BOE Approves Use of $275K for Literacy and Technology Initiatives

The Board of Education voted to amend their 2011-12 School Budget to include the appropriation of $295,879 for literacy and technology initiatives at their regular action meeting Monday night.

The money is a portion of the in state aid given to the district in July by Gov. Christie. The remaining $298,338 in additional state aid will be reserved for tax payer relief for the 2012-13 school year, according to Board of Education President Charles Kenny.

The first initiative is an elementary literacy program designed with the goal of having every student on track in literacy by third grade. The program involves in-class libraries and an objective evaluation of progress that allows educators to focus on a student's weakness, according to Healy. The second initiative is a technology program that involves wireless hot spots, eBooks, iPads for the physical education department, document cameras, additional promethean white boards and projecters at the high school and middle school. The money will be used to purchase educational supplies, such as the books for the in class libraries, and to train educators in how to fully implement and evaluate the initiatives.

The proposal also includes funding for an educational consultant to evaluate the effectiveness of the literacy program, in an amount not to exceed $20,000.

Although the amendment to the budget passed with 6-1 vote, not all board members were satisfied with the amendment.

"I would prefer that these expenditures be held in advance for the maximum of 6 weeks, until such time that we can develop a plan, identify the weaknesses in the program through the use of the report of the consultant that we have now proposed," Board Member Jeff Delaney said. "I really want to make sure that it's done absolutley correctly and it seems to me we should do the research before we do the expenditures."

Kenneth Aitken, the only member to vote against amending the budget, said that a larger portion of the money should be alotted to tax relief.

"I really believe that more of this money should go to tax relief, based on the situation we have with people out of jobs in the community," Aitken said. "I feel that we can do better with the resources we have and we should use this money to maximize tax relief."

However, Superintendent David Healy is confident in the success of these two initiatives and hopes to see them fully implemented soon.

"Any [of the initiatives] brought in before my arrival and since, we are going to monitor them and evaluate the data and make sure they are implemented all the way through, making changes where we need them," Healy said. "I'm confident [in these programs] based on the research I've done with my team."

The Board of Education has discussed funding the literacy and technoloy initiatives at Most recently, the board listened to a presentation at their Comittee of the Whole workshop meeting Sept. 21, that further clarified the district's current standing in the areas of literacy and technology, in addition to laying out the initiatives more specifically. 

According to Healy, the literacy program follows the "Best Practices" designed by Department of Education, is researched based and can be tailored to student needs as it develops. In addition, the technology proposed is not technically new as there was already a three year techology initiative in place that the district is behind on due to a past reduction in aid from the state level, Healy said at the Committee of the Whole meeting.

"To wait a year is another year that a student has to wait to get what we believe is the appropriate literacy program. I think the community has faith in me, the board and the administrative team," Healy said.

The budget must be submitted to the Monmouth County Department of Education by Oct. 15. Once the budget is presented, the money becomes available for the district. According to Healy, the district plans to begin implementing the new initiatives as soon as possible.

The following chart details the breakdown of the exact dollar amounts amended in the budget: