Bloomingdale Schools
Community Newsletter - February
Superintendents Update
While many people (rightfully so) tend to focus on the 100th day of school as the BIG milestone in the school year, I have always been fascinated with the 90th day of school. Since students attend school for 180 days, the 90th day marks the half way point in a school year. We just hit the 90th day this past week, so we can officially say we are in the second part of the year! Before we jump ahead to the second half of the year, I would like to reflect back on a recent major accomplishment for the community.
As a community, we recently completed the strategic planning process. Strategic Planning is no easy task as it involves taking stakeholders from all areas of the community to provide input and consensus on where we want to the district to go. Throughout the fall and early winter, members of our community came out to help provide input into the development of a plan to guide decision making over the next five year period. Stakeholders identified four key themes: Educational Excellence, Facilities, Communications & Technology. Within those four areas, stakeholders laid our visions for where they would like the district to move during a five year period. The final product for the strategic plan will be presented at the March Board of Education meeting. From there, the district leadership will craft annual action plans to help turn the goals/visions into reality.
Keeping with the idea of the year being half complete (or half to go), students in all areas have been completing their second diagnostic assessment in ELA and Math to gauge grade level progress. While this school year has still not been back to normal by any means, we have been able to bring educational stability to our students and look forward to seeing how they are growing. Classroom observations show students growing by leaps and bounds since the start of the school year and we are happy our educational data supports that. As always, full reports will be sent home in the near future.
As we look towards the second half of the year, we look forward to keeping the educational stability in place that we know all our students need. Our schools continue to remain both safe and supportive spaces for students to grow. We hope you enjoy reading our February newsletter, which contains updates from our schools and general updates.
As always, thank you for your continued educational partnership. I'll end the same way I have ended my report at the last few Board of Education meetings - if you know anyone interested in being a substitute teacher or paraprofessional, please have them email me. Continuing to grow this pool of individuals is essential to supporting the work our teachers are doing everyday.
- Dr. Nicosia
District News & Updates
We are Hiring
- Salaried Paraprofessional positions available
- Substitute Teacher ($105 per day) all buildings available and able to pick days worked.
- Substitute Paraprofessional ($95 per day) all buildings available and able to pick days worked.
Substitute teaching positions require 60 college credits (only 30 if currently in a college program).
Substitute paraprofessional positions are open to all individuals.
If you or anyone you know may be interested, please email hr@bloomingdaleschools.org.
Preschool & Kindergarten Registration - Now Open!
Bloomingdale Public Schools is excited to announce the opening of Preschool and Kindergarten registration for the 2022-2023 school year.
- To register for September entrance to Kindergarten, your child must be five years of age on or before October 1, 2022.
- To register for September entrance to Preschool, your child must be at least three years of age on or before October 1, 2022.
Preschool is free of charge to all Bloomingdale residents. Parents can register their children online at this link: Registration
The link can also be found by visiting www.bloomingdaleschools.org. From the main page, select the “Family Resources” tab, then “New Student Registration”.
After submitting the online registration, parents are encouraged to save/print the PDF version. In late March/early April the district will be reaching out with information on birth certificate checks and our PK/Kinder screening program.
For families already a part of our preschool program, it is not necessary for students to re-register. They are automatically promoted to the next year within Genesis.
Unity Through Community is Back!
The Bloomingdale Drug Alliance, Bloomingdale Public Schools, the Borough of Bloomingdale and the Bloomingdale Police Department are excited to announce the return of our annual "Unity Through Community" event!
Our event will be held on the evening of Thursday, April 7th at the WTB Gym for students in 5th to 8th grade. Back by popular demand, we are bringing back Dodgeball! Teams will consist of community leaders - teachers, police, fire and council members with students and against students!
Our goal is to focus on our community since the past two years have not been easy. We believe by building the ties within our community, we will continue to provide strong role models for our kids, beyond their family unit. With the necessary cancellation of many town events and programs over the past two years, our kids don't know our current community leaders like they have in the past. We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce our new council members, officers and firefighters to our WTB students and parents.
