The district will also have several new administrators beginning this school year.
After more than two months of silence, school bells will ring again across Cherry Hill Township on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
A new school year is here and a number of changes are taking place in Cherry Hill Public Schools. From school security to curriculum, students and parents will notice a few new things for the 2018–19 academic year.
One of the biggest changes will be the expansion of the district’s campus police. There are now nine officers working in the district’s campus police force, up from four officers previously. The expanded staff will allow for two officers at each high school, one officer at each middle school and two officers for the district’s other buildings.
“There will be two officers who will rotate and visit the 12 elementary schools and the alternative high school and administration building,” Superintendent Joe Meloche said.
As per a change in district policy made last spring, all campus police officers will be armed. Meloche said all of the officers have been undergoing training in a number of areas, including working with Cherry Hill Police and training on the district’s cultural proficiency, equity and character education values.
The additional campus police will not preclude the police department from working with the district. Meloche said Cherry Hill police officers will still visit the schools and work hand-in-hand with the campus police.
The district will continue with the same security protocols it implemented in early March. The new protocols require parents, guardians and family members to provide photo identification and the student ID number of their child before entering the building. Any other visitors must make an appointment prior to arriving at school and must also present a photo ID.
In the classroom, the biggest curriculum change this year has been the addition of Mandarin Chinese at the high schools. Earlier this year, the district hired Xiaowen Qui to teach Chinese I at both high schools. Meloche said Qui is a native Chinese speaker and will play a big role in growing the program.
“She is the one that developed the curriculum we will be using,” Meloche said. “She just completed her master’s degree at Rutgers University in speaking Chinese.”
There will be four sections of Chinese I taught at Cherry Hill High School East and two sections at Cherry Hill High School West. Meloche said plans are also underway to begin developing a Chinese II class for 2019–20.
Several new administrators are joining the district this year. The district is in the process of hiring Justin Smith, formerly an administrator with the Lenape Regional High School District, as the new assistant superintendent for K-12. The board of education approved the submission of Smith’s contract to the Camden County Superintendent’s Office at its August work session meeting.
There are several building level changes as well. Cherry Hill High School East will have two new assistant principals, Ted Beatty and Aaron Edwards. Sonia Singh, a former biology teacher at Cherry Hill East, will now be assistant principal at Beck Middle School. Finally, at Kilmer Elementary School, Betsi McLeester will begin the year as interim principal, with principal Eloisa DeJesus-Woodruff on a leave of absence.
This year’s back to school night schedule has been changed. Many of the back to school nights now fall on a handful of nights earlier in September rather than being spread out across the month as in past years. Meloche said the changes were made for a couple reasons.
“Part of it is we’re trying to get as many parents into the school by the end of September as we possibly can,” he said. “One of our goals as a school district is to enhance the relationship between the schools and the families.”
Meloche said this year’s calendar was also a challenge due to the number of religious holidays falling during the month. The district is closed on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11 for Rosh Hashanah and Sept. 19 in observance of Yom Kippur.
“September is a tough month calendar wise for us because of the observance of holidays,” Meloche said. “We didn’t want to run back to school nights into the second week of October.”
Meloche encouraged parents who would like additional information on the district to visit www.chclc.org or download the Cherry Hill Public Schools app. The app is available on the iTunes App Store and on Google Play.
