Eastern approves HIB self-assessment results
The Eastern Regional Board of Education adopted self-assessment results for determining grades under the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act. The school received 64 out of 75 points, or 85 percent.
According to ninth-grade principal William Westerby, the state Department of Education requires all schools to perform and submit self-evaluation using eight core elements. The purpose of the program is to assess a school district’s efforts in implementing the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and to see where improvements or adjustments are needed.
Westerby said the process requires the district to give a presentation of the results determined by the School Safety Team. Staff members review the results before they are presented to the board of education.
Since the results were approved, Westerby will submit the results on the state DOE’s website. They must be approved before the final grades are issued.
Westerby said the board would be able to review the grades assigned by the commissioner.
The program was mandated in March. Board members will look further into the results after grades are posted in the fall.
Superintendent Harold Melleby said this is an opportunity to look at the results and make improvements before next year’s assessment needs to be submitted.
According to Melleby, there were no HIB cases this year, but there is always room for improvement.
“We always work for perfection,” Melleby said, adding Eastern exceeded and met what is required in all elements.
To view the presentation outlining the self-assessment, visit www.eccrsd.us/sch#mce_temp_url#ool/hib-self-assessment.pdf
Board making a plan after 2011–2012 ranking results
Melleby said the board of education is going to develop a plan to help determine how the district could improve lower-rated areas of the recently released school reports.
In April, the state released the 2011–2012 school reports using the new rating system. Eastern Regional High School is ranked high in college and career readiness, high in academic performance and average in graduation and post-secondary performance when compared to the state average.
But the report showed the school significantly lags in comparison to peer schools in both academic performance and graduation and post-secondary readiness. It is ranked average in college and career readiness.
There is also a concern with the demographics.
“There are still a lot of questions in regard to how they came up with that listing, and we haven’t really gotten any answers yet,” Patricia Denholm, director of curriculum, instruction and professional development, said during the April meeting.
A few schools on Eastern’s peer group list are Hoboken Charter School, Princeton High School and Colts Neck High School. Schools compared to Eastern in the region are Seneca High School, Cherokee High School and Cinnaminson High School.
Although the peer group ratings raise concerns, Melleby said it gives the district the opportunity to compare Eastern to higher-rated schools to help make adjustments.
He said the plan will be completed sometime in the fall and could affect next year’s curriculum.
“It’s making us focus on course offerings and looking at other, higher-rated schools to see what they are doing. We want to become better,” he said.
