By Frank Mustac, Correspondent
The cellphones of students in the Hopewell Valley Regional School District will fall silent during the 2016-17 school year, thanks to a number of rule changes that Superintendent Thomas Smith outlined during a recent meeting.
When the first day of classes kicks off on Wednesday, Sept. 7, all students in grades 6 through 12 will each have a Chromebook laptop computer to use at school and to take home.
During the Board of Education meeting on Monday, Aug. 15, Dr. Smith said the push to acquire Chromebooks for the district prompted him to encourage principals to develop a no cellphone policy for students..
“There will be no need for cellphones in our classrooms,” Dr. Smith said. “I have asked our principals to develop rules and policies for the start of the school year, which will be shared with students when they return.”
During the previous two school years, some students in the district had already been given Chromebooks. Eighth and ninth-graders received the popular Google-based laptops during the 2015-16 school year.
Dr. Smith the ban on cellphones was “specifically targeted for the middle school and high school.”
“I’ve met with Principal Tana Smith at the high school and asked her to develop rules regarding cellphone use, actually the lack of cellphone use in our classrooms,” he said. “We won’t need it. So we’re just working out how we manage that with students.”
In addition to the ban on the use of cellphones during class, Dr. Smith said students in grades six through 12 will also be issued identification cards.
Throughout the year, pupils will use their identification cards to purchase lunch, sign out books and other materials from the media center and obtain printouts from their Chromebooks.
Students, he said, will be asked to have the IDs “on their person at all times.”
The superintendent also announced that a new mathematics program, called “GoMath,” would be rolling out this year for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
“That is our new math program that we spent last year identifying and planning for,” he said. “This is a soft roll-out. Full implementation will take place in September of 2017.”
The district’s basic skills program, he said, is transitioning to what is called a Targeted Intervention Plan. A flex-time period pilot program will also be starting at Timberlane Middle School.
Alyce Murray, chairperson of the school board’s education and program committee, said the flex-time pilot provides a 30-minute slot of time for students to get extra attention they may need.
“It’s a program meant to address many different areas concerning interventions, enrichment, preventing children from missing too much class time in order to do things, like music and getting extra guidance.” Ms. Murray said.
Dr. Smith also announced that the grading structure at the high school could be revamped in the future.
School buildings, he said, will now have limited access during after-school hours, plus there will be tightening of access to schools during the day.
The superintendent also discussed security during K-5 after-school enrichment programs that the school district is taking over from PTO groups.
“Once the enrichments start in October, we will have a person on-site monitoring the entrance to our buildings from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. each day,” Dr. Smith said. “There is a common theme to tightening up our building practices, ensuring the safety and security of our students.”
For students in kindergarten through fifth grades, he said, the school district is implementing mandatory movement breaks – for example, there could be 5 minutes of movement every 60 minutes.
Quiet time and “time for reflection,” Superintendent Smith said, will be available to students in the sixth through 12 grades.
A slide presentation from the Dr. Smith’s office is available on the district’s website at: http://www.boarddocs.com/nj/hvrsd/Board.nsf/files/ACUVXR82EA3E/$file/BOE%20August%202016.pdf
