JACKSON – After a week of going full remote due to positive cases of the coronavirus, Jackson Liberty High School has returned to the current school district hybrid model of partial remote learning and in-person classes.
During a recent meeting of the Board of Education, Superintendent Nicole Pormelli reported on the school district’s goals for the upcoming year. “Obviously number one was a health and safety goal which we will continue to focus on throughout the year.”
The superintendent said that among its goals would be continued monitoring of the district’s reopening plan, focus on its long range facility plan projects, monitor energy saving and solar projects, analyze and prioritize projects within the budget and collect enrollment data on a frequent basis and review facility and transportation data.
Pormelli said the district would be researching the reduction of courtesy bussing. She said, “the Board was going to be looking at this last spring but it got deterred obviously.”
“We will continue with this work collecting information and see what the feasibility is with safety still being the number one priority. We also have to do our due diligence based on the fact that S-2 (state aid funding formula) still exists so we need to explore avenues for budget cuts.”
The district has been hit hard in recent years by state aid funding cuts resulting from the implementation of the S-2 formula.
Pormelli stressed that the district was continuing to maintain all the health protocols that were implemented in response to the state guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We created a screening for staff and students each day and for our athletes and for people we bring into campus. We need to screen them before entering as part of the health requirements,” she said.
“In the area of curriculum and student achievements, our goal for the opening of school was to create two learning programs – a hybrid and a full remote program – and to train our teachers to implement those programs and to compact our curriculum to make sure we meet the needs of our students and that we can make our way through the curriculum,” the superintendent said.
She added that the district had made a commitment to strengthen its emotional and social learning activities and curriculum for students.
“We will continue with our goals of encouraging problem-based learning, student centered learning while also implementing our changes to the new high school schedule,” Pormelli said.
Pormelli explained, “we had put that on pause last spring. So, we are on pause and the following year we will implement that in 2021-22. Following our five year curriculum cycle we will be implementing this year our K-12 curriculum and our gifted and talented program as well as social studies 6-12 and we will be reviewing world language and our health curriculum this year for adoption next year.
“We have added a goal for human resources that focuses on recruitment and selection and placement of personnel and we will continue ways to expand our recruiting a diverse teaching staff and using the online system to streamline and go paperless for HR,” Pormelli added.
She said that the district would also be looking again at accommodating any needs of the staff to accommodate for the COVID-19 crisis and ensuring the evaluation of all employees as is done each year and to expand its substitute staff.
Regarding facilities within the school district, the superintendent reported to the Board and the public “our goal is to improve and enhance our facilities and a safe environment for our students,” Pormelli said.
She also noted the district’s ongoing energy saving program that will continue to be monitored as it continues to be implemented. She added that projects are being prioritized. “We always monitor security and how we can improve it and train staff and as always we look to improve things for our students that will include some playing fields at Liberty and the gym floor over at Memorial.”
“Included also in this year’s goals is finance and transportation, we are looking at implementing a full transition to the two transportation sites that we have that will be up and operating. We will make sure that is smooth and we are focusing on improving the transportation department,” the superintendent added.
She said the district would be continuing to recruit bus drivers and mechanics to that department. “That is always an ongoing challenge and we continue to do that. We will apply for an electric bus and garbage truck. That has been happening and we will continue to monitor that.”
“We will continue our multi-year implementation of our archival system to electronically archive our records that again has been going on. We are discussing sidewalk grants with the township to see if there is any opportunity for those to be implemented this year as well,” she added.
“Finally, for the district goals this year our home school connection piece which obviously in the situation we are in currently has been crucial to focus on communication with our community. We will continue to communicate and affirm our districts commitment to accessibility.”
Pormelli said, the district would continue to “strengthen our accessibility on our website and increase our publication of all the wonderful things that happen in our schools, our athletic programs and our clubs and extracurricular activities. We will continue to refine and monitor our website.”
