Mark your calendars for the following dates:
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7th Grade ELA Teachers Won $600 Grant for New Books!
Teachers Elizabeth Snevily and Michelle Mullan wrote a grant through Newsela.com which resulted in $600 of new books for their Book Clubs! Newsela is a website that provides teachers, parents, and students with over 1,000 current event articles scaled at five different Lexile reading comprehension levels. After completing a unit of study called "Walk a Mile in My Shoes", Mrs. Snevily and Ms. Mullan submitted a grant request for 64 books, written from diverse points of view, to further enhance Book Club titles for this unit of study. The grant was funded in 3 days and the teachers and students are already reading many of the new titles!
Other staff members will be joining Mrs. Snevily’s and Ms. Mullan’s students in Book Club discussions. Seventh Grade Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Moira Largiader, will partake in the I Lived on Buttterfly Hill group. Guidance Counselor, Ms. Jennifer Peirson will be reading Ugly with her group. Students were excited to learn that Mr. Platt is reading Undefeated. He is currently reading the book, marking his book with Post-its, filling in his "Ticket to Talk" and attending the weekly book club meetings on Fridays!
Other staff members will be joining Mrs. Snevily’s and Ms. Mullan’s students in Book Club discussions. Seventh Grade Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Moira Largiader, will partake in the I Lived on Buttterfly Hill group. Guidance Counselor, Ms. Jennifer Peirson will be reading Ugly with her group. Students were excited to learn that Mr. Platt is reading Undefeated. He is currently reading the book, marking his book with Post-its, filling in his "Ticket to Talk" and attending the weekly book club meetings on Fridays!
Point Road Multicultural Day
Second graders traveled around the world to 16 countries on Monday, March 20th. Thanks to parent volunteers who donated their time to share information about their heritage and/or other favorite places in the world, our students learned interesting facts about what it is like to be a child in different countries around the globe. Exposure to many artifacts, such as a guitar from Lebanon or worry beads from Greece, made learning come alive for the second graders. Children also had the opportunity to make various crafts as they traveled the globe; Cuckoo clocks, lanterns from Singapore, and South African Masks were among their favorites! The children also learned to salsa dance in Columbia and play a Nigerian game. By the end of this exciting day, passports were stamped from the world tour, “suitcases” were filled with souvenirs to show family members, and young minds were bursting with new information and an appreciation for diverse cultures. Thanks again to all of the volunteers who not only taught the children about different cultures, but helped to convey that these differences help shape our thinking and how we view the world.
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Little Silver PTO Welcomes Author Patricia Polacco to Point Road School
Renowned children’s author and illustrator Patricia Polacco will be visiting Point Road School on April 7th! Polacco, author of over 65 children’s books, struggled in school because she was unable to read until age 14 due to dyslexia. She found relief by expressing herself through art. Polacco endured teasing and hid her disability until a school teacher recognized that she could not read and began to help her. Her book Thank You, Mr. Falker is Polacco's retelling of this encounter and its outcome. We anxiously await her arrival!
