The big news at North Warren Regional’s September 28 Board of Education meeting was undoubtedly the Shared Services Agreement, in which North Warren Regional and Blairstown Elementary agreed to split the services of Dr. Patrick Ketch as a superintendent for both schools.
The first board meeting of the year covered other ground, including reports of a successful Back to School Night, the new Corrective Action Plan for North Warren’s ongoing chronic absenteeism concerns, updates about what’s on the minds of middle schoolers and further matters extracurricular and otherwise.
Five Star Reviews for Back to School Night
If Back to School Night had a promo poster, the designer could pick from a bevy of rave reviews.
“Wonderful,” said Board President Taylor Casey. “Very successful,” said Assistant Principal Sam Scocozza. Board member Dr. Mary Ann Boyd called it a “nicely conducted event” that left her “very pleased and impressed.”
This year’s event invited community organizations to bring a table and chat with visiting students and families. Scocozza guessed that about 25 organizations accepted, including the PTO, the Interact Club, and local nonprofit groups like Project Self-Sufficency.
Members of the Interact Club, along with the cheer squad, led parents on guided tours around the school, giving the evening a personable touch.
Scocozza gave a special shout-out to sophomore Tori Maza, who made announcements to keep visitors on time with the event agenda.
Sounds like a convivial kickoff to a year that, in Casey’s words, is “off to a great start.”
Last year’s NJSLA scores will be released by December 8.
Chronic Absenteeism: At NWR and Elsewhere, an Immoveable Object
Scocozza introduced the school’s Corrective Action Plan for chronic absenteeism, on behalf of Interim Principal Chris Carrubba, who could not be in attendance.
By NJ law, students who miss 10% or more of their annual school days are counted as chronically absent. If a school sees chronic absenteeism in 10% or more of its population, it must develop and submit a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to the state.
This isn’t the first time that NWR has submitted a CAP to the state to address absenteeism. Despite last year’s CAP, NWR’s chronic absenteeism rate of 15% hasn’t budged.
Scocozza pointed out that every high school in Warren County currently requires a CAP for attendance. Here were the chronic absenteeism numbers for Warren County in the 24-25 school year:
- Warren County Vocational Technical School: 10%
- Hackettstown High School: 11.8%
- Warren Hills Regional High School: 12%
- North Warren Regional High School: 15.2%
- Belvidere High School: 21.3%
- Phillipsburg High School: 23.2%
- NJ state average: 14.4%
“Our corrective action plan is very similar to what we’ve been working on the last couple of years,” Scocozza said. “We’re not making any big wholesale changes at this point in time because our rate of chronic absenteeism is right on par with the state average. So we’re not doing better. We’re not doing worse than the state average.”
Board member Cynthia Mardin added in her report for the curriculum committee that chronic absenteeism is a nationwide problem, with a national average of 27.8%. New Jersey has the best attendance rate in the nation, at nearly half that. According to Mardin, the best-performing schools in NJ have an absenteeism rate between 8% and 11%.
“That being said, we want to do better,” Mardin said.
The school plans to gather more data with surveys, research successful initiatives from other schools and implement state guidance in order to improve its stubborn absenteeism rate.
Middle School Students at NWR
Speaking of survey-derived data, a recent survey of NWR’s middle school population found mostly positive findings.
The survey came from the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Mental Health and Addiction services, commissioned by the Center for Research and Evaluation on Education and Women Services at Montclair State University. It posted over 60 questions to middle schoolers across the state in order to build a statewide report on their “perceptions and experiences related to supportive environments, safety, substance use, mental health, gambling, problematic behaviors and social media.”
NWR parents can breathe easy. Results from student responses were “resoundingly positive” in naming protective factors like parental praise, sharing family meals and feeling close to adults at school. In even more positive news, 100% of middle school students report feeling safe in their neighborhood.
Scocozza identified one opportunity for the school to improve. To the question “Do you have access to school-based help for substance use problems?” the majority of students responded “I don’t know.”
NWR staff hopes to make that answer definitive. The school has planned for the student assistance coordinator, a counselor trained to work with students in matters of substance abuse, to meet with middle school classes this fall.
The final results from the survey will be shared statewide in 2027.
Board Policy and Extracurricular Leadership
Board member Beth Makatura surfaced three items she wanted to put before the board: a proposed policy to limit cellphone usage by board members during meetings; a potential partnership with Modern States, a nonprofit that allows learners to earn college credit for free via online self-paced classes; and the potential impacts of Blairstown’s new zoning laws on the school’s future.
The board gave a polite but assertive no to the first, sent the second to the school’s administrators and counseling department and agreed to the importance of further research into the third.
The board also returned to a question of extracurricular leadership that had been scheduled but tabled at the August meeting: the appointment of a theater director. North Warren’s theater program has been led by Dr. Nyann Biery for the past three years. At the August meeting, parents and former staff raised concerns about the appointment of marching band and jazz band director Alexandra Straulina to the position.
The agenda item returned and, this time, passed. Straulina was appointed theater director, Jeff Louw was appointed assistant theater director and art teacher Vanessa Wyker and School Counselor Terri Quinn were both appointed assistant theater directors with half stipends.
“We did a little bit of research into the what and why, and yeah, it seems everything’s fine,” said Board President Taylor Casey. “We checked on the logistics of everything and everything was great.”
Upcoming dates to remember include:
● October 26, which is the next Board of Education meeting at North Warren Regional,
● November 23, the Powderpuff game, followed by a bonfire, and
● November 24, which is the Voices of the Veterans full-day program.
Chip O'Chang is an educator, fiction writer, and lifelong resident of New Jersey. He has also written for My Life Publications and NJ Indy. He lives in the NJ Skylands with his partner, two cats, and and a bearded dragon.
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
