7-3-13 What's Been Happening... GSCS Catch Up-Catch All
NJ Budget Fiscal Year 2013-2014: Some In’s and Out’s
Star Ledger - Proceed with caution on virtual charter schools: Editorial
NJ Spotlight – Updated List of School construction Projects Doesn’t quiet Critics…Coalition chastises Schools Development Authority and Christie over slow pace of court-ordered work - Even as some projects overseen by the state’s Schools Development Authority get up and running, the debate over the pace of repairs to New Jersey’s neediest schools isn’t ebbing at all.
Press of Atlantic City - Cape May to study pulling out of regional school district over property-based taxes
NJ Spotlight – How – and Why – NJ High School Sports Association is Taking on ‘Trash Talking’ … New rules have zero-tolerance for bullying, harassment of the field, threaten stiffer penalties - New Jersey’s new anti-bullying law has stepped out onto the sports field, with the state’s high schools athletics association taking steps to clamp down on “trash-talking” that goes too far.
NJ Spotlight – Legislature Takes Last Look at Education Bills Before Summer… Dyslexia legislation and amendments to Urban Hope Act coming up for vote today, on cusp of legislative recess…Just as schools are closing for summer, the Legislature today is likely taking its last shot before recess at several prominent education bills -- both long fought and relatively recent. Here's a look at several notable examples, as well as a couple of controversial bills that won’t be making appearances -- at least for now
Department of Education Broadcast Memos July 2nd week…In this issue – Broadcast Memos, Resources and Opportunities, In the News
New Jersey In's and Out's/Budget Fiscal Year 2013-2014
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WHAT'S IN |
WHAT'S OUT |
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$7.4 million for school districts that were facing a special assessment |
$2 million pilot program for school vouchers |
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$35 million to help pay for higher education reorganization |
$100 income-tax credit for some homeowners and renters |
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$6 million in tax relief for 14 Meadowlands communities |
$7.5 million in funding for women's healthcare |
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$20 million for cancer research grants |
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$3 million for county colleges |
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$1 million for anti-bullying programs |
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$13.2 million for providers who care for the disabled and mentally ill |
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$10.3 million for nursing homes |
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Courtesy Kaufman-Zita Group
Proceed with caution on virtual charter schools: Editorial
Star-Ledger Editorial Board By Star-Ledger Editorial Board The Star-Ledger
on July 03, 2013 at 5:59 AM, updated July 03, 2013 at 7:27 AM
There’s money to be made in online schools, and there may be a legitimate need for them: For a student who is bed-ridden, for instance. A dropout, teenage mother or victim of bullying who’d rather study at home.
But the state’s education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, is right to be cautious about venturing into this wilderness. He recently opted to reject what could have become the state’s first two purely virtual charter schools. And anyone who doubts that decision should take a long, hard look at the record of web-based schools in other states. It is dubious, at best.
We are all for the expansion of charter schools, which encourage innovation and give parents in low-performing districts badly-needed options. But setting the bar high is crucial — and not just for academic performance, but financial integrity and management, as well.
Just look at the recent closure of the Newark charter mismanaged by Fredrica Bey. Not only was student performance dismal, but Bey, a well-known local activist, was using the charter to funnel taxpayer dollars intended for children into her own nonprofit organization.
That’s more a scam than a school. Similar questions about the use of taxpayer dollars have dogged K12 Inc., the nation’s largest operator of virtual charter schools. This is a company with a savvy business plan: Open virtual charters with lower operating costs than brick-and-mortar schools, recruit aggressively and siphon millions in profits off public school funding.
The result, according to a controversial study last year by the National Education Policy Center
and an investigation in 2011 by the New York Times, has been harmful for kids.
Does this mean a virtual charter school could never succeed? No. But given these problems in other states, Cerf’s decision to hold off on opening the first virtual schools here was prudent. As he said, the research on the performance of web-based schools is insufficient, and the legal concerns too great.
Currently, our state’s charter law and regulations apply only to brick-and-mortar schools. Web-based charters are a new frontier, and until we can hammer out the rules to ensure their proper oversight, we shouldn’t be issuing charters for any virtual schools.
Remember, there’s a significant difference between purely virtual charters and others that blend classroom teaching with computer technology. Cerf has shown a willingness to be innovative, allowing two such "hybrid" online charters to open, one of which combines its traditional classroom teaching with a curriculum provided by K12 Inc.
