Washington Twp. Schools Set 2011-12 Goals

With a fresh school year ready to get underway, the Washington Township Board of Education took some time at its regular meeting to reflect on the things it achieved last year before the group set goals for what it looks to accomplish during the 2011-12 school year.

The district hopes to continue its alignment of curriculum and professional development, in order to get the most out of both its students and faculty in the coming year. This is a process that began during the previous school year, and involved re-defining the K-8 district’s curriculum to bring it up to new state and national standards, as well as holding workshops for teachers and parents to bring them up to speed with the changes.

This is something that Superintendent Jeffrey Mohre takes very seriously.

“We didn’t want to necessarily pinpoint something that we’d normally do anyway. We set a much more rigorous goal of re-defining and revisiting our curriculum to get it up to national standards,” said Mohre. “We’re going to be embarking on Year Two (of this project), and have actually (begun to do that).”

Mohre also acknowledged that the criteria the district sets for the achievement of its students should vary, as all students have different skill and proficiency levels in varying subjects.

“Our administrators all recognize and agree that we need to differentiate our criteria by the fact that every student population is diverse,” said Mohre.

Another district goal set forth for the upcoming school year is to be more financially efficient, primarily by driving more funds into the classroom while containing costs to allow for the lowest increase possible in township tax rates.

“When we are true to our word and walking the walk, that helps build confidence in the community,” said Mohre. “This board of education, this leadership team wants what’s best for the children, but we also have a watchful eye on the tax level.”

One way to contain costs is to look into shared services, a process where the district has already made headway in the past year. Recently, the district has been having conversations with the Washington Township Committee about building a maintenance facility for its vehicles near the existing Department of Public Works site on Rock Road.

Talks have gone well so far between the two parties, which has brought the project closer to becoming a reality.

“I look at where we were a year ago to the point we’re at now,” said Mohre. “At our next shared services meeting, we’ll be talking about erecting a bus maintenance facility on town property, adjacent to their existing facility. That was not there a year ago.”

The board members, collectively, shared similar goals to the administrative goals laid out on Thursday night. The Board of Education hopes that it can achieve everything it sets out to do, all while remaining transparent and in constant communication with all community members throughout Washington Township.

To do this, the Board looks to continue to implement several of the practices it put into motion during the 2010-11 school year. These include rotating scheduled Board of Education meetings to the district’s four schools for convenience purposes, as well as continuing interactions with the public throughout the always-important budget-drafting process.

“There was a concerted and very successful effort to engage stakeholders in the budget development process,” said Mohre. “We held two public budget forums, interacting with the public, breaking them into small groups and assessing what the public valued in the schools, and asking what we can do better. It helped us direct our budgetary resources for 2011-12.”

Perhaps most important for the upcoming school year, as stated by Board of Education Vice President Cathleen Compoli, is for the district to strive to continue the progress it has seen in recent years.

“Our community has high expectations, and we have a great school district because we push ourselves,” said Compoli. “It’s a continual challenge to not fall into complacency.”