Tuesday, April 23, 2013
The district also honored a group of outstanding student-athletes and announced upcoming infrastructure improvements at its April 2013 board of education meeting.
The curriculum for Collingswood public schools will be rewritten in several areas prior to the 2013-14 school year to “increase [its] rigor,” Chief Academic Officer Mark Wiltsey told the public at the April meeting of the borough board of education. Districtwide, social studies and foreign languages at every level will be overhauled to align with the New Jersey Common Core curriculum standards, as will middle school and high school math and elementary school writing programs. “We want to have a literacy flair to it,” Wiltsey said. To that end, parents of middle- and high-school students can also expect to see their children tackling more cross-disciplinary writing assignments. The district is also developing educational benchmarks that …
Friday, March 29, 2013
Superintendent Scott Oswald made good on his promise of 'not one penny more' in taxes in the final draft of the budget, while also securing enough funds for needed capital improvements.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Superintendent Scott Oswald made good on his promise of 'not one penny more' in taxes in the final draft of the budget presented Monday.
Thanks to a net increase of about $94,000 in state aid, a number of shared service agreements and increased ratables in the borough, Collingswood Superintendent Scott Oswald should be able to make good on his promise of "not one penny more" in taxes for the public school district. In a public presentation made at the March 25 meeting of the borough board of education (attached to this story as a .PDF), Oswald said that he calculates the average taxpayer will see almost a $20 decrease in school taxes while retaining the same $13,854,194 amount budgeted since 2012. The average home in the borough is assessed at $231,300. Under the guidelines of the 2 percent budget cap, the Board could levy the maximum 2-percent tax increase in 2013 ($277,…
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The district logged 13 reports of harassment, intimidation and bullying in the first half of 2012-13. Social media is "our biggest challenge," said Superintendent Scott Oswald.
There were 13 alleged and four confirmed incidents of bullying in the first half of the 2012-13 school year in Collingswood, and according to Superintendent Scott Oswald, social media is a big part of the overall problem. “Our biggest challenge is and probably will remain the social media stuff that happens outside of school grounds,” Oswald said at the Jan. 28 meeting of the Collingswood Board of Education. “The initial contacts there almost never happen in school.” Of the confirmed incidents noted in the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) report Oswald presented at the meeting, the one involving cyberbullying resulted in the stiffest punishment levied by the district: an external suspension and "alternate in-school instruction" …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
The school board publishes its 2013 meeting schedule. Find out which dates the board will meet.
Collingswood’s board of education agreed on Monday to its schedule of upcoming meetings for the year. The board will keep to its schedule of meeting the fourth Monday of each month, unless otherwise noted. All meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the Zane-North all-purpose room. The Collingswood Board of Education 2013 meeting schedule is: Jan. 28 Feb. 25 (tentative budget presentation) March 25 April 22 May 28 (Tuesday, Youth in Government) June 24 Aug. 26 Sept. 23 Oct. 28 Nov. 18 (third Monday) Dec. 16 (third Monday Jan. 6, 2014 (reorganization meeting) For more on Collingswood school board’s reorganization meeting, see Few Changes for Colls School Board in 2013 and Five Things That Happened at the BOE Meeting.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
From a new hire to a question about the elementary school honor roll, here are five things that went down at the Jan. 7 meeting of the Collingswood school board.
Collingswood’s board of education met Jan. 7 for its annual reorganization meeting. The quiet gathering saw the swearing-in of three board members and a few other goodies. Here’s what you missed: 1. The board voted to hire Sarah Bell as a district accountant at an annual salary of $65,000. Bell will work in the business office, handling financial responsibilities. The move frees up other staff to shift their duties to be more efficient, said Beth Ann Coleman, district business administrator. Coleman will make those shifts after Bell starts her position on March 1. Bell, who currently works for the district’s auditing firm, was hired as part of the Oaklyn Shared Business Services Agreement. The agreement is the fourth shared services …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Terry Moody takes his place as a school board member and the board agrees on who will hold the gavel in the coming year.
The Collingswood Board of Education will retain its top two leaders, as decided in a low-key reorganization meeting Monday night. The board unanimously handed over the gavel to last session's president, James Hatzell, to hold the same post in the upcoming year. Joan Smith will again serve as vice president; also a unanimous decision. With no sweeping changes or big-ticket policy items on the slate, the school board breezed through its reorganization meeting. The only thing new to come about was a first-year school board member. Terry Moody, a newcomer elected in November, took the oath of office, along with re-elected board members Hatzell and Kathleen McCarthy. It’s business as usual for the school board in 2013, Hatzell said after the …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Newcomer Terry Moody led the field, beating the highest vote-getting incumbent by nearly 100 votes. Kathleen McCarthy and James Hatzell also will return to service.
Unofficial election results are in from the Camden County Board of Elections, and the Collingswood Board of Education will gain a new member for the upcoming term. Newcomer Terry Moody carried the day with 2,717 votes and 25.0 percent of the total votes cast, followed by incumbents Kathleen McCarthy (2,631, 24.2 percent) and James Hatzell (2,11 votes, 19.5 percent) 6,377 voters participated in the election, with poll workers reporting in general a strong turnout. The school board election likely saw greater numbers of voters in its first election held concurrently with the remainder of the November slate, and in a Presidential year.
From the school board to Capitol Hill, Patch has you covered with info on your polling place, candidates and ballot questions.
It's Election Day, and here at Patch, we've got your handy-dandy companion to the polls. WHEN DO I VOTE? Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. WHERE DO I VOTE? Not sure where to vote? Click here to find your polling place. WHAT IF I'M VOTING BY MAIL? The county clerk must receive mail-in ballots before polls close at 8 p.m. You can drop off your ballot to: The Hon. Joseph Ripa Courthouse, Rm 102 520 Market Street, P.O. Box 150 Camden, NJ 08101-0150 856-225-7219 WHAT IF I HAVE A PROBLEM VOTING? First, talk to a poll worker. If it’s not resolved or your problem is with the poll worker, call the Camden County Board of Elections at 856-401-8683. Do not leave a polling location before your issue is resolved. For more information, see the state’s…
Monday, November 5, 2012
Read personal statements from each, and then tell us in the comments what are the most important reasons you're taking with you into the voting booth Tuesday.
On the national scale this Tuesday, Collingswood will cast its votes for a U.S. president, a U.S. senator and a U.S. representative, while also voting on two statewide referendum issues and three school board candidates. The 11-member Collingswood Board of Education (BOE) is composed of nine Collingswood residents and one each from its sending districts of Oaklyn and Woodlynne. A Meet the Candidates forum that would have introduced borough residents to the hopefuls was scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 30, but cancelled due to extreme weather. In forwarding around an email announcing the cancellation to those who were scheduled to attend, its organizer, Rob Lewandowski, invited the candidates to submit personal statements to Patch and other …
Joe
2:05 pm on Sunday, March 31, 2013
"I am not an educator but parental involvement, is a key influencer on student performance." Kevin, I agree with that 100% (maybe replacing "key" with "important"); unfortunately, school districts cannot control the activities students engage in between 3:01p and 7:29a. I also agree wholeheartedly that the status quo is not acceptable and I know for a fact, as you indicate, that it is not … more ›