Nearly 400 parents and community members attend to learn how to become better advocates for their children and support academic learning at home

[Newark, NJ – April 05, 2016] – Newark Public Schools’ (NPS) offices of Title 1 and Family and Community Engagement held the 29th Annual Title 1 Citywide Parent Conference on Friday at the Best Western Robert Treat Hotel in Newark. The theme of this year’s conference was “Fathers Families Future” with a focus on empowering and engaging parents, caregivers and community members on how to better advocate for their children and support academic learning at home. Approximately 385 parents and community members attended this year’s conference.

“The gathering of parents and community members at the 29th Annual Title 1 Citywide Parent Conference was extraordinary,” said Christopher D. Cerf, Superintendent of Newark Public Schools. “Providing parents and caregivers the resources they need to better advocate for their children is critically important to a child’s long-term academic and personal success. I look forward to continuing these important conversations with the Newark community to make sure we are doing everything in our power to provide an excellent education for our children.”

The conference is a forum where the offices of Title 1 and Family & Community Engagement inform parents, stakeholders and community members of district procedures, policies and curriculum through workshops that will help parents in supporting their children’s academic success and a 21st Century education and career.

“The conference is an important opportunity for parents and community members to get together and talk about how we can come together to support our children and ensure they are set up for success both in the classroom and at home,” said Margarita Muñiz, Executive Director of Family & Community Engagement at NPS.

As a continuation of the district’s emphasis on community engagement over the past several months to support the development of the strategic plan, the district also took this opportunity to give parents and family members a “sneak preview” of the district’s goals and priorities document that is being released publicly in the coming days. Parents were given an executive summary of the documents, and Assistant Superintendent Roger León shared an overview of the report’s content and findings.

“I was very excited to be able to share this document first with our parents and families,” commented Roger León, Assistant Superintendent. “These goals and priorities have been driven by their input and feedback, and giving them the first chance to see what we have come up with was important to us. I look forward to hearing more from them as we work together to create a final strategic plan for the next three years.”

In addition to the strategic plan, the conference provided families with opportunities to engage in a wide range of topics for conversation and/or learning, including sessions on the following:

• Parental Involvement Funds, which provides parents with information on funds that are available to them within their child’s respective schools to help support students’ academic success
• An overview of all the Special Education resources that are available for parents to advocate to the needs of their children under the special education umbrella
• College and Career Readiness for students in Newark Public Schools
• Anti-Bullying efforts that are underway across the district to ensure the safety of their children
• F.E.L.L.A.S. or Fathers Empowered to Learn, Lead and Achieve Success, a program that assists fathers and fathers-to-be to become and remain involved in their children’s lives in a positive and interactive.

For more information, please contact Margarita Muñiz at 973-733-8481.

County Partners with Art Educators of New Jersey for 12th Consecutive Year to Highlight the Creative Talents of Essex County’s Students

[Newark, NJ]  – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. and the Art Educators of New Jersey welcomed 102 students from throughout Essex County to the Hall of Records for the Art Educators of New Jersey student art exhibit on Monday, March 28th. This is the 12th consecutive year DiVincenzo has partnered with the Art Educators of New Jersey to present the student artists exhibit at the Hall of Records.

During the month of March, the first floor lobby of the Hall of Records was transformed into a student art gallery. Employees and visitors to the county building were treated to the colorful and lifelike portraits, paintings and drawings.

“Essex County has some very creative and talented student artists at all age levels from elementary to high school. The original artwork that is included in our exhibit is truly inspiring,” DiVincenzo said. “I am proud to have been a partner with the Art Educators of New Jersey for a decade presenting this exhibit. This is an opportunity to promote our students’ positive achievements and enables the general public to see the talent in our schools,” he added.

