The Black Horse Pike Regional School District board of education held its monthly meeting Feb. 20 at Highland Regional High School in the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township.
Prior to the regular agenda, the board hosted interviews for an open seat representing the township. The opening followed the resignation last month of Jill Dawson, who recently moved out of the district. The board interviewed four candidates.
Following an executive session to vet those candidates, the board unanimously approved Kaitlyn Hutchinson to the board seat, according to Solicitor Dan Long. Hutchison will serve on the board for the calendar year, before the seat will be open for another three-year term in November.
The board allocates seven of its nine seats to members who represent Gloucester Township.
During the meeting, the board welcomed members of the New Jersey Garden City Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, who visited the district to donate school supplies and winter clothing items.
Superintendent Brian Repici said he had been approached by the executive county superintendent for Camden County to see if districts are interested in receiving such materials from the sorority.
Knowing the district has Care Closets across its three schools filled with coats, hats and other items that can be given to students where there is a need, Repici said he jumped at the opportunity to receive the donations and invited the group to the board meeting.
Sorority President Traci Benjamin said the donations were part of a larger mission to provide help to students and school districts during the school year, when the need for certain supplies or materials may go unnoticed.
“We celebrated our 30th anniversary last year and we’re doing nine commemorative projects this year,” Benjamin said. “It was brought to our attention how students have a need not only in August or September when school starts, but also during the middle of the school year, when supplies could be running low.
“Because part of our mission is service, we wanted to be of service to school districts and provide them with supplies.”
According to Benjamin, the sorority also has donated through February to school districts in Lindenwold, Pine Hill and Clementon, encompassing all ages at those schools.
“They’re all things that schools might need in order to help fill the gap when parents can’t,” the sorority president said. “We want to be an ally for the community.”
During its meeting, the board also approved the use of therapy dogs at Triton and Highland Regional high schools during March. According to the agenda, the Tri-State K-9 Response Team and PAWS (Animal Society) will be invited to both schools for staff and students to interact with the animals on a selected day.
Repici made the board aware that parents have already received notification of the therapy dog visits, and that the issue of allergic students will be addressed. The district wants the dogs to interact with students to help reduce anxiety or stress during the school day.
“The idea is that they would come in to our schools and work with our students,” Repici noted. “The plan would basically be to have them come in during March … and have students come work with them in a therapeutic fashion. It’s supervised and monitored not only by those that operate the program, but also by our own counseling team.”
According to Repici, Timber Creek has not yet been approved by the board for the dog therapy program, but he hopes that will change in the future.
Highland Principal Lisa Owen said the program is a positive for students and staff and the district can be one of the early pioneers for its regular use in schools.
“I feel like Black Horse Pike [Regional School District] is always right on the edge of what we’re trying to do, and once again we’re on the edge of this,” she said. “We want to start slowly, but then increase the frequency in which we train and use dogs … The way students react to the dogs, they physically change their demeanor, it calms their breathing … and they end up talking a lot more about things that they want to talk about.”