Can this work? Maybe. But the exclusively virtual schools run by this company haven’t shown promising results. So Cerf is right to focus more on expanding high-quality, proven charters such as Newark’s TEAM schools. Why open up more virtual charters with ties to a company that has no convincing track record of success?
NJ Spotlight – Updated List of School construction Projects Doesn’t quiet Critics…Coalition chastises Schools Development Authority and Christie over slow pace of court-ordered work - Even as some projects overseen by the state’s Schools Development Authority get up and running, the debate over the pace of repairs to New Jersey’s neediest schools isn’t ebbing at all.
By John Mooney, July 3, 2013 in Education
A coalition of nearly four dozen groups stepped up the pressure in the last week, claiming the Christie administration continues to move too slowly on the court-ordered school projects. And even the state’s own education commissioner recently ruled that certain deadlines had not been met.
Meanwhile, the SDA yesterday issued an updated list and status report on 76 approved projects ranging from boiler replacements to repairs of facades and roofs.
Asked yesterday if there was a backlog of projects at this point, SDA Director Marc Larkins said: ‘’Not that we are aware of. There are more requests still coming in, of course, and some of those will be rejected, but there are none just sitting somewhere waiting for action.”
Others would surely disagree, as much of the debate centers on what it means to describe a project as being under way.
The coalition of 43 groups wrote an open letter to Gov. Chris Christie and the SDA, delivered at its board meeting yesterday, complaining that a number of projects may have seen pre-construction work but few have been completed.
In addition, there another 600 requested projects that have not been cleared by the SDA at all. The 76 projects listed yesterday were approved by the SDA in early 2012.
“Now, over a year later, the SDA has completed only a few of these projects and has not committed to complete the remaining projects by the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year,” read the letter signed by an assortment of unions, advocacy groups and even the state PTA.
“This is unacceptable,” the letter continued. “Allowing repairs to wait for over two years unnecessarily exposes students and staff to unsafe and unhealthy conditions.”
State Education Commissioner Chris Cerf ruled last month on a legal challenge filed this winter and agreed that his department had not met certain statutory deadlines for reviewing approved projects, preventing at least some of the work from proceeding.
In what was an unusual case of the commissioner ruling against his own agency, Cerf nonetheless said the reviews of 70 projects would be completed by Aug. 30 of this year.
How much this will affect specific projects remains uncertain. Larkins called the department’s work at this point more a matter of paperwork and procedure.
“That was more a legal issuance in terms of records, but it had no impact on the actual timeline on the advancement of the work,” he said yesterday. “Whether or not we receive the paperwork, that was more a formality. We were already moving the projects downstream.”
With the SDA paying the cost, half of the projects have been delegated to the school districts to complete. Larkins suggested that those school districts now share at least some responsibility for completing the work.
He cited Newark as a successful partnership, saying the district has proceeded on several projects this year and worked closely with the SDA on major repairs to a school damaged and closed by Hurricane Sandy.
But among the most contested projects to this point has been work slated at Trenton Central High School, where politicians and community activists have continually decried the condition of the building and put the blame for delays on the SDA.
Yesterday, criticism came from a student and teacher who testified before the SDA board that the condition of walls and ceilings, not to mention the building’s outside façade and roof, is simply demoralizing.
Christian Malave, a graduating senior this year, said walls are literally crumbling in the school library.
“There is a huge chunk in the corner where all the plaster is falling off, and it continues to fall off,” he said. “It’s not getting any better, and seems to be ignored.”
Asked about the impact on students, he replied: “It makes the students feel that nobody cares about them. They feel the government, the state, even the teachers, nobody cares.”
Separate from the so-called emergent work, the SDA has started a major capital project at the school to repair its many deficiencies, including replacement of a section of the roof that was damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
Still, the project still awaits completion of design work and hiring of a general contractor, steps that will require at least another four to six months, Larkins said. In the meantime, he said yesterday, responsibility for some of the interior work does rest with the Trenton district.
“We don’t do a lot of the interiors,” he said of the SDA. “Our projects are constrained by the law, either capital project or emergent, and short of those two things, we can’t spend the money.”
“The district needs to do a part, and we have to do our part,” he continued. “Our part is the funding and support on the major work, but you hear some people talk about the state of the bathrooms. That’s not our job, that’s not our part.”
But he said that the working relationship with Trenton has improved, and said that comments from students like Malave are heeded.
“There are things we can do together to make it a better place,” he concluded.