“This is a wonderful observance to emphasize the value of art education for children of all ages and encourage support for art programs in our public schools,” said Catherine Kondreck, Chairwoman of the 2016 New Jersey Art Educators of New Jersey Essex County Exhibit. “These students have worked very hard and it is wonderful to have them receive this recognition. Kudos to them and our county leaders for continuing to put Essex County and our children first! We especially want to thank the County Executive for giving us the opportunity to share the talents of our students with the public,” she noted.

This year’s show featured original works of art created by 102 students from who ranged in age from elementary school to high school level. The students came from 22 different Essex County schools. The students whose drawings and paintings that were featured in the exhibit are as follows:

• Abington Avenue Elementary School in Newark: Isabella Ruiz, Samuel Linares, Marina Jerez, Kevelyn Matias, Johanna Campos, Mark Cardenas, Ashley Romero, Dalein Lugo, Alejandro Echevarria and Karla Quinteros-Gonzalez
• Abundant Life Academy in Nutley: Gehrig Gucciardo
• Belleville High School: Courtney Augusto, Mibrar Reza Choudhury, Julianne Antero, Joseph Nguyen, Emely Mendez, Krystal Diaz, Madeline Canete, Jada Gadsden, Evelyn Ortiz and Kristine Lopez
• Belleville Elementary School #3: Stefan Valcuha, Brianna Cano and Segall Sanchez
• Burnet Hill Elementary School in Livingston: Bennett Fong, Allison Ritch and Jasmine Zhao
• Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in Livingston: Emma Xing and Mitchell Snow
• East Orange Community Charter School in East Orange: Uin Williams, Zamya Tucker, Victoria Rose, Laila Reeves and Maria Pablo Sosa
• Elliott Street Elementary School in Newark: Alexandra Gongora, John Arellano, Jeremiah Boscano, Adianis Francisco and Jonathan Pillacela
• Essex Valley School in West Caldwell: Yasin Branch, Zuri Norfleet, Ingy Kaleny, Rashanna Andrews-Spencer and Davon Strickland
• Garfield Jackson Academy in East Orange: Asiyah Hack-Russell
• Glen Ridge High School: Sara Swett, Bryanna O’Keefe, Olivia Steele, Elizabeth Hauschild and Chase Moriarty
• Glenfield Middle School in Montclair: Nicki Rose, Ellary Jenkins, Victoria Raines, Jackson Martin and Gus Moore-Manakas
• Glenwood Elementary School in Short Hills: Suved Wali, Kayla Cormier, Selena Yu and Audrey Meehan
• Johnnie Cochran Academy in East Orange: Joleen Eugene and Willie Odom
• Liberty Middle School in West Orange: Rose Murphy Braunstein, Tiffany Ramnarine, Jack Mault, Aaron Carerio and Anthony Chapman
• Merit Preparatory Charter School in Newark: Jeanethe Joseph, Vernethe Joseph, Nalani Carter and Emani Barrett
• Mount Hebron Middle School in Montclair: Kathryn Brutzman, Alex Stubin, Elijah Valentine, Rachel Phillips, Sheila Estrada, Madeline Reath, Yabesera Yemane, Lucy Ziesing and Chris Last
• Mount Pleasant Elementary School in West Orange: Eliyahu Brickman, Jaxson Targonski, Chloe Zeng, Catherine Topps and George Herbert
• Rosa Parks Community School in Orange: William Morocho, Anthony Pinder and Wilson Morocho
• Roseville Community Charter School in Newark: Rosbelys Azcona, Juniel Esmeralda Carpio, Shirley Ochoa Mundo, Aracelly Alvarez and Eibbeyam Vega
• Trinity Academy in Caldwell: Ysabelle Francisco, Ruby Angelina Palombo Faust, Paul Conklin, Isabella Calello and Michelle Malagiere
• West Essex Regional Middle School in Caldwell: Gillian Wolf, Brianna Puorro, Skylar DiFabio, John Fiore and Sydney Fishman

The Student Art Exhibit is part of the County Executive’s initiative to recognize the accomplishments of Essex County students. The Executive also has hosted recognition ceremonies for the top high school basketball, track and field and girls softball teams. High-achieving students from the Essex County Vocational-Technical School System are also recognized each month during the Executive’s Teamwork Award Program.

