SOM Supt. Ramos’ September 2015 Update to Board, Community

Editor’s Note: Each month at the Board of Education meeting, the South Orange – Maplewood School District Superintendent provides an update to the board and community on the district’s progress toward its goals. The following is Supt. Dr. John Ramos’ September update. The Village Green has covered some of what is below in separate articles.

Superintendent’s Update September 21, 2015 

Good evening Board of Education members and members of the community.

I am pleased to provide you with an update on the progress we have made toward the four District goals since the August meeting:

Goal 1 is about Student Learning

·      The first day of school opened smoothly, thanks to the dedicated efforts of teachers and administrators to prepare for the new year, the incredible helpfulness of parent volunteers, and the great attitude of students.  I was very impressed as I visited each of our 9 schools that day.

·      Our summer programs served an impressive number of students this year.  Mrs. Grierson will be presenting more information on these programs during the discussion portion of tonight’s meeting.

·      Classes for the new Montrose Early Childhood Center have started, although not yet at the Montrose building, due to delays caused by PSE&G.  The classes are meeting in various elementary school buildings until we can move into their permanent home in early October.  The teamwork and flexibility of all of staff and families has been really wonderful to witness.

·      Focus School Update

o   Ms. Grierson and I, along with representatives from each focus school, met with the new RAC team members last week to discuss the status of the three focus schools. Topics included the decision making process for next year, state assessment outcomes, feedback from the Regional Achievement Center field teams and other qualitative indicators of sustained improvement.

o   Principals will attend a School Improvement Plan Management System meeting tomorrow and will meet with a RAC member this Thursday to discuss the expectations for the school year including Cycle Reviews, Data collection/SIP Management System/End of Cycle Dashboard, Climate & Culture Surveys, and walkthroughs.

·      Assessments have begun to determine individual needs for reading intervention programming throughout all grades.

·      This year we are offering 21 AP courses, divided into 44 distinct sections

·      Various sections of mathematics laboratory classes have been developed to assist students with supplemental instruction in Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2

·      PSAT’s will be provided to all current 10^th and 11^th graders at CHS on Wednesday, October 14th.  9^th and 12^th graders will have a late start that day.

·      We have not yet received our PARCC results, even though the state’s original plan was to disseminate results in September.  In following up with contacts at the state, they informed us that we will receive results sometime in the fall, but that the date is not yet determined.

·      Tonight, the Board of Education will conduct the first reading of a proposed Access and Equity Policy. Such a policy allows our district to move significantly forward in our efforts to be an exemplary suburban school system. Such a policy will allow us to finally break the cycle of discussion that has stymied this district for decades and sets the needed tone for our learning community – shifting the conversation from “should we” to “how”. Once approved, our attention and time can be focused on implementation on behalf of all of South Orange Maplewood’s children and young adults. 

Goal 2 pertains to Professional Staff.

·      On September 1^st, we began the school year with a convocation for all staff in the Columbia High School auditorium.  I had the opportunity to share two distinct ideas with the staff:

o   Need as a district to focus on the fundamentals

o   Need as a district to pursue innovation

·      On September 2^nd, every teacher in SOMSD was engaged in targeted professional development for their subject, department and age group.  Many thanks to the supervisors and teachers who led workshops to help us more effectively serve our students in the coming year.

·      All staff has been notified via e-mail of the Professional Development Plan requirement and Student Growth Objective requirement.  Both of these documents are due by October 30.  Supervisors and principals are working with staff to complete these documents. 

Goal 3 concerns Engagement and Outreach.

·      We launched a pilot communications initiative – Let’s Talk! – which is also on the agenda for discussion tonight.  Since we introduced Let’s Talk on September 11^th, we have received more than 70 dialogues from parents, staff, students and other community members.

·      I continued my listening tour with a Meet & Greet on September 10^th.  I will also be holding two town halls – one for elementary families on September 30^th and one for secondary families on October 22^nd.

·      Back to School Nights have already taken place at South Mountain, Maplewood Middle School, and South Orange Middle School.  Back to School Nights will take place at the remaining 7 schools in the coming weeks. As a reminder, each school operates on a 4-hour day schedule for its Back-to-School night date.

·      Senior Parent Night was a tremendous success last week.  An audience of more than 250 individuals gathered to hear 4 members of the guidance team, Dean Brown, and Dr. Giordano map out the journey that is “senior year”.

·      Families of 6^th graders have received instructions on setting up their PowerSchool GradeBook accounts.  PowerSchool GradeBook is an invaluable tool for monitoring students’ progress, and we really encourage all families to use it at least once a quarter.

·      We created new Welcome letters providing an overview of the curriculum and additional opportunities available at each middle school grade level, similar to the elementary Welcome Letters developed 2 years ago.

·      Letters went home last week to all 6^th and 7^th grade families explaining the new WIN period.

·      The Parenting Center is hosting two curriculum nights:

§  Curriculum Overview for Kindergarten through 2^nd Grade on Tuesday, October 20^th at Marshall School.

§  Curriculum Overview for grades 3-5 on Tuesday October 27^th at South Mountain. 

Goal 4 pertains to Resource Management.  

·      We had a relatively smooth opening with school operations.  We ran into a slight problem with the food service database and updating student accounts, causing some delays in accessing student account information.  The systems provider is trying to rectify the issue as quickly as possible and hopefully will be resolved in the next few days.

·      Information sessions on the enrollment process for health benefits have been taking place over the past two weeks and were very well attended.  Staff are reminded to submit their enrollment forms or waiver forms to Human Resource by the end of this week.

·      And a huge thank you to all of the PTA’s and H.S.A.’s, and the school communities, for their ongoing financial support.  A number of donations were made at the end of last year for project installations over the summer.  Most of these installations are nearing completion.  So thank you to all who made them possible.

This concludes the superintendent’s update on progress toward district goals.