Academic grouping will be given another look

Academic grouping will
be given another look
Parents upset with
changes that took
effect this school year
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — Everyone makes mistakes and the Freehold Borough Board of Education members readily owned up to one of theirs at a meeting on Sept. 8.

Parents showed up at the Park Avenue Elementary School library to voice their concern over recent changes made to the district’s program for gifted and talented pupils; changes they say are seriously affecting their children’s studies; changes they say they were not made aware of until the first day of school.

The district’s program for gifted and talented sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at the Freehold Intermediate School was revamped last year to make it a "true" gifted and talented program, administrators said.

After a year of work on the program it appears that a group of students may have been lost in the shuffle, at least those who were in accelerated programs last year.

Last year’s program for gifted and talented pupils had a small number of children, the accelerated programs had large numbers. This year’s program for gifted and talented pupils still contains a small number of students, but those who didn’t meet the criteria for the gifted and talented class are now in mainstream classes, a fact that has upset many par­ents.

Debbie Esola of Monument Street came to tell board members she was "extremely disappointed that the chil­dren in last year’s accelerated classes are being totally ignored this year." She added she was "unhappy with the way the changes were concealed."

"You’re ignoring a large group of stu­dents in the seventh and eighth grades," she said and asked the board to look at strategies that would address students at all academic levels.

Cindy Kresky of Park Avenue, whose child was in an accelerated program last year, told the board she felt that pupils had been "demoralized" and were no longer challenged now that they were placed in classes with children who did not match their abilities.

"My child was excited to go to school the first day and then came home so up­set because he was placed in a class this year with remedial kids," Kresky said. "I think our kids are being short-changed by the district. If I were looking for a house in Freehold Borough and my chil­dren did not qualify for the gifted and talented [program], I would move some­where else because there would be nowhere for him to learn accelerated ma­terial."

She said that previously, her daugh­ter had done very well academically and credited "this school and its teachers" for her child’s education.

"My son is now feeling demoralized and now has study classes with non-English speaking students," she said.

She worried that her child would not be challenged in school this year.

Superintendent of Schools Philip Meara told the parents this issue will be a priority and expressed his own concern over the parents’ belief that school ad­ministrators were ignoring a large group of children.

"If we are indeed failing to address a large number of students, we will do something about it," Meara said. He added that the teachers "work very hard to meet the needs of all their students."

"Let me work on this," he said. "This program was not put together haphaz­ardly, but I think the piece that was left out were the students in the next level."

June Walter of Barkalow Avenue told the board, "You’re hurting a lot of feel­ings here, you know,"

Walter has a child in the eighth grade who she said was so excited about going back to school this year. It is his last year in the intermediate school and she said he wanted to make it his best. She said his enthusiasm waned when he ar­rived home from the first day of school to tell her that he’d been placed in classes with a teacher’s aide.

"Where’s the challenge for him?" she said. "You could have at lease told the children beforehand."

Dean of Students Cheryl Zoll told the parents they need to "be an example" their children can follow.

"We cannot allow labeling of our stu­dents. I can assure you we will be in the classrooms and whether your child is in the gifted and talented program, the ba­sic skills program or anywhere in be­tween, we will make certain that each of them receives what they need."

School board President Peter DeFonzo said the communication about the re­vised gifted and talented curriculum "could have been better."

"Yes, we are to blame for that," DeFonzo said. "We dropped that ball on this one and we’ll have to take the hit for that. There are no excuses, but we’ll do better in communicating from now on."

In a subsequent conversation with Meara, the superintendent explained that the previous gifted and talented program was more of an enrichment program. The revised program is a true gifted and talented course and therefore, more limiting.

Meara said the criteria for the pro­gram involved the standardized Terranova test, as well as a pupil’s grades, record and teacher recommenda­tion.

"We let parents down by not commu­nicating and certainly we should have," Meara said. "Last year’s program was not a true gifted and talented program and we should have dealt with the par­ents’ perception of that fact."

Meara said he is planning to meet with parents, teachers and intermediate school Principal Darrell Jackson to make whatever changes are necessary to address the needs of all children in the district. He explained that the children in the mainstream classrooms will be divided into groups according to their individual abilities to give them the attention they need.

"If teachers need additional training or additional materials in order to ac­complish this, then they will have it," he said.