Douglas Hess resigned as school board president at the July Tabernacle Board of Education meeting.
He cited an increase in responsibilities pertaining to his professional career obligations as the reason for him stepping down. He will continue to serve on the board in a lesser role.
“The Tabernacle community at large should know Mr. Hess’ leadership is a valuable asset to the schools and the community, and I am pleased he has chosen to continue to remain on the board and serve,” superintendent George Rafferty said.
The board, superintendent and the administrators in attendance thanked Hess for his service and dedication as board president. Afterward, the board nominated and unanimously approved the appointment of Michael Lee as board president and LauraClapps as vice president. Lee acted as vice president during Hess’ board presidency.
“It is both a sad and happy time for myself and the board. We are sad to see Hess step down but excited that he remains a part of the board and for our future with Lee as board president,” Rafferty said.
Prior to the meeting, the board, along with Rafferty, completed its final hour of training necessary to achieve the Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification award through the New Jersey School Boards Association.
The award recognizes high performing boards. It is estimated only 25 out of more than 600 boards in the state have received the award. According to the NJSBA’s requirements, “In order to achieve this level of certification, recipient boards must demonstrate an emphasis on student achievement in their board actions.”
Further requirements set by the NJSBA to earn Master Board Certification include the board and superintendent completing at least 10 additional hours of training, for a total of 28 board credits.
“Receiving this certification speaks to the dedication this board has to bettering the schools in our district,” Rafferty said.
In other news:
• The board announced its goals for the 2013–14 school year. The first goal is to fully implement a newly adopted teacher and principal performance evaluation system to meet the NJDOE’s mandates for all districts. Last year, the district piloted a new teacher evaluation model meeting the criteria set by the NJDOE and plans to fully implement the model in September.
Secondly, the board will continue with its efforts to implement a comprehensive benchmark assessment system to measure student achievement across all grade levels.
The district has already implemented its newly adopted assessment for all students in grades K through two, but next year will include students in grades three through eight as well.
The board is asking for quarterly reports at the public meetings from the school administration on how students are performing based on the newly established benchmark.
“This will be not be difficult given the quality, reliability and validity of the new assessment the district has adopted,” Rafferty said.
The district will be using the Measures of Academic Progress developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association.
Finally, the board will continue efforts to effectively implement technology for enhancing instruction and student learning. Currently, the district has achieved 100 percent Wi-Fi accessibility throughout the schools, initiated the use of wireless laptop computers for all grade levels, makes use of iPads in all inclusion classrooms, and is migrating over to Google for staff and student email. The 2013–14 goals will be formally approved by the board of education at a future meeting.
• The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. in Olson Middle School media center.
