Moorestown Board of Education members considered cancelling their application for grant funds to help expand and maintain career and technical education programs, but decided to table the matter until the board could look further into the use of funding.
“I am hesitant to give up on money that we are receiving for as long as we have been,” board member David Weinstein said, adding the district has applied to receive funding from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act for 15 to 20 years.
The funding provides increased focus on “academic achievement of career and technical education students, strengthens the connections between secondary and postsecondary education, and improves state and local accountability,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.
According to Moorestown High School Principal Andrew Seibel, the district receives $20,000 in grant funds and must renew the application every five years. However, as advised by a guidance advisor, some of the monies used are “not necessarily intended for the purpose of the Perkins grants. So we have been given notice that we have to change what we do.”
“This was not something we considered lightly,” Seibel said, adding he understands why the board is taking the time to review the grant before making a final decision.
The funds are used to maintain and create curricular programs. He said the high school is currently unable to expand programs due to the lack of staffing.
“Proportionality speaking, the amount of money that we get for the amount of work we have to put in is very uneven,” Seibel said.
“We are trying to figure out how to make it larger and more productive. It’s difficult to do that from restrictions by the state,” said Carol Butler, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction.
According to the state’s graduation requirements, students must graduate with a minimum of 120 credits, a 10-credit increase from the 2008–2009 school year. The credit total is “greater than the sum of the individual requirements” listed on the state’s minimum requirement list to allow students to take electives.
If the district continues to apply for the grant in the current situation, the funding could be decreased from year to year.
The only downside to cancelling the grant is that additional curricular programs would not be created.
“We still have the programs,” Seibel said. “We have utilized the money to develop some of the programs we have now. There is an upside to keep adding if we could. I think one of the things that makes us a great high school is that our students explore such a variety of subject matter and do not become overly focused in one area, and because of that, it allows them to become more successful outside of high school.”
The deadline to submit the application for denial is Aug. 30.
“It’s a challenge. It’s one that we are wiling to accept and take on,” if the board wants to continue to apply for the grant, Seibel said.
In other news:
Although the BOE and teachers’ union did not reach a contract agreement at the Aug. 5 meeting, BOE members have requested to meet without a mediator in the hopes to settle a contract before the start of the school year.
“The board is committed to negotiate a contract that is fair” and dedicated to provide a quality education for students, vice president Kathy Goldenberg said. The goal is to “try to reach an agreement before the beginning of the school year,” which starts on Monday, Sept. 9.
Since there are only three state mediators, the next available date is Oct. 2. According to board member Kevin O’Sullivan, negotiations on Aug. 5 lasted six hours and both sides “moved a little on salaries,” but did not come to an agreement.
Contract language, salaries and health care are the main topics setting the two sides apart, Goldenberg said.
No other comments were made after the board’s proposal to meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
The next Moorestown Board of Education meeting is on Monday, Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the media room at William Allen Middle School, 801 N. Stanwick Road.
