At the June 16 meeting of the Tabernacle Board of Education, District Anti-Bullying Coordinator John Tirico gave a report on the district’s Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying self-assessment, along with a report on violence vandalism and substance abuse.
All public schools in the state now regularly complete self-assessments to determine efforts toward implementing the state’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.
Tabernacle Elementary School and Olson Middle School were scored in categories such as HIB programs, approaches and initiatives, policy training, stuff instruction, curriculum instruction on HIB, HIB personal, incident reporting, investigative procedure and more.
“Very proudly, our teachers, our staffs, our administration, everyone has done an amazing job with this,” Tiricio said.
Out of a possible total score of 75, TES scored a 68 and OMS scored a 71.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Tiricio said. “If you took that 75 and you put it on a 100-point scale, you’re looking at a 94 and a 90; 92 average. You’re looking at an A student.”
Tiricio also gave an overall report on the number of incidents of violence, vandalism and substance abuse through the first period of the school year from Sept. 1 2013 — Dec. 31, 2013.
He said every time such an individual indecent of a particular nature occurs, the school must create a report and submit it to the state.
“All of us should be very proud, the community we live in, there’s a lot of zeroes, almost all zeroes for both schools,” Tirico said. “You’re looking at assault, fights, robbery, vandalism, weapons, substance abuse — a lot of zeroes, all zeroes basically.”
In other news:
• The board thanked and recognized the work of several district employees who will be retiring with the completion of the school year.
Those retirees are Gloria Back, a school social worker, Christine Gaskill, a special education assistant, Mary Ellen McCloy, a kindergarten teacher, and Lorraine Stewart, a school bus driver.
Superintendent George Rafferty said the group represented a unique example of the various professions and different positions that work in the schools and how they serve children and families in the district.
“You have here a cross section of professionals that serve our community and your children every day, day after day, year after year, and they do it with such care and compassion and dedication to the children that they serve,” Rafferty said.
• The board recognized the academic and artistic achievement of several students.
The team of seventh and eighth graders Morgan Fenrick, Matthew Kustrup, Chrysoulla Powell, James Pronchick, Callin Stockton and Robert Sunburry won the 2014 Burlington County Battle of the books contest. In the contest, students from schools across the county formed teams and were quizzed on 15 pre-selected books.
Third grader Sophia Adler had her work featured at the “Art, Innovation, and Ideas” exhibit at The College of New Jersey from June 1–22. Only 124 entries were selected from across hundreds of submissions in the state. Teachers are only allowed to submit three entrees, and work from Tabernacle students has been featured both years the exhibit has run.
Rafferty praised the students for their ability to stick with a task over time.
“To create great artwork that experienced artists will look at and appreciate, in order to enter in a contest like this and come out on top, it really requires a lot of attention and focus and patience and an ability to put your efforts into something over time, and you all have shown that,” Refferty said.
• The board agreed to make agendas for school board meetings available for the public on the district’s website on the Friday prior to any meeting.
