Schools

OFFICIAL from Haddonfield School District on May 1, 2020

On Thursday, April 30, 2020, the Haddonfield Board of Education approved a $37.4M budget for the 2020-2021 academic year.

This dollar amount represents a $735,000 or 2% increase from last year. Haddonfield residents living in a home valued at $500,000 will see an annual increase to their property taxes of $62.

Board Secretary Michael Catalano made a presentation that highlighted, among other things, additions to instructional staff due to projected enrollments; supplies and training for the new AP Capstone Program; professional development for math instruction in grades K-8; the expansion of the district’s 1:1 Chromebook program to include grades 5 and 11; new classroom furniture that will support flexible learning environments; staff training for project-based learning; and capital improvements such as the new C-wing Air-Handling Unit addition.

“Creating the annual budget is a difficult balancing act for Board members,” said Adam Sangillo, Board President. “We try to be mindful of the community’s heavy tax burden and yet we must provide appropriate funding so that our students can thrive and achieve.”

Catalano went into some detail about numerous expenditures in the area of Safety and Security. The district will continue to fund a Student Resource Officer at Haddonfield Memorial High School (HMHS) as well as the Raptor Visitor Management System that was installed in all school buildings last year. In progress are security projects including new secure vestibules in Tatem and Elizabeth Haddon Elementary Schools; window covers for all interior classroom doors; and the RULER emotional intelligence program initiated last fall to support the district’s Social-Emotional Learning goals.

“RULER stands for recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions,” said Dr. Gino Priolo, Director of Special Education and Co-Chair of the Social-Emotional Learning Committee. “Teaching the adults and students in our schools how to recognize and manage emotions is equally important to the physical plant hardening plans that the district has undertaken over the past two years. When we improve school climate and address our social and emotional skills, we can identify mental health issues more readily and ultimately make our schools safer places to teach and learn.”

New Security expenditures include a digital floor-mapping system for first responders navigating our buildings in a crisis; security cameras throughout our district; and a new Student Assistance Coordinator/Crisis Counselor (SAC) who will work with students who are identified as being at risk, again for the purpose of identification and intervention before problems can occur.

“The new full time SAC position replaces a part-time social worker position,” said HMHS Principal Tammy McHale. “This person will offer staff training, will develop procedures for various crisis situations, will design programs and will provide counseling for students and parents.”

“We are completely aware that the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic could change state funding drastically,” said Sangillo. “We are going to be hyper-vigilant in our planning over the next few years as we see how the intermediate and long term impacts of this unprecedented time unfold.”

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DOCUMENTS

• Board of Education User-Friendly Budget 2020-21
• Board of Education Budget Presentation 2020-21

Believing that it is a “best practice” for any organization to look at the changing landscape of offerings and evaluate service providers on a regular basis, the Board of Education to decided some months ago to explore options for before- and after-school child care programs in Haddonfield.

This is not something, it is believed, that has ever been undertaken with respect to Haddonfield’s child care program. The board saw it as a necessary step in offering the best options for students, families, and taxpayers.

Child care providers (including Haddonfield Child Care, the current provider) were invited to present proposals for the board to review. Seven companies submitted proposals and were interviewed on March 11 by a committee of three board members, four principals (elementary and middle), assistant superintendent Chuck Klaus, board secretary Mike Catalano, technology director John Miller, and superintendent Larry Mussoline. 

After narrowing the field to two providers, members of the committee conducted reference checks. (Site visits were not possible because of the COVID-19 pandemic.) 

During the board meeting on April 23, Chuck Klaus reviewed the selection process and recommended that the board contract with AlphaBEST Education Inc, a North Carolina-based company serving 45 districts (415 schools) in 13 states. New Jersey districts served include Hopatcong, Millburn, Mount Olive, Stanhope, and Warren.

During its meeting on April 30, the board voted to approve the proposed contract with AlphaBEST, effective July 1, 2020. 

From the April 24, 2020 School District Newsletter

As week five of remote education comes to a close, we all may have reflected on the challenges of state-mandated school closings and the ups and downs of teaching and/or learning at home. The experiences of each teacher, administrator, counselor, aide, therapist and coach vary of course, just as every student and every family could share different stories about their daily lessons and school work.

What follows is just one Haddonfield story, highlighting one family’s experience with two particular elementary teachers. We know there are many, many other excellent teachers, and we have heard about hundreds of other positive remote education experiences. But the perspective of this story is a little bit different, coming from parents who are also Haddonfield teachers.

The Miller family consists of parents, Mike Miller, who teaches history at the high school and Jessica Miller, who is the Central-Middle School media specialist and technology coordinator; and two boys who attend Tatem Elementary School. Before spring break, Jess and Mike shared these reflections with their children’s principal and HSD administrative team. What follows is part of their thoughtful message.