School Security & Drill Update
- Drills will include clear, developmentally and age-appropriate messaging to students and staff at the conclusion of the drill that the event is a drill and no current danger exists;
- Drills cannot include the use of fake blood, real or prop firearms, or the simulations of gun shots, explosions, or other sounds or visuals that may induce panic or a traumatic response from a student or school district employee;
- Drills must be accessible to students with disabilities and mental health conditions, and provides all necessary accommodations for these students;
- School districts shall provide written notification to the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in the district following completion of a school security drill, which notice shall be provided to the parent or guardian by no later than the end of the school day on which the school security drill is conducted;
As you will see in point four, the school district is now required to notify parents when a drill has been conducted. This law takes effect immediately so beginning in February we will utilize School Messenger to notify families following the conclusion of our drills. We wanted to make sure all families have a 'heads up' when the notifications begin to come as this is something that has not taken place before.
COVID-19 Updates
Our expanded COVID-19 dashboard has been in place for the past few weeks providing additional information to families and the community. We have expanded the COVID-19 dashboard to include the two key elements we utilize when determining the modality (in person or virtual) our district operates in. The dashboard now contains four pages: positive case numbers, results of our optional testing program, staffing levels (related to COVID-19) and outbreaks in our school(s). Each of these metrics are what we follow when making COVID-19 related decisions.
As you can see on the dashboard, COVID-19 cases have dramatically declined since winter break and returned to the consistent levels we had been seeing all fall. As we approach the warmer weather, we anticipate them continuing to remain very low. With that said, after consulting with a variety of stakeholders, and reviewing parental survey input from the fall, we have made the decision to remove the plexiglass from student desks at MBD and SRD. WTB has operated all year without plexiglass. Being that students have been working in small groups, been on carpets, changing classrooms and have been using shared resources all year, it is no longer serving the initial intended purpose that it once did.
At the same time, we do recognize that some students and staff members have underlying health conditions and may require the use of plexiglass in some form the classrooms. Should you feel your child needs plexiglass as a medical accommodation to access daily instruction in the classroom, please reach out to your child's building principal. The building principal will provide you with necessary forms for consideration of a 504 plan.
School News & Updates
Walter T. Bergen
Samuel R. Donald
Students at SRD have been busy since the winter break. We held a spirit week for No Name-Calling Week and students came together around this important topic. This week our students are participating in the PTA Penny Wars fundraiser and practicing their math skills at the same time! In addition, our student council is planning a collection for the Bloomingdale animal shelter to coincide with the 100th day of school. Students continue to work toward grade-level rewards by exemplifying our SRD core values of Respect, Responsibility, and Kindness as we shine a light on positive behavior! Grades 3 and 4 just earned their second reward and grade 2 is one lightbulb away on their light string! Way to go SRD :)
Martha B. Day
Bucketfiling has expanded past the MBD doors and into our students' homes; students are demonstrating to their family and friends what being a bucket-filler looks like by modeling kind and respectful actions. We have also started collecting items for the Bloomingdale Animal Shelter, we hope to collect 100 items by 2/10 in preparation for the 100th day of school.
Our preschool students are continuing their unit of study on clothing. As a unit celebration, a parent fashion show will be occurring in February.
Kindergarten is continuing to master letters and their sounds as they start to investigate CVC words. They are also learning about community helpers (police, teachers, mail carriers, etc.)
First Grade is writing journals, writing opinions, writing summaries, and writing full sentences with teacher assistance. They are also investigating shadows and were recently tasked with trying to make the shadow move without moving their statue.
Bloomingdale Public Schools
Email: mnicosia@bloomingdaleschools.org
Website: www.bloomingdaleschools.org
Location: 225 Glenwild Avenue, Bloomingdale, NJ, USA
Phone: 973-838-0555
Twitter: @bloomschoolsnj