By: centraljersey.com
The Princeton Regional School District will welcome students back today, Tuesday, with some new teachers and changes in the curriculum.
"We have a lot of initiatives in the district and it should be a real challenging year for our students and we have a lot of new additions as well as new curriculum additions this year," said Assistant Superintendent Lew Goldstein.
Among the changes this year are more than 40 new staff members, including a dozen new teachers, 25 part-time aids, and clerical and administrator staff hired to fill retirement.
Mr. Goldstein said the district had to cut 22 full-time aids due to budget cuts this year. However, the district has hired two part timers for every full timer to compensate. The major difference, he said, is in savings in the amount paid for benefits.
Other changes this year include a reformatted website that gives users easier access to information, and a Google calendar that can be downloaded to PDAs and smart phones.
The district also is working to improve communication with parents and students. The district is encouraging all teachers to develop a website for parent and student communication that would be used to post homework and more.
The district also saw improvements on the technology side, as the tech department prepared hundreds of laptops, wired dozens of classrooms and installed new video equipment throughout the district.
Students in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District will also commence another academic year today.
Thirty new teachers are joining the district, as will eight new administrators who have already been hired. The district is still in the process of hiring assistant principals for Town Center Elementary School and High School South, according to Director of Communications Gerri Hutner.
The district website, www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us, will feature new information like bus pass information, saving paper and printing costs, and the site will also feature an updated internal system called "Virtual" for faculty members.
WW-P is joining other county districts in introducing Performance Matters, an online data assessment tool. In other technology, solar panels at both High School North and High School South also will be a new "green" feature this year.
As a security measure, access control systems will be added to the front doors of all schools.
In her convocation speech to faculty and staff last week, Superintendent Victoria Kniewel praised the district’s employees for their hard work and dedication.
"At the middle school and high school levels, it seems like students are always here — they are so involved in the life of the school that they are reluctant to leave," she said. "They are involved in a multitude of sports, rehearsing for plays and concerts, producing TV shows or radio shows. That level of engagement is a testimony to all of you."
Students in the Montgomery School District won’t begin classes until Sept. 13, but the district is using this week to finish up some construction. Superintendent Earl Kim said the first round of projects is on schedule and under budget.
One particularly large project was at Orchard Hill Elementary School to address traffic concerns at the pick-up and drop-off area and to add parking for events.
"It was very dangerous, chaotic, and now we’ve smoothed out that traffic flow by separating cars and buses," Mr. Kim said. "Cars pull into a parking lot area, and buses pull into a bus-specific pick-up and drop-off, so it’s much safer for the kids."
About half of the building is also getting a new roof and the fire alarm is being brought up to code. The finishing touches on the school are being put on it this week.
The district also has started work at Village Elementary, where two new classrooms will be built to bring special needs students back into the district and integrate them into the school community. Throughout the year, workers also will replace single-pane windows at the Upper Middle School with double-pane windows.
The school budget was defeated last year and eventually made it all the way to the state, which effectively cut the budget by $2.1 million by lowering expenditures about $770,000 and increasing revenue expectations.
Under the financial pressure, the district cut about 11 full-time equivalent teaching jobs and hired about 10 new teachers, far fewer than the 20 to 60 that come on board in a normal year.
The budget reductions also led to the district cutting middle school athletics this year, but thanks to community involvement, those activities won’t disappear.
"We had to cut our middle school sports program last year, but we had planned for the Recreation Department to step up and they have," Mr. Kim said. That department will provide field hockey, cross country, and track, but those won’t be the end of students’ options.
"Other parent groups have stepped up to run other middle school sports programs that we don’t have, like boys’ and girls’ soccer, softball, baseball, basketball and the like," he said.
Volunteer parents will administer the programs, which are designed to run in conjunction with school days. The teams will represent Montgomery at interscholastic competitions, and sign-ups will be done in school.
"They oftentimes will use middle school teachers as coaches. The difference is the district no longer pays the cost of that; it’s purely parent-funded," Mr. Kim said.
He called this solution to the lack of funding "a short-term fix," and said the district will work on how to address the larger problem this year. One potential drawback is the cost to families who can’t afford to have their kids join the programs.
"If a student can’t afford to pay the fee, should they be deprived the opportunity?" he said. "Our board’s view is that no, they shouldn’t-that’s part and parcel of a public education."
This year the district will look to states like Massachusetts and California that have already grappled with these issues, Mr. Kim said. But it’s not all doom and gloom, and he said he’s looking forward to a "great year" in the district.
"We’re going to make it work, that’s our attitude. There’s no going back," he said.
"I think all districts are looking forward, saying, ‘This is the policy environment and we’re going to gameplan with that in mind.’ Our students’ needs are going to be met one way or another." [email protected] [email protected]

