NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ - Several new courses will be implemented at New Providence schools for the upcoming school year, which begins in September. These programs, which will be put in place for special education students, include a full day special education preschool course that will take place at Roberts School and a learning language program for disabled students at New Providence High School, according to Superintendent David Miceli.

He mentioned at a New Providence Board of Education meeting on Thursday night at the Media Center at New Providence High School, that both of these programs have been discussed for a number of weeks and will begin at the start of the 2010-2011 school year. The pre-school program will also include a half day course and a full day course for students to attend once they make progress within the disabled program. They are all to be housed at Roberts School.

"This is a goal that we have been trying to work on for the past couple years from a facilities perspective," Miceli said. "There are opportunities for students to transition based on their progress without having them move to a different facility in order to do so."

In discussing the learning language disability (LLD) program that will take place at New Providence High School this coming fall Miceli said that this course is not new to the district, as it currently takes place at the elementary schools in the town, but this is the first year it will be tried at the high school level.

The LLD program is able to be brought to the high school this year because of some additional room freed up after renovation work that took place earlier in the summer. Students in this program who took the course at the high school level were placed out of district in previous years, but now will be able to take the course at New Providence High School, according to Miceli.

Also discussed at Thursday’s meeting was NCLB title 1 funds that the district will be receiving this upcoming year. This grant is given by the state based on the percentage of students within the district that are considered to be at an economic disadvantage, according to Sandra Searing. She said that New Providence is considered a Title 1 district because it was calculated that 2.62 of students were at risk of being at a disadvantage.

"It’s a very complicated grant. We’re still learning a lot about it," Searing said. "The next step is to identify the (New Providence) school that is a Title 1 school."

During the public comments section of the meeting Greenwood Road resident Gail Libertucci addressed the board saying that it was irresponsible for them to award salary increases for certain administrative positions in an economic time when programs are being cut and bargaining units are taking concessions.

"If there is money to be squeezed out of the budget it should be given to our children, back to the taxpayers or used as surplus," Libertucci said.

She continued, saying that this is not a time to be worrying about how New Providence administrative salaries compare to other towns, but rather to give students the best possible quality of education. "It seems that as our administrative costs increase, quality may decrease."