MARGATE – The Board of Education will not expand its preschool program this year, according to Superintendent Thomas Baruffi. The board had considered expanding its preschool program for students with special needs to include regular education students as a way to boost enrollment and reduce per-pupil costs.
Margate has one of the highest per-pupil costs of all school districts in New Jersey and is seeking ways to add to its declining enrollment.
“We talked about the needs of our current students with the board and the Child Study Team and agreed that most of the kids who would come to a preschool inclusion program are already in private preschool programs with regular education students,” Baruffi said. “Our main focus will be the needs of our current students.”
Baruffi said the issue could come up again in the future, depending on the needs of students enrolled in the district.
The district currently has five 3-year-old special education pre-schoolers and six 4-year-olds with special needs in two half-day classrooms.
Faced with difficult decisions in right-sizing its budget amid declining enrollment, the board previously agreed to boost enrollment by accepting tuition students for the 2019-2020 school year. Baruffi said about a dozen non-resident families have expressed interest in paying the $5,000 tuition.
“We discussed limiting our class size to 18, so even with the 11-12, we’ll probably look at taking in 6 or 7 tuition students, if they get approved,” he said.
Baruffi, who is serving in an interim capacity for a two-year period before the board appoints its next superintendent, said understands that the board wants to maintain its high-quality educational programs without raising taxes.
The board has come under fire from some residents who say the cost of educating students in Margate is too high and declining enrollment warrants the district consider consolidating to just one school.
Margate’s $12.7 million 2019-2020 budget approved in March maintained all educational programming despite a reduction in staff. Personnel cuts included eliminating three full-time positions and reducing three full-time positions to part-time.
The school tax levy was down $13,000, and cost per pupil dropped $756 to $30,327. The school district currently has 357 students, down from 562 students 10 years ago.
Baruffi said if that trend continues, in four years, the district will have fewer than 300 students – the “magic number” that could spur consolidation to one school.
Consolidation is still on the table, Baruffi said, and will likely be undertaken after the district transitions to a permanent superintendent by the 2020-2021 school year.
“There’s a good possibility the superintendent position will not be filled from the outside,” he said.
In the meantime, principals have switched buildings effective July 1 and are getting settled in their new offices. Although most already know of the switch, a formal letter will be sent to parents before the start of the school year informing them of the change in leadership, he said.
Tighe School Principal Audrey Becker, who has been with the district for nearly 20 years, serving as teacher, curriculum coordinator, supervisor of instruction, and principal at the middle school since 2014, has moved to the William H. Ross Elementary School.
“We are looking at staff and student schedules, specifically scheduling the special subjects…to make the best use of our staff,” she said at the board’s July 10 meeting.
The school will also be conducting kindergarten screenings at the end of the month and working on questions to ask parents of tuition students during the screening process, she said. Tuition students will be screened to ensure the district has programs that meet their needs.
Ryan Gaskill, who will be serving his second year as a principal in the Margate schools, has been switched to the Tighe School. Gaskill taught social studies in the Pleasantville schools and at Atlantic City High School for 12 years and is currently going through a formal two-year mentorship program with Linwood Middle School Principal Susan Speirs.
Gaskill said his office is currently reviewing preliminary state assessment reports to determine where adjustments to teaching and curriculum should be made. District staff are also reviewing the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying report to see if improvements to the district’s anti-bullying program are warranted.
“Things are going smoothly, and I’m getting acclimated to the building,” Gaskill said.
In other business, new board member Joseph Pepe took his oath of office.
