Dear Parent/Guardian:

As the district moves forward with increasing the security of our school buildings, I would like to bring to your attention a new protocol we will be implementing at all of our schools.

Starting Friday, May 11, 2018, bins will be placed outside each school for parents to drop items off for their child.  Please use the intercom to notify the main office that you placed an item in the bin and be sure to have your child’s first and last name on the item.  The school staff will retrieve the item and give it to your child in a timely manner.

Continuing the protocols already in place, you will be expected to present a form of photo identification when entering the building.  We ask that you do not hold the door open for any other visitors; each visitor must ring the main office for entry. Additionally, all visitors will be required to answer the following questions when ringing the main office:

• Your name;
• Whom you are here to see;
• Purpose of your visit; and
• If you are expected.

We thank you for your cooperation to help us improve the safety and security of the students and staff in our buildings.

Should you have any questions, please contact the main office of your child’s school.

Sincerely,

Jeanne Howe
Acting Superintendent

Dear Parents, Guardians and Members of the School Community,

New Jersey’s School Performance Reports provide families, educators and the public a picture of overall school performance. The performance reports offer valuable information across many elements, including schoolwide academic achievement and progress, demographics, school climate, chronic absenteeism, and college and career readiness.

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) encourages all members of the school community to use the reports to help start local conversations by asking questions such as: Are our students on track for success? Are all of our students making progress from last year? What areas is our school doing well in, and in what areas might we need improvement?”

The School Performance Reports were developed with, and are continually enhanced by, input from stakeholders like you. Below are some of the enhancements to the reports.

New Jersey School Performance One-Page Summary Reports

For the first time, the NJDOE is publishing one-page, parent-friendly Summary Reports providing easy-to-read highlights of each school. The Summary Reports are a dashboard of key indicators such as student progress, graduation rates and 2-year and 4-year college attendance. The NJDOE has also made available a guide (rc.doe.state.nj.us/Documents/SummaryReportGuide.html) to explain the different data points on the Summary Reports.

Over Two Dozen New Data Elements

The 2016-17 New Jersey School Performance Reports (rc.doe.state.nj.us/SearchForSchool.aspx) contain new data elements, including:

• Updated school narratives with information across a variety of categories;
• Full and/or half day Pre-K and K reporting;
• Chronic Absenteeism by grade, subgroup, and progress toward statewide goals;
• In-school and out-of-school suspensions; and
• School start and end times.

Summative Rating

Federal law requires New Jersey to include a summative rating based on a formula that combines a few key measures (i.e., proficiency, student growth, graduation and chronic absenteeism). This summative rating is just one part of the overall performance of a school and it is used to determine which schools need the most intense support. Visit www.state.nj.us/education/ESSA/ for more information.

The NJDOE continues to seek your input on how to further improve the usability of these reports. Please fill out the feedback survey (www.surveymonkey.com/r/V5WKDYD) or email the reportcard@doe.state.nj.us.

Thank you.

Jeanne Howe
Acting Superintendent

In October of 2016, Chief Joseph of the Maasai Warrior Tribe in Kenya visited with the students of Jefferson Township High School. During that meeting, Chief Joseph expressed his village was in need of a kitchen for their preschool to safely prepare food for their children. The student council of Jefferson Township High School quickly responded to the need and raised $1,500.00 for the children of the village; within six weeks the kitchen was constructed for the Maasai children.

Following the successful construction of the school kitchen, Chief Joseph approached our school district and communicated the dire need facing young women living in and around his village. Chief Joseph stated, “Currently the Maasai community has no safe house or rescue center and most of the children enrolled and of school age children have no rescue center where they can seek moral and legal support they need whenever they are faced with life challenges.”

As a school district, we are compelled to take on this service learning opportunity in order to increase global awareness in our school community; we have named it Operation Safe Home. The community is raising money to build a school, to protect and educate young girls living in the Maasai Tribe of Kenya, Africa. The school will provide education services to young women who are in need. In addition, the school will serve as an educational center for the children living among the Maasai.

To accomplish the successful construction of this school in Kenya, the Jefferson Township school community is seeking partners to materialize this need for the young girls of the Maasai Tribe. We invite you to consider joining us by contributing a tax-deductible donation through our gracious partner Durga Tree International as we seek to make history for the people of the Maasai. Thank you in advance for your consideration; this is a truly noble cause for which our community feels passionately.

For more information, pictures, and videos, please visit: operationsafehome.blog

 To make a donation, please visit: www.DurgaTreeInternational.org/operation-safe-home