Training focused on inclusion instruction, part of broader, district-wide effort to enhance and improve special education

[Newark, NJ – April 4, 2016] Newark Public Schools (NPS) hosted a Special Education Leadership Institute session on Thursday that focused on professional learning and instructional support as it relates to inclusion instruction at Harold Wilson School in Newark. The Special Education Leadership Institute is part of a broader district-wide effort to increase academic success and inclusion instruction, which is the practice of educating students with disabilities in the same classroom as students without disabilities.

“The district has been working hard to provide more curriculum support for our special education program in recent years,” said Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf of NPS. “It is our goal to make sure that every child in Newark has access to an excellent education, and we are committed to creating a high-quality learning environment that will help our students with disabilities achieve academic success.”

Thursday’s attendees discussed best practices and strategies on the five types of models for inclusion instruction. The district is embracing a co-teaching model where general teachers are focused on content and special education teachers in the classroom are learning strategists who are focused on approaches.

The district has outlined steps it needs to take in order to help students with disabilities achieve academic success and is executing on the following measures: providing professional learning to educators; providing high quality Individual Education Plans (IEPs); improving compliance rates; creating Child Study Teams, and providing special education pathways.

“The district is taking significant measures to improve our special education program,” said Kimberly Honnick, Assistant to the Deputy Superintendent. “We are providing valuable training and mentoring programs so our educators have the necessary resources to provide children with disabilities the specialized care and support they need to be successful in our global economy.”

NPS is investing in special education by providing curriculum and instructional support for educators in various ways. The district is providing centralized trainings to enhance and share best practices among school leaders and educators. It has also adopted a coaching model in schools to promote collaboration among educators and has proven to be highly effective in improving professional development.

Over 6,000 special education students attend Newark Public Schools, which makes up approximately 17 percent of the student population. In addition to Thursday’s training, NPS regularly provides the following professional learning offerings:

• Monthly training for grades kindergarten through 12 (K – 12) child study teams (CSTs) on compliance and how to use the EasyIEP database
• Monthly kindergarten – 12 Special Education Leadership Institute for Teacher Teams (LIFTT) training that focuses on planning and tailoring instruction to meet IEP needs
• Monthly kindergarten – 12 Vice Principal Leadership Institute trainings that provide guidance on culture and climate priorities and how to support students with disabilities
• Quarterly High School Student Support Coordinator Training that provides training for structure and processes

[Newark NJ – April 1, 2016] Effective today, April 1, Newark Teachers Union (NTU) members have moved to a new prescription benefits provider, Benecard. NTU members have joined all other employees in the district who began coverage under BeneCard in February 2016.

In making this transition, Newark Public Schools (NPS) has one primary objective – to provide a prescription program that offers benefits that are equivalent to or better than the previous provider at a lower cost to Newark’s employees. NPS is working with all parties involved to ensure as seamless a transition as possible to the new plan and to make sure that the benefits offered are indeed equivalent or better than those previously provided.

Employees will enjoy some of the following benefits under the new BeneCard plan:

• Employees will have access to more pharmacies with BeneCard, with the network increasing from 50,000 to 63,000 locations
• All employees now have the opportunity to obtain a supply of medications via BeneCard Mail Service Pharmacy and can choose to have medications mailed directly to their home
• Employees will not see an increase in their co-pays as it relates to brand and or generic drugs. However, if the medication cost is under $5.00, employees will pay the lesser amount
• NTU members now have access to BeneCard’snational toll free number that is available 24/7/365 to answer all inquiries

The district, which is facing a large projected budget gap, is routinely looking for savings that will not directly impact schools. As a result, the district reviewed the existing General Prescriptions Program, Inc. (GPP) prescription coverage, which had not changed in over 20 years. After an in-depth analysis of other alternatives, the district selected BeneCard, which is estimated to save the district at least $1.1 million a year and guarantees equal or better benefits for employees. All other district employees were able to move to the new plan on February 1st.

