Guidance counselors, media specialists have hours cut

Guidance counselors, media
specialists have hours cut
Freehold Regional board
reduces some positions
from 11 months to 10
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer

Freehold Regional High School District guidance supervisors and media specialists will no longer work an 11-month year.

Instead, the Board of Education voted 7-2 at its May 19 meeting to abolish the 11-month positions, eliminating a four-week work period during the summer.

The guidance supervisors and media specialists received notice that the action would be taken. After the board did away with the 11-month positions, those employees were then rehired to 10-month positions.

Voting yes to the change were board members Patricia Horvath, Marlene Caruso, Bonnie Rosenwald, Terry Kraft, Diana Cappiello, Kathie Lavin and Christopher Placitella. Voting no on the change were board members Bernice Hammer of Freehold Borough and Ronald G. Lawson of Howell.

"The new ruling will become effective in July, which is the beginning of the 2003-04 school year," said Ilse Whisner, public information coordinator for the FRHSD.

With salaries pro-rated to a 10-month period, the district will save $92,000, which includes $50,000 from the guidance supervisors and $42,000 from the media specialists, according to information provided by the board.

"This is part of the $937,000 cut from the defeated budget which was turned down by the Colts Neck and Howell [municipal governing bodies]," Whisner said.

Six guidance supervisors will be affected by the decision: Gerald Carrino, Susan Fruchtman, Howard Grush, Ellen Horowitz, Dennis Simpson and Jacqueline Thomas; one from each high school.

Likewise, six media specialists, Caroline Barkaszi, Deborah Bruynell, Gail Gnesin, Linda Hoesel, Kathleen Keegan and Joan Simplicio, one from each high school, will see a decrease in their work year by four weeks and their salaries pro-rated.

"The mayors looked closely at our staffing," said Superintendent of Schools James Wasser. "Realizing that we were only adding 10 teaching positions where 30 were needed, they moved on to supervisory and support staff. They wanted a significant number of cuts there."

The superintendent said he strongly disagreed with that position and said that any cuts in staff were unacceptable.

"Next, the mayors looked at positions that worked beyond the 10-month period and at staff we were losing due to attrition," Wasser said. "In order to protect full-time positions and benefits, I reluctantly agreed to cut the 11-month positions of the guidance supervisors and media specialists to 10 months and to not refill three supervisory positions that were being vacated due to retirement or resignation."

Wasser said he would not agree to go beyond that because cutting anything more would hurt the staff in terms of academic and extracurricular positions.The district’s 2003-04 budget is now in the hands of the state Department of Education for review because the governing bodies of the eight sending municipalities could not agree on an amount to be cut from the defeated spending plan.

During the public portion of the May 19 board meeting, Debra Serafin, district supervisor of health and physical education, said, "The Freehold Regional High School District has a reputation for academic excellence and our guidance departments have contributed immensely to that status."

She cited several legal cases in which employees had their work year reduced and noted that the reduction of the work year is a contractual item which should be negotiated.

In other public comment, Grush said the guidance supervisors are the key peo­ple who assist the principals and assistant principals in opening the schools in September for the new school year.

"We spend most of August making sure students receive the schedules they’ve selected," said Grush. "We make sure parents and students are serviced during the month of August and that new registrants get schedules."

The guidance supervisors provided a list that described their responsibilities, including the registration of new students; formalizing the master schedule of classes; the preparation of student class schedules; correction of grades; certifying graduation for students who completed summer school; verifying vocational and special education programs; assigning ninth grade students to school counselors; prepare materials for new staff orientation and September faculty meetings; and pre­pare materials need by students for college applications.

Grush said counselors are responsible for 350 students when the recommended number is 250.

"There is an awful lot of work that needs to be done over the summer," said Grush. "Who is going to do this?"

Speaking on behalf of the media spe­cialists, Gnesin told the board members, "The cost to keep the 11-month position for the media specialists is extremely small in relation to the clear, absolute benefit to the students and staff gained by the specialized work completed during that time period.

With an increasing stu­dent population and expanding educational requirements, we need the 19 days of preparation to make the media center staff and resources always available to students throughout the school year.

"All the media specialists serve both the students and the staff at all times," said Gnesin. "The summer is the time when we can work uninterrupted to complete many of the critical pieces of work that make our media centers a place of destination for the students."