School Board

TALKING NUMBERS – Schools Superintendent John Ravally reviews the preliminary 2024-25 school district budget at the March 20 Board of Education meeting. A steep cut in state aid and a multi-million dollar increase in charter school tuition presented stiff challenges, but school district officials said the proposed 2024-25 budget should only result in a minor increase in the school portion …

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Township Manager Robert Vornlocker brought a proposal to the Council that turned out to be controversial. A nearly hour-long, sometimes heated discussion on partnering with the Board of Education to provide a construction trades training program ended March 12 with the Township Council agreeing to discuss the issue in April. At issue was a proposal for …

School district officials are looking into ways to compensate for the approximately 2 percent cut in state aid for Fiscal Year 2025. The district will receive $21,119,162 in state K-12 aid, a reduction of $386,982 from last year’s figure. A district spokeswoman said the amount cut represents about 6 percent of the equalization aid given to Franklin by the state. …

HEALTH CLINIC COMING – Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said the proposed Zufall health clinic on the campus of Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street campus will eventually be expanded to all residents. A partnership between the Township and Board of Education that will result in a health clinic on a school campus came one step closer to fruition at the …

WARRIOR MENTOR – Marco Collazo, a mentor with Operation Great Expectation, talks about the program at the February 22 Board of Education meeting. A high school mentoring program with claims of reducing the number of “behavior infractions” in schools was given a pat on the back by the Board of Education at its February 22 meeting. The program – operation …

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Schools Superintendent John Ravally explains the plan to use the former Middlebush School as a pre-school center to offer universal, free, pre-school to District children. The Board of Education on February 22 took the first step in reclaiming the former Middlebush School building as a school. The Board agreed to give district administrators the authority to …

NEW BOARD PRESIDENT – Ardaman Singh reacts after she was voted in as school board president at the Board’s January 4 reorganization meeting. Board of Education members Ardaman Singh and Sami Shaban were chosen by their colleagues as Board president and vice-president, respectively, at the January 4 reorganization meeting. Also at the meeting, Board newcomers Erica Inocencio and Jimmie Parker …

GROUP HONORED – Warrior For Life co-founder Adrian Plummer speaks to the Board of Education at the December 21 meeting. The co-founders of the Warrior For Life Scholarship Foundation were honored at the Board of Education’s last 2023 meeting. The group, whose founding in 2017 was led by four Franklin residents – Nicholas and Rebekah Solomon and Daryn and Adrian …

SAYING GOODBYE – Nishita Desai and Michael Smith said their goodbyes at the December 21 Board of Education meeting. The Board of Education December 21 said goodbye to two of its members who did not seek re-election in November. Nishita Desai and Michael Smith were first elected to the Board in 2017. Schools Superintendent John Ravally said that he wanted …

NEW MATH COORDINATOR – Gaye McGee, former Franklin Park School vice-principal and now the district’s Math Coordinator for elementary schools, speaks to the school board at the December 21 meeting. Two new district administrators were appointed December 21 by the Board of Education. Jessica Young was named vice-principal at Franklin Park School, while the woman she replaced, Gaye McGee, was …