Wow, so a lot has happened over the past few weeks. The start of school was fun, and my classes are looking great. Calc 3 is so far fun and surprisingly relaxed, with AP Physics looking like my real math class. AP IPLE is already challenging (and I have the bad grade to prove it unfortunately) but I can tell it will be very rewarding. Macroeconomics looks to be challenging as well, but Mr. Saroka definitely shines as a teacher for that class; he really knows his stuff and does a good job of explaining things.
But maybe more exciting than my classes are my activities. Student Representative is awesome, meetings with Mr. Murphy are a great time to get info and express student concerns. Plus, I really like doing the afternoon announcements (if only to get out of French for Business for a little while). Mock Trial is also going to be great this year, our next meeting is Thursday and tryouts are next week, and hopefully we'll get some good newbies. Our case looks interesting, and it will be cool to see how the arguments will play out. But maybe most exciting is Drama club. At the suggestion of friends (Becky, Scott, and Kat) and because my schedule made it possible, I decided to try out this year. I worked my ass off on my monologue (British accents are tough to do through a monologue that long!) and it paid off. Our play (it's cool to say our play) is Pride and Prejudice this year, and I'll be playing Mr. Darcy alongside Kat Siciliano as Elizabeth, Dave Fertik and Devin Massih as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Nick Walsh as Mr. Collins, Alex Fleming as Lydia, and John Ancona as Mr. Wickham (and those are just some of the seniors). I'm really excited to be working with the kids I've seen kick ass in our previous school plays, and hopefully we'll make this year's play great.
So that's my story of these crazy first few weeks. It only gets crazier from here though! And oh yeah, college applications. Blegh.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Board of Ed Meeting Summary for September 16th
At last, a spare moment in the crazyness of September. Sorry for the wait, but a lot has happened recently, and our last Board of Ed meeting was definitely a big one. Two major issues have presented themselves in the past week and a half: the Hatikvah International Charter School and the cancellation of Project Graduation.
Our Board meeting started cordially, with the good news that students who began foreign language last year in either 3rd or 4th grade will be able to continue their foreign language education through 4th and 5th grade. Then however, the Good of the Cause portion of the night began. Around 8 parents, some with spouses and some with their children, came to speak on the Hatikvah issue. Among the issues raised, funding was first and foremost, but many parents expressed concern over severe bussing issues as well. After all of the parents had been given the chance to speak, Dr. Magistro gave a response, addressing especially the bussing concerns. Dr. Magistro cited the lack of rolls and student information as a major cause of the bussing confusion, but stated that she had placed her top staff in charge of transportation, including her dispatcher, on the Hatikvah busses. After she finished, Mr. Giacobbe gave an explanation of the legal situation. As of the 16th, the Appellate division court had not reached a decision on the charter issue, and the process was ongoing. At the time of the meeting, the Board had not released funds to the Hatikvah School, nor had the State given the Board the monies it owed. Mr. Giacobbe explained that the State was required to pay the tuitions of students switching from private schools to public schools, which it had not yet done. A suit brought against the Board in early September demanding the release of the funds had failed in court, and the judged passed the decision to the Appellate courts. The situation as it stands now leaves the money in limbo while the Appellate Court makes its decision. Funds cannot be released until that decision is made.
The start of school brought with it other bad news, revealed early last week. Project Graduation will no longer exist as it has in the past. Instead, Tuesday of Senior Week will be another half day, and will include a Senior day, free to students, with many of the activities found at Project Graduation. The plans for this program are still in the works, but the decision to end Project Graduation in its previous form is unfortunately fairly final. The decision was made for two major reasons: liability and money. Project Graduation was run by the PTA, not through the school, and was run for seniors who had already graduated, meaning they were no longer under the purview of the school system. As the program grew, the possibility of dangerous situations grew as well, as did the cost. Last year, issues with students brought up the concern that if ever one of those situations resulted in damage to person or property, the PTA would not be able to handle the liability. An already budget-pained PTA would not be able to handle a law suit, so as a sad result of our litigious society we have lost a great program. However, my direction to students is this: don't blame the school or least of all our Class or Student Councils. This decision was made by the PTA, the program was a PTA program, and the bodies I just mentioned really did not have the final say in this matter. Moving forward, I suggest that if students want to have a rewarding senior year program, they have to take the initiative and create it. Both the Senior Class Council and Student Council are trying to put together events, so I recommend approaching them with ideas and initiative rather than complaints and blame.
While these past few weeks have not brought the best news, we should look at these issues as not just terrible times, but also times of opportunity. Situations like this force parents to become involved in their children's schooling, and students to become involved in the activities and affairs of their schools. Hopefully both of these issues will see good conclusions for all parties involved.