“It is common for employers to, from time to time, change providers to get better services and to incur savings. Our first goal was to ensure that any new plan would provide our employees with high quality benefits that are at least the same as, and in some ways better than, those they had experienced in the past. Under BeneCard, employees can now fill their prescriptions in 13,000 additional locations and have prescriptions mailed directly to their home,” said Larisa Shambaugh, Interim Chief Talent Officer at NPS. “At the same time, employees will experience no increase in their co-pay, and may even pay less if the medication costs less than the co-pay. We saw this as a clear win for our employees and the district.”

On March 16, 2016, the Superior Court of New Jersey ruled in favor of NPS to allow the district to move all NTU employees to BeneCard, effective April 1, 2016. This decision came after a challenge from the NTU regarding the district’s authority to change benefits plans for employees without the approval of a joint entity—the Supplemental Fringe Benefits Fund (the “Fund”)—that was established between NPS and NTU over 30 years ago. For years, NPS had difficulty obtaining exact information from the Fund about who the district was covering and how their $18 million billed to the district each year was being spent. NPS tried on multiple occasions to involve the Fund in the decision to change prescription providers; however, they refused to engage in any discussions at the direction of the trustees appointed by the NTU. Ultimately, the Superior Court of New Jersey agreed that the district has the sole and final authority to change healthcare plans. Furthermore, in the midst of the court proceedings requiring documents from all parties, GPP—the NTU prescription benefit provider—chose to voluntarily withdraw their services with the district and end their long-standing contract.

Superintendent for Newark Public Schools Christopher D. Cerf reacted to the ruling, noting, “Effective today, all Newark employees will have access to high quality coverage under our new prescription benefits provider, which we are confident will result in savings for our employees and the district as a whole. The district has our employees’ best interest in mind, and I am committed to working with the Newark Teachers Union and our employees to ensure this new benefits program works for everyone. I hope that the Superior Court’s ruling brings the Newark Teachers Union to the negotiating table, rather than the courtroom, so that we can work together to find common sense solutions to solve our budgetary constraints.” Continued Cerf, “It is worth reminding the union’s president, John Abeigon, that a savings of over a million dollars a year means protecting the jobs of at least a dozen of the educators he represents, and the potential savings from creating responsible financial controls on this $18 million annual expense will help us protect many more.”

All NTU staff have been notified of the decision and will receive new prescription cards. Employees are encouraged to reach out to NPS central office or utilize BeneCard’s toll-free number with any questions they might have.

District also releases results from “Priority 1” group of schools, and outlines expected timeline for testing and results for all schools, interim measures, as well as results from on-going review of past data.

 

[Newark NJ — March 31, 2016] — The Newark Public Schools (NPS) announced today that additional water testing results, and the district’s new guidelines for responding to those results, are available online. The new test information pertains to eight non-traditional facilities that were not evaluated during the most recent annual testing period conducted between December 2015 and February 2016. These results are the first ones yielded by a comprehensive new strategy for testing, and remediating water across the district. This strategy assures that every outlet that is primarily intended for drinking or food preparation that yields an elevated sample will be shut off immediately upon receipt of a positive sample.

The sampling plan — which was developed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in consultation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Newark Public Schools (NPS) — is currently being implemented across the district. The new plan is an enhancement of previous testing practices in several important ways: It will test for lead at every available water source in every building, whereas previous tests took a sample of approximately 10 locations across each building; the new plan requires stringent pre-planning requirements to prepare a building for sampling, including labeling of all points of use and leaving water standing for 8 hours before a test; and the new plan requires very specific protocols for proper collection of water, differentiated for each point of use, whereas previous water tests used a standard protocol across all taps.

