Phillipsburg School District to cut 9 tenured staff, 16 non-tenured as result of budget constraints

PHILLIPSBURG | The school board voted Monday to cut 25 teachers and other professionals to close a $2.3 million budget gap.

The Phillipsburg Board of Education also named nine tenured staff members to a "preferred eligible" list based on seniority. If a position becomes available, the seven teachers and two social workers on the list will be recalled.

Phillipsburg Education Association President Barbara English spoke before a packed cafeteria, which included many of the staff members who had been laid off. The number of tenured staff eliminated is almost double that of last year, she said.

"Yes, it's my job to speak for my people," English said. "But it's also my job as a sixth-grade language arts teacher to think of the children. We need to put that money toward things that will work for them and those things are our people."

English's remarks were followed by at least a minute of applause, silenced after school board President Paul Rummerfield broke in to continue the meeting.

Marie MacIntyre, an instructor at the Early Childhood Learning Center, elaborated on one of the six teachers cut from the school. Bruce Tinor had a remarkable relationship with the youngsters and a great deal of potential within the district, she said.

"A more dedicated person you've never seen," MacIntyre said.

Green Street and Freeman Elementary School music teacher Susan Redcay cautioned the board on the cuts in elementary school positions.

"The dramatic cuts on elementary school staff will have an immediate" and lasting effect on students, Redcay said.

She said reductions will undermine the district's work to create a stable foundation among young students and will reach far beyond the elementary school level.

Rummerfield said neither the board nor the administration wants to cut jobs, but said Abbott funding was the main financial force behind many of the district's programs and staff.

With that designation on the verge of extinction, funds will likely to continue to be tight, he said.

"If you think this is dismantling, we better get together as a district because the state is trying to dismantle the Abbott districts," Rummerfield said.

The layoffs will become effective during the summer. Phillipsburg employs about 365 teachers; about 780 people work for the school district overall.

Administrators say they've been advised not to use the $1.3 million in stimulus money for personnel. The funds, awarded in April, must be spent to help at-risk youth or special needs students, but will only be awarded for two years. This narrows the money's use, according to school officials.

Warren County schools Superintendent Kevin Brennan said the money must be used for "program development" not necessarily to supplement what is slashed during a tight budget.

"Program development includes a variety of things including personnel," Brennan said. "But that doesn't dismiss the things that district is talking about."

He said ultimately the decision of how to spend the money rests with administrators.

English said the union and public will be "looking long and hard at where this money is being spent."

District officials hope to receive word in mid-summer if they will receive any of the $6.6 million in Abbott supplemental funding for which they've applied.

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