Press of Atlantic City - Cape May to study pulling out of regional school district over property-based taxes
By Richard Degener, Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 10:30 pm
CAPE MAY - City Council voted Tuesday for an investigation into leaving the Lower Cape May Regional School District, possibly dissolving a district that has served Cape May, Lower Township and West Cape May for more than five decades.
The 5-0 vote is the latest move in a decade-long fight against what city officials argue is a financial inequity in the way the regional grades 7-12 district is funded. A state funding formula based on property values has the city paying
35 percent of the costs, but only sending 5.4 percent of the students.
"Under the formula used now we pay $6.6 million a year to educate about 65 students," Councilman Jack Wichterman said.
A resolution council approved at the afternoon meeting asks the Cape May County Superintendent of Schools, an arm of the state Department of Education, to do the investigation.
Wichterman said it is merely one of the steps required before going to court over the issue. He expects that to occur eventually, but he said the city was willing to negotiate changes to the funding formula that would put less weight on property values and base it partly on student enrollment from the three towns.
"We should be sitting down and talking instead of letting the lawyers make money," Wichterman said.
Lower Township Mayor Mike Beck said the township will fight any attempt by Cape May to change the funding formula. One study indicates Lower Township taxpayers could see huge increases in their school tax bills if the formula is based on students sent by each town, instead of on property values.
"It would cost us $5.5 million in increased taxation per year for our people, and this doesn't even include West Cape May. It's not going to happen on our watch. We will match them lawyer for lawyer; we will match them dollar for dollar," Beck said.
Cape May has tried several times to bring the issue to voters in the three towns, but the Board of Education for the district would not put the issue on the ballot. The city hired attorney Vito Gagliardi, who specializes in such cases, and commissioned a feasibility study on the issue. The study found that Cape May residents pay $79,977 per year for each student sent to the school, compared to $7,663 each in Lower Township and $30,493 per student from West Cape May.
The district was set up in 1956 and funding was based on the number of pupils each town sent then.
Beck says Cape May did not complain in the early 1970s, when the state formula changed to base funding on property values, because at that time much of the student body came from Cape May. He said enrollment has risen by 75 percent in the township and declined by 75 percent in Cape May since then.
Beck said if Cape May enrollment had continued to rise at the same rate as the township the city would be sending 437 students today instead of 65. Beck blames rising property values along the coast that have driven young families to the mainland.
"The Pied Piper came to the City of Cape May and took their kids away, and the Pied Piper's name was increased property values. It's not our fault their kids left town, and it doesn't negate their responsibility for regional education," Beck said
The study Cape May commissioned, which was completed earlier this month, presented a number of options including:
•Withdrawing from the district but entering a sending-receiving relationship with it.
•Withdrawing and setting up a sending-receiving relationship with another district, such as Middle Township.
•Dissolving the district and having Lower Township form a K-12 district. All three towns would use their own elementary schools and a sending-receiving relationship would be set up for grades 7-12.
•Dissolving the district and having Lower set up a K-12. Cape May would enter a sending-receiving relationship with another district such as Middle Township for grades 7-12.
Council members have had a couple weeks to digest the study, and the option to send students to Middle Township stirred some controversy. On Tuesday council amended the resolution calling for the investigation, adding language that says the city's preference remains for students go to Lower Cape May Regional for grades 7-12.
Tuesday's vote got mixed reviews from the few residents at the meeting. Harry Sundstrom, a Lafayette Street resident and the city's lone representative on the Board of Education, opposed it. Sundstrom agreed the city pays too much, and said he would save about $900 on his own tax bill, but he argued breaking up the district would impact the education of the children and destroy jobs.
Washington Street resident John Fleming supported the move, commending council for trying to stop the "injustices done to the taxpayers."
Wichterman said for each $1 million the city reduces its tax load, the average homeowner in Cape May would save $179. The bill for the average homeowner in Lower Township, he noted, would rise by $85 for each $1 million. The city could save an estimated $5 million if it paid tuition for its students instead of being a member of the district.
"It does not happen at once. It's phased in over a number of years," Wichterman added.
Contact Richard Degener: 609-463-6711 RDegener@pressofac.com
NJ Spotlight – How – and Why – NJ High School Sports Association is Taking on ‘Trash Talking’ … New rules have zero-tolerance for bullying, harassment of the field, threaten stiffer penalties - New Jersey’s new anti-bullying law has stepped out onto the sports field, with the state’s high schools athletics association taking steps to clamp down on “trash-talking” that goes too far.
