School Superintendent Kwame Morton touted the success of the township school district in accomplishing all of its stated goals for the year during a June 23 board of education meeting.
The goals include five priority areas: academic achievement and outcomes, operational excellence, aligning student supports, climate and family engagement and staff recruitment and retention.
The district marked each area as complete.
The district broke academic achievement down to four areas: career readiness, data-driven instruction, experiential learning and early-childhood education. Within each, the district pointed to progress made, such as changes to the course of study booklet with 12 career pathways, more than 87% participation in math benchmarks, the launch of an online platform for internships and the opening of 16 new preschool classrooms.
For operational excellence, the district pointed to its success in elementary redistricting, the completion of various bond projects and more data available on its website.
The district plans to launch a “financial data transparency platform” in July, though it is unclear exactly what information it will contain.
A third area involves student supports, broken down into multi-tiered systems of help and inclusive education and special education programs.
In January, the district completed the goal of “universal screening assessments” for unspecified student needs. In May, it completed program evaluations of classroom practices and interventions, though it’s unclear what classroom practices were examined.
The district maintained that it evaluated all student support systems in June and has been collaborating with the special education parent advisory group (SEPAG).
In March, parents from Woodcrest Elementary School complained to the board about classroom disruptions caused by students. Meredith Levin, SEPAG leader, asked them to speak to the group about the situation.
The district marked the fourth priority as complete by the middle of June across several categories, including student government, labor management collaborative operations, community engagement, school climate efforts and student support services.
An accomplishment highlighted by the district was Student Leadership Day, in which 120 students from grades five to 12 participated. As for community engagement, several events were mentioned, such as the board’s Our Schools Day, the district’s hosting of New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Lily Laux and the superintendent’s Community Advisory Panel.
The commissioner visited the school district on May 29 as part of the latter’s efforts to showcase the need for a change in the school funding formula, with more state aid to make up for budget shortfalls.
With the final priority, the district completed 14 out of 16 tasks, with the two uncompleted ones: staff feedback tools and professional development communication into next year.
While the district celebrated accomplishments in several areas – like retention, supporting staff and expanding professional development – and support for staff through mentorship and mental-health resources, it did not mention the recent staff cuts in this year’s budget.
Due to a $29-million budget shortfall, the district cut about 70 positions, 84% of those from attrition. But it is still unclear exactly which were eliminated. Average class sizes in the district are also increasing by two students in grades one through eight, with Encore being restructured in an undefined way.
Morton said he appreciated the work of district staff in accomplishing the goals outlined at the beginning of the year.
“But then there are specific actions, strategies and actions that have been designated,” he explained, “or key performance indicators, as we’ve laid them out in the plan itself, that the team has moved forward in accomplishing. And we believe that as those get accomplished, we move closer and closer to the accomplishment of our five-year ultimate goal.”
Next year’s goals will be developed by committees in July. Board president Gina Winters thanked Morton for those already met.
“I think they were really helpful this year in understanding where we are,” she said.
