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Hello, my name is Joe
Abate. I am the Interim Superintendent of Schools here in Hackensack.
The goal of this talk is to provide you with some information related to our
successes
this past school year, the year 2012
2013, and also to talk a little bit
about our new initiatives for next school year,
13-14. Two technology
initiatives that we're very proud of occurred this year at
Hackensack High School. The first one was our iPad initiative
this year every freshman entering Hackensack High School
was given an iPad. Our teachers were fully trained
on how to implement the iPad into the curriculum and our students were also
trained on the use of that particular iPad
We found it to be very encouraging this year and we look to even approve upon it
for next school year.
The second initiative that we're quite proud of
is the virtual high school. The virtual high school will now provide
every one of our students with the opportunity to expand their curriculum.
They will have an opportunity to take courses that we simply don't provide.
The virtual high school is not intended
as a makeup course however - so it is to enhance our curriculum
and we have students taking a wider array of courses
through the virtual high school. Secondly
we've taken a strong look at how we actually do our purchasing in this
district
and as a result we've given you the taxpayer
a greater *** for your buck. We started using various purchasing consortia
to purchase items and what that means is
we now purchase in bulk related to many of the items.
One of the consortium's has over 150 school districts in it
We have now also taken advantage of New Jersey State contracts
as well as using three quotes for just about everything we purchase.
Our goal in the end, as I said, was to give you the taxpayer
a better *** for your buck. We also implemented
a number of additional activities at Hackensack Middle School.
We were able to bring back a number of activities that were eliminated
a couple years ago when we had our budget cuts.
We had such activities as soccer,
basketball, etc. at the middle school where we hadn't had them for a
number of years.
Two other initiatives that we're proud of include the districts Security
Initiative
When I first came to this district I noticed that our district was wide open
and when I mean wide open I mean doors et cetera
Hackensack is at a crossroads. We are bordered by highways
the rails and various local streets
and at that point in time it was easy for anyone to approach,
enter and gain access to our buildings what we did
first I've always provide additional cameras and our hallways stairwells et
cetera
to provide for the safety and security of our students
we also implemented a policy
I've having students enter and leave in a limited number of entrances and exits.
Therefore allowing us to control which students and when
they come and go. In addition to that, we also implemented for the first time
our single point of entry. What that simply did was
required any individual, non-student,
from entering our building they would need to approach us
from the single point of entry. They would be on camera,
they would be stopped by a member of our personnel
and ultimately admitted into the building with a security pass
In addition to the various initiatives we had related to curriculum and safety,
we also added a number of staff members last year
we consolidated our paraprofessionals into a total of 31 full-time
paraprofessionals
and a cohesive working uni. The Parker elementary school received an additional
school interventionist and we also added one
additional phys ed teacher for the district
halftime hackensack high school, halftime
hackensack middle school. One of the honors
that we're extremely proud of this past year
has been that hackensack high school has been ranked
in the top fifteen hundred schools up the entire United States of America
and this was done by US News & World Report.
Technically that puts hackensack high school in the top
eight-percent all the schools in the United States of America
moving into our new year we need to take a look at some additional
initiatives that we have prepared for you folks.
First of all we're gonna continue our iPad initiative
and that is going to it be expanded next year
to our new incoming freshman class which will mean that
in the year 13-14 every freshman
and every sophomore will have an iPad to use
in their classes. We've also
implemented a new summer school at Hackensack high school.
We've titled it the Joe DeFalco Summer School.
So for the first time we're going to have a full-blown summer school
for our students this summer.
One of the greatest gains that that the District had was too
certify a contract with the Archdiocese of Newark
for the Padre Pio school.
Padre Pio has closed its doors
as of this June 30th and we have now
facilitated a five-year lease to use that building to handle
our growing enrollment. Next year
Padre Pio, or what we're going to call our
Early Childhood Developmental Center, will house
our entire Pre-K program, our entire Pre-K Handicap program,
and either two or three Special Ed
Kindergarten classes. What this will do
would be to free the burden of overcrowding
in our various elementary schools by having these children
in our brand new structure. Speaking of summer schools,
we've also entertained a summer school
for our Kindergarten students. We've noticed that
we do have a number of children who come to us in Kindergarten
who have not had the opportunity to be in Preschool
these children find themselves behind right away
to correct that problem will have a program for them
this summer. A very exciting initiative
for the new year will be our Chromebook
Technology Initiative. A Chromebook is a piece of technology similar to an iPad.
It's a little smaller, it's significantly cheaper.
We're going to implement that in our Middle School
as well as grade 2. This year
our teachers are going to be trained in its use and in September when our
students walk in the door
they'll be trained in its use as well.
Another program that we're very much excited about
is the expand of our Gifted and Talented Program.
In the past the Gifted and Talented program was restricted
to two teachers traveling with work on a cart.
The new year we're going to have a program in every school
for any number of children who qualify with an expanded curriculum.
We expect the program to be bigger and better than ever
we also aim to continue our FOSS
F-O-S-S Science Program.
When I got here to the district I found that we had many of the Science kits
in the classrooms but not being used.
I have great experience with this program from the district I came from
and as a result of using the FOSS program in Lyndhurst
we had some with the best science scores elementary
in the entire state of New Jersey. Another thing that we're going to be
doing this year based on the new State requirements
is an increased professional development program as you know
the governor and the State Department of Education
has now provided us with a new initiative
related to teacher training and evaluation.
Our staff has been trained this year and we're going to continue the training
through an academy this summer
as well as through the course of next school year.
We've added some staffing for the new school year as well
we've added a math and literacy coach at Jackson Elementary School,
a second grade teacher at Parker Elementary School,
a first grade Bilingual teacher at Parker Elementary School,
a Special Ed teacher at the High School and an additional guidance counselor
for Fairmount. We are also pleased to talk about
our expanded capital projects program.
First of all, if you are only new to Hackensack, you'll find out that
we had an exceptional problem at our Hillers Elementary School
related to the construction of that building. Simply put,
the wall fell down - that section of the building was
condemned. As a result, we've already started work on that project
and as a this minute in time the project is on time
and under budget. We hope to bring our children back into that wing of the
building
for September 1. We also have great improvements being made right now
on the east wing gym in our High School
as well as an upgrade to the weight room.
We're replacing the roof in the south wing at the High School
and we're adding a new ceiling to the Metal Shop at the High School.
I hope you agree with me that these initiatives are exciting,
that hackensack schools have made great progress in the past
and it's our goal to continue that progress.
Thank you!