Important Additions Mark New School Year

New anti-bullying measures and 9/11 curriculum are heralding changes at Madison schools as administrators, teachers, parents and students prepare for the start of the 2011-12 school year on Wednesday.

Back to school this year will start Tuesday night with an outdoor showing of “Toy Story 3,” at the high school athletic fields. The screening begins at 7:30 p.m. and is sponsored by the Class of 2012; admission is $5 at the door.

The district is welcoming 15 new teachers for 2011-2012, said Michael Rossi, the new superintendent of schools, 10 of those at . There are two new classrooms including a second grade class at and a kindergarten classroom at .

With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 occurring a few days after school opens, discussion and teaching of the seminal event will be the subject of social studies and the arts.

“Our remembrance of it and our curricular focus on the 10th anniversary will be different within the elementary and at the high school level, but we will first and foremost be sensitive to those families and those individuals that have a personal connection to the event,” Rossi said.

“We’re going to utilize the social studies curriculum to speak on the historical context of it, utilize language arts curriculum to enable students to reflect upon the event; then we’re going to engage in the performing arts, if you will, giving students the opportunity to use artwork and other forms of expression to remember the event."

Click here to read a detailed report on the new measures.

The district is in compliance with the new state anti-bullying legislation that went into effect Sept. 1. Each building has an “anti-bullying specialist,” said Rossi, and staff has received training. “We are as ready to go as anybody,” but the law was “rolled out by the state without input from actual professionals in the field.

“I think it’s going to be a total mess as well-intended as it can be,” Rossi said, adding that the legislature “has no idea as it relates to education.”

President Lisa Ellis said the board was “playing catch up on it, but we will get there.” Existing anti-bullying measures are laid out at www.madisonpublicschools.org under “District Information.”

The 11-page document lists consequences for bullying and also for false accusations which include admonishment, classroom dismissal, in school and out of school suspension and expulsion. It also recommends restitution, peer group help, parent conferences and family counseling.

Restoration of some school funds this year from an initial $350,000 to $700,000 means that the Madison district will be able to keep two full- time guidance counselors at while adding a part- time guidance counselor for the three elementary schools, said Ellis.

At the high school, the school activity fee instituted in 2010 will be collected in a two-tier system this year. Tier 1 which includes all sports, marching band, the fall drama and spring musical costs $150 per student with a family cap of $300. Tier 2 which is all extracurricular activities and clubs including Robotics, Key Club, The Glyph and the National Honor Society costs $100 with a family cap of $200, according to the school website.

At Madison Junior School, sports are strictly pay-to-play. According to the website www.mjsdodgers.org, enrollment is closed for boys and girls soccer. Other fall offerings include cross country, which is still open, and field hockey. Cost for a fall sport will most likely range between $225 and $250 for the season, said Sandy Scott, a Basking Ridge-based pay-to-play consultant who is helping set up the junior school system. Other sports offered later in the year include boys and girls basketball and boys and girls lacrosse.

Even with the fiscal challenges ahead and a new administrative team, Ellis said she is “really looking forward to this school year. We have a great superintendent on board“ and she is “looking forward” to the arrival of , the new curriculum director, the position that is replacing the assistant superintendent slot. “I feel really good.”