Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Board member: Recommendations are 80 percent 'procedural,' won't prove costly.
The School District of the Chathams conducted security assessments — led by a representative from the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office — at all of its schools during the week of May 6. Describing the experience as “very informative” and a “worthwhile endeavor,” Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa explained during Monday’s Board of Education meeting that the assessment is currently going through the Department of Homeland Security and will result in a report the district will receive. “[The report] will help inform some of the decisions we make about the safety and security of our buildings,” LaSusa said. Board Vice President Jill Critchley Weber, who was present for most of the assessments, said 80 percent of the recommendations given …
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The board will vote on whether to approve a 2013-14 budget with a second and third question for the voters.
An Open Finance Meeting for the Board of Education will take place Monday at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will cover the proposed 2013-14 budget, which will likely include a second question for security improvements. Superintendent Michael LaSusa proposed several options to the Board of Education for the new year's school budget. When the board meets Monday they will vote on whether to approve a budget with a second and third question attached. The table below shows the total allowable tax increase for the upcoming school year The budget as drafted calls a total of $55,409,234 to be raised in local taxes apart from the two separate proposals. The first proposal separate from the budget will enhance the counseling staff throughout the district. …
Monday, February 25, 2013
Superintendent Michael LaSusa proposed three different paths for the upcoming school budget.
Dr. Michael LaSusa, superintendent of the School District of the Chathams, proposed three different potential paths for the Board of Education to take in planning the 2013-14 school budget, including putting a second question to the voters for enhancements to school security. His proposed scenarios call for a budget increase of between 2.14 percent to 3.41 percent, or allow the Board of Education to propose a different path. The board will select a budget plan and vote on it on March 11 following another Open Finance Committee meeting. LaSusa said the district qualifies for a health care adjustment over the 2 percent state tax levy cap, plus banked cap from the last three years which cannot be touched until the full health care allowance …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
District considers adding security and guidance personnel, making facility improvements and altering procedures following Newtown shootings.
The School District of the Chathams is considering an array of measures to strengthen security at its schools following the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Superintendent Michael LaSusa said during the board of education’s Monday meeting. Among the measures mentioned by the superintendent were adding security and guidance personnel, making facility improvements and altering security procedures. “We’ll take whatever precautions are reasonable and effective to try and strengthen the security of our buildings,” LaSusa said. Increasing Staffing The superintendent explained the functional responsibilities of a lot of the security systems that had been put into place over time in Chatham schools had fallen …
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Changes to teacher evaluations were mandated by the state for the 2012-13 school year.
Superintendent Michael LaSusa will report on a new framework for teacher evaluations before the Board of Education Monday. Changes to teacher evaluations are mandated under a new state law, called the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act. The changes to teacher evaluations went into effect almost immediately after Gov. Chris Christie signed it in August, while other parts of the law go into effect over the course of the 2012-13 school year. "Last year the state had approved four different models" for teacher evaluations, LaSusa said, "including the Charlotte Danielson model, which is a pretty well-known one." The Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching spells out the skills and …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Students and staff members will have school on Feb. 18.
School will be open in the School District of the Chathams on Feb. 18, the school board voted Monday. The 6-2 vote to have school on Presidents Day came after a discussion of the school days missed after Tropical Storm Sandy hit the area. Schools were closed for a full week after the storm, using up the district's entire reserve of five snow days for the year. Milton Avenue School, Southern Boulevard School and Washington Avenue School remained closed an additional day. The school was able to schedule two make-up days on Nov. 8 and 9, but this leaves Lafayette Avenue School, Chatham High School and Chatham Middle School with only two snow days for the rest of the year and the K-3 schools with only one snow day. "The first question is, how …
Monday, September 10, 2012
Honors classes provide a challenge for students who are not at AP level but would be bored in regular classes, parents and students say.
Chatham Superintendent Michael LaSusa began the Board of Education meeting Monday with a statement meant to dispel "a rumor that I had single-handedly made a decision to eliminate classes at the high school." "There is no such proposal on the table at the present time," LaSusa said. "Any notions of that realm in terms of [the] high school [are] ill-founded." The administration has tried in past years to make class levels consistent in each subject and at each grade level in the high school, LaSusa said. The idea is to have three course levels to choose from in each subject and in each year: Over the last two years, Chatham High School has expanded the number of subjects in which they offer AP or honors classes. At the same time, some …
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Chatham High fell in NJ Monthly's biennial ratings, released last month.
Michael LaSusa, the superintendent of the School District of the Chathams, will address school enrollments and ratings in his report to the Board of Education Monday. In general, principals throughout the school district said enrollment at their schools has increased for the 2012-13 school year, though not as much as demographers anticipated. On Aug. 20, LaSusa said, “Enrollment to date is 4,128 students, which is a slight increase over last year and slightly below where our demographers projected us to be a couple of years ago. ... We’re in pretty good shape in all the buildings in terms of how that enrollment breaks out.” LaSusa will also address school rankings, such as the recent public high school rankings released by New Jersey …
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
New kindergarteners are being directed to Southern Boulevard School, superintendent says.
In his first Board of Education meeting as superintendent, Michael LaSusa told the board kindergarten enrollment at Washington Avenue School (WAS) has reached total capacity. "Any students who come to Washington Avenue School as kindergarteners now are being directed to Southern Boulevard, where we added that fifth section," LaSusa said. Students who register for kindergarten at WAS are now being directed to Southern Boulevard School (SBS), where the district added a fifth section of kindergarten. The district runs kindergarten as a half-day program, in either the mornings or the afternoons. "We do have half-of-a-day's worth of space at Milton Avenue School," LaSusa said, so students near Milton can still attend kindergarten there. LaSusa …
Overflow lot at Colony Pool could offer less spaces for high school.
Superintendent Michael LaSusa told the Board of Education Monday he and Business Administrator Peter Daquila are working with Chatham Township officials to find a solution to a potential parking shortage for Chatham High School students. "PSE&G will be doing a whole bunch of construction along the power line grid, and that will cause the Colony Pool parking lot to be unavailable for probably the entire school year," LaSusa said. "We have to make some accommodations for our overspill that we use that lot for." According to Chatham Township Mayor Nicole Hagner, PSE&G terminated a licensing agreement at Colony Pool which allowed the township to use the gravel parking lot. Township officials have let high school students park in the lot, since…
chat5
4:50 pm on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
so, what is the big deal? If you read the last two paragraphs it seems like a compromise (proposal by Mr. Belding) was agreed to 6-2. Last year it was MLK day this year Presidents day. Seems reasonable. End of story. Unless you are Hugs whose kids will miss both days because she can't be told what to do more ›