By Katrina Grant
School is right around the corner and many school districts are laying out goals and getting the district in order before the school year begins. In Tabernacle Township, they are looking forward to a new year and new things happening within the district.
At the Aug. 15 board of education meeting, the Tabernacle superintendent and board of education laid out a set of goals for the district for this year.
“The school district’s goals are to create a framework of existing and potential assessment instruments, not just NJ ASK, which are valid and reliable, in order to track meaningful student achievement, academic growth, and overall educational progress and to develop a high-quality, research-based framework for evaluating teacher practice within the Tabernacle Township schools,” Superintendent George Rafferty said.
“The board’s goals are, within a two-year period, to achieve the Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification, through New Jersey School Boards Association, and implement and facilitate a comprehensive drug and alcohol prevention initiative and anti-bullying campaign that is in line with federal and state laws and guidelines,” Rafferty said.
In other meeting news:
The board discussed the possibility of acquiring a property that is for sale in the township and located on Carranza Road near the back fields of the school. The property is about one acre and is listed at $295,000. Some members of the board have suggested that the property could be used for the solar panel project, but it was said that it is too early in the process to know if that is feasible.
“It could be included in the funding for the solar project,” board member Stephen Pickholtz said.
However, some members on the board expressed concern over the price of the property.
“The only thing is the cost,” Douglas Hess, board president, said. “The only way to do this is if we could finance it through funding somehow. It’s just about the money. We’d have to see what the need of the owners was to sell. I think there is enough interest to explore.”
“This type of opportunity doesn’t come up often,” board member Stephen Price said. “I would hate three or four years from now, we need it and it’s not there. The solar panel (project) is premature, but it would be great to link it to that and have it pay for itself.”
Another suggestion for the property was to provide additional parking to the crowded school parking lots.
The school district is also looking into a possible shared service agreement for transportation with Burlington County Educational Services (the Burlington County Special Services School District) at no cost to the district.
The service would be used by the school district if regular transportation were not available to pick the student up from Tabernacle and bring them to Burlington County Educational Services. Tabernacle School District would be able to call Burlington County Educational Services and have one of their buses, if in the area, pick the child up on the way. The cost of the ride would be split between the districts depending on how many children were on the bus, instead of Tabernacle having to find and pay a substitute.
