CRANFORD — The Cranford Board of Education held a special ceremony prior to its regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, during which the board honored the district’s retiring teachers, its volunteers and student liaisons, in the gymnasium at Lincoln School. Board members passed a total of five resolutions in connection with the recognitions; framed copies of the resolutions were awarded to the recipients.

Liaison Rachel Westervelt was awarded a $1,000 college scholarship by Superintendent Scott Rubin, Ed.D., for her role as a student liaison.
“It is with great pleasure that I get to award Rachel with this scholarship for her studies next year, for all she’s done as a student liaison,” Dr. Rubin said.
Board member Terry Darling took a moment to reflect on all that the student liaisons do for the board, including providing a direct link to what is happening in the schools.

“One of the great things about having student liaisons is that they are a direct connection to our schools,” Mr. Darling said. “Thank you very much to all of you for your time, energy, for your parents bringing you here, and for sharing your experiences throughout the campuses in Cranford.”

The other high-school student liaison recognized was Aurelio Little. The middle-school student liaisons included Thomas Villareal (Orange Avenue School), Haley Concannon (Orange Avenue School) and Bella Stulpin and Aidan Cheng, both from Hillside Avenue School.

In addition to the student liaisons, retirees and volunteers were celebrated.

“We’d like to thank our retirees for all their hard work and wish them well as they embark on the next chapters of their lives,” Dr. Rubin said. “The folks we have celebrated here tonight have serviced Cranford. Their total years of dedication and service equals a total of 135 years.”

Retirees and volunteers from each of the schools were described using many different adjectives to capture the influence and contributions they made.

“We heard a lot of words tonight like ‘passionate,’ ‘dedicated,’ ‘kindness’ and ‘special’,” Board President Kurt Petschow said. “We want to thank you for all you’ve done, and we wish you nothing but the best.”

After the recognition ceremony, the board announced that it had just received a letter from the New Jersey Department of Education designating the district as “High Performing.” This was the result of a recent Q-SAC visit, the state’s monitoring system that looks at five different areas. The state guidelines were recently changed, requiring all districts to undergo the inspection on a regular basis regardless of their past performance, whereas they were previously able to waive visits if they had a high-performing status. The item will be added to the agenda for the next board meeting.

There also was an update provided by board member Jessica Soltys from the Curriculum Committee, which included a textbook recommendation for CP Geometry and changes to the sixth-grade report cards. Currently, the sixth graders receive one grade for reading and writing, but the proposed change would divide the grades for writing and reading so that the students receive two grades. This is the way that the seventh and eighth graders are evaluated, so this would align with the future grading system.

“There was also a presentation for a proposed change to modify the preschool start time,” Ms. Soltys said. “This would allow the teachers more planning time and it wouldn’t interfere with instruction time.”

Board member William Hulse also spoke about a recent change to the guidelines regarding OPRA requests.

“There are several new laws on the governor’s desk regarding OPRA requests,” Mr. Hulse said. “The first law that was already signed will make a big difference in OPRA requests and things like that towards the school district. The second law, which I’m not sure if the governor signed yet, might impact how we do our school calendar. It’s S2531, which would put police in school polling places, so that’s something we can look at so we don’t need to close the schools during polling days, so that can be helpful. The last one is about school buses and the school bus shortage, which allows certain individuals to operate type S school buses, which would help us.”

Another board member asked about the bill regarding putting police in school polling places, which would enable these locations to remain open, and wanted to know who would pay to have the officer present in the building. Mr. Hulse responded by commenting on the great relationship the board has with the Cranford Police Department, saying he was confident that some kind of partnership could be beneficial.