By Ed Birch, Special Writer
The South Brunswick Board of Education and the community received the Annual Report on School Progress at their recent meeting on Nov. 5.
Joann Kerekes, Assistant Superintendent, presented the report for Curriculum and Instruction to the board.
The report revealed that every core teacher within the district is a highly qualified teacher under state standards.
According to the report, each teacher has received adequate training, has completed their college level instruction, accumulated sufficient experience, and has passed state administered standardized testing, and has the proper credentials or is licensed.
In the Violence and Vandalism Report for the year 2011-2012, the total number of reported incidents for substance abuse were 15, weapons, 3, vandalism, 9, and violence, 46, remaining almost equal to the previous year.
The number of reported incidents rose by one during this period.
In the Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) Bi-Annual Report, 12,000 confirmed cases were reported within the State of New Jersey in the previous year.
By comparison, 25 cases were classified as such in the district.
Ms. Kerekes reported that there is constant training being done in all district locations in the H.I.B. program. In addition, training has been completed for students, paraprofessionals, and PTO organizations.
There have been many student-designed programs as well to teach the importance of abiding by the H.I.B. guidelines.
The district created the H.I.B. policy last year under a state mandate.
All H.I.B. specialist contact information appears on both the district website and each individual school web site.
In the main section of the report, it was revealed that the State of New Jersey requested and received a waiver in February 2012, from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Without this waiver, the assistant commissioner of education determined that the majority of schools in the state would have been labeled as “in need of improvement.”
The board is awaiting receipt of the analysis of the standardized tests that were administered last year to determine the needs of the district, according to officials.
These results have been received by the district’s administration and are presently being analyzed before the results can be released.
