Board of Education and Superintendent Goals for the 2022-2023 school year
The firearm debate requires policy investigation at the legislative levels. Educators in schools can certainly advocate for firearm policies that help protect their communities. Educators may make a more influential impact by investing in processes that examine behaviors that are antecedents of the manifestation of violence in or at schools.
Educators have observed countless student interactions and have a wealth of experience observing youth socially and emotionally develop. Tapping into this experience can help identify students in need, thereby mitigating the potential of future violent attacks. If educators devised an intentional process for examining behaviors exhibited by students, which included a measurement of one’s mental health, and intervened with appropriate social and emotional support, resources, counseling, therapy, coaching, and/or teaching, mitigating violent threats or actions could be achieved.
Therefore, the Black Horse Pike Regional School District will devise a Wellness Assessment Team for the prevention of school violence, which will be submitted to the Board of Education for adoption.
- The Superintendent will establish a committee consisting of faculty and staff.
- The Superintendent will hold several planning meetings with Supervisors, Administrators, and committee members to determine resources and standards operating procedures.
- The Superintendent will meet with the members of the committee monthly to monitor progress and caseloads.
- The Superintendent will report an analysis to the committee in order to inform them about future standard operating procedures.
The Black Horse Pike Regional School District has had in place an Intervention & Referral Services (I&RS) program and Academic Improvement Plan Processv(AIP) for over seven years. The State of New Jersey requires that we have a multi-tiered system of supports (NJTSS: New Jersey's Tiered System of Support), and RTI is our district's program that helps us meet that requirement. The following link provides you with an outline of BHP's plan for tiered supports (previously shared in January 2020 & updated July 2022): BHPRSD & NJTSS (Now RTI). However, upon investigation, as school administration changed, and as a result of increased mental health needs of students following the Pandemic, intervention services were not consistently applied across all three high schools, nor was there the appropriate level of tiered interventions.
Because RTI is a comprehensive approach to supporting students with learning and behavioral needs, it represents a process that includes Academic Improvement Plans (AIP) and Intervention & Referral Services (I&RS). The RTI process will be managed and tracked through Frontline starting in September.
Therefore, the Superintendent will lead an effort to re-design I&RS into a Response to Intervention system. Tiered levels of Response to Intervention (RTI) will be examined in the district and a fully evolved action plan will be developed. The action plan will include but not be limited to: professional development for staff, an evaluation of current practices, their effectiveness, a process for data analysis and implementation, level 1 instructional interventions for students in the classroom, an effective procedure for identifying appropriate tiered interventions, and a process for moving beyond tiered interventions level 1 to level 2.
