August 24, 2009

Dear Parents and/or Guardians,

As the weather has finally turned warm and fall is just on the horizon, I am sure you will all enjoy that extra week of summer in September this year. A few more days on the beach or in the back yard with nary a care about books, back packs, or lunch boxes will be just perfect.

Still, school is starting on September 9th and we are eagerly awaiting the return of your children for another exciting, challenging and educationally rewarding school year. We have been hard at work all summer long to ensure that your children will have the academic challenges and enrichment opportunities they so richly deserve. I wanted to take a moment to share some of the new developments your children can look forward to at each of our schools this fall.

At Dickerson and Bragg Schools, we will begin our Spanish language program with our French enrichment classes. We are looking forward to this new program and to welcoming our new language teachers. Of course, as many of you know from my previous letter to Dickerson parents, Mrs. Fair, Dickerson School Principal, will not be with us to start the school year, but will return shortly thereafter. She is home recovering from an accident this summer, but she is doing very well and has greatly appreciated all your warm words and well wishes. Mrs. Michele Stanton, our district math coach, will be the interim principal until Mrs. Fair’s full return.

We are very pleased to announce that Bragg School was one of only thirty-three schools in the state this year to be named a State Lab School for Professional Learning Communities. This was a tremendous honor and will result in the teachers and administrator of Bragg School being able to work with a number of impressive consultants from the State of New Jersey and the Educational Information Research Center to help our teachers utilize the most current best practice strategies in instruction and assessment. This will naturally translate into the tools necessary for even greater academic growth for your children. We are very proud of the entire faculty at Bragg School for being selected for this prestigious award.

Equally impressive, Black River Middle School has been selected only one of ten middle schools countywide to participate in the United Way of Morris County’s Youth Empowerment Alliance in conjunction with Rutgers University. This program is designed to help young adults gain the skills and tools that they need to navigate their increasingly complex world and to reach their fullest potential with an emphasis on their social and emotional development. In addition, the students will start their new Advisory Program.

Small groups of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who will remain together throughout their middle school years with one common teacher will meet monthly to participate in a series of meaningful activities. This program will certainly help our students feel even more supported and engaged during their middle school years. In addition, our sixth graders will have the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese this year as well.

Also this summer, I worked together with two teams of twenty-two teachers to update our science and social studies curricula to help ensure that our students are learning according to the most recent standards of the State of New Jersey, using instructional and assessment strategies that represent best practices in educational research. We also had a teacher who attended the Honeywell Space Camp in Alabama and another who spent time teaching in South Africa this summer. Several teachers and administrators also attended the State of New Jersey’s Systemic Initiative in Professional Development Institute to help us get ready for the fall and another successful year of educating your children. We are also in the process of updating the district’s web site with a new style and format, so look for our newly refurbished web site soon. Our plan is to even further improve your ability to access important district, school, and student information. All of these endeavors will no doubt help us to achieve our goal of teaching excellence inevery classroom for every student!

I thank you for your time, energy, and ideas. It is an honor to work in a school district where parents, students, and educators are truly part of a collaborative process that culminates in an exceptional educational experience for our children which serves as a foundation on which they can build their many remarkable accomplishments. For all of us in Chester, it is a joy and a privilege to work with your children each day.

Respectfully,

Dr. Christina Van Woert

Superintendent of Schools

Chester School District