On Wednesday, February 26th, Superintendent Dr. William George III had a sit-down visit with members from the Middletown North student body along with Principle Dr. Patricia Vari-Cartier. At the meeting a variety of topics concerning everything, from up-coming programs to school lunches, was discussed.
Student government voiced their concerns over the controversial electronic marquee saying that they felt there was a “misconception” among many students over where the money for the sign was coming from. Student government advisor Mr. Jon Scala told Dr. George that the money that would be used to purchase the marquee will come from fundraising done by student government throughout the course of the year. Scala and student members and leadership from student government said that they wanted the sign to be their legacy and impact on the school.
Dr. George announced plans that the district is also looking into purchasing electrical devices such as laptops for students and lending them out. “It will be yours’ for the four years while you’re here.” George said. The Superintendent also said that if the district decided to follow through with their plan that students will be responsible for any damage to the devices but also says that students would be offers to take out insurance on the device before they take the device out. “We are spending literally millions of dollars on hardware,” George said. George also said that the district is still debating over allowing students to keep the devices over the summer if the district decides to follow through with the plan.
Students expressed fondness over the recent change in the cafeteria which has recently added coffee onto the menu among other things. “We are going to continue on those improvements,” George said, “I need my coffee.” However, George said that the recent addition to coffee will not create a pathway of bringing soda into the lunch rooms of MHSN since the nutritional values of soda does not meet the state’s law for school lunches. George also said that the high schools will begin to bake cookies in the kitchen of the cafeterias; the only question left to be asked is if they will be sugar or chocolate chip.
George defended the performing arts program in township saying “it’s amazing the impact it’s going to have on [students in their] professional lives.” George also said that the district has no intention on cutting the budget on performing arts and said that he was in many productions when he was in high school.
Dr. Cartier and Dr. George addressed concerns over Advanced Placement students taking the quarterly assessments in the later part of the year. The administrators stated finalized plans that AP students will be taking the third marking period quarterly and that participation in a fourth marking period quarterly will be dependent on a student’s participation in taking a AP test and the AP course in general.
Changes to the school calendar were also discussed at the meeting. George dismissed rumors that the district was going to start sending students to school on Saturdays pointing that possible low attendance would cause those school days to be uncounted and could affect state funding into the district. George also stated that as the schedule currently has the last day of the school year would be June 26th, the same day as graduation. George said that the district was unable to push back the date of graduation due to athletic camps which are starting on the Monmouth University campus on June 27th. The Superintendent noted that the final formalities for having graduation on the same day as a school day are still being worked out.
George pushed for students to spread information about the March 11th referendum concerning bonds for school roofing and boiler replacements. George also noted that that the district has turned to social media such as Twitter in order to increase awareness for the referendum vote.