From the Desk of the President of the Harrington Park Board of Education:
Hello, HP!
I hope that everyone had a great Winter Recess.
In our first meeting after the break, the Board was presented with the initial proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year. On the positive side, the state aid package was released on March 2nd and our school district will be receiving an additional $114k of funding when compared to the 2022-23 school year. In line with what we are seeing nationally, health care costs for the district are set to increase 15% in the next year. Over the course of the next month, the BOE members will meet with Mr. Jursca and Ms. Nitzberg to take a deeper look into our finances to ensure that we are maintaining the highest standards for our students while keeping the financial impact to a minimum for our community.
Student Council representatives were not able to attend Thursday’s meeting. As always, we look forward to their attendance and updates at our next meeting.
In regard to the Permanent Superintendent search, the Board is thankful for and encouraged by the large turnout from our community stakeholders, staff, administration and parents on March 6th during our Community Input Sessions. These were all led and conducted by Matt Lee from New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA). Thank you to Mr. Jursca and the school's House and Grounds Crew for their work in arranging for this day.
While the Board will make the final decision in this process, it is community feedback that helps to shape the outcome of our next Superintendent. For those who could not attend any of the sessions but would still like to share input, please use the survey link below and complete before end of day, March 10th:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TZ3W6XX
The next Board of Education Public Session will be Thursday, March 16th at 6pm at the Community Church.
Kind Regards,
Peter Toomin