Administration Mum On Parent Letters

The Wall School District administration continues to be silent four days after dozens of parent letters were collected to protest a supposed plan to bump music instruction from the school schedule at the next year in an effort to bump up its acedemic performance on standardized tests.

Interim Superintendent Stephanie Bilenker did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment Monday on a to extend math and language instruction an addtional 60 minutes a day beginning in September and bumping music instruction to a non-graded, before-school and voluntary program, according to an email circulated to Intermediate School parents on Friday.

School board President John Tavis did not return a call requesting comment Friday.

The email, obtained by Wall Patch, was sent to district parents on Friday by resident Jim Boyle, of Orchard Crest Boulevard, in an effort to collect community input to a plan he said came out of an unrealated meeting with Bilenker last week.

The plan, Boyle said, is to extend math and language arts instruction by an hour each day, because of low standardized test scores, which have placed the school on a state watch list.

The time normally used for music instruction – band and chorus – would be eliminated from the school schedule. It would be moved to a 7 a.m., before-school-hours period and run on a non-graded basis, Boyle said.

Boyle said he learned of the plan in separate meetings last week with and Intermediate School Principal Gary Azzolini that the district planned next school year to extend math and language instruction to a double period because of low standardized test scores.

Music students who wished to continue their music instruction would have the option to arrive at school on the same buses destined for the high school, Boyle said.

Boyle said he also had heard nothing from the school administration by late Monday.

“This compromise will clearly affect student participation in music and consequently affect the quality of our music program which has recently been described as ‘one of the premier middle school music programs in New Jersey’,” the email soliciting response reads.

Boyle on Monday said since Friday he had received 38 responses – 35 of which opposed the plan -- to the email address he set up to collect community response, wallopinion@gmail.com.

Wall Intermediate School has been identifed as a "school in need of improvement'' by the state Department of Education.

Under the No Child Left Behind law, schools that for two years or more fail to make "adequate yearly progress'' as measured by standardized testing scores are given this designation, which requires the school to take steps to improve scores or face losing federal funding.