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Community urges Wayne Township school board to keep full-time reading and media specialists amid budget squeeze
Summary
Teachers, parents and retiring staff told the Wayne Township Board of Education that cutting building-based reading and media specialists will weaken early literacy interventions and strain teachers, even as the board says steep benefit costs and enrollment growth limit options.
Residents, teachers and retiring staff urged the Wayne Township Board of Education on June 11 to preserve full-time reading and media specialists across elementary schools, saying reduced building-based support would undermine early literacy intervention and place extra burdens on classroom teachers.
Liz Fonberg, a Wayne resident and a reading specialist at Tunisi School who is retiring, told the board that reading specialists do more than provide extra instruction: they assess students, monitor progress, partner with families and lead professional development. “Reading specialists provide intensive, targeted intervention addressed to a child’s specific needs,” Fonberg said, arguing that early identification and remediation prevent later academic failure.
Several speakers echoed that view. Rosemary DePalma, a parent, elementary teacher since 2005 and AP reading specialist, said the district plans to shift from one building-based reading specialist to traveling specialists and that two schools have already lost their standing reading specialist positions. “Traveling schedules will inevitably reduce opportunities to collaborate with classroom teachers, build meaningful relationships within the school with our students and families, and maintain a consistent presence,” DePalma said.
Teachers at Pines Lake and elsewhere described reading and media specialists as integral to instruction and school operations. Maryanne Carol, a 26-year teacher at Pines Lake School, said abbreviated schedules—“two to three days a week”—are insufficient to close early-reading gaps. Wendy Waldrin, a teacher of 29 years, described the media center as the school’s instructional engine, handling digital literacy, STEM extensions, standardized-testing logistics and Chromebook repairs; she said those duties would fall back on classroom teachers without a full-time media specialist.
Parents also recounted direct benefits. One parent said early reading intervention transformed her children’s confidence and academic trajectories and warned that less-frequent support would slow progress. Speakers repeatedly asked whether a single specialist traveling between multiple schools could realistically sustain library programs, one-on-one interventions and family outreach.
Board members responded by acknowledging the speakers’ concerns and describing severe financial constraints. Members said the district recently absorbed a roughly $13 million increase in benefit costs and has limited tools: a failed referendum, negotiated contracts, and statutory constraints on workforce reductions. They said administration had avoided layoffs this year but that the district must consider difficult trade-offs given rising enrollment and projected demographic changes.
The board did not announce a reversal of the staffing plan during the meeting. Members invited further engagement through the district’s budget advisory processes and said they will continue conversations with administration before finalizing next year’s budget.
The public-comment block in which these speakers appeared ran from the board’s opening of general comment through mid-meeting testimony; the board adjourned after additional member remarks.
