Shamong Township sets goal for new school year
By Katrina Grant
At Shamong’s first Board of Education meeting of the new school year, the interim superintendent laid out some goals for the district.
The following six goals are the goals the district put forward to achieve for this school year:
n Goal 1: NJQSAC: The school district wants to successfully assess itself in the NJQSAC process.
n Goal 2: Professional development: The school district wants to provide a professional development program that enables staff to meet the identified needs of their learners.
n Goal 3: Professional learning teams: The school district wants to coordinate the work of staff in analyzing and utilizing data to develop programs and instruction that address the needs of students.
n Goal 4: Energy efficiency: The school district wants to control energy costs and reduce its consumption of energy.
n Goal 5: Technology: The school district wants to implement an effective, successful technology program.
n Goal 6: Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying: The school district wants to successfully implement the state required Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Policy.
The district will also be rolling out a newly designed website. A teacher in the school district started working on the website last winter. It is meant to provide information about what is happening in the district, give a more uniformed look and easier navigation to provide information to parents, teachers and other viewers.
The website will also have a section on bullying that provides information and resources, and staff resources. The site is meant to be user-friendly for the entire community.
Various financial issues in the district were also a big topic of discussion. The public had questions about substitute speech and language therapist position that needs to be filled and the rate of pay that individual would receive. The individual would be paid $440 a day, where long-term subs make $225 a day. The board said that the importance of the position and the certification that the individual held was the reason for that rate of pay. The certification that the individual holds is highly specialized. The board said it shopped around for the position, but it did not post for it. Members of the public believe the board should have posted for it.
The district and the teacher’s union still have not settled on a contract for the schoolteachers. Teachers and members of the public stood in unison to express their disappointment with the contract negotiations and pointed to the hard work and sacrifices that the teachers make, despite not having a new contract. The board was not able to comment on the contract negotiations. The board has a negotiator and so does the union.
