By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
WEST AMWELL — No longer will students be able to say they lost a permission slip or other forms sent home by their teachers.
South Hunterdon Regional High School has begun using a “virtual backpack” to keep parents informed.
This school year, beginning Sept. 7 when approximately 360 students return to the classroom, there will be no mountain of back-to-school paperwork — consent forms, student driving applications, parent contact forms and other slips that must be signed and sent back. Parents can access it all on the school’s website.
According to the school, the virtual backpack where these forms may be found will save on postage costs as well as be an “earth friendly” way to keep parents in touch. The virtual backpack may be accessed at: www.shrhs.org/parents/virtualbackpack.
The school also is undergoing a number of other “firsts” this year.
Students will pay to play sports and participate in clubs and extracurricular activities. The fee is $100 per student or $200 per family. The change from free participation is the result of budget cuts made earlier this year when the district’s budget failed at the polls. The school estimated the new fee could bring in between $25,000 and $30,000.
The district also is “scrutinizing athletic teams and clubs to make sure we have the numbers” that make running them prudent, Principal Mark Collins said.
The school grounds also will be tobacco-free, a rule that applies to adults and students, employees as well as visitors. The school this summer became the first school in the county to make the change.
South Hunterdon has been smoke-free for a long time, but tobacco-free means that no form of tobacco, such as chewing tobacco, will be tolerated on the school grounds.
Also this year, the school will move ahead with a girls-only sub-varsity soccer team if there is an adequate interest among students, according to Mr. Collins. “The numbers will dictate it,” he said.
The Board of Education last spring authorized $5,000 for the girls’ sub-varsity sport. Parents told the Board of Education they wanted their daughters to play separately from the larger boys for safety reasons.
There also have been cutbacks. Mr. Collins said the district lost half of a secretarial position and one teacher’s assistant, although “I think we were lean to begin with.”
The school “had to be mindful of the economic climate,” leading the school to economize, Mr. Collins said. Still, the changes “hopefully won’t be seen or felt by the kids in terms of the educational program.”
Also this year, the school is continuing a self-evaluation that it began in the spring, the Middle States Accreditation for Growth Process. It involves self-evaluation and setting goals, with results reviewed by an independent agency.