Our Board meeting started cordially, with the good news that students who began foreign language last year in either 3rd or 4th grade will be able to continue their foreign language education through 4th and 5th grade. Then however, the Good of the Cause portion of the night began. Around 8 parents, some with spouses and some with their children, came to speak on the Hatikvah issue. Among the issues raised, funding was first and foremost, but many parents expressed concern over severe bussing issues as well. After all of the parents had been given the chance to speak, Dr. Magistro gave a response, addressing especially the bussing concerns. Dr. Magistro cited the lack of rolls and student information as a major cause of the bussing confusion, but stated that she had placed her top staff in charge of transportation, including her dispatcher, on the Hatikvah busses. After she finished, Mr. Giacobbe gave an explanation of the legal situation. As of the 16th, the Appellate division court had not reached a decision on the charter issue, and the process was ongoing. At the time of the meeting, the Board had not released funds to the Hatikvah School, nor had the State given the Board the monies it owed. Mr. Giacobbe explained that the State was required to pay the tuitions of students switching from private schools to public schools, which it had not yet done. A suit brought against the Board in early September demanding the release of the funds had failed in court, and the judged passed the decision to the Appellate courts. The situation as it stands now leaves the money in limbo while the Appellate Court makes its decision. Funds cannot be released until that decision is made.
The start of school brought with it other bad news, revealed early last week. Project Graduation will no longer exist as it has in the past. Instead, Tuesday of Senior Week will be another half day, and will include a Senior day, free to students, with many of the activities found at Project Graduation. The plans for this program are still in the works, but the decision to end Project Graduation in its previous form is unfortunately fairly final. The decision was made for two major reasons: liability and money. Project Graduation was run by the PTA, not through the school, and was run for seniors who had already graduated, meaning they were no longer under the purview of the school system. As the program grew, the possibility of dangerous situations grew as well, as did the cost. Last year, issues with students brought up the concern that if ever one of those situations resulted in damage to person or property, the PTA would not be able to handle the liability. An already budget-pained PTA would not be able to handle a law suit, so as a sad result of our litigious society we have lost a great program. However, my direction to students is this: don't blame the school or least of all our Class or Student Councils. This decision was made by the PTA, the program was a PTA program, and the bodies I just mentioned really did not have the final say in this matter. Moving forward, I suggest that if students want to have a rewarding senior year program, they have to take the initiative and create it. Both the Senior Class Council and Student Council are trying to put together events, so I recommend approaching them with ideas and initiative rather than complaints and blame.
While these past few weeks have not brought the best news, we should look at these issues as not just terrible times, but also times of opportunity. Situations like this force parents to become involved in their children's schooling, and students to become involved in the activities and affairs of their schools. Hopefully both of these issues will see good conclusions for all parties involved.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Stats
Wow, so I just checked my stats page again, and even though I haven't posted in a little while, I've had pageviews from India, the Netherlands, and Japan! Plus a good amount from Canada! Foreign readers: leave comments! That would be mind blowing, honestly.
School!
Okay wow, so school has made me very very busy. But I promise to write up another entry about my first few days of school soon. I've also been thinking a lot about methods of thinking (meta-thinking!) which I'll hopefully incorporate into my next post. Soon!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Videos of Board of Ed meetings
A new feature of our ebtv site is streaming and on-demand videos of the channel 3 programming. What that means is that now Board of Ed meetings are available to watch on the internet. I might try to start timestamping my notes so that when I write posts they will refer to specific times in the video so that you guys can actually see what I'm referring to.
Navigate through categories to Council and BOE meetings.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Views
Wow! Apparently my site has gotten over 600 pageviews, and even some from Canada (although some of those might have been Grace). That is awesome, but the only way I found that out was through the stat page. If you read a post, leave a comment! Or, if you like my blog, follow me! That way I won't feel like I'm just throwing words out into the void of the internets!
Thanks readers!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Clarion Article
I was cleaning out my backpack today (summer is nearly dead, how sad) and I found an old issue of the Clarion, the school newspaper. I flipped through it, and found out why I had kept it: it had one of my articles in it! I'm honestly glad that Daphna persuaded me to write for the paper, I had a couple of fun experiences and now I'll be able to continue to write about the Board of Education. The article was one of my favorites, and it dealt with what to me is a major issue: organ donation. I don't really have money because I don't really have a job, but I still want to be able to help people. The perfect avenue in my opinion is by being a donor, not only of organs but also of blood, which this article didn't deal with. I'll be able to donate again on December 10th, because I just recently did a double platelet donation. Donating blood is easy, pretty painless, and it can help save a life. So here's the link to the article, enjoy!
Board of Ed Meeting Summary for August 26th
I'm a little late with this post, things have started to get hectic again. Between college applications and summer assignments, plus math tutoring and sophomore orientations, I haven't had much time. But I'll definitely be continuing these posts throughout the school year, so I have to learn to make time.
