·      I have some sad news to share. Last Friday, Sue Liberti passed away. Sue was a lunchroom/playground aide at Indian Hill School for many years. She will be dearly missed by all.

·      I am very pleased to announce that of the 175 New Jersey students selected as national winners of the federally-funded Robert C. Byrd scholarships for 2008, two of the students are from Holmdel High School.

·      The new school year is rapidly approaching. In preparation, 21 new staff members are attending new faculty orientation this week. This three-day program covers a variety of topics, such as:

§          Technology

§          Overview of Special Services: IEPs, I&RS Process, Referrals

§          Overview of Pupil Personnel Services: SAC, Guidance, Student Placement

§          Using Differentiated Instruction and Multiple Intelligences to Improve Student Achievement

§          Effective Classroom Management Strategies and Effective Parent Communication

·      We are pleased to announce that all teaching positions are filled!

·      The district calendar has been printed, sent to the post office and should have been delivered to all homes in Holmdel.

·      QSAC –Following are minutes of the initial QSAC committee meeting.

QSAC Committee – Meeting Notes
Thursday August 21 – 1:30 PM

Attendees: Barbara Duncan, Mary Beth Currie, Shana Wright, Susan Alston, Elena Jaume, Bill Balicki, Barbara Garrity, Mike Collins

Barbara Duncan formed the QSAC Committee with representatives to meet the five “key areas” that are looked at by QSAC. The membership is as follows:

            Committee                                            Chair                                      Co-Chair         

            Instruction & Program                      Shana Wright                           Susan Alston

            Personnel                                               Rich Katz                                 Elena Jaume

            Fiscal Management                             Michael Petrizzo                       Peter Mikos

            Operations                                             Bill Balicki                                Steve Stein

            Governance                                           Barbara Garrity                        Mike Collins

The meeting mainly covered the committee’s structure and operation. The following are determinations that were reached:

·      The committee will meet once a month.

·      At least one of the members from each “key area” should attend each meeting.

·      Each member present was given a binder with the scoring system and benchmarks for the QSAC District Performance Review in their respective area for review.*

·      The BOE is addressed in the governance category. Barbara Garrity and Mike Collins will be addressing the individual benchmarks that the BOE must fulfill.

·      We will plan to report out during committee reports at public meetings to keep the BOE apprised of QSAC progress.

*After the meeting, we received revisions to four of the five QSAC sections.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 26, 2008 at 1:30pm in Central Office.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Collins

Activities towards meeting district goals:

Five district administrators recently attended a workshop at Princeton University and made a presentation to the Board on August 27, 2008 on the incredible experience they had. The administrators feel strongly that this experience will help assist them in meeting district goals.