Schools
New Employees Ready for 'Exciting' School Year
New staff, schedule, No. 6 ranking discussed at Board of Ed meeting.
Madison Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Rossi expressed his excitement and hopes for a productive new school year at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting, noting by New Jersey Monthly magazine.
He also stressed that there is more information than ever for parents and students on the district website, madisonpublicschools.org, and a significant number of new faces in Madison schools.
“It’s going to be an exciting year,” Rossi said. “We have a pretty big crop of new employees, about 30, which is a lot for a district our size.”
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Board President Lisa Ellis also noted the large number of new staff as well as other changes planned for the new school year, including a new schedule at the high school.
“We have a lot of new staff, our new supervisory structure and we moved to this rotational block schedule for the first time at the high school,” she said. “So there’s a lot of new and exciting things and we’ll have to see how it goes. But we’re definitely looking forward to a great year.
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Ellis added her satisfaction with the progress the board made in a retreat for board members held in the afternoon before the regular portion of the meeting.
“The retreat is state-mandated for all school boards in New Jersey,” she said. “It’s basically a longer meeting that allows for brainstorming about goals, we covered our self-evaluation … that kind of thing.”
She said some new ideas were discussed in the retreat that would be presented to the public next month.
In voting on numerous lines in its education and business agendas, the board approved new staff appointments, resignations and extra compensation. Extracurricular appointments included rescinding the position of a boys assistant lacrosse coach mainly because Sal Tromonda, who held the position for many years, was no longer available to do the job.
The business agenda was approved in similar fashion with one sweeping vote. Line items included approving the lowest bid of $60,634 for lawn and landscape maintenance from D’Onofrio and Sons of Maplewood, and the renewal of a facilities management program operated by Energy for America Inc. The cost of that program for the 2012-13 school year would be $4,973 per month, a $54 per month increase over last year.
