JACKSON – Weighing what is a necessity and what is a luxury was a point of discussion which resulted in removing a consultant which will save $30,000 for the township school district.
During a recent Board of Education meeting Board President Giuseppe Palmeri brought up a line item on the bill list that concerned the consultant.
“Finance number 14 relates to a transportation consultant which is a retired former director of transportation. This consultant was approved last year for Mr. (Kristopher) Soto who was new coming on board to help acclimate a transition to our district,” he noted.
“The budget constraints that we now face…is this a necessity or a luxury because how I see this $30,000 consultant fee, we may be able to bring back a secretary, a janitor, a maintenance worker maybe…possibly reinstating gymnastics which is one of the programs we had to cancel,” Palmeri said in reference to the reduction of 64 positions that was part of this year’s adopted budget. “Last month we voted on layoffs and I feel this is money that would be … well spent elsewhere so I am wondering, Mrs. (Michelle) Richardson (Board Secretary/Business Administrator) is this a necessity or luxury for Mr. Soto?”
Richardson said the agreement was to have the consultant for one more year so that she could help with the transition of new software programs being used by staff of the transportation department. “We are upgrading software this year. She helps with the training and is very good at what she does.”
“I would ask that this Board consider this before we vote on it,” Palmeri added.
Board member Megan Gardella asked what would happen if “we didn’t have a consultant.”
Richardson said the transportation director would “have to find a way to get this done. She was paid $24,000 last year. It is only as needed.” She said if the software company had to come out to perform trainings it would be at a higher cost.
BOE Vice President Tina Kas asked how many training hours were provided free of cost from the company, which is usually the practice in such software purchase arrangements.
Richardson said that they were just paying for the software.
“Is this something really needed?” Board member Erica Osmond asked Superintendent Nicole Pormilli.
Pormilli said the need for the consultant was brought up to her at the time by Richardson but that “we could look at lowering the amount.”
“To me it sounds more like a luxury. I would like to make a motion to amend the salary to $15,000 and we can change it later on if we feel we need more and perhaps not put so much into this,” Osmond said.
“I will not vote for my director of transportation that has been here for two years to have a retired director of transportation (from another school district) to consistently help him. At this point he should be able to do the job and if that means we can bring back someone we had to vote to layoff last month that is what I’d like to do,” Palmeri said.
Richardson said the consultant, “handles special circumstances that come up. There is a lot of time spent on doing the day work in the office. It is not secretarial type work.”
While the Board did vote to amend the salary from $30,000 to $15,000, the lone vote against was Palmeri as he expressed wanting to eliminate the position entirely. Later in the session that motion came up for a vote and it was defeated as Board members decided to drop the consultant position entirely.
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