Thursday's meeting started with an important Superintendent's Report concerning the current Board of Ed suit against the Hatikvah International Charter School. Dr. Magistro was looking to clarify some of the misperceptions over the suit. First, Dr. Magistro made it clear that the only thing at issue in the suit was the inadequate enrollment numbers for the 2010-2011 school year. To restate those numbers, Hatikvah was mandated to have at least 90% of its maximum enrollment of 108 in order to receive funding, meaning a minimum of 97. Based on the documents received by the Board throughout the summer, the Hatikvah school only had 40 people properly registered when their charter was approved. The major problem seemed to be a lack of accurate information provided by the Hatikvah school, and an auditor sent into the school in July had to actually contact parents in order to verify enrollment. Additionally, many of the enrollees were also still on the rolls of the East Brunswick public schools, meaning that the proper channels were not followed by registrants. Dr. Magistro then addressed the allegations that the Board and schools had not been cooperative, stating that the principles of each school had been met with and that the registration process had been explained to them. Lastly, Dr. Magistro stated that she had in fact contacted the Board of Trustees for the Hatikvah school to address these problems, but that she was still waiting for a response. To illustrate the amount of communication and documentation that the process had taken, Dr. Magistro brought to the meeting a large stack of papers slightly over a foot that contained the communications.
The current situation is this: Commissioner Schundler's decision to approve the charter currently stands, but instead of the $1.2 million originally required of the Board, only $873 thousand will be given to the school to provide for the 77 students that will be attending the Hatikvah school starting this month. The Board's suit stands, and the Board is seeking to overturn Commissioner Schundler's decision to approve the charter for the Hatikvah school through the appellate courts. A decision will hopefully be made within a few weeks.
During the For the Good of the Cause portion, in which members of the public are invited to speak, four speakers spoke on two different matters: the Hatikvah school and the bussing situation for elementary and private school children. Both parents who spoke on the Hatikvah school expressed confusion and concern over the status of their children, and one woman testified to the difficulty she had in properly registering her child. The Board responded to these concerns with assurances that parents would be kept updated and that the situation would be resolved with the welfare of the children as a top priority. The two parents who spoke about bussing were concerned about the consolidated schedules, which included students from St. Thomas, St. Barts, as well as EB public schools on the same busses in many cases. These routes meant that children could be on busses for as long as an hour, and would potentially be travelling on Route 18 and other busy roads. Mr. Giuliana responded by outlining the situation that the district is currently in with regards to bussing. Both the private schools and the public schools in the area were facing issues with cost effectiveness of bussing. There is a mandated cap on transportation costs per student, and with more students being driven to and from school by their parents, the district was facing shortages of students on busses. To address this problem, the schools had consolidated bussing, cooperating so that bussing could be provided. Mr. Giuliana acknowledged that the current situation was not perfect, but he stated that the schools were happy with the arrangement, and that the alternative would sadly be an inability to provide bussing at all.
Also presented at the meeting was the new plan for Memorial School. This plan features a number of energy saving measures, and complies with new standards for security. Major changes include: a larger parking and drop off area which will be located off of Innes Road and which will accommodated for by moving the school farther off of the road; a separation of the academic classrooms from the public facilities such as the gym, cafetorium, and library by corridors which will create two main hubs, with academic rooms in the rear and the public facilities in the front; an enclosed playground for the preschool and kindergarten children; and a second floor which will add more classrooms. For some concept photos as well as the website of the architecture firm in charge of the design, click here.
The last few items of the night were various acceptances of PTA gifts, including a PTA donation of $2,000 to the Frost School in order for it to gain the "Blue Ribbon" title through the same program that many other EB schools have received the title. Mrs. Ogden explained that this program had been in place in the past, but was suspended until only recently, which is why some of our schools do not yet have the "Blue Ribbon" title. The Board then looked at the new policies that had been presented by the Policy Committee for adoption, revision, or deletion. These policies included a new mandated policy on district employee travel expenses, a new policy on diabetes management in schools, a change that raised the minimum number of club members to 15 in order to receive funding, and changes to the pupil smoking policy and reporting violence, vandalism, alcohol, and other drug abuse policy that clarified some language. Additionally, a new policy about hate crimes and bias-related acts is also up for adoption, which will provide a definition of those issues and give administrators powers to deal with them. The last policy change that most directly affects students is the changes to the attendance policy. Previously, students in the high school were allowed a maximum of 18 absences in a full year class, 9 in a half year, and 6 in a quarter course in order to receive credit. Now, only unexcused absences will count towards that total, and the numbers will be changed to 10, 5, and 3 respectively. The appeal and review process will remain the same, and students will still be allowed to make up courses with lost credit in summer school. These policies will be voted on at the next meeting, and at that time I will provide links to their text for more detail.
That's all for this time, more updates are on their way!
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