BY MICHAEL OLOHAN
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
TENAFLY, N.J.—A potpourri of topics on the minds of parents—ranging from television use in classrooms, safety and security, curriculum enhancements, improving studying skills, tutoring, and raising concerns with teachers—were discussed Jan. 29 at the second community roundtable held at the school district meeting room.
The informal session, Coffee and Conversation with the Superintendent, featured questions and answers with Superintendent Shauna DeMarco and new Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Evelyn Mamman. She joined DeMarco in answering queries on offbeat, occasionally controversial and sometimes politically sensitive subjects from 20-plus parents who gathered.
One parent kicked off Q&A by telling DeMarco he believed that the television set was being used too often in his 6-year-old child’s first-grade class. He said some subjects being watched were not appropriate for education or “age-appropriate” and are frightening.
DeMarco said she wondered why TV is being used so often and noted “we don’t want to promote any more screen time,” knowing how much time children spend on digital devices. He said programs such as “The Magic School Bus,” Charlie Brown specials and the movie “Frozen” were some examples of programs shown.
“I don’t think this is necessarily education in my view,” he said.
DeMarco said “when something’s affecting one child, that’s enough” to take action and promised to look into it further.
While school security issues were mentioned several times, DeMarco only briefly noted her recent recommendation to hold off on hiring six new special law enforcement officers in district schools—after she previously recommended their hiring at a Dec. 10, 2018, school board meeting.
‘Whole human aspect’
“There’s no doubt we need to take further measures to improve the safety of our structures,” DeMarco said, addressing questions about the security measures in place to prevent unwanted school building access.
“I think the whole human aspect needs to be taken into consideration with safety and security,” she said. “What do our educators need to know in the event of a crisis—the idea, ‘do I hold the door for someone or do I not’…those are the aspects that we’re on now.”
DeMarco noted access doors to schools are very well secured and protected but security protocols for school personnel to follow need to be put in place to further enhance security.
She said the “next biggest challenge on this topic requires that there’s less conversation about what’s being done” and noted social media chatter about school security matters may affect school security.
‘Multiple pathways’ to success
Mamman, who recently joined Tenafly Public Schools as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, told parents that public schools must find “multiple pathways” for all students to be successful.
“We cannot present a particular picture of success and say everybody has to meet that success,” said Mamman, explaining her philosophy.
Mamman said future initiatives involve helping students “get ahead before they get there” to college, which includes working independently and seeking help when facing academic challenges.
She said when she is reviewing curricula and aligning curricula to standards, which is work began long before she arrived in Tenafly.
“We have a strong foundation to build upon here,” Mamman said.
DeMarco said curriculum instruction means integrating content across each school’s spectrum of courses including arts, humanities, even physical education and more.
“Interdisciplinary is a driving value for us,” noted DeMarco.
One parent questioned what she perceived as a culture that lays all responsibility for a struggling student on a parent, with the only option being they are forced to hire a tutor if they cannot keep up with other students.
Mamman listened and noted it’s difficult to change a particular educator’s mind-set once it exists. Mamman stressed parents should not be spending money on tutors and noted the district would soon be offering a two-week boot camp both before and after school for middle school students experiencing specific learning challenges, including math skills.
DeMarco said preparing students with real-world skills means helping students with executive function challenges to study effectively.
DeMarco said all students learn in different ways and “we also want to help them in a variety of ways to prepare for different assessments.”
DeMarco said she hopes parents will join with them in workshops on topics such as assisting their children in helping to develop executive function skills.
Demarco mentioned that topics for helping a child with executive function skills, such as time management and studying skills, will be the focus of parent workshops starting in April.
These are all part of efforts being made by the district to assist parents who need help to assist their children achieve at the highest levels.
Both Mamman and DeMarco repeatedly emphasized that each child learns subject materials using their own learning style and that it’s up to a team of dedicated educational professionals, starting with the classroom teacher, to figure out and adapt to that style.
DeMarco said to highlight excellent teachers the district would be “focusing on teacher leadership” and soliciting input from such creative teachers. She said creating opportunities to allow other teachers to be exposed to engaging and effective teaching methods used by peers would help further embrace and promote teaching excellence.
When one parent elaborated on challenges she faced trying to get her son’s teacher to offer customized help to her in assisting her son, DeMarco recounted a similar personal experience with her son in seventh grade.
She said in such situations when teachers are not demonstrating the “best practices” that teachers should be, it’s important to provide good examples.
“A lot of it has to be driven by the curriculum because if you have in the curriculum what the expectations are and then teachers are not executing that…it’s ‘how can I help you to better execute that,’” DeMarco said.
On another hot topic, DeMarco advised parents to contribute to ongoing public input sessions being held by the state Department of Education as it begins to discuss replacing the current PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests currently still being administered.
At the October coffee session, DeMarco was asked why a parent could not get a copy of a test at home to assist her child.
She told attendees that parents cannot get copies of the tests students take in class because it was perceived that the tests might be used for purposes not intended, including evaluation or to be shared with others besides parents.