Teachers in Haddonfield School District received more than $10K in grant money for educational pursuits
Haddonfield Educational Trust made presentation at Board of Education meeting
The Haddonfield Educational Trust, under the guidance of Chairperson for the Teacher Grant subcommittee Teresa Przybylski, awarded 12 teachers a total of $10,500 in grant money to further the strategic objective of “Growing in Excellence” at the most recent meeting of Haddonfield’s Board of Education.
Recipients of the grant awards were Debbie Adams, Jane Choi, Emily Dempsey, Melissa Enright, Lynn Green, Maureen McGroarty, Sophie Nelson, Katie Reddington, Ron Smith, Kate Sereno, Alison Reynolds and Sue Zitter.
These teachers were selected based on proposals submitted to the HET last fall. The grants will support hundreds of students in the district by providing them with learning opportunities that go above and beyond the curriculum.
Award money will go toward providing first-, third- and fifth-grade students with the “Bach 2 Rock: Science of Sound” assemblies, where three dimensional sound waves will become visible, bringing music to life before the students’ eyes and ears. Kindergarten students will get to further their science experience through macro lenses and plant presses allowing them to observe tree parts and record the seasonal changes of plant life.
Kindergarten through fifth-grade students at both Elizabeth Haddon and Tatem elementary schools will be greeted with redesigned library media centers equipped with flexible seating options to best meet their educational needs. In addition, children in one third-grade class with
attention disorders, sensory challenges and typical 8-year-old distractibility will also benefit from flexible seating at various work stations throughout the day in their classroom.
Haddonfield Memorial High School students taking digital photography, web design, graphic design and video production will be able to enhance their learning experience with new state-of-the-art equipment that will prepare them for college-level courses.
Special education students from Haddonfield Memorial High School will be given the opportunity to partner with Kingsway Learning Center to provide field study data of various New Jersey bird species back to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a global bird conservation led by citizens all over the world.
“The Haddonfield Educational Trust Teacher Grants are meant to further the educational objectives of the district of Haddonfield. We are constantly impressed with the creativity and dedication of our fine teachers and are proud to support them as they continue their efforts of ‘Growing in Excellence,’” said Haddonfield Educational Trust President Dave Larkin.
Superintendent Larry Mussoline then presented the outline of a mission statement and three broad strategic goals for the district during the 2019–20 school year, in light of a survey sent to all residents in the borough regarding its strategic plan. The results of the survey were compiled by Mussoline and other district personnel following a Jan. 31 deadline, and formulated into the mission statement and educational goals, with a chairperson and co-chairperson assigned to each individual goal.
Haddonfield School District will operate under the mantra, “We nurture, inspire and empower” for the coming academic session, and its trio of strategic goals will be social and emotional, cultural competence and 21st century teaching and learning.
On March 18, Mussoline said, the chairs and co-chairs of each will meet to create action plans for each respective goal.
In other news:
- The board issued a statement expressing concern over the tax structure for the townhomes to be built on the parcel of land included in the Bancroft Redevelopment Plan.
- Jaime Auletto Grookett, selected by the board in January to fill the vacant seat left by Mary Fagan in December, cleared all background checks and participated in her first official meeting as a board member.
- Twenty-eight members of Haddonfield Memorial High School’s German classes were honored for their performance on the National German Exam. Five received gold medals for their scores at Levels III and IV: senior Lucia Herdelin, sophomores Christopher Derivaux, Josephine Foust and Olivia Stoner, along with freshman Lisa Edmonston. Six received silver medals, four took home bronze medals, and 13 earned achievement awards.