School budget provides for librarian to stay in district
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer

FREEHOLD - People really do listen if the right words are used.

Such is the case with Freehold Borough Board of Education members who last week decided to reverse a decision that would have eliminated the one remaining library media specialist in the school district.

According to Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth O'Connell, the board has opted to adjust the line items in the district's $19.6 million budget for 2008-09 and to include the position of library media specialist.

The board had previously announced that the position of library media specialist would be eliminated. Last week's decision means that a full-time library media specialist will split her time among the district's three schools during the upcoming school year.

In order to save that position, the board reduced a full-time art teacher's position at the Freehold Intermediate School to a part-time position.

"We listened and we understood how parents and the school community felt about art, music and the library media specialist," O'Connell said.

A group of parents and teachers attended a board meeting on March 3 to voice their strong opposition to the elimination of the only school librarian left in the district.

The action would have moved veteran teacher and library media specialist Joan Murphy to a teaching position within the district, leaving students without the resource help and library programs that Murphy provides.

It wasn't just the parents and teachers who spoke out that night that had an effect on administrators and members of the board.

O'Connell said that after the meeting, she presented the information to the PTOs of the district schools to assess their members' input on the issue. She said a large percentage of PTO members favored keeping the librarian in the district on a full-time basis.

In order to make this happen financially, O'Connell said the money for the librarian will be taken from funds that had been designated for professional development for administrators.

As of September, the school district will have one full-time library media specialist and 2 1/2 art teacher positions - down from the original three art teacher positions.

"Parents decided they would rather have a part-time art teacher than lose the library media specialist," O'Connell said.

Board President Jim Keelan said, "Our schools are still underfunded by approximately $3 million below the (state's) adequacy level. Unfortunately, we could not bring back everything we wanted to for the schools this year.

"We still had to make some hard choices, and the decision on the librarian, the art teachers and music teachers were some of those difficult choices.

"The concern of the community played a part in this decision not to eliminate the librarian's position. This school board welcomes community input. Hopefully, next year we can make that (part-time) art teacher a full-time position," he said.

Keelan encouraged all Freehold Borough residents to attend board meetings during the year and to provide board members with feedback and comments about the borough's schools.

In the April 15 school election, residents will be asked to approve a $7.8 million local tax levy for 2008-09. If that amount is approved, Freehold Borough's K-8 school tax rate will increase by 2.4 cents from 74.4 to 76.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $259,000 will pay about $1,989 in K-8 school taxes in 2008- 09, up $63 from the $1,926 they paid in K-8 school taxes in 2007-08.

The 2008-09 budget as proposed will also provide for a full-time music teacher, the addition of one second-grade and one fourth-grade teacher, two instructional aides, a bilingual literacy teacher, a resource inclusion teacher, a bilingual learning disabilities teacher, a computer technician, and a clerical assistant for buildings and grounds.

It will also provide for a new literacy curriculum for grades K-8 and funds for each principal to purchase instructional materials for their students.