Budgets Approved for Technical School, Special Services School Districts

CREST HAVEN — Superintendents of Cape May County’s Special Services School District and Technical School District gave annual reports to freeholders March 24 along with budget requests. Members of the boards of school estimate for each district were present to cast votes on the budgets along with freeholders.
Superintendent Barbara J. Makoski of the Special Services School District and Superintendent Dr. Nancy Hudanich gave overviews of the work each does to prepare students for the future.
Special Services budget for the 2015-16 school year was $11,860,357. The county’s share of that is $3,974,832. Makoski noted the budget, approved at a special school board meeting March 9, was under the maximum permitted cap, and was down slightly from the previous year’s budget.
Technical School budget request from the county for the next year was $7,864,862, which is $550,000 over the last year’s levy, and includes a non-permanent sum of $250,000 that will not reoccur in the following year, Hudanich explained.
“These funds will be used to update the technical instructional space for a new vocational opportunity in property maintenance and management which is in the construction career cluster,” she said.
“The current county and state Department of Labor statistics indicate a consistent upward trend in workforce needs for this industry, This updated instructional space would also be utilized by other district divisions,” she continued.
Special Services
Makoski told the board the district serves students ages 3 to 21. “It provides programs and services for our students who are classified with multiple disabilities, emotional/behavioral disabilities, autism, preschool disabilities and severe cognitive disabilities,” she said.
Students at Ocean Academy and Cape May County High School are “typically described as having severe to moderate disabilities. When our school district was first started most students with any kind of disability in the county were educated there. In more recent years with the focus on including students with disabilities in the regular education environment, our population has changed and the students who are coming to us, although fewer in number, are more severely disabled,” she said.
“We have more students with autism and increased numbers of students with behaviors that inhibit their ability to be educated with non-disabled peers,” she continued. “In the Autism program we have a full day preschool class, five elementary classes and two high school classes. One of our classes added this year in autism has been developed with the assistance of the (state) Department of Education Autism specialist to help us work with students with autism who have very difficult, and many times, aggressive behaviors,” Makoski said.
“Our behavior program has five classes between the elementary and high school and two of those classes have a crisis counselor embedded in the class to support the students with the most challenging behavioral issues, some of whom have involvement with the legal system,” she continued.
“We have two additional full-day preschool classes, one for students who are more medically involved and one for preschool students with behavioral issues. There is one class of students with severe cognitive disabilities and these children generally function between a few months of age to about a year. There are five multiple disabilities classes in Ocean Academy and six in Cape May County High School,” she said.
Further, Makoski noted that the district works to ensure its special needs students are equipped to become productive members of society who hold jobs, and become good citizens.
She cited students who work in the local business community, including Court House Acme and Rio Grande ShopRite, as well as in Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and at the County Zoo. In those work centers, the students have adult supervision, and learn how to get to work on time, what appropriate clothing to wear, how to resolve conflicts and how to follow the boss’ directions.
“We find that some of our local districts want these students to graduate at age 18, even though they are entitled to an education until they are 21. However, we know that, for most of our students, their education is not completed when they are 18 because they are in need of continued instruction and support to transition from school to adulthood and community life,” she said.
“The disabling conditions of the students who attend Ocean Academy and Cape May County High School remain significant. This requires us to provide specialised staff for occupational, physical and speech therapies along with counseling in addition to our instructional staff,” Makoski continued.
She noted that the budget contained a contract with the county Sheriff’s Office for a school resource officer. “This partnership has proven itself to be an invaluable support to our students and staff.”
The district cannot accurately state how many students will “walk through its doors” in September, she noted, because some may move into the county while others may be classified from their school districts in mid-year.
“The administration and board of education continue to carefully monitor our staffing needs as they relate to student enrollment and the needs of our students. It is very difficult to estimate how many students will be attending our schools next September,” she said.
“The county support of our budget helps to defray the cost of tuition for local districts,” Makoski said.
Technical School
“Although the high school may come to mind first, equally important in the mission of the district are our other schools or divisions which include the post-secondary Dental Assisting and Cosmetology, the adult high school, Continuing Education career and personal enrichment classes, technical courses, and apprenticeship, the high school equivalency preparation and testing (GED, now HSE), adult basic education, English as a Second Language instructional and other auxiliary programs and services,” said Hudanich.
She noted that 77 percent, of just over $6 million of the budget supports the high school, while 23 percent, or about $1.8 million supports post-secondary adult high school, vocational and avocational programs that are offered to all residents of the county.
“The district is efficient in its administration and operation using tax dollars, grant money and tuition wisely to always provide the best possible education for each and every student, both high school and adult. The monetary appropriation in the county’s 2015 budget is invaluable to all our students and the future of the county,” Hudanich stated.