Schools
Rumson Board of Education Discusses Teacher Attendance and Various School Improvements
A round-up of what was discussed at the BOE meeting on Wednesday, June 29th, in the Forrestdale library.
The Rumson Board of Education met for a regular meeting this past Wednesday evening, June 29th. Although various topics were discussed, the meeting primarily focused on this year’s faculty attendance report and the reconstruction of the school grounds.
First on the agenda, the superintendent, Superintendent Scott Feder, stressed the importance of teacher attendance. He explained, “A day without the teacher in the classroom cannot be retrieved—the students entirely lose this day of learning.”
To combat this loss of learning, the school board changed the teacher contract last year to include less available days off. Throughout the 2009-2010 school year, teachers were given a total of 20 available days off: 15 sick days and 5 personal days. This year, however, they were only given 17 days: 11 sick days, 4 personal days, and 3 family illness days.
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In response to this change in contract, the number of days each teacher was absent this past school year decreased by 19%. Likewise, the number of teachers who maxed out on their allotted sick days decreased from 40% to 29%.
The superintendent reported being very pleased with this statistically significant change in attendance, and explained that he would be happy to see these numbers continue into the future.
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After completing this discussion, the board briefly talked about various other topics, including the growing summer camp program, the troubling state aid resolution, the acceptance of the special education monitoring report, the appointment of new personnel, and lastly the changes taking place to the school grounds.
As one may see by driving past Forrestdale, the athletic fields are . This a project that the district and the borough have teamed up for in order to offer Rumson residents new and improved athletic fields.
Next year, along with new soccer and baseball fields, the school will feature a new playground, donated to the school by the KDM foundation in honor of Keith McHeffey. The playground will feature a boulder embedded with a plaque to commemorate Mr. McHeffy who lost his life in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
All in all, the meeting reported positive feed back from this past year and positive improvements to come in the upcoming school year.
