Hawthorne Board of Education

Jefferson Elementary School has been
selected as a National Blue Ribbon School!
Please Click Here to see the US Department of Education's announcement!

Message from the
Superintendent

On behalf of all of the Hawthorne Students, I would like to thank the residents for supporting the 2012/2013 School Budget. There will be no reduction in instructional staff for next year, and three additional teachers have been budgeted to reduce class size and to enhance curricular offerings. The administrative staff is working on course tallies and staffing needs for next year.

The curriculum will be enhanced with a long list of new electives for the high school including the following:

Algebra III
Senior Algebra
Calculus
Journalism II
Marketing in the 21st Century
Tomorrow’s Teachers
Entrepreneurship
International Business
Investment Strategies
Business and Personal Law

In addition freshman competition will be returned to the 2012/2013 school year in football, boys’ basketball, softball, and baseball. The district also plans to continue the middle school track program, which enjoyed significant success this past spring.

With the completion of electrical upgrades, the installation of district wide communication wiring, the purchase of interactive white boards, classroom computers, and software, the district is ready for the next phase of our technology initiative. Hawthorne will be purchasing Discovery Learning Video Streaming program, which offers over 10,000 educational short videos and clips to easily enhance the instructional environment in classrooms from Pre-Kindergarten to advanced placement.

Final plans are being outlined for the purchase of state-of-the-art network printers for all schools, upgrades to our PowerSchool (student data) software program, and the implementation of our new Destiny Software in our media centers throughout the district. Additionally, during the spring and early summer the district will be installing a new state-of-the-art voice over IP telephone system, which will, over time, save the district a significant amount of money and improve communications to the home and Borough residents.

Hawthorne Public Schools will be participating in a multi-faceted Race to the Top Grant Program (RTTT3). The district will receive just under $21,000 over a four year period to rollout all of the requirements of the RTTT3 Grant. The funding will have little if any impact on our budget over the four year period; however, the RTTT3 guidelines and procedures will offer the district an excellent “road map” for compliance with the state mandated educational reform.

The State of New Jersey has adopted, along with 45 other states, the new Common Core State Standards. The new standards are more rigorous and more engaging than the current New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. The district will also be required to participate in the Implementation of Instructional Systems Platform (IIS), which is a program designed to track student progress and adjust instruction to meet student need. The new student assessment program is titled Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) which will be introduced during the 2013/2014 school year. Through PARCC the State is planning to use computers to assess student progress rather than the traditional “paper and pencil” approach. And finally, the RTTT3 includes the “Implementation of New Teacher and Leader Evaluation System”, which will link student achievement to teacher and school leader evaluations.

The referendum rollout will continue during the late spring and summer to include ongoing repairs to the façade at Washington School, the replacement of floors at Washington and Lincoln Middle School, and a structural repair to the Den (locker room at the athletic field). We anticipate that all of these projects will be completed before September.

Thank you.

Robert P. Mooney
Superintendent of Schools

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