Students Need More Instructional Time, Bedminster BOE Says

With program cuts because of the budget and concerns about whether students are getting enough instructional time in language arts and math, parents turned out in droves to Thursday’s Bedminster Board of Education meeting to discuss rumors they have heard about possible cuts to the gifted and talented program.

“I am very concerned about the gifted and talented program,” said parent, and Democratic candidate for township committee, Basil Scaperdas. “I am very satisfied with the way it is now and the schoolwide enrichment, and I heard there will be changes.”

“My son is very concerned, he likes things they way they are,” he added.

Parents said they have heard the program might be cut, or it could be continued without program teacher Patricia Pillon.

“I have adopted a total stem curriculum,” Pillon said, adding that she teaches forensic science, bridge engineering, photography, invention processes, civil engineering, career exploration and much more.

Pillon said she has heard that there could be the possibility of asking regular teachers to also teach the gifted and talented students, using differentiated instruction.

“It seems to me that if you are going to come up with a program that does not have a teacher and ask teachers to do the honors program, that is not appropriate,” she said.

Differentiation among students, Pillon said, is very difficult, and requires extra training.

“I have 16 years of experience in gifted education,” she said. “You are not going to be able to offer what we currently have here. Children will lose the hands-on experience.”

Superintendent Carolyn Koos said no decisions have been made at this point about what changes there could be.

“The administration is currently evaluating and researching a variety of options, looking at other school districts and their successful programs,” she said. “We would like to meet all the needs of the children.”

Koos will be holding a parent brainstorming meeting Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at the school where parents can offer their suggestions on what changes could be made to the gifted and talented program while offering additional instruction time in language arts and math.

The decisions on what to do with the program are connected to the scheduling for next year, which is also connected to attempts to bring more instruction for students based on the scoring coming from the New Jersey Performance Reports.

“Right now we’re looking at data, and the new school performance report is being disseminated with various types of comparisons,” Koos said.

Bedminster students did not score as high in the previous year’s tests as other schools in the peer group, according to the reports, and Ron Bolandi, who served as interim superintendent, has cited that the district is actually serving the students with fewer hours of instruction in language arts and math than other districts in the group.

The district has now put a focus on rectifying that.

“There are a lot of factors to testing, and there is some recalculating of the tests being done by the state,” said board of education president Louis Casella. “We have heard a lot of rumors, but we’re looking at these things because we have to look at them, we have to look at every single thing we’ve been teaching.”

“There is not enough instructional time in school, something we’ve been trying to push for years,” he added. “It’s been a tough year, and we’re really going to take our lumps and make changes that are appropriate.”

But many parents said they don’t feel they have all the facts, and would like more communication about what changes are being made and why before they automatically happen.

“You created a meeting when you were hiring a new superintendent to see what parents needed, and we all said we needed transparency and communication to see what’s going on,” said Field Road resident Kori Edwards.

Edwards said she also believes the older students are suffering because of these changes.

“Test scores from sixth grade and up are awesome, so why is that being dismissed?” she asked. “Our kids do awesome at Bernards High School, and what you do in the upper grades works. Make it more academic in lower grades, they need hands-on experience, that’s how kids learn.”

“We have to be better at what we do,” she added.

Parents said they believe there is a lot of discomfort in the school with cuts happening over the years, teachers leaving and more. They said they feel like the “fabric of this school is being shredded.”

But Casella said they are doing the best they can.

“There are fixed costs that we have to pay, and all those go up,” he said. “What’s going to suffer eventually is other positions. There is not a lot that we can maneuver around. It comes down to money.”

And board member Jennifer Johansson emphasized that many of the changes, like the elimination of the Family and Consumer Science program, were done to add more instructional time for students.

“It is to add more academics,” she said. “We are trying to give the kids more instruction to address all the concerns you have. We feel your pain.”

Mimi Jacobs, of Hillside Avenue, said that all it really does is eliminate the students’ chance to choose a class because they are left with an open period.

But Johansson said the focus has been on grades one through four, where test scores were lowest.

“Gifted and Talented is state mandated and is not being eliminated,” she said. “Grades one, two, three and four will be getting more instructional time.”

But many said the changes and low morale in the school as teachers are losing time and being laid off at this point is really just affecting the students, who are seeing things and people disappearing from their school.

“In 2010, Bedminster was voted the #1 place in New Jersey, and I think that is very closely tied to the incredible school we had,” said parent Joseph Schmidt. “It used to be about what’s best for the kids. But very few have mentioned the kids, and that’s who we’re supposed to be here for. It saddens me that that’s the state we’ve come to.”