The next meeting of the RIH BOE is tonight at 8pm at Indian Hills High School Cafeteria.
The Board will be meeting in closed session for one and a half hours prior, an unusually long executive session indicating a lot of closed door topics are on the table.
The agenda for the public meeting contains many routine items, including numerous personnel motions (including motions to rescind summer hours for the two Guidance Heads and the Supervisor of Social Studies/Music/UP) and motions to appoint coaching staff for Spring for both high schools.
Unusual items include a motion to hire a public relations firm at a cost of $35,000 ($3,500 per month for 10 months) and motions for Shared Services agreements to hire armed security guards for an undisclosed cost.
$35,000 for a Public Relations firm. Why? The "Scope of Work” for the firm has not been made public. What educational benefit to students comes from hiring a Public Relations firm?
Communications and Public Relations is the job of the Superintendent. From March-June that is the job of the Interim Super and from July-December its the job of the new Superintendent. A new Superintendent will be learning about our district and I expect would want to use their own voice to establish the trust of the community (if the new Super can’t do that, why would the Board hire them?)
We don’t need to spend $35K on PR to make the district or the BOE look better right now. We need to focus on educating our students and the positive outcomes will speak for themselves.
These increases in spending on public relations and armed security are being approved at a time when there is no settled teacher contract for 2024-2025, and the Interim Business Administrator has publicly announced the budget will come in at a less than 2% increase. This means there will be cuts in other areas of the budget. Do we really need to spend $35K on Public Relations right now?
A few of the Board’s Policies related to Public Relations:
Policy 9100 reads "The Superintendent shall be responsible for developing programs, techniques and channels for implementing this policy.”
Policy 9400 reads "The Superintendent shall be the chief communications representative of the Board. He/she shall be readily available to media representatives, provide media representatives with all appropriate and necessary information, suggest or supply feature articles or stories, prepare "press kits," assist school and parent organizations with press relations, meet periodically with media representatives, and protect school personnel from any unnecessary demands on their time by news media representatives.”
Policy 9120(M) reads "The Board of Education will establish annually prior to budget preparation, a maximum dollar limit for public relations, as defined in N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-9.3(c)14. In the event it becomes necessary to exceed the established maximum dollar limit for public relations, the Superintendent of Schools shall recommend to the Board of Education an increase in the maximum dollar amount for public relations. Any increase in the maximum dollar amount shall require formal Board action."
Link to the agenda:
Link to the agenda addendum:
Update: Quote from BOE President Kim Ansh Feb 29th at 9:30:22 pm: “had we had a communications firm …possibly the [enrollment] disparity might not have gotten so big between the schools”. Really? Kim Ansh thinks a $35K PR spend is the answer to enrollment disparity between schools.