Board sets goals for new year

ENGLISHTOWN — At its meeting on Aug. 17 the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education approved board goals and district goals for the 2010-11 school year.

Both sets of goals were approved by 8-0 votes by board members Joseph De- Pasquale, Lori Semel, Brian Graime, Diane Bindler, Michele Stipelman, Valerie Maglione, Annamarie Galante and board President Donna Formoso.

Board member James Mumolie was absent.

The board’s goals for the 2010-11 school year are:

• The board will support the continuation of the Professional Learning Communities initiative which will focus on increasing student achievement for all students and seek to close the achievement gap.

• The board will support the continuation of the Professional Learning Communities initiative which will focus on increasing access to the district’s most rigorous curriculum in math and language arts for all students.

• The board will evaluate the district budget and make critical decisions within the guidelines of the state budget cap.

• The board will continue to have open lines of communication with central administration to ensure that accurate information is available to the board.

The district goals for the 2010-11 school year are:

• The district will increase student achievement for all students and seek to close the achievement gap using a variety of local, state and national indicators to document improved learning on the part of the district’s students.

• The district will provide more students with access to the district’s most rigorous curriculum in math and language arts.

In other action, the board approved a series of curriculum trips for special education pupils who attend the Taylor Mills and Lafayette Mill schools. The vote to approve the curriculum trips was 8-0.

According to the board, going on the curriculum trips will assist the children in their socialization skills, their health program and in their community safety studies.

The curriculum trips will see the pupils visit Battleview Orchards, Casola Farms, Freehold Raceway Mall, Wegmans, Bounce/McDonald’s, Allaire State Park and Jenkinson’s Aquarium (all socialization skills); CentraState Medical Center (health program); and the police department/Applebee’s (community safety).

Superintendent of Schools John J. Marciante Jr. reported that he has been invited to become part of a state panel that will review New Jersey’s school funding formula. He said Manalapan-Englishtown was selected to participate on the panel because it has been deemed to be a high performing district that is providing a thorough and efficient education to its students.

Marciante also reported that switching to a new system of cluster bus stops is estimated to save the district more than $230,000 in the upcoming school year.

As previously explained by the superintendent, cluster bus stops will result in more children being picked up at one bus stop in a particular area rather than a few children being picked up at many bus stops in that same area.

The switch to cluster bus stops will require more children to walk a longer distance to a particular bus stop than has been the case in recent years. The savings amount to 52 hours per day, he said.

“The decision to go to cluster bus stops has saved the district a lot of money,” he said.

Contact staff writer Mark Rosman

at gmntnews@gmnews.com.