The Haddonfield public school district is just about halfway through the school year. Looking forward, that means there is still a lot to happen.
One of the biggest things coming up for HPS is a $40.9 million bond referendum. The submission of documentation for the referendum was approved in November.
The criteria for the scope of the referendum was for non-functional and/or deteriorating conditions requiring immediate attention, deteriorating components in danger of requiring upgrades that cannot be addressed within the constraints of the operating budget, security and safety considerations, and select program needs at HMHS based on enrollment demands.
“We defined immediate to be either right now or in the next several years, certainly the next five years,” Board of Education President Glenn Moramarco said in a previous meeting.
The referendum was split between one large question and a second question split into three parts.
Residents can vote on the referendum during a special election on Tuesday, March 8.
Before the vote, further details of the referendum would be refined in coming BOE meetings. Also, the BOE Communications Committee is creating a website, planning elementary school tours and brainstorming other ways to get information to the public about the bonds. According to board member Maureen Eyles at the December meeting, the website should be live by Jan. 15.
Also big news coming up for HPS is the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams. First-year individual PARCC scores were sent to parents over winter break.
The district plans to use this first-year data to identify strengths and gaps that exist in curriculum and instruction, inform the conversations of educators when discussing student progress and discuss where additional professional resources are needed to meet learning needs.
PARCC test changes for this academic year include one testing window, 90 minutes overall reductions to tests and fewer test units. The PARCC assessment previously was over two testing windows in March and April. Test units were also reduced to three English/language arts units and three or four math units.
Each school has quite a few exciting events and initiatives coming up in the new year.
Elementary schools
In an effort to promote literacy across the district’s elementary schools, Tatem, Central and Elizabeth Haddon elementary schools are exploring the possibility of doing a One Elementary School One Book project, a school-based family literacy initiative, created by the Read to Them organization. Its mission is to create a shared reading experience across an entire school community and to encourage families to read quality children’s novels aloud, together, at home. The project is designed to unite an entire community of parents, teachers and students by choosing a single book to read over the course of two months. Every family, faculty and staff member at the district’s elementary schools is provided with a new copy of the same children’s novel and reads the book concurrently according to a predetermined schedule.
The district-wide immersion into one book encourages discussion about the book, which can extend from the classroom to the playground and cafeteria, involving every layer of the community. By implementing a district-wide shared reading experience, the One Elementary School One Book program has the potential to instill a shared love of reading across the community, officials said.
Elizabeth Haddon has applied for funding of this program through a grant from the Haddonfield Educational Trust.
Also, all three elementary schools and Haddonfield Middle School in January will be participating in Battle of the Books, a reading motivation program. The goals of the program are to encourage reading for pleasure, to broaden reading interest and to recognize students who enjoy reading. Students form teams and commit to reading a selection of books over a period of time. Students discuss the books, quiz each other on the contents and then compete on teams to correctly answer questions based on the book.
Haddonfield Middle School
HMS is looking forward to working with the Parent Teacher Association to “brand” its own Bulldawg mascot. Currently, the middle school uses a few different mascots: one for the agenda book, one is on the website and a different one is on the mats in gym. According to Principal Dennis Morolda, it would be easier for students to connect and identify with their school if there was one mascot.
The school plans to allow students to submit sketches for a new Bulldawg mascot in the new year. A small committee made up of parents, teachers and students will select a student-created mascot that will then be turned into a digital version and used to represent the HMS community.
Haddonfield Memorial High School
A group of HMHS students participated in a Model UN event in December. During their experience at Rutgers Model UN, a committee on gender equality and speakers from the nationwide campaign “No More” spoke to the students. “No More” is a social media campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault, which has gained support from a variety of organizations, including the NFL.
According to Principal Charles E. Klaus, as the students listened to him speak, they realized this would be a wonderful, effective and unique campaign to bring to HMHS. The 50/50 Club thinks this campaign would have just as much relevance to the Haddonfield campus as it would to many college campuses.
The 50/50 Club plans to take this “No More” project to HMHS and will place billboards with quotes that are used as excuses for sexual assault and domestic violence, such as “Not My Problem” or “It’s Just A Women’s Issue.” The billboards will feature students’ pictures, which are quite powerful, and they represent a pledge that one will no longer be a bystander to these issues.
HMHS’ Shakespeare Troupe hosted its second annual school-wide Shakespeare Competition on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Participants were required to memorize one of Shakespeare’s monologues and perform the selection for a panel of judges. Karleigh Lopez earned first place with Julia’s monologue from “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” and second-place winner Taylor Bee recited a monologue from “Othello” as Desdemona. Lopez and Bee will represent HMHS at the Princeton English Speaking Union’s regional competition in February and will be required to recite both a monologue and sonnet.
For more information on upcoming events at HPS or the individual schools, visit the HPS website at www.haddonfield.k12.nj.us.
