Classes at Bayonne’s public schools start on September 6 with shortened schedules through Friday, with elementary school students dismissed at 12:30 and Bayonne High School students at 1:11. Regular schedules resume the following Monday.
Changes are in the works this year.
The Bayonne Board of Education (BBOED) hired eight new teachers in an effort to incrementally regain staff lost to a budget deficit unearthed last November. Since the school encountered financial issues, the state legislature and the governor agreed to new school funding legislation that would net Bayonne $2.9 million more than what it had received in the implementation of the last agreement, which was signed in 2008.
New hires include a bilingual/bicultural educator at Robinson Community School; two music teachers, one at Midtown Community School and another at Lincoln Community School; a speech language specialist at Woodrow Wilson Community School; and at Bayonne High School, a school nurse and three educators, in physics, physical science, and music.
The last school year ended on a sour note, when nearly 300 teachers were laid off in the spring as cuts swept through the school budget. Many of those teachers, though, were rehired while other new teachers were brought in. The district is still 29 teachers short from last year, which Bayonne Board of Education members have said they hope to eventually reinstate. Some class sizes may increase as some were combined for the sake of efficiency.
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“They used to get a list of how much money they have to spend and sometimes that turns into almost a shopping list to spend it.” – Interim Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael A. Wanko
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Pre-K
The district applied for funding to offer free all-day pre-k set aside in the form of grants as part of the most recent state school funding agreement, and Interim Superintendent Dr. Michael A. Wanko said he expects it to be awarded. Currently 18 students are enrolled in all-day pre-k for a fee. The program will be free when it starts in October and will accommodate 75 students who will be admitted through a lottery system. The administration hopes to have the new system up and running by October 1.
Because the district is running out of space for its growing student population, administration was considering the use of modular classrooms but found them too expensive. Instead, the administration was able to find four classrooms throughout the district.
“If we get the grant, we’ll have it up and running in October, and I am confident that we will,” Wanko said.
New system of deans
The district changed its system of deans this year. Previously, vice principals were assigned to each of Bayonne High School’s six houses, performing both disciplinary functions and observations of instruction. Now, there will be four vice principals, each paired with one dean who will be assigned to each class level on a progressive basis, meaning each student will have the same dean and vice principal throughout his or her high school career. The change applies only to the high school, but may portend similar changes in the elementary schools.
The four deans were appointed at the Board’s August meeting. Bayonne High School teachers Frank Blunda, John Calcaterra, Lyndia Hayes-Santiago, and Edith Westpy, were all reassigned to titles of Coordinate/Dean of Students without change in salary.
The change was one of the first on the agenda for Wanko, who took over from former Superintendent Patricia McGeehan in July. The new pedagogical approach is meant to shift disciplinary responsible away from vice-principals, who should now be free to focus more on observation of instruction.
Wanko brings his pedagogical perspective from Piscataway High School, where he served as principal. He now proudly observes his former school’s distinction as the only high school in the state to win full membership in the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), an education organization that seeks to treat every school’s policies and curriculum uniquely and emphasizes students becoming “powerful and informed citizens who contribute actively toward a democratic and equitable society,” according to its website.
The CES has 10 common principles, one of which is integral to the district’s policy shift. “One of them that I follow pretty much all the time is that teachers approach students as learners,” Wanko said.
Hub of the neighborhood
“In the elementary schools, I want to make sure the principal is seen as the hub of the neighborhood,” Wanko said. “So, the principals are going to be empowered more than ever.”
Wanko is introducing “zero-based budgeting,” a method of budgeting in which every expense needs to be analyzed and justified.
“They used to get a list of how much money they have to spend, and sometimes that turns into almost a shopping list to spend it,” Wanko said. “This way, it’s the reverse of that.”
Automated telephone messaging for major school announcements will no longer come from central office, but from the principals in the form of a pre-recorded message in the principal’s voice.
Substitute teacher staffing
To further reduce costs, the BBOED is considering contracting a staffing agency for substitute teachers instead of hiring directly through the district. Substitute teachers would therefore technically no longer be employees of the school district.
“[The staffing company] would hire all our existing subs so we would have the pool of people already in place,” Wanko said. “The advantage would be that [the staffing company] would do all the training, interviews, and background checks,” functions the school district normally undertakes. Whether the pay for substitute teachers would decline as a result is unclear. Staffing companies take a percentage of their workers’ hourly pay. In return, less administrative work falls on the school.
Rory Pasquariello can be reached at roryp@hudsonreporter.com.
