Grading, Recess Rules Changes: Brick School Board Highlights

BRICK, NJ — Changes to grading and to rules regarding recess and are being implemented in the Brick Township School District this year.

The battle over school funding is continuing, and there is working air conditioning the auditorium at Veterans Memorial Elementary School for the first time in nearly a decade. And a Brick Township Schools' PTA president has been selected as president of the statewide PTA organization.

That is just some of the news that came out of the Board of Education meeting on Sept. 12. Take a look.

PARENT ALERTS FROM THE DISTRICT

The Brick Township Schools is moving to a new service for issuing messages to the school district's staff, parents and students. In August, it approved a contract with Blackboard Inc. for its mass notifications.

The changeover from Honeywell to Blackboard will happen Oct. 1, acting Superintendent Sean Cranston said.

Parents are being urged to check Genesis to make sure the district has up-to-date contact information in its files, and to keep an eye on the school district's website in late September and early October. Once the changeover to Blackboard is complete, the district will send a test message to make sure parents are receiving messages through the new system, he said.

GRADING CHANGE

The changes to the district's grading system are aimed at encouraging students to keep working and studying rather than giving up because they have fallen behind.

"Sometimes students numerically get themselves in a hole," said Alyce Anderson, who was promoted over the summer to director of curriculum and instruction. If a student finishes the first half of a course with a 20, for instance, even a perfect grade of 100 in the second half would leave them with a failing grade.

To encourage students to not give up, there is a minimum grade of a 50 for the first semester of a course, she said, "so there's a pathway to passing." The change is part of a move to assessing the progress of students.

It's not a guarantee of passing a course, however.

"You will receive whatever score you get in the second half," Anderson said. Students who don't do the work will suffer the consequences, she said.

Board president Stephanie Wohlrab asked whether the minimum 50 grade will hurt students when it comes to preparing them for careers or college, and Anderson said it does not, because it does not give them a free pass to not work the entire year.

For a student who's struggling and putting in the effort, it gives them hope, Anderson said.

Resident John Sluka was critical of the grading change, calling it "the lazy way out for students and for teachers. If you're going to give a zero a 50, why not give a 65 an 85? I think it's a bad precedent to set."

He said teachers should be able to realize for themselves when a student is working hard but just struggling, "and should reward that effort," rather than just basing grades on tests and quizzes.

RECESS CHANGES

There are two changes with regard to recess that have educational impacts this year, said Susan McNamara, the district's director of planning, research and evaluation.

One change is that districts are not allowed to use recess to meet the state requirement of 100 minutes per week of health and physical education. To meet the requirement, the district will have 20-minute daily meetings that focus on "social and emotional learning," which focuses on helping children understand their own emotions, how to control them in a positive way, how to understand and empathize with others, develop healthy relationships and make good decisions, according to Edutopia.

The impact of social and emotional learning can improve assessment scores by 11 points or more, while also reducing behavioral issues, Anderson said.

Part of accommodating the 20-minute meetings involves modifying the library period. Students will still have a book exchange every other week and there will be other aspects of the library instruction will be worked into classroom instruction.

McNamara said the second recess change has been one that allows teachers to keep a child out of recess due to behavioral issues in the classroom. The caveat: Withholding recess can happen a maximum of two times a week and must include "restorative practices." That means working with children to make sure they understand what was not acceptable and why, and helping them see what and how they can do better in the future, she said.

PTA PRESIDENT

Cathy Lindenbaum, who served as PTA president at Drum Point Elementary School, at Lake Riviera Middle School, and at Brick Township High School, has become the first Ocean County representative to serve as president of the New Jersey PTA.

She began serving a two-year term in July, at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

In addition to serving as PTA president in the three Brick schools, she also was the Ocean County PTA president and served on the Brick Township Board of Education.

FACILITIES UPDATES

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is anticipated for the first week of October for the playground at Herbertsville Elementary School.

The auditorium at Veterans Memorial Elementary School has working air conditioning for the first time in several years, business administrator James Edwards said. The auditorium had not had working AC going back to at least 2011, while McNamara was principal, if not longer, he said.

Air conditioning in the Brick Township High School auditorium also was anticipated to be working soon, he said.

Edwards also thanked Ocean County for splitting the $25,000 cost of paving the road that's shared by Brick High School and the Ocean County Vocational Technical School.

ALSO:

• The school board's Oct. 10 meeting has been canceled and a special meeting is set for Oct. 15 instead.
• The district's Junior ROTC programs will have a team participating in the Walk to Fight Alzheimer's on Sept. 28 in Point Pleasant Beach in memory of Sgt. James Tierney, who oversaw the JROTC for several years.
• The district's Parent Academy for parents of children with special needs will have 15 sessions this year, including an autism series to help parents of children with autism. Brick also is partnering with the Toms River school district, which has a similar program, and parents from both districts will be able to attend the sessions in both districts.
• Home Depot is donating materials and labor to build and install sensory panels to create a sensory hallway at Warren H. Wolf Elementary School for preschool students. The sensory panels will offer different surfaces for children to touch, which addresses a variety of needs for special needs students and general education students.

This article has been updated with additional details on Cathy Lindenbaum's PTA service.

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