Schools

Some Major Changes Coming in New School Year in Bernards Twp.

Elementary schools to start earlier and end a little later this year. February vacation is gone.

Bernards Township Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian sent an electronic letter home to parents last week outlining some of the changes and projects implemented in local schools this summer.

The school district completed 52 curriculum projects, including major revisions in grades three to five language arts and grades six to eight mathematics. the letter said.

The first day of school this year is Monday, Sept. 9.

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School day lengthened in elementary schools, February vacation ended

His current letter doesn't address previously raised subjects such as the addition of 15 extra minutes in the morning, and another 15 at the end of the day to lengthen the elementary school day.

Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Starting on the first day of school, on Monday, Sept. 9, school buses will be scheduled to arrive at each of the four elementary schools by 8:25 a.m., to reflect a starting time that has been moved to 8:45 a.m., instead of the longstanding 9 a.m., according to information from the superintendent earlier this summer. Parents also will be asked to arrive before that time.

Buses then will arrive at the elementary schools — including Oak Street, Cedar Hill, Liberty Corner and Mount Prospect — at 3 p.m., which had been the dismissal time for elementary students in previous school years.

The new dismissal time for kindergarten through grade five will be 3:15 p.m., according to the superintendent. 

That will add an additional half-hour to the total elementary school day, increasing the time from six to six and a half hours, Markarian said. He had said the new school day would be more in line with the average school day in the state's other elementary schools.

This year, for the first time, a full-week February vacation will be eliminated, and a spring break will be held in April. That replaces the full weeklong breaks previously scheduled each February and later in April.

As a result of shrinking vacation time throughout the year, the last scheduled day of school in 2014 is June 20. This year's final day of school was June 26.

Ridge students can earn credits at Raritan Valley Community College

In addition, Ridge High School has added Advance Placement classes in Art History, Honors Current Issues, and Media and Video Production. Ridge students may now also earn credit from Raritan Valley Community College for Personal Finance II and Honors Accounting.

Summer work has also included a great deal of work in preparing student schedules for the fall, Markarian said.

Schedules and teachers assignments to be mailed

Schedules for high school and middle school students will be available through the online Home Access Center on or about Wednesday, Aug. 28.

Elementary teacher assignments for September will be emailed to parents on Friday, August 23, Markarian said. All bus passes will be mailed to parents on August 30.

Summer work also included a host of cleaning, maintenance and construction projects. Most notably, the Special Services Office has been relocated from the Board Office to Oak Street School. The move made way to reposition the computer network hub from Cedar Hill to the Board Office, ultimately allowing  the school to add two small instruction classrooms at Cedar Hill School. Additionally, the annex wing at Cedar Hill School was renovated to create more classroom space, Markarian said. The projects are all on schedule and should be completed for the start of school.

By the time school opens on Sept. 9,  the school district's teaching and administrative staff will have completed extensive professional development training, Markarian said. He said the district is focusing efforts on coaching staff to work in collaborative groups; this is a major long term initiative. The aim is to use the groups to focus on improving student achievement by analyzing and responding to student data. Additionally, these professional learning communities will assist in the goal development necessary to implement the new teacher evaluation system that the state has mandated must begin this September, he said


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