Temp: 31 °F
| ||
By BILL SHRALOW
Courier-Post Staff
An interesting thing happened in Haddon Township on April 16: Voters approved not only the school district's base budget, but also a second question that raised taxes more.
In a year when an unusually high percentage of districts saw voters reject spending plans, Haddon Township residents sent a clear message of public school support. Both questions passed by nearly a 2-1 margin.
Altogether, the budget raises school taxes $156 for a home assessed at $120,000. In approving the second question, which accounts for $25 of the $156, residents chose to spend more to keep small class sizes and maintain the district's half-day pre-kindergarten program for 4- and 5-year-olds.
It is rare for a district like Haddon Township, which receives no state funding for pre-kindergarten as poorer districts do, to offer pre-school. But pre-kindergarten has been available to parents and children here for nearly two decades.
|
Population Ages 5-14 1990: 1,613 2000:1,956 Change: +21.3%
Families with children under age 18 Source: U.S. Census Bureau |
"We had an unbelievable turnout and a real powerful victory," Superintendent Mark Raivetz said. "The community just has such a strong sense of itself and support for public education. We have kids in our schools that are second-, third-, fourth-generation Haddon Township students. People move back here to send their children to the same schools they went to."
Barbara Pharazyn is one of those people.
Pharazyn, the secretary at Strawbridge School, went to the school as a youngster and continued on through township schools. So did her four daughters. Now she has two grandsons attending Strawbridge. Her husband, Jim, grew up in Haddon Township and attended Clyde J. Jennings School across town.
"It's exciting," Pharazyn said of the third generation of her family attending Strawbridge. "It's such a pleasure to see my grandchildren every day and know their teachers. It's such a joy to have them close by and know they're receiving a good education. To see them blossom and grow, it's great."
In a previous show of support, voters in December 2000 approved an $18.8 million school construction plan that is funding renovations and additions at Haddon Township High School and all five elementary schools, as well as construction of a middle school adjacent to the high school.
The school board and administrators at first recommended closing some of the older elementary schools and consolidating the school population into fewer but more modern buildings. But residents came out in force to a series of public forums and told officials they wanted to keep their neighborhood schools even at a greater cost.
The middle school will bring more than a new building; it will lead to a restructuring of the district's entire grade structure. The new school, which will connect to the high school through a shared media center, will house grades 6 to 8. Sixth-grade classes will move up from the elementary schools while seventh and eight grades move down from the high school, which currently serves grades 7 to 12.
"If the district had been going downhill when I arrived, the changes would have been easier to justify," said Raivetz, who joined the district in July 1999 after serving as deputy superintendent in Cherry Hill. "It's far more difficult to change when things are going well. My concern was, you need to keep improving. Once a district starts to fall, it's very difficult to bring it back up. The job of the leadership is to make sure the slide doesn't start."
As for the switch to a middle school configuration, " Early adolescents, seventh- and eighth-graders, need to be in an atmosphere crafted more for them, not like a high school."
Moving seventh and eighth grades will also allow greater flexibility in scheduling and course offerings at the high school, Raivetz said. Already, world language offerings are a district hallmark, with French, Spanish, German and Latin offered all the way from beginner level to advanced placement courses.
The middle school was originally slated to open in September of this year. But the construction timeline would have been overly tight, Raivetz said, so officials decided to delay full opening until September 2003. Parts of the building, such as the gym, will be ready by fall, he added. The high school and elementary school work is expected to be completed for the start of the next school year.
Delaying the opening will allow the district to be more deliberate in drafting a curriculum, and also in providing staff training. Most teachers will be new to a middle school environment, having taught either at the high school or elementary schools for years.
Parents, teachers and administrators agree the district' s success starts with the foundation built in pre- kindergarten. That is why so many people in the school community were so relieved and gratified when township voters approved pre-kindergarten funding last month.
"The pre-k curriculum rolls right into kindergarten and first grade," Raivetz said.
On a recent day at Clyde J. Jennings School on Cedar Avenue, Mimi Sellers' pre-kindergarten class studied dinosaurs, celebrated Sean Dailey's fifth birthday and heard guest reader Megan Mooney, 18, read a book to her little sister, Kaitlyn Whilleson, and Kaitlyn's classmates.
"Pre-k affords us the opportunity to reach children at an early age," said Sellers, herself a Haddon Township High School graduate. "We lay the groundwork for down the road. My main goal is to set them up to be lifelong learners. They develop a love of school and a love of learning."
"Pre-k is the greatest," said Chris Buscemi, whose daughter, Adrianna, 5, is in Sellers' class. Buscemi's four other children, ranging in age up to 10th grade, all went through pre-kindergarten, too.
"The kids are so well-prepared for kindergarten," Buscemi said. "You really see the difference in other districts that don't have pre-k five days a week."