The Eastern Camden County Regional School District board of education met for its first regular meeting of the year Jan. 29 to discuss an upcoming capital project, further collaboration with its sending districts, potential extracurricular programs and other issues.
During his report near the top of the meeting, Superintendent Robert Cloutier said the schools’ technology department is working with the Berlin Borough district to make it possible for the sending district to borrow keyboards that will make testing quicker.
“They requested to borrow some keyboards for their iPads after we use them for our testing,” Cloutier said. “That’ll allow them, for what is usually six weeks of testing, to now test over two weeks by borrowing keyboards that we will loan to them.”
Cloutier also said Eastern will continue to meet with top administrators from its sending districts in an effort to review common data issues they can collectively address by identifying themes.
Business Administrator Diana Schiraldi reminded the board during the meeting that the district’s budget development is ongoing; the state released the software program that will eventually allow for Eastern to input budget information due March 20. But Eastern and other schools will not be made aware of state aid amounts for their 2020-2021 school budgets until after Feb. 25.
Also approved at the meeting was a move forward to replace of the gymnasium HVAC. More information on the project is pending.
Later in the meeting, Cloutier said the district seeks introductory discussions on both eSports and girls wrestling. As it pertains to eSports, Cloutier said the district wants to have a meeting with Voorhees Township and Rowan University regarding a partnership and the ability to bring such a program to Eastern. A potential meeting is scheduled for early February.
For girls wrestling, Cloutier said Eastern’s athletic director continues to pursue additional information on the potential for a team. During introductory meetings, Cloutier was made aware that about 10 girls expressed interested in joining such a squad.
Schiraldi acknowledged the board of education during the meeting in honor of School Board Recognition Month, put forth by the New Jersey School Boards Association. She thanked the board with a resolution passed during the session.
“We just wanted to mention that and take the opportunity to thank all of our board members for their dedication and hard work and all the time they put in through these meetings,” Schiraldi noted.
“They support our students, our staff and our community in the work that they do.”
The board will host its next meeting Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m., with a special presentation beginning at 7 p.m. to honor the girls soccer team.
