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Schools

School Board Focuses on Budget Modifications, Honors Exceptional Students

POB Board of Education meets following recognition ceremony.

The made a special point recently to commend students throughout the district for their award-worthy accomplishments.

Hundreds of community members filled the High School auditorium as Board of Education president Gary Bettan and POB school officials presented students of all grade levels with various certificates.

Valedictorian Andrew Ren and Salutatorian Ari B. Turkiewicz were introduced to the community by high school principal, James Murray, while Judith Chen, the district art director, handed out a number of awards to artists from the 2o11 All-County Art Exhibit, the Ornament Exhibition and more. Kevin McDermott, the district's athletic director, awarded several scholar athletes just before the last of the students were honored with academic achievements by their instructors.

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After the recognition ceremony, the board gathered, with much fewer community members, to discuss issues regarding revenue and budget modifications and staff additions throughout the district.

"The state's budget was finalized and from the governor's proposal to the adopted budget for POB there's an addition of $148,871," Assistant Superintendent for Business Ryan Ruf said at the start of the meeting.

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Stealing the show at Monday's meeting was potential budget items including the restoration of the elementary health position, and the addition of the high school guidance counselor and fifth grade teacher, along with parent's concern regarding the new field trip transportation fee.

"The first draft of the budget did not maintain the elementary health position," said Ruf. "If this is added, this will be to maintain the way that the instruction is delivered under the current structure."

At last week's meeting, board members discussed the issue but wanted another week to think it over further. Some board officials and community members felt that the health instruction could be done by the school's regular teachers, while others felt that a qualified professional should be the one to speak with young children about topics like puberty and human sexuality.

After board decision, the position was restored to the budget with a vote of 4-3, drawling applause from audience members.

To end the debate on budget modifications, the board was torn between the high school guidance counselor and fifth grade instructor addition.

"There are some concerns related to the size of the classes, so this would be to add a position at that level," Ruf said of the fifth grade item discussion. If an extra teacher was not added, there would be class sizes of 26-27, which many consider to be too large for a year of transition into middle school.

Five out of seven board members agreed to restore the fifth grade position, and the same amount opposed the high school guidance counselor position.

Bettan said he felt that the district would not be able to fund both this upcoming year, while board trustee Ginger Lieberman stressed that they were two separate entities and cannot be compared.

At the end of discussion, Bettan suggested that Ruf could try to find additional money in the budget's savings for the guidance counselor position as several community members and staff felt it was very important to the well being of the district's high school students.

The board will meet next on April 26 at its usual location in the Administration Offices of

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