Every month the Middletown Township Board of Education holds a meeting to inform the public on regards to policies and data collected from the seventeen public schools in the Middletown School District. The meeting was held in MHSN’s auditorium which had just cleared out of a packed-house after student recognition program recognized students from all across the district, including forty-five students from both high schools, in subjects such as math, science, language arts, and receiving perfect or next to perfect scores on AP tests. Present at the meeting was the Board President Chris Aveta, Vice President Joan Minnuies, Board Members John Bennett Jr., Gerald Wexelberg, Leonora Caminiti, Ernest Donnelly, Vincent Brand, and James Cody. Also present on the stage was Superintendent Dr. William George and Amy Gallagher the Secretary for the Board of Education. Member Susan Griffin was not present at the meeting.
The meeting began with President Aveta calling the committee into order and read the Sunshine Announcement, a notice stating that adequate notice was given for the meeting, and board members were reminded of the Code of Ethics for School Board Members.
In the President’s Report, Aveta announced the Superintendent of Monmouth County Schools, Joseph Passiment, approved the merit pay for Superintendent Dr. George from the previous school year where George will be receiving approximately $21,560 in merit pay, about 11.7 percent of his base salary, after completing a list of goals that the board tasked him to complete. At the meeting Aveta deflected criticism about the board’s decision to offer the superintendent merit pay saying that it was not a bonus and that the amount of money that George has cut and raised from the district’s one-hundred and forty-six million dollar budget as significantly more than George is receiving back in.
Aveta also laid out the goals with the current school year which includes expense reduction, cutting spending or raising revenue to the tune of $250,000, an increase in the receptions of scholarships by $200,000, and the innovative implementation of new programs. All of which George can receive up to 3.3 percent of his base salary for each goal to complete. The Board is also looking for George to increase enforcement of the staff and student conduct rules and looks for him to improve the special education programs in the district. “This is a conventional obligation we negotiated with Dr. George,” Aveta said “we do it so the goals are fair, that they are achievable and that it would benefit the district.”
Aveta went on to read a letter praising Mr. Eric Hoblitzell, the science teacher from North who saved a teenage boy from drowning to death during the summer. The letter was written by the brother of the victim and was addressed to Aveta himself. After reading the letter, Aveta realized that Hoblitzell was present at the meeting and several members of the board presided down the stage to congratulate him for what he had done. The board also concurred that the safety measures and techniques that are being trained to teachers should be continued.
Assistant Superintendent Jill Takacs continued on with a presentation on standardized test scores. Takacs says that the district is moving towards using a student growth model to access progress made at the end of a student’s school year and comparing it to their performance at the beginning. Takacs also explained saying that it is the goal of the district this year to decrease below proficiency levels and increase advance proficiency levels. As the district moves into adopting the PARCC assessment, Takacs said that the district is in a “stage of transition.” Takacs exclaimed that the district was performing well compared to the state and math and said that the scores were similar for language arts scores.
The Board addressed concerns over keeping Middletown Public Schools closed on Primary voting day but keeping it as a professional day for teachers and staff. Board Vice President Joan Minnuies supported the move saying “I have a change of heart now.” Other board members were concerned if there were any other day that the district could use to swap out after wanting to save some days in case of an emergency. “There is one-hundred and eighty for students and one-hundred and eighty-seven days for staff so we don’t really have a significant window in case of another weather emergency as we did last year,” Superintendent George said, “we’re down to playing a game of chicken.” After feuding amongst some of the board members, it was decided to take the issue up with the Township Committee.
After the order of business, the board turned their focus onto the open microform section of the meeting. The rule of three was in play considering that of the three microforms at the podium for the public, only one of them actually worked. Many participants voiced their concerns saying that the teacher-to-student ratio at North was much closer to the ratio at South. Many members of the public claimed that Middletown High School North only contained forty-five more students then Middletown High School South but had twenty-two more teachers. Superintendent George said that he would look into the matter.
The Lion’s Roar committed to furthering investing the matter and found that according to the New Jersey School Performance Report, an annual report released by the state Department of Education, that for the 2011-2012 school year, North contained 1,474 students while South contained 1,364 students, meaning that North contained one-hundred and ten more students than South. In addition, according to the report, the student-to-faultily ratio at North is 10.7:1. At South, the ratio is 12.4:1. However, for the student-to-administer ratio, North has a 245.6:1 ratio while South has a 227.3:1 ratio to administrators.
The meeting concluded shortly after 10:30 pm. The next Middletown Board of Education Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19th at 8:00 pm in the MHSN Library.