The new sampling plan also prioritizes that buildings be tested in the following order:

1. Priority 1 Facilities: These consist of non-traditional buildings where lead testing did not occur in 2015-2016. These sites include buildings leased to charter schools, as well as a transportation hub, student center, and athletic facilities. This round of testing began on March 19^th, 2016, and results are now available online here. Results show that 324 samples were taken from these eight facilities, with 16 (4.9%) of the samples from drinking water sources showing elevated readings above the 15ppb threshold set by the DEP.
2. Priority 2 Facilities: These consist of NPS school buildings that recorded elevated levels of lead on certain taps in earlier 2015-16 results. This testing occurred in 27 buildings on March 24^th and 25^th, and results are expected to be returned to NPS on a rolling basis, with a portion of these results available to the public as early as next week. (These are the majority of those 30 active school buildings with elevated levels originally reported the remaining tests from three buildings are in process).
3. Priority 3 Facilities: The district will test all buildings that did not show elevated levels in the 2015-16 results, along with any buildings or fixtures that may have not been available for sampling in prior rounds. Due to the quantity of buildings (47 in total), availability of laboratories, and date limitations (testing can only be conducted on weekends due to previously mentioned preparation protocols), this testing will begin as early as April 2^nd, but will be conducted over several weeks.

“We are committed to comprehensive testing of all sites and full remediation of these issues,” said Superintendent Christopher Cerf. “We continue our practice of complete transparency about what we learn, and will provide whatever resources and supports are necessary to ensure the safety of students and staff. We believe these common sense guidelines will allow us to do that.”

The new testing and remediation policy was developed in consultation with the DEP that aligns with EPA guidelines. In all circumstances, any result greater than 15 ppb at an outlet used primarily for drinking or cooking will be shut off immediately. Those outlets that are primarily used for other purposes including hand-washing and cleaning (bathroom sinks, utility sinks) will generally be posted to state that the water can be used for hand-washing and cleaning but not for drinking. Other features of this policy include the following:

Moving forward, the district will continue to prioritize transparency and share results of current and past data in the following ways:

• The district will provide weekly updates to the public about current water testing that include progress towards sampling, most recent results received, and the response taken to the latest round of water tests. While results are being expedited by laboratories, it generally takes approximately two weeks from the date of the test until results are complete; this timeline includes receipt of results, analysis of results, quality assurance of data, contacting the school leader, and preparation for public release.
• The district will continue release past data as it becomes available; data from 2012 to present is currently on the district website, and data dating back to 2010 will be available in the coming days. The district will only publish past test results acquired from the laboratories that conducted them to ensure that all data posted is an accurate representation of tests. The district has reached out to labs that conducted tests before 2010, and has not yet received those results.

Once comprehensive test results have been collected in all schools, and preliminary plans are in place, the district will begin moving towards plans for permanent remediation of these issues

In addition, the district continues to undertake a comprehensive review of past practices related to work order documentation, filter purchases, and remediation efforts. Initial findings from this review show that while thousands of work orders and purchase orders can be connected to previous mitigation and remediation efforts, due to inconsistent documentation, the district cannot connect specific remediation events to every historical test. The district will be sharing further responses to specific questions about past practice on its website. In response to these findings, the district is improving documentation systems, re-training staff to ensure that data is entered correctly, and reviewing management practices to ensure that all employees are held accountable to consistent and well documented implementation of remediation protocols.

Lastly, the district continues to work with the Newark Department of Health to ensure that students have access to optional free blood testing. Testing was made available at two early childhood sites on 3/17 and 3/18; and over spring break at school sites on three separate dates. Across these 5 days, according to the Newark Health Department, approximately 300 students took advantage of the free testing option. The Newark Health Department will be sharing additional availability of free school site testing on Saturdays throughout April. Previous information has been made available on the district website, through phone calls to all district families, and through letters sent home to families and staff. The district will continue to assist the Department of Health in sharing information about the available opportunities, and recommends that all families and staff members contact their primary care physician as a first step if they have any health concerns.