S.B. school district hosts education summit

Administrators of the South Brunswick school district recently spoke on a number of issues facing faculty and students, as the economy declines and hopes of the district getting adequate state aid diminish.

The fourth annual education summit of the South Brunswick School District was held Feb. 26 at Crossroads North Middle School. The auditorium of the Monmouth Junction school seated scores of people who listened to speakers address the strengths and the areas of challenge in the district's programs and student services.

The administrators used a large screen that displayed a PowerPoint presentation, which illustrated their status report for the district's operations in areas such as personnel, professional development, curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Superintendent of Schools Gary P. McCartney said he began holding these summits in an effort to promote full disclosure for the convenience of parents and district employees to understand what is happening in the district. He said the global financial crisis calls for the district to examine its budget with greater scrutiny.

"Tonight's presentation comes at a time of great difficulty and certainly economic uncertainty," Mc- Cartney said. "This organization is your community investment in your children, their future, and yours as well."

Joanne Kerekes, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, spoke after McCartney, saying that the district has the curriculum of pre-kindergartners to 12th-grade students mapped out. She lauded educators, who face the significant challenge of teaching a standardized curriculum to a classroom of students who are achieving understandings at varying grade levels, despite the fact that they are in the same grade level together.

"The students in South Brunswick are learning a common curriculum, regardless of where they go to school," Kerekes said.

District Business Administrator Anthony Tonzini Jr. said two-thirds of the district's elementary schools had been renovated since 2002, and the buildings have enough room to accommodate increases in enrollment over the next few years. He said recent additions and renovations at the district's middle and high schools also give it more flexibility with its ability to maintain class sizes for its student population.

A graph displaying an overview of district facilities showed that the district's two middle schools have a total enrollment, as of October, of 2,111 students, which is 139 students under capacity. South Brunswick High School's October enrollment of 2,778 is under the school's total student capacity of 3,000.

Brooks Crossing Elementary School is the district school that is closest to reaching its 853-student capacity at 831 students as of October; however, the rest of the elementary schools were between 76 and 192 students under capacity.

The district spends just under $12,000 per pupil, which is $1,146 less than the state average cost per pupil, Tonzini said. He said 87 percent of the 2008-09 budget is going toward programs for students.

"It's not how much you spend, it's how wisely you spend and the areas you put it in," Tonzini said.

McCartney spoke again at the end of the summit, saying that Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education recently appointed by President Barack Obama, has some refreshing viewpoints that he supports. These include an interest in early childhood programs and a reduction in the number of No Child Left Behind sanctions.

The district anticipates that the state is going to determine by March 12 the aid the district will receive. McCartney said the district would continue to plan for the future in order to anticipate the direction it needs to take and the issues it would need to contend with, such as burdensome state and federal mandates and potential reductions in aid.

"These are tough times, and I would suggest that in the toughest times, we need the clearest focus," McCartney said.

Peggy Querec, the nurse at Constable School, said after the summit that she was proud to see how much was being done in the district. She said it is easy to lose sight of the progress that is made at the district level as a cog in the wheel of its operations.

Querec was one of a group of nurses who attended the summit along with Dawn Guidice, the nurse at Cambridge Elementary School. Guidice told the Sentinel that they attended the summit to get an overview of what is happening in the district, and they were not disappointed.

"We found it quite interesting," Guidice said.

Contact Michael Acker at

macker@gmnews.com.