Are Our Schools In Crisis? Is State Aid For Englewood City In Jeopardy?

Special Meeting of the Englewood Board of Education...December 19, 2011
The hour is late. Getting straight to the point. The Englewood Board of Education is still NOT in compliance with the State Board of Education's mandate. They are instead gearing up to fight the state. They are listening to that discordant drummer again.

Teachers and parents attended again to support teachers who have gotten pink slips telling them that they are going to be laid off. Those of us who watched the parade of new hires are not surprised. We watched as the Candidate for Superintendent and the Board of education hired one after another until they were seriously overstaffed. This board and Dr. Carlisle are still hiring when faced with some serious fiscal issues. We were there when these new teachers were promised a full year of work. They deserve the full year of work.

For almost a year now, the energy of the board has been focused on Dr. Carlisle and his lack of a contract.  We have listened to the excuses given by the board. Now the State Department of Education has given an order to a group of people that generally do not follow orders or the law...

The following is the last paragraph of a letter to the Englewood Board of Education detailing the actions that the state is prepared to take if the board does not comply.


Excerpt of letter from Robert Gilmartin
Executive County Superintendent of Schools


December 12,2011

"....Therefore and in accord with the caution given to the Board regarding non-compliance in my correspondence of November 18, 2011 be advised that, due to the Board's failure to comply with my directive, the commissioner shall direct that the state aid payment to the district scheduled for December 22, 2011, in the amount of $439,846.00, will henceforth be withheld until the Board complies with the directive in my correspondence of November 18, 2011, which, as noted above, required "a proposed superintendent contract containing an amount for total annual base salary not higher than $167,500". Finally and in closing, be advised that, so long as the Board continues to be non-compliant, future state aid payments may also be withheld at the discretion of the commissioner."


                                    How are the Children?