The Glen Ridge Board of Education approves the American Rescue Plan grant funding at its July 26 meeting.
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Glen Ridge School District Superintendent Dirk Phillips presented the district’s plan for how it will distribute the money it received from the American Rescue Plan grant at the July 26 Board of Education meeting. The district received $1,274,117 in funding, which will be distributed over the next three years, through the 2023-2024 school year.
“The administrative team has met several times, and the finance committee on the board has met to discuss,” Phillips said at the meeting. “There was a school community committee formed so we could discuss possible allocations. We really wanted to focus on what we could bring in for the students, so you’re going to find that the majority of this funding is focused on academics and social-emotional learning.”
Two academic-support teachers will be added in the elementary schools this year and next year; the two teaching positions will cost $222,787 this year and $227,242 next year. The two teachers will be split between the four elementary schools in Glen Ridge, giving math and language arts support both in the classroom and in small groups. They will rotate throughout the grade levels.
Over the next three years, $36,604 will be spent on professional development for elementary school language arts teachers at a cost of at least $10,000 per year and increasing by $200 in both the second and third years. A language arts interventionist will be hired for the middle school and high school for $111,393 this year and $113,621 in 2022.
“We realize the importance of language arts, which is why you’re seeing so much attention as far as allocations,” Phillips said.
Four part-time positions are included in the hiring; three are for counselors who will run social-emotional learning programs. One counselor will be working at Central School, Linden Avenue School and Forest Avenue School; the second will work at Ridgewood Avenue School; and the third will work at Glen Ridge High School. These three counselors will run programming, in addition to offering individual counseling services.
The fourth part-time position that will be funded by the grant is a media specialist. The GRHS media specialist position had been eliminated due to budget cuts earlier this year despite teachers, students and parents asking the district not to approve the cut. That position has now been restored, with MaryLynn Savio, who was previously the high school media specialist and had been moved to a part-time position at the elementary schools, returning this coming school year to the full-time position. Thanks to the grant, the part-time media specialist will be filling the role that Savio was filling this past year.
“We’ve heard a lot from the public about the media specialist,” Phillips said. “The plan would be that the part-time media specialist would go back and forth between Linden and Forest, and a full-time specialist would be at the high school and Central School.”
The part-time media specialist is in the grant funding for $35,777 this school year; $38,532 in 2022-2023; and $39,303 in 2023-2024. The full-time position has not yet been budgeted.
Programs are included in the grant funding as well. The district earmarked $12,000 for the first year, increasing by $200 per year for the two years after, for social-emotional learning programs. The summer programs will be expanded as well, with the same budget. Also with the same budget will be the After School Homework Club, where students can work with teachers one-on-one on assignments.
“We have some technology upgrades that we weren’t able to purchase last school year because of our expenses related to personal protective equipment,” Phillips said, adding that technology access points will be added to Ridgewood Avenue School to fix Wi-Fi issues. It will cost $48,400.
Five interactive whiteboards will be purchased for $26,790 and will be used districtwide. At the high school, the district will spend $11,136 on media center upgrades. GRHS Principal John Lawlor is in the process of making a plan, weighing both budget and need to determine what the upgrades will be.
The vote on the proposal passed 7-0; BOE Second Vice President David Campbell abstained, and First Vice President Michael de Leeuw was absent. The proposal will be sent to the state for approval, and Phillips said he does not know when the district will hear back.
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