By John Mooney, July 2, 2013 in Education
The new rules have won national attention -- and captured the talk-radio airwaves – with their requirements that eliminate referee warnings for any talk or gestures that demean fellow athletes, officials, or spectators, specifically citing those targeting race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
Advocates of the measures said the new rules are an expansion of existing sportsmanship bylaws, more borrowing language from the state’s new anti-bullying law than actually extending it.
But clearly they come at a time of heightened awareness to bullying, particularly given the state’s new law and the high-profile suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers student who killed himself after experiencing online harassment.
The new guidelines also are rooted in an incident that occurred last year between two Bergen County high school football teams, in which accusations of race baiting were widely reported.
“We dealt with that, and when they played again there were no incidents” said Steve Goodell, attorney for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletics Association who spearheaded the new language.
“But we wanted to make absolutely clear that these [sportsmanship] rules applied to race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation,” he said. “Trash talking, we’re not banning that. We’re saying that race baiting, attacking one’s race or ethnicity, that’s out of bounds.”
The NJSIAA announced the new regulations two weeks ago, saying that it was adding a few lines to its bylaws to make clear that bullying on the field is no more tolerated than bullying off of it.
“High school sports enhances and supports education,” said Steven Timko, executive director of the NJSIAA. “Obscene gestures, profanity, or unduly provocative language or action toward officials, opponents, or spectators won't be tolerated in the classroom or the field of play.”
Currently, the rules read that “any student-athlete or coach who is cited before, during, or after an interscholastic event for unsportsmanlike and flagrant verbal or physical misconduct will be disqualified from participating in the next two regularly scheduled events, or in the case of football, disqualified from the next game.”
The amendments to the sportsmanship bylaws would “(a) clarify that harassing conduct related to race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or religion at an interscholastic athletic event constitutes unsportsmanlike conduct, and (b) clarify that such conduct shall be reported to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and may result in further investigation by NJSIAA.”
In addition, the changes mandate that officials before the games will remind team captains of the rules in no uncertain terms.
According to the NJSIAA that pregame statement will read:
“The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association requires officials to enforce all rules regarding unsportsmanlike conduct by coaches and players."
“There will be no tolerance for negative statements or actions between opposing players or coaches. This includes taunting, baiting, berating opponents, or ‘trash-talking’ or actions which ridicule or cause embarrassment to them. It also includes harassing conduct related to race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or religion."
“If such comments are heard, a penalty will be assessed immediately. We have been instructed not to issue warnings. It is your responsibility to remind your team of this policy.”
State Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), the chief sponsor of the state’s anti-bullying law, said she had no problems with the new sportsmanship rules as a natural extension of her legislation.
”That’s just good sportsmanship,” she said. “You can’t teach it in school if the same rules don’t apply on the field.”
Still, there are a few twists. For one, Huttle’s law calls for internal school investigations of any incidents of bullying, while the new rules make the NJSIAA the first investigator, with the discretion to pass long incidents to the state Attorney General’s office.
For another, the sportsmanship rules apply to all high school sports -- at public or private institutions – while the anti-bullying law only applies to public schools.
Huttle acknowledged that the athletic field did not come up while she was developing her law, but said that she's glad her measure been extended in this way. She hopes to soon have an “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights 2” that will apply to colleges and universitiea, too.
“Bullying takes on a life of its own on the field,” she said. “Our law never specifically spoke to it, but I would have thought it applied anyway.”
Goodell, of the NJSIAA, said that there is a clear distinction between the association’s rules and the state’s. For one, the NJSIAA is not a state agency, and it has a broader base than the public schools. In some cases, the rules may overlap, and others not, he said.
But he said there was still clearly a problem that needed fixing, and it hopes the NJSIAA’s changes, in conjunction with the state’s, will help.
“When we brought this up to our executive committee -- a big group and pretty much a cross-section of communities in the state -- there were definitely members who said this was an issue they had to deal with,” Goodell said. “It is an issue out there.”
NJ Spotlight – Legislature Takes Last Look at Education Bills Before Summer… Dyslexia legislation and amendments to Urban Hope Act coming up for vote today, on cusp of legislative recess…Just as schools are closing for summer, the Legislature today is likely taking its last shot before recess at several prominent education bills -- both long fought and relatively recent. Here's a look at several notable examples, as well as a couple of controversial bills that won’t be making appearances -- at least for now
By John Mooney, June 27, 2013 in Education
Dyslexia Gets Its Legislative Due
A package of six bills and resolutions that would give dyslexia new standing as a learning disability is expected to gain final passage in the Senate, having already won bipartisan support in committee and seeing little opposition since.
