced with the Hobbesian choice: having to raise even more property taxes to fund the state's own recommendations to hire additional staff and some of that staff would be classified as 'administrative' which likely would not be allowed under S1701 limits. The state makes recommendations that the borough may not be able to initiate due to already burdened local taxpayer and due to its own law that does not allow for administrative growth. And, what happens to the students who need a T&E education in order to achieve annual yearly progress?
State suggests new staff for Freehold schools
Funding sparks heated debate Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/24/06
BY ANDREA ALEXANDER FREEHOLD BUREAU FREEHOLD — A team of state monitors recommended that Freehold Borough schools hire at least six new staff members, including language and math supervisors, to raise test scores — sparking a funding debate Monday night during the Board of Education meeting. The monitors were brought in to review borough schools because the district's poor and Spanish-speaking students failed to make "adequate yearly progress" on standardized tests three years in a row. The review is usually triggered after test scores fail to improve over four years, but the district agreed to undergo the assessment a year early, said Schools Superintendent Philip Meara. Board members said they need to do more to help disadvantaged students, but do not have money to enact the recommendations. "The taxpayers of Freehold Borough can't afford (anymore)," said Board member James Keelan. "The problem is we have failed," said Board President Peter DeFonzo, "These groups are not meeting the standards." "The (monitors) are telling us what we all know," he said. "It is a whole different ball game than it was five to 10 years ago." The debate about funding escalated Monday night as board members suggested suing the state over aid payments or applying to become an Abbott district, a designation as one of the poorest schools systems, to receive additional money from the government. The board's attorney is expected to attend a meeting in late February or early March to discuss the district's options for taking legal action. The monitors, from the New Jersey Department of Education, spent a week at the Park Avenue Elementary School interviewing staff and sitting in on classes before presenting a 60-page report. The monitors returned to the Freehold Intermediate School this week to prepare another set of recommendations. The report, presented to the board Monday by Park Avenue Elementary School Principal Joe Jerabek, recommends the district hire a supervisor for the English as a Second Language bilingual program, a full-time guidance counselor at each of the three district schools, and a full-time reading coach. Other recommendations call for a math and language arts supervisor. The monitors also told the district it needs to reinstate a world language program that was eliminated two years ago to create the bilingual program where classes are taught in English and Spanish. Districts are required to offer a world language program. "I am very upset listening to this because there is no way we can find any money in our budget, and the state isn't going to give us any more money," said board member Ron Reich. The report also recommends the district buy math workbooks for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students that district officials say cost $15,000 a year. Other recommendations call for additional teacher training, meetings and regular reviews of teacher lesson plans. "We can't spend money we don't have," said board Vice President Stella Mayes.