Osborne Gives H1N1 Update

No more swine flu testing, but same precautions are recommended.

In advance of a countywide summit on H1N1, or swine flu, preparation next week, South Orange and Maplewood school district Superintendent Brian Osborne provided a quick update at the Sept. 21 school board meeting. There has been no uptick in flu-like symptoms at the schools, Osborne said. Nonetheless, parents and students are advised to maintain previously suggested preventive measures. “Wash your hands a lot more than you usually do,” Osborne said. Osborne said the Federal Centers for Disease Control has changed its guidelines from keeping children home from school. Previously, the recommendation was to have children displaying flu-like symptoms out of school for 4 to 7 days. The recommendation now allows them to return to school 24 hours…

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New Teacher Evaluations for 2009-2010

The focus is on bringing consistency to the evaluation process.

The school district is implementing a new framework for end-of-year evaluations to reduce variation in evaluators' approaches and to make the reports into more useful tools for teachers. The change has been in the works for about a year according to Superintendent Brian Osborne, who said that district staff met with union leaders from SOMEA to gather feedback last October and began educating administrators on how the new procedure will work and the instructional theories underlying it in February. Osborne said there's long been an awareness in the district that the evaluation process is flawed, since the forms used by principals and supervisors were open-ended and subject to being approached in different ways. "It led to a lot of …

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No Current Plans to Inoculate Students for Swine Flu in Schools

The district's strategy for containing H1N1 doesn't currently call for vaccinations.

At a pandemic flu summit in South Brunswick on Tuesday attended by educators from throughout New Jersey, state education Commissioner Lucille Davy said that the decision to close schools due to flu outbreaks or to use them as venues for H1N1 inoculation would be left to the individual districts. The South Orange Maplewood school district sent a representative to the summit, and its current H1N1 containment strategy doesn't call for vaccinations. In a letter posted online and sent to parents on Thursday, Superintendent Brian Osborne advises parents to take measures including teaching children to wash their hands frequently with a sanitizer and not to share food, drinks and utensils with classmates. It also says that additional steps may be …

Presentation Given on HSPA Results at BOE

The reporting showed test results by race and the amount of time the 11th grade students were enrolled in the district.

The district's chief information officer, Paul Roth, reported on 11th grade HSPA results from the 2008-2009 school year at Monday's Board of Education meeting. The full report is available here. Roth's analysis of test data showed that students who had been in the district for seven years or longer fared significantly better on both the language arts and math portions of the test than students who had just enrolled that school year. It also pointed to a continuing achievement gap, which Superintendent Brian Osborne recently formed a class leveling task force to address. According to the data, 38.9 percent of African-American test-takers scored partially-proficient on the math portion of the exam, compared to 6.5 percent of white students, …

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School District Reports on Violence and Vandalism

The number of reported incidents in the 2008-2009 school year declined over the previous year.

The district's chief information officer Paul Roth gave a presentation at Monday's Board of Education meeting on the incidence of violence and vandalism in schools to comply with state and federal (No Child Left Behind) reporting requirements on criminal behavior in or on school property. According to Roth, the number of reported incidents in the 2008-09 school year was 94, a decline of 27 over the previous year. The data also shows that there were 47 incidents involving violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse at Columbia High School and 43 at Maplewood Middle School, but just four at South Orange Middle School. View his complete presentation here.

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Board of Ed Approves Hire of New Jefferson Principal

Susan Grierson will assume the post in October.

On Monday night, the Board of Education voted 7-0 to approve Susan Grierson to become the new principal of Jefferson School.  Grierson will start work on Oct. 12 and be paid an annual salary of $132,800. For the past eight years, she has served as principal of the K-8 Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City. She previously worked for nine years as an assistant principal at an elementary school in Brooklyn.  Superintendent Brian Osborne recommended the appointment of Grierson following a search to fill the principal position vacated by Dr. Mary Rose Caulfied-Sloan. In June and July, a panel of parents and district staff interviewed 10 candidates from a pool of 34 applicants. “She knows well what it takes to make all students reach …

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New Principal for Jefferson School

Supt. Osborne recommends Susan Grierson, a former Jersey City school principal, for the job.

On Thursday, Aug. 13, the school district sent a letter to parents of students at Jefferson School announcing that Schools Supt. Brian Osborne will recommend that the Board of Education appoint Susan Grierson as the new Principal of Jefferson Elementary School. Grierson has been the principal of the K-8 Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City for the last eight years. The appointment is not official until the school board votes on it at their Monday, Aug. 17, meeting. The full letter is below. To the Jefferson Elementary School Community,  The search for a new principal for Jefferson Elementary School is reaching a conclusion.  This Monday, August 17, 2009, I will recommend to the Board of Education that it appoint Ms. Susan …

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CHS Freshman Orientation Announced

Despite the heat, school is around the corner.

The school district has announced the date for Freshman orientation at Columbia High School. On Thursday, September 3, 2009, incoming Freshmen are invited to Columbia's campus. The daytime event is for students only, and offers a chance to meet the teachers and staff, and become familiar with the campus. That evening, parents and guardians are invited to join the incoming class at a 7 p.m. information session at the school. The full release is here as PDF. The text from the release is below. School District of South Orange and Maplewood COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL 17 Parker Avenue • Maplewood, New Jersey 07040 973-762-5600 extension 1016 mhealy@somsd.k12.nj.us   2009 Freshman Orientation   Dear Parents/Guardians and Students of the Class of 2013…

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Registration Begins Today For Fall Adult School Classes

Subjects range from dance and film to languages, computers and science.

With more than 150 classes, this fall's South Orange-Maplewood Adult School offers help with computers, languages and cooking, a chance to discuss film, or German Romantic Poetry or just go dancing with your significant other. Registration begins Monday, Aug. 3. A number of classes in the Active Mind, Computers and Technology, and Languages sections offer an early bird discount for those who register by Sept. 18. As always, the offerings are varied, and include the popular “College for a Day,” when locals can study Geology, German Romantic Poetry, Sociology/Anthropology, and Greek Comedy, all on Saturday, November 21.  The twentieth annual Repath Lecture, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, will feature esteemed educator Everett Kline on what we should…

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