GEHR District, teachers meet in private to discuss budget shortfalls

From the Press of Atlantic City, March 25, 2010-Emily Previti, Staff Writer

Teachers met Thursday with administrators from the Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District for the first time since the district learned it will get $3.2 million less aid for the upcoming school year.

During an hourlong, closed-door session at Absegami High School, acting Superintendent Steve Ciccariello discussed how the district will offset the aid reduction, plus $3.5 million it had to come up with after Gov. Chris Christie decided earlier this year to withhold funds from schools statewide.

"We're scrambling," he said afterward. "What happens if the budget goes down? Then we'll have to prioritize again."

Ciccariello spoke just before heading to a negotiating session with the Greater Egg Harbor Regional Education Association.

The 440-teacher union started reworking its contract in July because it had expired. Many other districts have recently opened up agreements prematurely to minimize the estimated 1,000 layoffs that could occur as schools balance their budgets.

Christie has suggested freezing pay to teachers and requiring them to contribute to health care. He said as much in a letter sent two days ago to state and local New Jersey Education Association leaders.

Madeline Avery, president of the Greater Egg teachers union, said she doubts her members will go for that.

"There are no guarantees they're not going to cut positions (in the future), because with schools, this is only chapter one. Next year, it will be chapter two and so much worse," Avery said.

The $5.8 million in across-the-board cuts likely will include 43 jobs, two-thirds of nonathletic extracurricular funding and reductions to athletic budgets, Ciccariello said.

About half of 320 district teachers have less than a decade of experience, minimizing the benefit may might be realized by impromptu retirements, Avery said.

Sports scalebacks will mean fewer coaches and other changes Ciccariello declined to detail because they largely will depend on how other districts in the Cape-Atlantic League make up their own massive shortfalls.

Principals at each of the district's three high schools will decide how, exactly, to whittle spending on other extracurriculars, Ciccariello said.

The 4,000-student district is comprised of Absegami, Oakcrest High School in Hamilton Township and Cedar Creek High School in Egg Harbor City, which is scheduled to open in the fall.

Avery said she also fears losing "hands-on" classes that are not state-mandated but provide a nonacademic outlet that she said is essential for some students, plus the teachers who lead them, many of whom have at least two decades' experience.

"Not every kid can sit in an academic classroom, and ... the hands-on classes for some of the kids is what gets them through high school," she said.