School safety continued to be an issue at the West Windsor-Plainsboro School Board meeting on January 15 — with comments coming from both the school district and the public, specifically a newly formed group called WWP Parents for Safer Schools.
Superintendent Victoria Kniewel began the meeting by thanking parents for their many E-mails regarding school safety in light of the Newtown tragedy. She also thanked the townships of West Windsor and Plainsboro, their police departments and other emergency personnel, as well as the district teachers, administrators and support staff for their commitment to school safety. Finally, she thanked the students for taking the issue so seriously during their lock-down and other drills.
Kniewel said that Deputy Superintendent David Aderhold will be making presentations at PTA/PTSA meetings in the various schools. Aderhold, who has been at the forefront of the district’s safety efforts, both after Newtown and during Hurricane Sandy, was awarded a plaque in recognition of his efforts during Hurricane Sandy by Plainsboro Deputy Mayor Neil Lewis.
Nonetheless, the parents’ group seeks more action to review and strengthen the district’s safety plan, said Peter Perla and Eris Carmel. Perla, who began his comments by noting he was able to enter his son’s school — Millstone School — that same day without being stopped by anyone, said that “I am speaking on behalf of a group of parents who wish to increase security at the schools. We have met with other districts, especially Marlboro, about their heightened security, and we would like to work in conjunction with the board to implement changes. We are not here to interfere with your jobs, but are willing to help with funding, ideas, or to be a voice to help push things through.”
“I have always been concerned with the issue of school shootings, which is much more prevalent than people think. After Newtown, I decided I had to do something. We are not saying we want armed guards in the schools, but we need to make our schools safer,” he said in a subsequent phone interview.
After the events in Newtown, Carmel, who has a child at Dutch Neck School, posted some comments on the West Windsor Police Department Facebook page, and through that venue met Perla. They found that they had similar concerns, and decided to do something about it. To that end, Carmel contacted the WW-P superintendent’s office, and was advised to put together a statement to present at the School Board meeting. “They told me this was the best way to start the dialogue,” she said. The group is now connecting with other parents through Facebook and hopes to meet with a police representative.
In other action at the January 15 meeting, the board approved a resolution to determine whether the school board elections should be moved from April to November. The matter will be brought to a vote at the next meeting, Tuesday, January 29.
Board member Robert Johnson, who will not be able to attend the January 29 meeting, voiced his opinion in advance. Johnson noted his opposition to such a move in the past and added that he still believes “voters who are not informed in April will be no better informed in November.” But, he said, “what’s different now is that we can eliminate the school budget vote” if the election is moved to November and if the district keeps the new budget within the cap. Given the expense of promoting the passage of a budget before the voters, Johnson said, “the benefits may outweigh the injury” of a move. “I think it’s time to do it.”
Bullying Report. Lee McDonald, director of guidance, presented the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) Mid-Year Report. He noted that the incidence of HIB events, both reported and actual, has decreased since the fall of 2012. From September-December, 2012, there have been 20 HIB investigations and 11 confirmed HIB incidents, down from 90 HIB investigations and 45 confirmed HIB cases during the same time period last year. McDonald explained that this was in part due to “a narrowing of the definition so that now the focus is on those incidents motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic, and which causes a substantial disruption of school operations or a student’s rights.” In addition, he stated that “because so much attention was given to this issue last year, when the new HIB law was implemented there was some over reporting by both school officials and parents.”
The report showed that the most pervasive HIB events occurred at the middle school level, deemed the “hot spot” by McDonald. “Most offenders are male students; more victims are females. Special education students are somewhat more likely to be both perpetrators and victims. We need to try to be more inclusive of special education children, so that the tolerance level goes up.” The findings also showed that the vast majority of HIB incidents ––75 percent — occurred during unstructured activities such as recess, on the bus, and in the hallways. Twenty percent were online incidents.
McDonald emphasized the District’s continuing efforts to educate and train all school personnel as well as students about HIB, and noted that the District is continuing to develop and utilize “best practices, such as emphasizing “responsive classrooms” and other pro-active anti-bullying measures, including changes in the Guidance Department curriculum.
Language Arts Review. As part of the District’s curriculum review, consultant Bethany Rice of PCG Education evaluated the district’s Language Arts K-12 programs of study. In presenting her findings, Rice emphasized that WW-P students score extremely well on standardized tests and other measures of proficiency, and praised the professionalism of the District teachers and staff. She also highlighted District presentations such as the series of Writer’s Workshops conducted by Penny Fisher (The News, November 16, 2012) as being an excellent method of keeping parents involved in their children’s learning.
Nonetheless, Rice outlined several areas which needed improvement. For example, she found inconsistencies between grades and schools in various areas. “The workshop model has been adopted by the District as the method for teaching Language Arts. While it is consistently used throughout grades K-3, it is used less consistently in the other grades. At the high school level there is no evidence it is happening at all.” In addition, she noted that access to different types of technology varies greatly from school to school and even from grade to grade.
Rice also noted that “while there is collaboration and communication between teachers at the same school, there is much less cross-level communication among the different schools.” Finally, she identified a need for greater resources and support for “struggling learners or average students, especially non-identified students.”
Rice noted that much of her information and insights came from teachers themselves, whom she found to be “frustrated at not being able to fully reach all of their students equally.” She said that the teachers are more than willing to receive additional training and learn to use new models and resources to better serve their students, and she found them “to be passionate about wanting to teach and help their students.”
Board Member Richard Kaye said that he understood the report to demonstrate that “Language Arts is preeminent to every other subject because kids need to read and write well to succeed in every subject.” He also noted that while the Board should not let the views of a few teachers outweigh all of the positives in the Language Arts program. “The report shows that our staff is highly professional and want to help every student, and feel frustration” because they want to ensure that “the middle kids do better.”
Several personnel changes were also approved by the Board, which also took special note of the departure of Deirdre Bova, supervisor of Language Arts/Literacy for K-12. She resigned to accept a position closer to her home. Board members praised her service for the past 11 years.
In other action the board approved appointments of the following consultants:
Bonnie Lee as a speech and language specialist, not to exceed 30 days at a rate of $400 per diem;
Yvette Roche-Muniz as a psychologist at Town Center Elementary School and Wicoff Elementary School, at a rate of $400 per diem;
Janet Mariano as a speech language specialist at Town Center Elementary School, at a rate of $400 per diem;
Marina Moran to provide three days of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) professional development training sessions for teachers of English Language Learners (ELL) at a total cost of $4,500 plus expenses.
Susan Rovello to provide a one-half day professional development training session on February 14 at a cost of $500.
Steven Maher to provide a one-day professional development training program on February 14 at a cost of $200.
