·     At a recent administrators meeting, Roger Benedict, Television Teacher at the high school, made a presentation about how good it would be for a television production team to start at each school. There are so many wonderful things we are doing in the Holmdel Schools that we should let the community know about. The producer (the one with the idea) can be an administrator, teacher, parent or student (or a group of the above). He is looking forward to receiving input from the shareholders.

·     Thank you to the Holmdel Foundation for Educational Excellence who awarded mini-grants to 20 teachers and four students totaling $22,582.36. 

·     Congratulations to a second grade student at Village School for having her poem published in the Creative Communication Poetry Anthology.

·     Indian Hill’s fourth graders enjoyed their field trip to the Covenhoven House, while the fifth graders enjoyed their days to Sandy Hook, adding to both of their curriculums.

·     Indian Hill had another wonderful assembly brought to them by the PLG. The acrobats did a great job and the children loved it!

·     Indian Hill conducted a successful level 2 evacuation drill.

·     Indian Hill’s field days, although warm, were a lot of fun for the staff and students.

·     Thank you to Indian Hill’s PLG who has successfully gifted over $56,000 worth of teacher/administrative requested gifts this year!

·     Congratulations to eight students from William R. Satz School for having their poems published in the Creative Communication Poetry Anthology.

·     Congratulations to Holmdel High School’s Intermediate Computer Science Team. They took tenth place in the American Computer Science League competition in Baltimore, MD. All six students won individual awards in the short contest, with one of our students receiving one of only four perfect scores.

·     This past weekend, Senior All-State Football Standout KD played in the Annual NY vs. NJ All-State All Star Game at Rutgers Stadium. He had an outstanding game at Center and Left Guard, and was an integral part of the NJ running game. He and his NJ teammates won the game 33-22. A crowd of over 50 Holmdel football supporters were out in attendance to support him, who will be playing for Princeton University this fall.

·     On May 28, a very successful Sudden Impact program was conducted at the high school with the entire senior class participating in the full-day event.

·     Three High School students competed in the NJ Council Championships for figure skating this weekend. All three girls came home with medals. In addition, one won the Geneva Emerson Memorial Trophy for first place in Senior Artistic.

·     Last night Holmdel High School held its annual Senior Awards Night. There were more than 80 awards presented to our very accomplished and talented seniors.

Activities towards meeting district goals:

·     The Technology Update – Spring 2008 has been posted on the District’s Technology page.

·     Our district completed its first year participating in the Developing Safe and Civil Schools (DSACS) Project in conjunction with Rutgers University. The project is designed to help our students improve their academic performance, social-emotional growth, and non-violent conflict resolution skills.

One of the components of our program is the Responsive Classroom model for Character Education. Indian Hill and Village Schools had a very successful year with this program. The teachers have especially given positive feedback with the “Morning Meetings” that students partake in each day. We will be incorporating Responsive Classroom into more classes in both schools next year.

Satz School has recently distributed the Developing Safe and Civil Schools (DSACS) survey to its staff. This enables us to have a tool to assess the social-emotional needs of our 7^th and 8^th graders.

The High School completed its first year incorporating the Heroes and Cool Kids program, whereby high school students are trained to assist elementary school children with social issues.

·     Professional Development:

Teachers have been encouraged to pursue professional development opportunities during the summer. As a result:

7 teachers are attending a week-long Character Ed Training for Responsive Classroom
5 are attending Advance Placement training
5 administrators are attending the Principals Center at Princeton University for one week
Two-day Administrators Retreat to address topics in technology supports, crisis management, school law, selection of technology assessment, observation practices for differentiated instruction

Other individual workshops will support individual PIPs prepared by teachers in May including Chemistry teachers attending certification program in Chemical Hygiene.

·     Our instructional supervisors and administrators joined their colleagues in Middletown for a Professional Development workshop on “Professional Growth Plans” on Thursday, May 29^th, 2008. All the professionals, including Karen Bilbao, Superintendent, and myself, found the entire joint venture an excellent opportunity to expand beyond our district “borders” and collaborate with other professionals.