Updates To School Curriculum Presented At Chatham BOE Reorganization

CHATHAM, NJ — For the tenth year in a row, Jill Critchley Weber was named president of the Chatham school board for 2023, and Ann Ciccarelli was named vice president.

This was determined at the Monday night reorganization meeting in a vote by their fellow board members on the Chatham Board of Education.

All three incumbents who won their respective school board re-election races this past November were sworn in to full three-year terms at the Jan. 9 meeting.

Board members Susan Ross and Yinglu Zhang of the township and Chris Delsandro of the borough took their oaths of office before proceeding with the rest of the meeting.

"I do not take your faith in me lightly, and I appreciate it," Weber said, after being unanimously tapped to serve as board president. "Along with my other board members, we all take this role extremely seriously and hopefully we can continue to work together. My role is to facilitate the meetings, but the real work is done by the folks to my right and left, so I do appreciate their faith in me and hopefully, I can continue to the board's bidding."

Ciccarelli, who was also tapped unanimously, was not present at the board meeting.

Following the nominations, Jill Gihorski, principal of Chatham Middle School, and Doug Walker, principal of Chatham High School, took the podium to discuss a possible change in school course selection.

Gihorski began the presentation by breaking down the typical course load that each student at Chatham Middle School takes, which includes five academic classes, one physical education class, one elective course and then one cycle course.

The cycle course is a class that students take once per marking period in each grade level. Students take one ELA-based cycle, one grade-level-required cycle and two of their choice.

As part of the potential curriculum changes, the middle school is hoping to add a new cycle course for all eight grade students called "Costume Design," according to Gihorski.

"This will run through our theater arts department. Our theater arts teacher and our supervisor actually suggested this to us based on student and parent feedback. So this course would be a one marking period cycle course," Gihorski said.

Students in the class would be able to design costumes that would be used in the school's theater arts classes for the plays that the class puts on as well as for all school productions. According to Gihorski, the class would pair well with the current stage crafting class, which focuses on set design and props.

Principal Walker announced at the high school that several new courses were being discussed, with the possibility of adding them in the coming year.

"The course that I'm introducing tonight was sort of developed from a grassroots effort. It came from teachers who brought these courses to us and that was really grown out of feedback from students," Walker said.

Among these courses is a brand-new "Physics 2" class, which would be the next step after the current physics class. "There has been a lot of demand for students who enter physics at junior year who want to continue studying that subject area and currently our only physics courses that go beyond the Physics A are at the AP level," Walker said.

In the world language department, the school is looking to add two new electives within the German department. The classes are called "Advanced Studies in German: Film" and Advanced Studies in German: Contemporary Topics." Those two classes will be available for juniors and seniors.

Another potential addition would be a "Stage Crafting" class, which would be open to all grade levels and involve teaching students the basic principles of set design, costume design and sound effects.

In the English department, the school is looking to add a new class called "Unified Voice: Intro to Inclusive Communication." "This course was brought to us by a teacher who oversees our 'Play Unified Club,' which has been a really popular club among our students. This would be a course focused on communication skills and specifically on inclusive communication skills," Walker said.

A new computer science elective is also being contemplated. The class would focus on cybersecurity and would teach students how to identify and protect information against computer hackers.

The final new proposed course is focused on career exploration and preparation. "This would be a C-level elective within our program of studies, meaning that entrance into this course is by recommendation for the child study team, so it's within our special education department," Walker said.

Following the presentation, the board expressed their enthusiasm for the new course options and praised the diverse range of options, noting that new courses were typically added at the AP level in the past.