By MAUREEN L. CAWLEY
Staff Writer
WILDWOOD – It’s report card time. And while students across the island are finding out how they are doing in school this year, the Wildwood school board is measuring the district’s progress since the new administration was hired last year.
“So much is going on,” Superintendent Dennis Anderson said, and the reports presented at last Wednesday’s meeting bear this out.
High School Principal Gladys Lauriello reported that the district’s Web site and the high school newspaper are up and running. And the new band is making strides.
“They will be performing in community events over the holidays,” Lauriello said, and they will be marching in the Christmas parade.
“I’ve been listening to Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad already,” she said.
And if that didn’t put her in the holiday spirit, Lauriello received an early Christmas gift this year, as well. From now on, she will be Dr. Lauriello. She received her doctorate in education from Wilmington College this fall.
“I’m certainly very excited to be done,” she said.
Susan Rohrman, the school’s new supervisor of curriculum and instruction, was hired this summer, but she is already making strides toward streamlining the district’s curriculum and coordinating with neighboring schools, she told the board.
Regular meetings have been scheduled for the first Thursday of every month so that Rohrman can sit down with representatives from the Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood districts to work at getting all three district on the same page in regard to curriculum.
“We will be using the same format for our curriculum guides,” Rohrman said.
Anderson said that one of the first thing he talked about with the school board when he was hired in February was the need for the district to tighten it’s curriculum.
“I told them it was something we needed to get a firm grasp of,” he said. “(Rohrman) is really doing a wonderful job.”
Anderson says the district is working at greater “articulation” of the curriculum. That’s education lingo for “sharing expertise across the districts,” he said.
In December, Rohrman will hold a workshop for writing teachers from all three districts on curriculum mapping.
“It’s really important that we are all talking to each other because (Wildwood is) the receiving district,” she said. She said she is working at articulating curriculum “horizontially” between schools at each grade level and “vertically” smoothing the transition from grade to grade. That way ninth-grade students who enter Wildwood High from all three sending districts will be starting high school with the same basic educational background.
“It’s an ongoing process,” Anderson said.
School board members Sandra Richardson, Tony Totah and Gary DeMarzo toured the district’s schools earlier this month to see how things were running, and they reported they were pleased with what they saw.
“I was very impressed,” Richardson said. “The buildings were well maintained. The classrooms were orderly. (The district) is doing a great job. Every facet was well-done.”
Auditor Glenn Ortman made a presentation to the board regarding the audit of this year’s school budget, as well.
“The findings last year were all corrected,” Ortman said, and only two recommendations were made regarding the deposit of food service revenue.
“I want to thank (board secretary) Sandy Becker for her outstanding job on the accounting,” board member David McDonald said.
Three new board members -- Carol Bannon, David Wertman and Todd Keininger --
were sworn in at the start of Wednesday’s meeting. They are replacing departing board President Kerry Higgs and board members Sandra Miller and Brian Evans. The new members joined the board just in time to begin the New Jersey School Board certification process.
The board voted to pursue certification in June, and as part of that process a field representative from the New Jersey School Board Association will come to the district on a regular basis to give the workshops on various topics including: relationships, policy, curriculum, finance, school law, labor relations and board operations. The first class was held after the regular school board session on Wednesday evening. The next class is scheduled for January.
“The new folks that have joined the (school) board have blended nicely,” Anderson said.
“The (faculty) is doing a great job jumping on board. I’m extremely pleased. Our students are great. Our teachers are outstanding. Every single day we are getting better and improving. That’s what I’m proud of.”
Maureen L. Cawley can be e-mailed at maureen.cawley@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
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