Back in the mid-1980’s, my father used to work for the largest data processing outsourcing company. A company owned by Ross Perot. He can identify if, when and how a company can be outsourced and the tasks needed to accomplish this. One of the best criteria for a successful takeover is how normalized that facility is to the receiving site. Companies that have many unique and complicated systems makes for difficult outsourcing ventures; however, the task of outsourcing is greatly minimized when there are few differences.

When a company is acquired or scheduled to be outsourced, one of the first things that is done is to normalize the acquired site to that of its future host.  This reduces the host’s costs and support requirements as the old shop is easily absorbed into their pre-existing infrastructure. Many times, the receiving company will make that site go through all the hard work of standardizing itself to the new company’s standards before they are eventually absorbed and their employees furloughed.

In many respects, the governor’s actions to punish the suburban school systems, in favor of the Abbott districts, will force many of suburban districts to strip away the programs that make their school systems unique and attractable to home buyers. Besides directly impacting property sales, home values and their associated property taxes, this sets up the school districts to become easily merged with neighboring districts. The more districts that do this make the concept of county-level school districts more of a reality. Since all the schools will become effectively the same, the task of centralizing is greatly minimized.

Here is a link to Governor Christie’s desire to merge local services and the accompanying Quinnipiac University poll showing that voters approve merging school districts:

NJ.com Article, dated November 26, 2009

Before our town cuts the core programs that make our school district unique and attractable, such as AM Beck, AVID, Campus Police, Elementary Spanish Teachers, Guidance Counselors, IB PYP Coordinators, ISS, Mt. Misery, Music Programs, Sports Programs, Student Advisory Counselors, TAG, consider that these acts may forever alter CHPS in the near future.

Before class sizes are increased to other school district levels, including Camden City, consider that this may ease a county-level merger.

Addressing what is roughly a 7% cut in funding may trigger future events that will become impossible to alter. Once a site is outsourced or merged into another facility, there is virtually no coming back.

THERE WILL BE NO DO-OVERS OR MULLIGANS!

Mount Misery has been an institution in Cherry Hill for 40 years! My brother and I enjoyed this Cherry Hill tradition in a similar way that my father and his brother did. Mt. Misery was our best memory of school, bar none. My two younger sisters may never get a chance to experience this environmental program, that not only teaches ecology in a hands-on fashion, but would be their first and possibly only experience living away from home in a camp-like setting. Many students who have divorced parents, like myself, or come from a lower-income housing situation may be unable to experience an actual camp. The Mount Misery Program provides us the closest thing to one of the joys of childhood. Please help keep the memories alive for the children in Cherry Hill. 

The Mt. Misery Ecology Program costs far less than what seems to be presented. We need to demand proof of this program’s true costs! There are two major benefactors that offset the lion’s share of these expenses, making the school portion less than 1/6,000ths of the school budget;

IF THERE EVEN IS ANY SCHOOL EXPENSE. 

Please click here to join the Save Mt. Misery! campaign. 

Many different programs are facing the block right now in attempt to save around 1% of the school budget. These cuts are as follows: 

The Elementary Schools- They proposed cuts including: The TAG program, IB PYP Coordinators, Instructional Support Specialists (ISS), Instrumental Music, Spanish Teachers, and increase class size maximums to between 22 and 26 students. 

Middle Schools- They proposed cuts including: Vocal Music, Athletics – interscholastic to intramural, Mount Misery, Student Advisory Counselors, Eliminate Advisory period (i.e. AM Beck), and possibly the award winning AVID program.  

High Schools- They proposed cuts including: Assistant Principals, Student Advocates, Eliminating late bus runs, Campus Police/Security, Athletic/Co-Curricular cuts such as deleting all freshman sports and removing Swimming, Lacrosse, Golf and Bowling, and Guidance Counselors.