JACKSON – School officials discussed an increase in fights at Jackson Township High School. This is now the single high school in the district following the merger of Jackson Memorial High School and Jackson Liberty High School due to financial reasons.
During the latest Board of Education meeting – which ran close to three hours – the transition of that merger was noted along with some of the problems that have impacted the school during the first two months of the year.
The subjects have been social media fodder and prompted students and parents to attend that meeting to ask what actions will be taken to address those issues. Some of the fighting was filmed by students and shared online, showing students cheering.
The incidents of fighting led to the administration’s decision to put on pause the common lunch period, an hour’s time each day set aside for students to organize their time, using it for either a meeting with a club, socializing with fellow students, catching up on homework or with a teacher providing them extra help on a subject.
Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said, “I am a huge proponent of common lunch. I was one of the initiators of the concept when I was an assistant superintendent. We know the value of this for our students and when it is working the way it is intended it is an incredible opportunity for our students.”
“I am also disappointed to put this on pause … but in the past few weeks it was made clear that common lunch wasn’t operating the way it needed to,” she added. “We were seeing a pattern of behaviors that were concerning. The truth is there is a culture issue right now that goes beyond simple rule breaking.”
Pormilli explained that “while many students were using the time responsibly and productively – others were not – and the imbalance created an unsafe and unproductive environment for too many of our students. Our supervision plan was solid. Every teacher, administrator and security guard had assigned locations.”
“This is not a supervision issue. Even with those supports in place, that period was beginning to trend in a direction that I could not allow to continue without risking something unsafe happening,” the superintendent added.
“This pause gives us the chance to work through those challenges and build a version of common lunch that achieves all the benefits that we all love about it without the risks of anything else happening,” Pormilli said.
She stressed, “we need to problem solve it. We have full intentions of bringing this back so it can be used effectively for our students.”
Flexible Learning Academy Draft
Board members, students and parents also observed a presentation by Assistant Superintendent, Grades 7-12, Dr. Laura Godlesky which she explained was draft plan for a Flexible Learning Academy that would segregate the small percentage of students who have been causing problems from the rest of the student population.
These students would stay in the high school but for four hours they would attend the academy in the afternoon, following the regular school day. This concept did not receive a warm reception by those present – so much so that it delayed the board’s vote on the district’s acceptance of a state grant that would be used to fund the academy.
It would run from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. in two of the high school classrooms with teachers, a designated counselor/substance abuse counselor, one security guard and one nurse and a program coordinator. Transportation would be provided.
“Students would have a meet and greet and immediately move into a counseling session and they would do their individualized school work and there is an option for physical education and engaging students in that pathway to be successful in a required course,” Godlesky said.
She said, “there would be individualized counseling sessions as needed and the creation of a transition plan for them to return to their traditional high school schedule and expectations. This is geared to be a short-term program for students to get targeted and significant support academically and behaviorally so that they can return to the typical high school experience.”
Godlesky repeated, “the idea behind it and philosophy would be that it would be short term. We recognize that there are roadblocks and questions. This is just a draft but we felt it was important that you understand we are considering options and recognizing we have a need.”
“One of the roadblocks is parents refusing to allow their children to participate, so this would be optional for parents. Out of school suspension is always an option. We are trying to look for a more productive option than that,” she added. There were some negative responses voiced to the idea of the academy during the meeting and the draft is expected to be discussed further.
