District to Hire Eight New Employees

With the $52 million passing voter scrutiny by 500 votes Wednesday, the process to find eight new employees at the Cranford School District will pick up steam.

 The positions were made possible by a 1 percent increase in state aid received by the township – an extra $519,472, administrators say.

The eight positions are a partial recovery of slots lost last year, when the school district cut 38 positions in response to a vertical  

 Superintendent of Schools Gayle Carrick said the interview process for eight new positions within the school district began in the past few weeks. A team of principals are currently looking for one full-time math-and-science supervisor position, two part-time teachers, two part-time academic coaches and full-time three teachers at the elementary level. Carrick added that the district already received over 3,000 resumes for elementary school teacher positions.

"We had the principals with a team interviewing [yesterday and the day before] to ensure we get the best available candidates out there," she said.

The school district also pulled together enough money from employee retirements to bring back ten kindergarten aides, three librarians and one part time basic skills position during the course of the 2010-2011 school year. School officials also reinstated the vice principal for Hillside Avenue School for the second half of the year.

Although some employees are coming back, contruction projects are not.  All optional maintenance projects were canceled in the 2010 budget season, including the overhaul of the  science rooms – and administrators say they did not find the funding to refurbish them in the 2011-2012 school year budget.

Last year's plunge in state aid not only affected this year's budget, but also possibly affected vote numbers on Wednesday.

Business Administrator Robert Carfagno noted that school budget voter turnout yesterday at 15.3 percent is slightly larger than usual, with the average being about 12 percent. He added that the greater numbers may be continued concern about the budget carried over from last year, when drastic school cuts drove voters to the polls and there was over 30 percent voter turnout.