Kindergarten students went back to school early for Kindergarten Orientation Day.

Manchester Township School District staff have been busy all summer preparing for the return of students on Thursday, September 6.  Faculty and administrators have analyzed test scores and determined student schedules and classroom placements. New teachers have been hired and trained.

Curriculum meetings have been held and updates made.  New textbooks and equipment have been ordered, received and installed.  The buildings are sparking thanks to the hard work of the Buildings & Grounds crews.  The Transportation Department has been busy refining bus routes, mailing all those bus passes, and getting the fleet of 52 buses in tip-top shape.  Office staff have been burning up the copy machines preparing all those papers and forms that students will bring home during the first week of school.

Teachers return to school officially on September 4 for two days of staff orientation and classroom preparation, although many teachers have already been back to begin setting up their classrooms for the year.

Dr. William DeFeo, Superintendent of Schools, said he looks forward to another exciting and productive school year.  He said that the district’s objectives for 2007-2008 would maintain a focus on academics (test scores), safety, and monitoring.  He added that the Board of Education has plans for a Fall 2008 facilities referendum to repair and upgrade areas such as athletic fields, bleachers, parking and paving not covered under recent renovations.  The district will also be looking into the possibility of establishing a full-day kindergarten, said DeFeo.

Dr. Judith Nappi, Director of Curriculum, said that teachers, administrators and support staff have been busy over the summer updating and refining curricula in all areas.  The most noticeable changes, she said, are at the high school, where new courses and new texts were added, and the middle school, which has undergone a complete schedule revision that allows more instructional time for Math and Language Arts.

At the middle school, Nappi said that teachers would continue to refine the incorporation of research-proven techniques called “best practices” into the classroom, particularly in the areas of mathematics and language arts literacy, to maximize learning within newly extended time blocks.  Exploratory courses have been realigned to accommodate the new schedule.  Conversational French or Spanish will now be experienced by all middle school students.  The STARS (Skills, Testing & Reading Strategies) program will emphasize the development of reading, writing, and study skills strategies across the content areas. The middle school has also adopted a new mathematics program to provide multiple resources and updated approaches to more specifically align to state testing standards.

At the high school level, a new program was purchased for English I (gr. 9).  Barbara Smith, Supervisor of Language Arts & Social Studies, said the new program includes themed text as well as supplementary materials to help teachers address the needs of all learners.  These materials include “best practices” to create a more effective bridge for the development of language arts literacy from the middle school level to the expectations of the high school.

Social Studies curricula at both the middle and high school levels have been updated to reflect the revised state standards, said Smith.  At the high school, a new survey text was purchased over the past two years for U. S. History I & II (to include Honors), which includes program components to assist teachers with differentiated instruction. 

Also at the high school, Theatre Arts and Introduction to Business are new course offerings and Advanced TV Production courses have been revised to encompass a broader range of experience.  Theatre Arts is a performance oriented course which will explore the technical aspects of theatre and develop an appreciation of the art of the theatre and its development.  Introduction to Business will explore entrepreneurship and develop an awareness of issues arising within a global economy.  Smith said this new offering is a follow-up to the Money, Banking & Finance course added last year and is part of the district’s effort to build a new, updated business program to meet the demands of today’s business world.

The College Board has certified the Advanced Placement Program at the high school, approving all of the AP Course Audits submitted under new guidelines for program quality monitoring.

Writing continues to be a focus at all grade levels, Smith said, with an emphasis placed on writing across the content areas and developing reading strategies for comprehension of “real world” text.  The teaching of writing continues to be refined with particular attention to the 6+1 Traits of Writing Framework at the elementary and middle levels.   Within this framework, writers evaluate and revise their work in terms of ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions, plus presentation.

Nappi added that the elementary Gifted & Talented program continues to be updated, with more units added at the primary level this year.

Staff and students have a lot to look forward to as they begin the new school year.