Schools religion report accepted

Se report at: www.hvrsd.k12.nj.us.

By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
   The Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education voted Monday to accept the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Religion in the Schools.
   ”Now it is just a matter of sharing the findings as well as the critical question and answer section of the document, with the public,” board President Linda Mitchell said Tuesday.
   ”We also unanimously voted in favor of the actual board policy related to this issue … with the second/final vote expected at our next full board meeting,” Ms. Mitchell added.
   To get the news out to school district staff and the community, Kate Napolitano, director of Curriculum and Instruction, said Wednesday: “We will be meeting with all school staff at faculty meetings. The first will be held next week. The documents will be disseminated.”
   A parent/community night, on a date yet to be set, is being planned where “we will discuss aspects of the report,” Ms. Napolitano noted.
   ”I have made myself available to speak with community groups should they wish to discuss the policy or the curriculum,” the director added.
   Ms. Napolitano said plans also include a possible summer curriculum writing project for the purpose of gathering resources for all content areas, based on the New Jersey Core Content Standards. “Teacher-in-service will follow. Through our professional development program, we will be offering classes on related topics,” she said.
   The director also said that at administrative meetings, she “plans to continue to lead structured conversations regarding this topic,” and added: “Social studies is currently in a review year and they will be using the guidelines from the report” while they do that work.
   THE AD HOC COMMITTEE, which included 21 people — clergy, Jeffery Bartolino (school board member), school district staff members and parents — was formed months ago in the wake of a controversy about holiday guidelines in Valley schools last December. Among the guidelines then was prohibition of images of Santa Claus in Bear Tavern Elementary School.
   The task given to the ad hoc committee by the school board was to advise the board on matters pertaining to the inclusion of the study of religions in the K-12 curriculum and appropriate practices related to religious holidays.
   The ad hoc committee met seven times from July through October, reviewing court cases and published materials on the issue of religion in schools.
   Among the published materials studied by the group were “Religion in the Public Schools” and “The December Dilemma— December guidelines for public schools,” both by the Anti-Defamation League, and “A Teacher’s Guide to Religion in the Public Schools,” by the First Amendment Center.
   Recommendations in the ad hoc committee’s final report include:
   • No religious belief or non-belief should be promoted or disparaged.
   • Recognition of religious holidays should serve educational needs.
   • A balance of holidays should be recognized.
   ”What the schools do in this regard should reflect a variety of religions,” said parent Rajeev Rohtag of the ad hoc committee. “The intent is to promote understanding and respect for the diversity present in the community and the world.”
   The ad hoc committee’s report noted that the school district’s own strategic plan states in part that the district believes it has “the obligation to nurture a culture of respect that honors the uniqueness of the individual and fosters responsibility toward the community and the environment.”
   The report stressed that use of religious displays in schools “should serve a legitimate purpose in schools without causing students to feel excluded.”
   Symbols “mean different things to different people; what appears secular to some may be perceived as religious by others,” the report says.
   ”Symbols depicting religious holidays are most appropriate when accompanied by both secular objects and symbols from holidays of other religions. This combination of faiths and of secular and sacred helps neutralize messages of favoritism and concerns about religious coercion,” the report states.
   The report has been posted on the district Web site: www.hvrsd.k12.nj.us. The question and answer section can be found at: www.hvrsd.k12.nj.us/district/news/religionreportappendices.pdf. See in particular, Pages 9, 10 and 11. The question and answer section will be published in the Nov. 22 edition of the HVN.