2017 PARCC Scores Used For Course/Class Placement | Lead Testing |
During this 2016-17 school year, the Spotlight has featured various PARCC articles. As noted in the November 2016 Spotlight, on August 3, 2016, the New Jersey State Board of Education approved updated state regulations in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics. While there are certain provisions that are being phased in (see assessment requirements), our current 8th grade students (Class of 2021) and beyond must take and pass the PARCC ELA Grade 10 and PARCC Algebra 1 in order to graduate from high school. NJ School districts were encouraged to wait until this third year (2017) of PARCC administration to use the scores for placement purposes. Little Silver heeded that advice and did not use 2015 or 2016 scores to inform placement decisions. We will, however, be using the 2017 test results as one criterion to help inform a variety of decisions such as: class placement, middle school advanced math placement, and middle school enrichment (formerly G&T) placement. School Performance Reports are one of New Jersey’s three primary accountability systems, which also include federal accountability for schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and state accountability for districts under the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC). Each of these systems comes with a unique set of indicators and/or requirements and collectively defines accountability for education in New Jersey. School Performance Reports were first developed for the 2011-12 school year with the input of stakeholders. The Department continues to rely on stakeholder input to ensure the reports provide a holistic picture of school performance. As one of the most critical school accountability systems in New Jersey, the Department is continually looking for ways to improve the readability and usability of these reports. The goal is to provide all members of the local community with a picture of how students are demonstrating skills and behaviors indicative of college and career readiness and what type of educational experiences the students have available to them. The 2015-16 School Performance Reports will be released during the week of April 3, 2017. The Department anticipates that some viewers of the School Performance Reports (https://homeroom5.doe.state.nj.us/pr/) may try to utilize them to create a summative ranking of schools, akin to a “Best New Jersey Schools” list. The NJDOE discourages the use of the reports for this purpose. While the School Performance Reports bring attention to important student outcomes, they do not present data about other essential elements of a school, such as the provision of opportunities to participate and excel in extracurricular activities; the development of non-cognitive skills like time management and perseverance; or the presence of a positive school culture or climate. Please note that School Performance Reports always reflect the prior academic school year. Therefore, the upcoming release of the 2015-16 reports will reflect the most current results available. | Last April 2016, with lead issues in the headlines, LS decided to embark upon proactive, independent water tests. The purpose of the testing was to identify if lead was present in our drinking water. We were happy to confirm that the Little Silver School District’s water was lead-free. Since that time, the state has created more rigorous lead-testing criteria. Little Silver School District is committed to protecting our students’ and staff’s health. As a result, a more comprehensive evaluation will be conducted on April 8th. All drinking water outlets in the district will be sampled. Upon receiving the sample results, we will inform you if any of the drinking water outlets had a result greater than the level deemed safe by the state. Why Test School Drinking Water for Lead? Lead can cause serious health problems if too much enters the body from drinking water or other sources. Lead is most dangerous for pregnant women, infants, and children under 6 years old. Exposure to high levels of lead during pregnancy contributes to low birth weight and developmental delays in infants. In young children, lead exposure can lower IQ levels, affect hearing, reduce attention span, and hurt school performance. At very high levels, lead can even cause brain damage. Lead is rarely found in the source water; rather it enters the drinking water primarily as a result of the corrosion, or wearing away, of materials containing lead in the service line or interior plumbing. These materials include lead-based solder used to join copper pipe, brass and chrome-brass faucets, and in some cases, pipes made of lead that connect buildings to water mains (service lines). Since 1986, all plumbing materials must be “lead free”. While we anticipate receiving lead-free results, should we have any concerns we will implement immediate remedial measures for any drinking water outlet with a result greater than the level deemed safe by the state. New Jersey Heroin Overdose Death Rate is triple the Soaring U.S. Rate! In recent years, Monmouth County School districts have been faced with increasing student overdoses and even deaths. Little Silver is not immune from drug-related issues. Parents of elementary school children are encouraged to become informed! On Wednesday, April 26th, Monmouth Medical Center is hosting a Community Conversation entitled, “Responding to the Heroin Epidemic in Monmouth County.” Panel speakers include: 1. Victor Almeida, Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Monmouth Medical Center; 2. Christopher Gramiccinoni, Monmouth County Prosecutor; and 3. Dennis Makarowski, Co-Occurring Disorder Specialist, Behavioral Health, Monmouth Medical Center. The event is being held at the Monmouth University Pollak Theater located at 400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch. Doors open at 5:30 PM. The program begins at 6:00 PM. Please RSVP by Friday, April 21st to WWW.BARNABASHEALTH.ORG/2017CONVERSATION |
Budget Approval
During the February 23rd Board of Education meeting, the Board approved a tentative budget for the 2017-2018 school year. During the April 27th Board meeting, a final budget presentation will be made to the Board for their approval.
During the March 23, 2017 Board of Education meeting, the Little Silver Board of Education approved the submission of a grant application for the 2017 Safety Grant Program through the New Jersey Schools Insurance Group. If awarded, the $2,388 grant will afford the district the opportunity to add an additional five security cameras per building (totaling 16 cameras per building – both internal and external) as well as two televisions (one per office) to allow for wide-scale monitoring of all cameras.