Superintendent: Fort Lee Students Supporting Victims in Japan

It was fitting that Monday’s regular business meeting of the Fort Lee Board of Education opened with a moment of silence for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. It also provided a perfect segue for Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow to highlight the activities of Fort Lee students and what they are doing to try and help.

Students at Fort Lee School No. 3, for example, which has a large concentration of Japanese students—“we were told by the Star Ledger that it has the largest concentration in New Jersey with about 11 percent of our children who speak Japanese at home”—are doing a fundraiser called “helping hands.”

“They’re cutting out of paper hands and decorating them and making a contribution that will go to the Japanese Red Cross,” Bandlow said. “Also some of the younger children are collecting stuffed animals that will go to some of the evacuation centers in Japan.”

Bandlow also noted that the High School Student Council is working on collecting donations and that School No. 1’s SADD organization is making a contribution to the Red Cross as well.

“So I think these are very nice things and I’m glad that students are responding in a spirit of generosity,” Bandlow said.

Getting on to the business of the meeting, the board unanimously approved packages of buildings and grounds, curriculum and instruction, finance, health-welfare and safety and personnel resolutions.

Among those resolutions approved was termination of the Virtual High School program for the 2011-2012 school year.

Bandlow said the main reason for ending the school district’s participation in the program, which offers online credit-bearing high school courses to students across the country, is due to declining student participation.

He said about 38 Fort Lee students participated in the program during its first year, but during its second year—the current school year—enrollment dropped to about 14. There are only 13 students enrolled so far for next year, Bandlow said.

“Initially we had students who had a particular course that they were interested in that they wanted to take and they weren’t able to take for a couple of reasons,” Bandlow said. “We did have to eliminate some courses because of low enrollment, and so for students who wanted those courses Virtual High School was an alternative. But secondly, there were some kids simply because of the nature of scheduling conflicts were not able to take the class they wanted, so the VHS gave them another option too.”

Bandlow went on to say, “We’ve done a little better job at the high school with scheduling, so as a result there aren’t as many of those conflicts. So one part is that there aren’t as many kids who simply perceived the need because of conflicts.”

Another likely reason for declining participation, Bandlow said, is the perceived effectiveness—or more appropriately ineffectiveness—of the program.

“As an example, a lot of initial enrollment was in world languages, but for some of the students who tried that for world languages, the experience has not been that good,” Bandlow said. “And we really question whether it’s an effective way of delivering world languages. It may work better with some courses than others.

The board also passed a resolution to purchase the Teachscape Classroom Walkthrough system, professional development for administrators and online professional libraries at a total cost of nearly $30,000.

“We’re going to be able to use that to assess our teachers on a daily basis,” explained Assistant Superintendent Steven Engravalle. “So that we’re providing feedback. Our main job is to monitor effective instruction, to make sure that effective instruction is taking place in every classroom. It ensures that we use a common language and professional support.”

Engravalle added, “One thing that we haven’t done here, at least in recent years, is trained our administrators on how to conduct effective classroom evaluations to support teachers, which is exactly what they are. Teachers sometimes think they’re ‘gotchas.’ Certainly they’re not ‘gotchas.’

The following is the complete list of resolutions passed by the BOE at Monday’s meeting:

Building And Grounds:

1B&G – Approval of emergency repair

Curriculum and Instruction

1 Cur – Approval of class trips

2 Cur – Community-based instruction for upper elementary autistic class at School No. 2

3 Cur – Approval of Summer 2011 programs

4 Cur – General education preschool program

5 Cur – Approval of Teachscape proposal

6 Cur – Approval of proposal from Bloomfield College for renewal and expansion of ticket program

7 Cur – Termination of Virtual High School program for the 2011-2012 School Year

Finance

1F – Approval current bills list

2F – Donation of automobile

Health-Welfare and Safety

1HWS – Payment of home and bedside instruction services

Personnel

1P – Approval of staff trips and conferences

2P – Revised medical leave for Elizabeth Sofia as elementary school teacher at School No. 3

3P – Approval of Daniel Cirone as Game Worker

4P – Additional substitutes for the 2010-2011 school year

5P – Revised resolution for appointment of Alida Bacich as part-time classroom aide at preschool