Warren Tech parents, students blast board 'mistake' to outsource child study team

Thursday, April 15, 2010
By STEPHEN J. NOVAK

The Express-Times FRANKLIN TWP. | Brian Matthew Whitford told the Warren County Technical School Board that its decision last month to eliminate the school's child study team was "the biggest mistake the school could make," receiving applause from the audience of about 30.

"We believe it is a mistake getting rid of the child study team after all they have done for us," the student from Phillipsburg said at the board's Wednesday evening workshop meeting. "They were the best thing that ever happened to me."

The team, which serves roughly 120 students this year, evaluates the needs of special education students and connects them to the appropriate services, such as speech therapy.

Whitford's sentiments were echoed by his mother and several other students and parents.

But the school board already decided, last month, that it would do away with the child study team and seek outside professionals to perform its special education tasks. Warren Tech officials said outsourcing the team's duties would cost about one-third the $300,000 budgeted for the service this year.

Board President Bradley Bartow said the board regrets having to make the decision, but that it had to be done in a season of budget cuts -- from the state government down to the schools. Saving teaching jobs was the priority, he said.

The board "cannot ignore the fiscal crisis that has trickled down from the state, county and local governments," Bartow said.

State aid to Warren Tech is proposed to drop by $437,836, or 13.7 percent, for the 2010-11 school year. The school is anticipating flat funding from Warren County and no change in tuition rates charged to sending districts.

"We're doing it. We have to do it," Superintendent Robert Glowacky said before Wednesday's meeting of cutting the child study team. "The decision is made. The budget has been set with that in mind."

At Wednesday night's Warren County freeholders meeting, Franklin Township resident Carol Jacob pleaded with the board to help encourage school officials to reconsider cutting the child study team. Jacob, who called the decision "sneaky," said the school district never sought input from parents of special needs children.

"We feel that the decision was made solely on the basis of the cost and not on the quality of the services provided by the child study team," said Jacob, president of the parent and teacher association at Warren Tech. "Cutting back on the services to the population of the students that are needed to be supported the most is not the proper place to be cutting the budget for next year."