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

From the April 24, 2020 School District Newsletter

In March, members of the Board of Education (BOE) Communications Committee got together to discuss the possibility of creating a new document designed to share information with Haddonfield families and the community at large.

The committee members are: Jaime Grookett (chair), Adam Sangillo (BOE President), Lynn Hoag, and Linda Hochgertel.

Each document will be brief and will be posted the week following each voting meeting of the BOE, once per month. The “Board Meeting Bulletin” will feature information about recent votes and issues as well as upcoming topics of public interest. It is intended to be a more informal, accessible way for the community to learn about Board discussions and decisions as well as why these decisions are made.

The first (March) Board Meeting Bulletin was posted on April 3rd under NEWS on both the district website and on the BOE website. The second (April) will be posted by May 5th.

“We hope to provide the community with a quick and easy way to get a summary of the issues that are currently being discussed at board meetings,” said committee member Lynn Hoag. “Additionally, the bulletin allows us to connect those issues to the district’s strategic plans and goals.”

The district newsletter will continue to be emailed and will provide additional information, school stories, administrative news, and more details about issues and school events.

[Publisher’s Note: Links to School District Newsletters are in the Documents section of Haddonfield[dot]Today.]

OFFICIAL from Haddonfield School District on April 24, 2020

We have been communicating with you throughout this unprecedented time in our lives. We know you understand the Governor closed schools in New Jersey until May 15th “at least.” You all understand that he may opt to try to open them after May 15th or keep them closed. We have no idea what his decision will be. We have no guidance as to what that opening may look like. We all trust it will be based on scientific data and the health and safety of everyone.

Over the weekend, I read through the surveys you completed for Dr. Murray. They were as expected. Many praised the efforts of our school system to gear up for online learning so quickly. Many others expressed concerns such as too much work, too little work, not enough face-to-face time, the real fear of lost learning, and maybe just total disillusionment over the whole world situation we are all in where parents are expected to work at home, have the proper meals ready, quarantine inside, and help teach children. Daunting tasks; all of them.

Those of us in education knew that we could sustain this new learning system for a short period of time. A longer period of online learning would be daunting for all of us. We are a traditional school system, custodial in nature, educative by design. Children come to school each day, stay for a period of time, are taught face-to-face, and go home. They do that 180 times during a school year. Taking that system and transitioning 200-plus teachers and 2,800 students into a full, online, K-12 cyber school with one day to plan was a very heavy lift. This world was thrust upon all of us without much warning. No directional signs are (or were) up and the street lights are off all over the place in this pandemic society. So, as many of you said in the survey, this is a time to praise all of us making the best of this situation. Health care workers. Emergency personnel. Grocery store workers. Small business and restaurant owners. Truck drivers. Educators. And so many others who are trying to work through this situation, making the best of these difficult times.

Let’s do this in the next few days. Take some time to thank your child’s teacher(s). Take some time to thank your child’s principal(s). Take some time to thank a Board of Education member. Go out of your way to do that. I know you all know this fact, but everyone above took a brick-and-mortar, traditional school system, and transformed it into an online learning environment overnight. They did it without review packets, without paper assignments being laboriously sent home, and without saying we are simply going to review while we are not learning traditionally. The people above created a total cyber environment where we are continuing with lessons to the best of our abilities, picking up where we left off over a month ago. Again, I know you understand this, but what your Board of Education, principals, and teachers created was nothing short of a miraculous learning environment in your school system. Because of the teachers, the principals, and the Board, Haddonfield is a leader in their pandemic educational plan in the state and even the nation. Take some time to thank them all for their forward-looking leadership and work in these unparalleled times.

There is a lot of information [in the April 24, 2020 School District News] for you to read over detailing the unrivaled environment we are all experiencing. Enjoy the newsletter. In the next newsletter, Mr. Chuck Klaus will take over this column. I can’t tell you how excited I am about that fact. Chuck is as honest as the day is long and as skilled a leader as I have ever seen.

Best wishes to you all.

Larry Mussoline PhD
Superintendent of Schools

A video of the Board of Education’s meeting on Thursday, April 23 is available HERE.

The next meeting — the annual Budget meeting — will be held (virtually) on Thursday, April 30 at 7pm. That meeting can be watched, live, on the Board’s YouTube channel, HERE.

The Haddonfield Memorial High School Choir will present “Haddonfield Sings from Home” on Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm.

The performance will be shown on YouTube Livestream on the HMHS Choir Channel.

Click HERE to watch”Take On Me,”: performed recently by the HMHS Show Choir. It’s had more than 5,500 views since it was uploaded on March 25, 2020.