Most of the legislation has already passed the Assembly, in some cases unanimously.
Sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), the proposals would require schools to train staff specifically on strategies to address the reading disorder and follow procedures to identify the disorder earlier.
The legislation would define and list dyslexia as a specific disability under the law and in the administrative code, giving parents a tool when dealing with school districts they contend have not always been receptive.
Another bill to be voted on in the Senate would require schools to screen students for dyslexia by first grade. The measure has yet to come up for full vote in the Assembly.
If the legislation is approved by both houses, it would be the culmination of years of campaigning by parents and families of dyslexic children, as well as grassroots groups like Decoding Dyslexia-NJ.
“We are very hopeful,” said Liz Barnes, a founding member of the group. “This will finally set in motion the change necessary in how districts work with dyslexia.”
Gov. Chris Christie and his administration have yet to say whether they support the measures, but advocates say the governor has generally been supportive of their cause when asked about it in public events.
Amending the Urban Hope Act
State Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) has filed amendments to his controversial Urban Hope Act that he said should clarify some of the questions about the law.
Enacted last year with a public signing by Christie in Camden, the law opens the way for a new breed of charters called “Renaissance Schools” that operate with the approval of the local district but with fewer financial constraints than conventional charters.
The law creates pilot projects in just three cities -- Camden, Trenton and Newark. The first pilot comprises five schools in Camden and is being led by the senator's brother, George Norcross, the South Jersey Democratic leader.
The first Camden school, run by the KIPP charter school network, is slated to be built and open by September 2014.
But the project as a whole has been challenged in court by community activists and the Newark-based Education Law Center as not following the law’s requirements. The latest amendments aim to address that issue by loosening some of the enrollment and siting rules.
The bill has seen some political challenges in the Statehouse, too, with Sen. Norcross amending his amendments this week to pull back some other changes that would have given the projects some extra power for public borrowing to finance new construction.
As the bill moved through the Senate budget committee earlier this week, several prominent Democrats abstained from backing the bill, including state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the committee’s chair.
But Norcross said afterward that he is confident the bill would pass today, suggesting that the abstentions may have been due more to miscommunication than to reservations.
“We have cleared up 99 percent of the issues that the Education Law Center raised, and I think we will move forward,” Norcross said Monday.
Notable No-Shows
Today’s Assembly and Senate sessions are the last ones scheduled until fall, and while there is a chance for another session to be held on major legislation, the expectation is this will be the last chance for a while for some lesser bills.
Two education-related measures that their sponsors had hoped would see action have instead been postponed, if not killed altogether.
One that drew a lot of attention earlier this week would have removed the restrictions on school districts to place students with disabilities in religious or other sectarian schools.
Sponsored by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), the Senate’s majority leader, the bill had drawn opposition from several groups, including the ACLU of New Jersey and the Statewide Parents Advocacy Network. Many of the concerns centered on public money going to religious schools, despite some safeguards built into the proposal.
The bill was nonetheless passed out of committee with several abstentions, including from state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the chairman, but that will be as far as it gets for now.
As of last night, the bill was not posted for a vote today, and backers said they were now hoping for reconsideration in the fall.
Another piece of legislation that may not even get reconsideration is an Assembly resolution from two of the sponsors of the state’s new teacher tenure reform law to slow down some of the accountability measures in that legislation.
State Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Misddlesex) proposed a nonbinding resolution to ask the Christie administration for an additional year for schools to have the evaluation systems fully in place, before the required changes have job consequences for teachers. The law requires all districts have the systems up and running by next fall.
A group of the state’s top education groups last week also joined the chorus, sending an open letter to the Christie administration and specifically to state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to delay full implementation of the evaluation requirements.
Cerf has continually rebuffed the calls, and the Senate has not seemed amenable, either. Apparently, the Assembly’s Democratic leadership isn’t going to pursue the matter. The resolution was not only absent from the voting board today but also unlikely to be taken up in the future, said one sponsor.
“It’s pretty much moot at this point,” said Jasey this week. “All I can say is it’s unfortunate the commissioner is being shortsighted and not taking this opportunity.”
