The following was written by Tabernacle Township Superintendent of Schools George Rafferty
Welcome to the 2014–2015 school year! The Tabernacle School District staff members are extremely excited for the return of our students. Your children, our students, are the reason we work so hard to prepare for the opening of school. We see your children off at the end of each school year as they look forward to their next grade level, their transition from Tabernacle Elementary to the Kenneth R. Olson Middle School, or even continuing onward to Seneca High School. However, seeing their return each September is so exciting. All of our hard work in preparing to make their first day a great start to a new school year is priceless! Like us, hopefully you have recharged your batteries, sharpened your pencils and resupplied your children with what they will need to start the new school year. Summer is a wonderful time, but like you, we are all ready to move into the start of a new school year.
Summer seemed shorter than usual to us this year than previous years, probably because it was! School ended late last year on Thursday, June 26 due to one of the worst winters in recorded history. As a result, parents and students should pay attention to the district’s new calendar for the 2014–2015 school year, which will utilize school holidays and spring recess in the event the school needs to make up days missed due to inclement weather. The school calendar for this school year will allow the school year to end in a reasonable time. Nevertheless, the staff and administration have made excellent use of the time available to them this summer to prepare the schools for students on opening day, Wednesday, Sept. 3.
During the summer, school staff participated in a number of professional development opportunities. Elementary teachers in grades three through five made upgrades to the district’s language arts curriculum. In addition, key staff and all administrators were trained in CPR and in the use of Automatic External Defibrillators as part of the new Janet’s Law requirements for September. New Jersey’s Janet’s Law requires all schools to increase the number of onsite AEDs as well as to train staff in their use in the event of an emergency. Our school nurses, Eileen Latini and Barbara Wisniewski, were instrumental in putting an AED emergency plan in place to ensure our schools meet the requirements of this law. Furthermore, office staff and administrators received training in software upgrades for improving efficiency in school operations as well as in the use of a new community global communication system called School Messenger. School Messenger will allow the school to broadcast emergency information, school closings, as well as school updates to parents in a more efficient manner. The system interfaces with the district’s phone system, Facebook page, email system, student and parent databases and the school website. We are looking forward to enhancing our ability to communicate with our parents and community more often, effectively and efficiently. Administrators oversaw the review and revision of curriculum, facilitated such upgrades as replacing cabling in both schools to improve the district’s technology network and lay the groundwork for future phone system and security upgrades, installed Smartboard technology in 16 classrooms, and restored and repaired school facilities and the district’s fleet of buses.
Tabernacle School District, like any organization, experiences changes that warrant the hiring of new personnel. This year was no different. In order for the schools to be ready for students, the district hired two bus drivers, two educational specialists for the autistic in Nicole Langton and Christian Chapman, two special education teachers, Brianna McCarthy, sixth grade and Meghan Valente, preschool, a music teacher, John Reem, a facilities and transportation manager, Robert Hogan, and a director of curriculum and instruction, Christine Skinner. Every year we need to reassess our staffing needs to meet the needs of students and support educational programming. Like in the past, this year we are extremely impressed with the level of highly qualified staff continuing with us as well as the new staff joining our schools.
Some of the exciting initiatives we will continue to pursue this school year, on behalf of your children, include the updating of the district’s language arts literacy curriculum, the use of the newly adopted district benchmark assessment tool known as the Measures of Academic Progress for measuring student academic growth and program effectiveness, the integration of technology into all our classrooms for students and teachers, the iSTEM or integrated Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics program at the middle school, as well as the development of effective academic interventions for students struggling to meet their learning goals.
Tabernacle Schools continue to strive to provide a quality education that addresses the needs of the whole child, while at the same time providing your child with the groundwork for future success. I want to welcome you all to a new school year, and look forward to seeing you at Back to School Night!
