School board discusses calendar, parent-teacher conferences, staff training days
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
District pupils were on the verge of being assigned to half-days of school — perhaps not even in their own familiar building — last Tuesday, the day before schools were to reopen following Hurricane Sandy.
Until Tuesday, the Woods Road and Amsterdam elementary schools were still without electricity, Superintendent Jorden Schiff told the Board of Education at its meeting Monday night.
But the administration was determined to start classes again, even if the two elementary schools’ students had to be sent temporarily to other buildings. They were ready to assign all students to either morning or afternoon sessions in order to make room for the kids from the two schools still in the dark.
Then the lights came back on.
”I don’t believe it was a coincidence,” said Dr. Schiff. “Our friends at the township, especially Administrator Anthony Ferrera, had constantly been in touch with PSE&G.”
The school district lost five class days to the storm and its aftermath, particularly when downed trees caused transportation and electrical service nightmares.
Three days were made up at the end of last week, thanks to the cancellation of the N.J. Education Association state convention and the local teachers’ bargaining group agreeing to return.
The district used the two planned bad-weather days built into the calendar and remained on schedule to meet the state-required minimum of 180 school days for the year.
If there is one day’s cancellation of school because of bad weather this winter, school will be in session Monday, March 25, the first day of its planned week-long spring break. More days would mean eliminating more holidays in late March, or being in session for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21 or Presidents’ Day on Feb. 18.
Although it wouldn’t make a difference in meeting the 180-day state requirement, Dr. Schiff asked the board to consider eliminating some parent-teacher conference days scheduled for tomorrow,Friday, through Wednesday, Nov. 20.
He said a survey of opinions came to the consensus that the conferences had great value at the lower grades, with more mixed feelings about them on the middle and high school levels.
He also suggested that in-service days, where teachers are trained in adminsitrative systems or revise or improve curriculum, be rescheduled for the end of the year — three days after high school graduation on Thursday, June 20.
Neither idea won approval from the board, parents or staff members in attendance.
Board member Christopher Pulsifer said high school students in particular could benefit from the extra class time at this period of the year, when they are learning things that could be important on advanced placement and other college-entry exams.
Board member Lorraine Soisson said she felt it was important to maintain the conferences. Board President Thomas Kinst said that, even though parents could communicate through the district’s technological “parent portal,” he thought the one-on-one meetings were valuable.
Member Judith Haas said the portal information mostly conveyed test scores and grades, with minimal teacher commentary. At the elementary level, where parents were nervous and looked for dialogue, the conferences were critical, she said. In middle and high school grades, they could possibly be substituted with phone calls and e-mails and conferences when necessary, she said.
She wondered if “snow days” could be made up through technology with assigning or teaching lessons via the computer.
One parent, Shelley Gomolka, urged the board to continue the conferences. She said she used the computer portal info, but it didn’t replace face-to-face meetings with the teachers.
The board didn’t act to change the calendar, so conferences will go on, as scheduled.
Several teachers questioned Dr. Schiff’s suggestion to move the in-service days to late June, and to use those days to focus on the teacher evaluation models that are part of recent state reforms.
Kelly Villano, a grade 6 teacher, said the November in-service days had been targeted to more fully train staffers in the district’s increased emphasis on technology. This fall, the school issued tablet computers to all staffers and started using the Google Cloud system of storage and communication.
Ms. Villano said teachers who couldn’t or wouldn’t take the voluntary training in the summertime were planning to more fully master those skills in last week’s training. Now they faced being at a technological disadvantage for longer period.
Sylvia Scozzari, an intermediate school physical education teacher, said staffers had the feeling that there “was a lot going on, and we’re keeping our head above water, but we’re not doing anything great.”
The board needed to “get creative” to schedule training, she said.
Dr. Schiff said the administration was concentrating last week on getting kids back in school, and didn’t have an answer to rescheduling in-service days at this point.

