Music, dance, reading and writing skills highlighted at last week’s meeting
At the Sept. 26 Board of Education meeting, Wedgwood students and staff presented their academic accomplishments and improvements in reading and writing skills, while students from Hurffville Elementary School with the Changing Our World Project showcased their musical talent with an original song and video, “It’s Up to You. It’s Up to Me.”
Wedgwood Elementary School Principal Charlie Zimmerman presented to the board the school’s adjustments in English Language Arts instruction at the primary grade level. Teachers and students from the first- and second-grade level presented the developments made in how reading and writing is taught, as well as practiced in both the classroom and home environment.
“At Wedgwood, much of the work we do in our primary grades is focused on helping students learn to read, so they can, in turn, read to learn for many years to come,” Zimmerman said.
Since the adoption of a new ELA curriculum in September 2016, reading specialist Andrea Hughes said, the school has focused on creating a “greater alignment” between reading and writing instruction. For example, students are spending more time practicing purposeful, authentic reading and writing in kindergarten through second-grade classes, as well as focusing on genre studies and the writing process. Teachers engage in reading and writing conferences with students individually, as well as encourage families to read to, and with, their children at least four nights a week.
According to first-grade teacher Ellen Calandra, the inclusion of technology in the classroom has also advanced the instruction of reading and writing in the classroom, with about 15 iPads in each Wedgwood Elementary School kindergarten through second-grade classroom. Students practice their skills through different applications, allowing them to read, take quizzes or retell their story with a partner. The application SeeSaw app, used as a digital portfolio, enables the students to take pictures of what they are reading, capture videos of themselves reading out loud and more. Parents can also connect to the app through a QR code specialized for their child to view the student’s classroom work, videos and pictures.
At the meeting, second-grade students Cameron Iannacone, Jackson Chudzinski and Morgan DeLuca read aloud to the audience their own books, complete with chapters and a table of contents, written last year as first graders, with topics ranging from wild animals, movies and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Students from Hurffville Elementary School were also recognized at the meeting with the presentation of the original song and music video, “It’s Up to You. It’s Up to Me.” The collaborative project with Washington Township High School Changing Our World Project representative Eileen Lucarini, dance teacher Eisa Jackson and Hurffville Elementary music teacher Nancy Leong, showcased the character of the district’s elementary school community service efforts.
“Washington Township is very well known for its community service and generosity to our friends, neighbors and families who suffer from medical crisis and financial crisis,” Lucarini said “As the COW project co-founder, we try to address that as a collaborative effort.”
Lucarini said the video presentation was a kick-off to the implementation of FutureActs at the elementary school level, pre-existing in the three middle schools as a community service program.
“It’s critically important right now to develop at a young age the notion of service in our kids, why it matters and why it’s important,” Superintendent Joseph Bollendorf said. “We try to instill those things at home, but I think it’s really important for a school district to embrace that opportunity as well.”
In other news:
In receipt of the district’s special counsel report in regard to an investigation on Washington Township Principal Association contracts, which officials said details were protected with attorney-client privilege, Vice President Bob Abbott presented the board with recommendations from the attorney to prevent additional investigations in the future. The board voted on one of six recommendations before tabling the discussion until a typed, clear document was provided.
The first recommendation to ratify an Aug. 25, 2015, addendum creating an additional salary line column for assistant director for assessment, counseling services and educational support programs could not be voted on as the board did not have a quorum, the minimum number of voting members, with board member Karen Garrison absent.
According to Abbott, the second recommendation prohibited the board from approving Memorandums of Agreement for collective bargaining agreements without receiving completed salary guides, as well as required all documents presented to the board to be dated, with board members and all staff dating documents on the day they are signed, even if the date differs from the date on the document. Also, MOAs between the board and bargaining units must be presented to the board, discussed and voted on prior to acceptance, with no language, terms or conditions changes prior to board notification. Finally, all finances must be presented to the board before the expenditure.
The recommendation failed to pass with only Abbot and board member Candice Zachowski voting “yes.”
“The recommendations have to do with doing business as a board, and to then vote on recommendations that have words scribbled out, it has to be edited, it has to be dated with today’s date,” board member Julie Yankanich said. “It wasn’t that I was voting ‘no,’ it was that it was very quickly given to us and very quickly going to vote.”
According to board member Tiffany Orihel, the recommendations were presented to the board about an hour prior to the meeting.
“We didn’t see the final recommendations until about an hour before tonight’s meeting,” Orihel said. “We were trying to understand them and if we had more time, I think we would have been OK with it.”
The recommendations will be reconsidered at the next board meeting scheduled for Oct. 16.