Department of Education Broadcast Memos July 2nd week
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In this issue – July 2, 2013
· Broadcast Memos
· Resources and Opportunities
· In the News
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Broadcast Memos This Week – All broadcast memos can be found at the following link: http://education.state.nj.us/broadcasts/ |
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1. ESEA-NCLB Consolidated Subgrant Application – This memorandum serves as official notification that the FY 2014 ESEA-NCLB Consolidated Subgrant Application is available on the Electronic Web Enabled Grants (EWEG) system. Access to the EWEG system is through the New Jersey Homeroom at: http://homeroom.state.nj.us/. The due date for submission of the application is Monday, August 26, 2013. Since the FY 2014 ESEA-NCLB project period will run from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014, LEAs/agencies still may begin their programs as of the July 1, 2013 project start date and may charge back costs retroactively as of July 1, 2013.
Target Audience: Chief School Administrators and Charter School Lead Persons
Deadline: August 26, 2013
2. New Application for State School Aid (ASSA) – District Review – This memorandum requests that school districts log in to the new web-based Application for State School Aid (ASSA) and review the new data entry and report formats and the preloaded data based on aggregated data from the October 15, 2012 NJSMART submission. This review should be used to prepare for the October 15, 2013 ASSA count.
Target Audience: Chief School Administrators, School Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Deadline: August 2, 2013
3. The School District and Charter School Audit Program for Fiscal Year 2012-13 and The School District and Charter School State Aid/Grant Compliance Supplement for Fiscal Year 2012-13- This memorandum serves as official notification that The School District and Charter School Audit Program for Fiscal Year 2012-13 is now posted to the NJDOE website at: http://www.state.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/1213/. In an effort to eliminate redundancies between the previously separate documents, the annual School District Audit Program and Charter School Audit Program are merged into one document entitled the School District and Charter School Audit Program for Fiscal Year 2012-13. The combined document is arranged by sections and subject matter. Each section and subject is applicable to independent audits of school districts and charter schools unless otherwise indicated within the document text.
Also released is The School District and Charter School State Aid/Grant Compliance Supplement for Fiscal Year 2012-13. School district auditors are advised that all sections and subjects of the School District and Charter School State Aid/Grant Compliance Supplement for 2012-13 are applicable to independent audits of school districts. Charter school auditors are advised that only those sections and subjects of the School District and Charter School State Aid/Grant Compliance Supplement for 2012-13 identified as applicable to charter schools are applicable to independent audits of charter schools.
Target Audience: Chief School Administrators, Charter School Lead Persons, School Business Administrators/Board Secretaries and Independent Public School Auditors
Deadline: The deadline for submission of the fiscal year 2012-13 audit reporting package is Thursday, December 5, 2013
4. Public Announcement for Public Schools participating in the School Nutrition Program for FY 2014- County offices of education that wish to submit a county-wide public announcement, in order to assist the school districts in their county that participate in the School Nutrition Programs meet the public announcement requirements, must complete steps described in the enclosed memo.
Target Audience: Chief School Administrators and Charter School Lead Persons
Deadline: July 12, 2013
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Resources and Opportunities |
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5. Regional Technical Assistance Sessions on Certification, Provisional Teacher Program, and Professional Development - This memorandum describes dates, times, and locations for regional technical assistance sessions covering new and continuing regulations pertaining to certification, the provisional teacher program, and professional development.
Target Audience: Chief School Administrators, Charter School Lead Persons, Human Resources Directors, District Professional Development Coordinators, Provisional Teacher Program Contacts and School Principals
Deadline: n/a
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In the News |
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6. Commissioner Cerf Sets Tone for Leading Students to Success in Camden – In an op-ed column, Commissioner Cerf shared some common guiding principles about how to keep student achievement first in the Camden Public Schools.
7. Frenchtown Elementary School Makes Advocacy Group’s National Top 10 Lists – Frenchtown Elementary School scored high in a ranking of schools compiled by the education advocacy group Jersey CAN. The school was ranked in two of the group’s top ten lists, which reflect student performance on state assessments.
8. Report Describes Success in Tabernacle’s Anti-Bullying Program – Local school officials in Tabernacle recently reported to the community the continued success of an anti-bullying program it established five years ago for the town’s elementary school and middle school.
9. First Group of Camden Students Receive GED Diplomas from New Program – Forty-nine students have graduated from Gateway to College, a GED program run by Camden County Community College in partnership with the Camden Public Schools. |
