Less than a month after four men were found not guilty on charges of carrying firearms to a meeting of the Gloucester County School Board, the board unanimously approved a resolution establishing the T.C. Walker Education Center as a gun-free zone.
“This resolution for now is focused just on T.C. Walker,” said school board chairman Troy Andersen. “We’ll probably have some additional discussion about other school board-owned facilities across the county, like the transportation facility.
“But this version is the version that the county attorney, school attorney [Ted] Wilmot did review and defines as defensible and advisable,” he continued.
“You are absolutely correct,” said superintendent of schools Dr. Anthony Vladu. “We will consider additional school properties, but we again will need to do additional legal research and review.”
The board voted 4-0 to approve the resolution during Tuesday night’s meeting in the T.C. Walker Education Center auditorium, with members Carlton Drew, Karen Espinoza and Deborah McDonough absent from the meeting.
At the July 2023 school board meeting, four men were charged with carrying firearms onto school property, a Class 6 felony. Following a two-day trial last month, the four were acquitted by a jury of the charge with the defense successfully arguing that TCWEC is not a school, but rather a facility owned by the division.
Back to school
Division leadership presented on school departmental updates as summer school has ended and the beginning of the school year swiftly approaches.
Director of Elementary Instruction Dr. Amy Stamm and Director of Secondary Instruction Dr. Diron Ford presented on summer school successes to the board.
During Summer School-A-Palooza, approximately 58 staff members and approximately 500 first through eighth grade students participated.
Various activities included learning CPR, creating dome sun ovens and coding robots. The division also held a math bowl competition for students to compete for gold, silver and bronze medals by demonstrating their math skills.
The summer was filled with “a lot of creativity and innovation,” said Stamm.
During her presentation, Stamm extended her gratitude to the teaching and administration staff, transportation department and central food service for their commitment through summer school.
“This was an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensuring our students had what they needed for the summer,” said Stamm.
Over the summer, Ford headed up “Destination America,” a virtual learning experience for middle school students. Page and Peasley middle school students were able to participate in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities and virtual field trips through the month of July.
Ford also provided an overview of Gloucester High School summer graduation. The ceremony was held last Wednesday, Aug. 7 at Page Middle School where 21 students graduated.
“What was so interesting is that all these students are prepared to enter the world of work, the military, attending college, so they are off and ready to get started,” said Ford.
GHS has a graduation rate of approximately 93.80 percent, which is about a one percent increase compared to 2023. Ford credits the high graduation rate to GHS graduation coach Kathleen Zanette who helps track individual graduation plans, identifies and resolves barriers to graduation and facilitates career choices and post-graduation planning.
Chief Human Resources Officer Stephanie Hautz presented on division staffing for the 2024-2025 school year.
“We have eight more days until kids come back,” said Hautz. “And we will continue working on the last few [vacancies] as well.”
Currently, teaching staff positions in each building are filled anywhere between 97 and 100 percent. Only three positions are in need of filling for support staff with candidates currently on the division’s radar.
“We may very quickly get to the point where we are fully staffed with support staff,” said Hautz.
Staffing strategies human resources has implemented include hosting a support staff hiring event, advertising on social media as well as internally, and growing paraprofessionals and sub-stitutes into teachers. The division also plans to hold a substitute hiring event on Aug. 28.
In school safety and security, Deputy Superintendent Bryan Hartley provided an up-date on safety projects. Completed safety projects include the door lock system, window film installation, having a school resource officer and school security officer present in each school building, having a standard response protocol, installing security vestibules, creating individual school security plans, and making a crisis response plan.
Safety project in progress include installing exterior door notification systems, implementing screening equipment and finalizing crisis communication protocol.
Looking ahead
Next week, each school will hold open houses so students and parents can meet their new teachers. Open house will be held for GHS on Aug. 20; pre-kindergarten through second grade students and sixth graders on Aug. 21; and third-fifth graders and seventh-eighth graders on Aug. 22.
The first day of school is on Monday, Aug. 26.