Superintendent lays out budget pressures, testing results and a one-day-per-week mental-health contract ahead of public ballot outreach

The superintendent reported to the Mountainside Board of Education that the district is preparing community outreach for a public question on the November ballot tied to a 2% cap on local revenue, and urged public participation. "We will begin some community forums, with our 1st 1 being next Tuesday right here at 7PM," the superintendent said, noting an additional in-person session and a virtual option.

The superintendent framed the outreach as a response to continuing budget pressures after federal ARP funds expired and the district did not receive expected Title I ESEA funding this year. "You'll remember too, our ARP funding is no longer. We did not receive title 1 funding for our ESEA grant this year, which is typically between 20 and 30 something thousand," the superintendent said, adding that these losses contributed to a deficit and the need for voter support.

On testing and district accountability, the superintendent provided a brief description of ACCESS testing for students who need language support, noting reporting limits when subgroup counts are small to avoid identifying students. She then reported recently received CUSAC results from the state and read per-category percentages: instruction and programming 79%, fiscal management 100%, governance 95%, operations 97% and personnel 98%. She explained that "any district that falls below an 80% does create an improvement plan which will be presented to the board for approval in October and then gets submitted to the state." The superintendent said the board will receive a more expansive NJSLA presentation at a later meeting.

The board also marked a district recognition: the superintendent and the board president celebrated Deerfield Schools designation as a National Blue Ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education. "We did, in fact, receive this recognition from the US Department of Education," the superintendent said, and the meeting included congratulations to staff and community.

During the budget-and-finance discussion the superintendent recommended replacing a mental-health provider that could not fulfill its contract. She told the board that the district intends to enter a contract with Care Plus for one day per week to restore services, and said Care Plus had positive references and the capacity to expand if the public question passes. Item number 4 (the Care Plus contract) was included in the approved budget-and-finance items at roll call.

The boards next procedural steps include community forums to explain the public question and a forthcoming October presentation of any required improvement plan tied to the CUSAC scores.