Comments on Proposed Staff Cuts at Fox Meadow

Here are remarks from Fox Meadow PTA President Margot Milberg about proposed staff cuts at Fox Meadow Elementary School that she made at the Board of Education Meeting on March 2nd.

I am Margot Milberg, reside at 14 Axtell Drive and am currently PTA President for Fox Meadow School.

First, I want to thank the Board of Education for acknowledging my email and for hearing my concerns. I am here tonight to reiterate my concerns over the elimination of .8 of a secretarial position at Fox Meadow. I didn't find tonight's answer very satisfactory as it did not tell me why the position was eliminated or how the role will be supported with some possible aide time.

I am still unclear why this position is being eliminated. Even though our secretary is retiring after 25 years of service doesn't meant that we don't have a strong need for administrative help. I don't understand the logic for this decision. Just because someone is retiring doesn't mean we should do without them. No other elementary school has had a cut in their secretarial/administrative staffing. We are not asking for more administrative/secretarial help, we are just asking that the help we have not be reduced.

There are several reasons why I feel this position cut is coming at a bad time for Fox Meadow.

First, we have had the largest school population for the elementary schools for the past several years. Next year we are projected to have 462 students, 4 fewer than Quaker Ridge. However, I know from experience that many families move to Fox Meadow from overseas during the year, and I am positive that our school population will grow and we will have the largest student body of all of the elementary schools.

The two secretaries we have today at Fox Meadow have tremendous interaction with parents, students, teachers and visitors. An elimination of position could adversely affect the safety and service at our school. Our students arrive by public and private bus, parent drop off and by walking. These secretaries coordinate the arrival and dismissal of students and field many calls from parents throughout the day on transportation and changes to a child's after school plans. The elimination of a position will affect their ability to field calls. I am very concerned about the lapses in safety if we are not fully staffed. If we are understaffed, the secretary will not be able to field the many calls and there will likely be a lapse in safety.

These secretaries know everyone by face and they know who belongs at our school. They are our first line of safety defense at Fox Meadow. They know the vendors and delivery people and the parents. It will be hard enough for a potential new hire to come in to our school and be up and running right away but then to be short staffed will make the position very difficult and it causes me great concern. The secretaries have a vested interest in the school, receive benefits from the school and work at the school throughout the year including the summer. Giving us some aide time to fill in is not the same as having a secretary who is working on a daily basis even with reduced hours. We don't want someone to fill in when we need help, we want someone who is there daily and who knows the students, parents and different vendors.

As we've heard and know, Fox Meadow's front office is being reconfigured and renovated starting this summer to make it more secure and to address some safety concerns by having a glass window to pass by prior to entry into the school. The work is not projected to finish until the fall after school starts. It is likely to go much longer. During that time, the front office staff will be relocated elsewhere and it will be quite hectic at Fox Meadow. It will be even harder for a new secretary to be in this role and to be without appropriate help. This is certainly not the right time to be cutting staff at Fox Meadow.

The renovated office and plans to make the school more secure will not make our school any safer if we don't have the right number of staff to run it. We can't expect one person to be there from 8-4:30 and answering all of the phones, meeting people and handling billing and we don't want our phones to go unanswered or into voicemail during the school day. It is only a recipe for a problem.

Again, I ask you to look into this matter and reconsider eliminating the position. We are just asking to keep what we have -- nothing more.

Thank you