Curriculum Upgrade Coming to Collingswood Schools

The curriculum for Collingswood public schools will be rewritten in several areas prior to the 2013-14 school year to “increase [its] rigor,” Chief Academic Officer Mark Wiltsey told the public at the April meeting of the borough board of education.

Districtwide, social studies and foreign languages at every level will be overhauled to align with the New Jersey Common Core curriculum standards, as will middle school and high school math and elementary school writing programs.

“We want to have a literacy flair to it,” Wiltsey said.

To that end, parents of middle- and high-school students can also expect to see their children tackling more cross-disciplinary writing assignments.

The district is also developing educational benchmarks that will provide a foundation for state-mandated student growth objectives, which Wiltsey said are new to every New Jersey school this year.

The challenge for “every one of our teachers,” he said, is to create long-term goals that “should be ambitious and achievable.

“Not only are we going to be developing assessments that are periodic but we also want our students to be college and career-ready,” Wiltsey said.

“We’re meeting the goals of AchieveNJ and keeping it at a local level where we feel our focus needs to be, he said. “Benchmark data will help create a baseline for growth and aid.”

Athletic achievements

Collingswood swimmer , was recognized by the board for his first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions. Scheuhler, an Olympic hopeful, tied a 2011 meet record of 55.66 in his victory.

The Collingswood High School wrestling team also received their accolades from the board. In a season , the Panthers nonetheless wrestled their way to a Liberty Division championship within the Colonial Conference as well as a District 28 championship and program victory number 700.

Furthermore, coach Dechlin Moody—son of newly elected board member Terry Moody—was named the District 28 wrestling coach of the year.

Infrastructure upgrades coming

The partial re-roofing of William P. Tatem Elementary School, a project that will begin this year, was awarded to J. Wilhelm Roofing of Vineland.

At a reported cost of $159,720, Wilhelm came in as “the lowest responsible bidder,” according to the board agenda. The board also has sent out to bid asphalt repairs at James A. Garfield Elementary and track work at CHS, and is submitting bid packages for the purchase of a small passenger bus.