Another characteristic of effective school boards identified in the article I referenced yesterday is that such boards “align and sustain resources” and understand their “responsibility to maintain high standards even in the midst of budget challenges.” Haddonfield clearly has high standards for our schools, but, like most districts, has faced financial challenges over the past several years. Thus, it becomes an important function of the school board to balance educational quality with fiscal responsibility.
We can achieve such a balance by focusing even more on reducing the costs of running the schools. However, cuts that impact the quality of our children's education – size of teaching staff, quality course offerings, varied instructional aids, etc. - should be made only as a last resort. To preserve our high level of educational excellence while minimizing operational costs, we should look for ways to reduce costs for such things as facilities maintenance and energy that can be accomplished with minimal impact on academic services. The Board has successfully reduced costs of supplies by joining with other districts to purchase in greater bulk and therefore benefit from economies of scale, and should continue to explore new ways to expand these opportunities.
In 2009, the Board appointed the Community Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC), of which I was a member. The committee examined potential ways to realize cost savings and to increase revenue, and made many recommendations, several of which have been adopted (such as the Drexel Paretnership, providing our students with access to the resources of that university, including certain IT functions, increased course offerings, etc. with little cost to the district). I advocate reconvening the CBAC or appointing a new committee in order to evaluate the success of the implemented recommendations, and identify additional means by which the district can realize savings or increase revenue without raising taxes.
