Letter to Mullica Township Citizens from School Board President Spiros Malaspina

Facts
One: The economy has caught up to public education in a sudden, drastic way, possibly devastating the type and quality of education for OUR children for the next few years.
Two: The combination of incredible environment and superb schools has made Mullica a unique place to live for decades.

Events to now
The schools have been losing funding from several sources over the past few months. So far, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been taken from the 2009-2010 school year and from the 2010-2011 school year by the state of New Jersey. Other losses plus unavoidable rises in costs have led to the projection of the following losses for Mullica Schools in 2010-2011 school year: Teachers, aides, other employees, activities, after school programs, supplies, school sports, library, technology and computers, foreign language... A huge worry is the drastic increases in class sizes.

Further losses may make the 2011-2012 school year even tighter financially with more program losses.

Mullica Schools has a proud history of doing more with less. We rank high in percent of funds going to teacher salaries and in least percent of funds going to administration costs.

For four years we have been exporting services to Green Bank schools successfully for both school districts. This without adding any administrative staff to Mullica Schools,

School Board's message to Mullica:
The school board and the Mullica Township Committee recently compromised on a very small tax increase. The School Board had deliberately asked for a small increase initially. In it's deliberations, the Board attempted to ask for zero increase. But the district has sustained huge financial losses for this school year and next and faces further losses as 2010-2011 unfolds. Health insurance rose 25% this year in cost to the district and may rise again in double digits next year. Transportation, salaries and other costs continue to rise. State and Federal funds are never certain in these times and we now see that they can be yanked away with no warning.

The 2.5% hard cap that the governor is asking NJ to pass will protect the local taxpayers. This year, although the cap is not yet passed, the Mullica School Board respected that concept and asked for less than 2.5% increase. This was in spite of the devastating changes which will have to happen in this coming school year. The compromise with the Township brought the tax increase very close to zero. If the Board and Township had not compromised, the Board's initial request could very well have been reinstated by the state due to the dire financial state of Mullica Schools.

Other help from the state, the 'Tool Box', is not legislated yet and rumor is this will be a long process.

Teachers union
The NJEA , a public sector union, has had a stranglehold on the local school districts and state officials for a long time. Even now, in this time of turmoil and change, the local teachers union (MTEA) position is not locally based but is the NJEA position. The NJEA position cares not about the local school situation or future, the local citizenry or taxpayer and seemingly not about children's education in the next few years at Mullica schools. The NJEA probably cares not about the opinion of the local union (MTEA) members. Reasonable negotiation or compromise seem impossible.

Contracts settled in 2010 are averaging under 3% raise for the 2010-2011 school year. 37 districts have frozen wages or made concessions for 2010-2011 (reference NJSBA legal dept.). Yet the NJEA is having the local union leadership stick to a demand of well over 4% increase in local teacher salaries for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

A freeze in salaries for 2010-2011 would go far to bringing back the teachers needed to keep Mullica Schools education at the high level it is now.

Positive solutions to compensate losses:
One: By far the biggest possible positive help for this situation would be a pay freeze for all school district employees for 2010-2011. The savings would then be put back to rehiring teachers and restoring class sizes to optimum levels. Sixteen pupils per class is accepted as optimal.

We have agreements from administration to the freeze when the teachers agree.

Two: Uniting parents, school employees, children and citizens to increase participation and support for Mullica Schools will be one benefit of our economic problems. We can increase the sense of community in Mullica by taking on the challenges our schools face now. We will teach our children huge life lessons.

Many activities can be planned at the schools which require little or no funding. Opportunities for volunteers will be increased and well-publicized. Fund-raising activities will increase and will bring people together. We will increase support for and participation in the P.T.A. and M.T.E.F. (the Education Foundation).

Creativity will help us save as much of the non-teacher, non-employee losses as possible. We will ask for specific donations to restore things. For example, an anonymous donor has offered to guarantee that the boys and girls school basketball teams will play next season. We may ask for fees from parents who can afford them for some activities. We will create new activities that require little or no money. Our abundance of nature, the Rec. Association, Batsto ... can help provide the comprehensive educational experience for our children, well beyond math and language and teaching to testing.

Summary
The New Jersey State Constitution mandates a "thorough and efficient" education for all students. We are at the precipice of going below these guaranteed standards for our children. Every one of us went to school and have benefited our whole life from that experience.

The School Board would like to hear and communicate with everyone in Mullica Township. We meet monthly, open to all. We are reachable through the district office.