Tonight, Andover-Morris hosts meeting about No Child Left Behind designation.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003 • By JOE CARLSON • The Express-Times

PHILLIPSBURG -- Parents with children in the Andover-Morris Elementary School are invited to meet tonight for information on the school's federal status as a school in need of improvement.

The designation means parents may choose to send their children to another school in the district. Some students in the school are also eligible for supplemental education services, including after-school programs and tutoring.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the school.

Andover-Morris is the only school in the district with the in-need-of-improvement designation, said Elementary Education Director Patrick Cawley at a Phillipsburg Board of Education meeting Monday.

This is the second year Andover-Morris was designated in need of improvement.

But the designation doesn't necessarily reflect the school's performance, Cawley said.

The status was based on standardized test results from 1999 and 2000, although those were modified after the results came back, "because some of the districts in the areas with a little more clout didn't like how their students did on the tests," Cawley said.

Also, the exact interpretations of the federal education law are still being worked out and communicated to school officials, Cawley said.

The federal No Child Left Behind law, signed by President Bush in 2002, requires that every child in the country be proficient in math and reading and has a highly qualified teacher by 2014.

Progress toward those requirements is based entirely on standardized tests. There are no exceptions, even for students with learning disabilities or who do not speak English.

Districts that fail to make continuing progress toward this goal risk losing their students, their federal funding and even control over their schools.

Two-thirds of New Jersey's high schools, including Phillipsburg, received warnings last week from the state that they did not meet the standards and must make improvements.

In other news, Superintendent Gordon Pethick reported he had concluded on Monday the last of eight days of testimony in Newark about the district's embattled funding as an Abbott District.

A judge is expected to rule within a week on whether the district will receive its Abbott funding, which is named after a 1998 Supreme Court ruling mandating state funding for the neediest school districts. Pethick said an appeal of the judge's ruling may be likely.

The district requested $10.6 million, but state officials have proposed allocating just $1.27 million.

Board members had harsh words about the funding hearing process.

"I think at this point in the ballgame it's gotten to be personal," Board President Rod Pianelli said.

"What they're trying to do is dismantle Abbott. But until they change the law, that money is here," said board member Irene Weller. "For us to be subjected to this kind of treatment because of a personal vendetta, I think it's terrible."

New Jersey has 30 Abbott districts. The districts had collectively lobbied the state for more than $760 million in funding, but saw a recommendation for just $280 million.

Phillipsburg's Abbott allocations have varied through the years, from $2.6 million in 1997-98 to $11 million in 2002-03.

District officials say the money is used to improve education in Phillipsburg with new technology, new curriculums and new methods to measure progress. Critics said the money had been squandered on things such as legal fees, courtesy busing and a $35,000 appropriation to the Walter's Park Pool.