What’s the biggest difference in dealing with the state board of education’s business and a local board of education’s?
Having more time to focus on education and curriculum instead of the finances, according to the newest state board of education member, Joe Fisicaro.
Fisicaro returned to Marlton this past week to lead students in writing letters to soldiers overseas for the holidays, and took some time to talk about his experiences so far on the state BOE.
Fisicaro spent about an hour at Jaggard Elementary School Thursday, Dec. 15, helping the fourth-grade students of Paula Harrison’s class to write the holiday greetings.
It was one of the latest initiatives from the governor’s office, Fisicaro said, and he was more than happy to visit his neighborhood school to help the children.
“This is just a great program. Jaggard Elementary was the first school to invite me to see this,” Fisicaro said as he watched children design their cards.
The Evesham Township School District will send out about 1,251 cards at the end of the holiday season.
This is his new life as a state board of education member. When not in BOE meetings or working with his various committees, Fisicaro travels to different school districts throughout New Jersey to visit with students and faculty, to experience new and exciting programs.
Fisicaro was sworn into his seat on Oct. 5, and has since taken a role on the state BOE’s science, math and technology committee as he becomes accustomed to his new settings. Making the leap from the Lenape Regional High School BOE to the state BOE has been a smooth one, he said, and one that has an added upside.
“We don’t have to focus so much on finances. It’s all about the curriculum and education,” Fisicaro said. “The governor’s office has to worry about the financial aspect. The BOE is about the education.”
It’s a different scenario than when he started at the Evesham BOE in 1988, he said, because most of his job was about balancing the budget and making sure the district had a firm financial ground to stand on.
Currently, the state is looking to revise the its annual report cards, Fisicaro said, to compare unique schools to each other instead of the past practices of comparing school districts.
Also, the report cards will likely place less of an emphasis on the financial standings of a district as well, he said.
The BOE also signed a waiver for relief from the No Child Left Behind act, and its 2014 deadline for bringing all students to proficiency in math and reading.
It’s unfair to schools that have one child perform poorly on a test and subsequently fail the entire school, Fisicaro said.
Despite his good work at the state level, Evesham School District BOE President Sandy Student said losing a friend in Fisicaro to the state was tough to handle for the kindergarten through eighth-grade district.
“Whenever we had something that we needed, or wanted to change something, we always had Joe to turn to at the Lenape district. He was an ally,” Student said. “He could still walk into any school or Cherokee High School today and know most of the students.”
