It was Signal Hill Elementary School’s time to shine at the Jan. 28 meeting of the Voorhees Township School District Board of Education.
The meeting took place at Signal Hill, and opened with a video presentation from Principal Sharon Stallings who showed the different features and activates that make Signal Hill unique.
The presentation started with Stallings showcasing how Signal Hill was the only school in the district with a preschool program, and showed how the school prepared 3- and 4-year-old students for the road to the district’s elementary school programs.
Pre-school teacher Nicole Ashton said the program integrates typical and special needs students, and creates an environment of acceptance.
Ashton said Signal Hill also provides student-driven technology lessons as well as hands-on activities and interactive centers.
“Our preschools are given access to the same technology that will be utilized as they progress through their education at Signal Hill,” Ashton said
Relating to technology and the older grades at the school, teacher Shawn Seppanen explained how for one project, the school had the fourth graders and second graders interview each other and report the results using school iPads and later writing about the results they found.
Teacher Caitlin Heiser also showed how teaching about astronomy concepts caused fourth-grade teachers to create a fourth-grade stargazing night where students gathered and used an app on the iPads that provided a map of the night sky for them to search the actual sky above them.
“As within all of our schools within the district, technology resources are abundant and integrated throughout instruction…we never worry about the challenge of leveraging these opportunities,” Stallings said. “Technology helps prepare our preschool on through our fifth graders for the globally connected, information saturated world that they are a part of.”
In other news:
• The board awarded Signal Hill teacher Ann Osborne with an achievement award celebrating her 25 years of service in the district.
Osborne, who teaches second grade at the school, has also taught first and third grades during her 25 years at the school.
Board president Richard Nelson said he is always amazed when people have stayed in the district for long periods of time, such as 25 years, and when you’re in the people business, the main reason people might leave their jobs is because of other people, but the opposite of that might hold true as well.
“People leave because of people, but I think that also correlates to people staying because of people, and the fact that people do stay in our district for 25 years and celebrate that, I think that we all get to celebrate that because of the relationships that are formed within our schools and with the people,” Nelson said.
• Board member Barbara Dunleavy was sworn in as vice president.
During the board’s previous reorganization meeting on Jan. 7, board member Denise Kirkland was absent, and the vote for vice president continuously resulted in a 4–4 tie between Dunleavy and board member Bruce Karpf.
As per board rules, since no decision was reached through three consecutive votes at the Jan. 7 meeting, the decision was left to the county, which gave the board vice president position to Dunleavy.
• The next meeting of the Voorhees Township School District BOE is scheduled for Feb. 25 at E.T. Hamilton Elementary School at 7:30 p.m.
