CORE VALUES
INTEGRITY
Integrity is a foundational principle of our campaign and will be carried into our service as Board members. Truthfulness and honor, the hallmarks of integrity, are key to transparency and accountability, which in turn support the practice of overall good governance.
Beyond federal and state statutes under which school boards are required to function, governance best practices require Board members to comport with the highest values and ethical principles.
We are fully committed to adhering to the NJ Code of Ethics or School Board Members. Particularly important to us is the oath to, “…hold confidential in all matters…which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals or schools…. In all matters provide accurate information and in concert with fellow board members, interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community…”
We are committed to public transparency because it is a major component in creating civic trust and accountability. While acknowledging the need for confidentiality surrounding some Board business, we will strive to maintain open, accessible engagement, such as prompt email replies, up to date social media posting, and as importantly, receptivity to parental questions and concerns. Further, we commit to accuracy of information, as critical thinking and evidence-based decision making is part of our Core Values.
Prioritizing the best interests of the district is one way that integrity manifests in our work. We will do so by: committing to strong Board beliefs about what is possible for student achievement and for our school system’s ability to advance inclusive policies as well as teach diversified curriculum for all children at high levels; valuing a collaborative relationship with educators and the community to establish a strong communications structure based on mutual respect and open engagement for all stakeholders; subscribing to evidence based decision-making which we believe is key to driving continuous improvement and accountability.
https://www.nj.gov/education/ethics/coe.shtml
CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking is an approach to matters using reasoning such as analysis, interpretation, synthesis and evaluation, which leads to making informed judgments.
We commit to an evidence-based perspective achieved through the objective, balanced, and responsible use of research, together with local stakeholder values, to guide critical reasoning for policy and practice decisions, in order that the highest possible outcomes are achieved for the Nutley school district.
Evidence-based decision-making is a framework by which education stakeholders use critical thinking and research to make informed decisions about policies, practices, and programs. Increasingly, national standards recognize that evidence-based practices are necessary underpinning of effective educational foundations.
An element of the NJ Code of Ethics for School Board Members, is “…to provide accurate information in all matters,…” It is therefore incumbent upon board members to apply an evidence-based perspective to all considerations for even-handed decisions free of personal opinion or bias.
This core value of critical thinking can extend throughout the curriculum. It is foundational across all content areas, and is especially important in this era where social media literacy plays an outsized role in children’s daily lives. Developing a mindset of critical thinking is foundational to reasoned, non-biased processing of information, which positively impacts the quality of learning. This ultimately improves the education of students which leads to higher achievement. Critical thinking should be part of the culture of education, and can be fostered by the Board of Education’s modeling evidence-based decision-making, and implementing policies that are supportive of such a framework.
https://www.nj.gov/education/ethics/coe.shtml
SAFETY AND SECURITY
Every member of our school community, most especially our students, have the right to arrive each day confident in the knowledge that they will be physically and emotionally safe as they engage in their educational activities. The steps taken by the School District to foster safety must strike a delicate balance by providing both the infrastructure needed for safety and maintaining an environment that is conducive to optimal learning.
Emotional Safety:
In order to create a productive school climate, schools need to provide safe and supportive environments free from bullying and bias that provide opportunities for social emotional learning, connections to accessible resources, and civic engagement.
Effective cross-cultural understanding and communication, conflict resolution skills, and acceptance of individual differences are built into the NJ Student Learning Standards, and additionally are underlying the Board of Education Goals for 2022-23. We support the school district’s receptivity to diverse student perspectives, affirmation of student identities, and creation of policies and programs which are responsive to the needs of student psychological and emotional development from K-12th. We are unwavering in our belief that the protection of emotional and psychological security is as important as physical safety.
Physical Safety:
The number of American children exposed to gun fire at schools is unacceptably high. Causative factors are complex and require multi-layered solutions.
We support a comprehensive, evidence-based approach which has been shown to be effective in violence prevention, specifically, keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. This includes: addressing students’ mental health, empowering teachers and law enforcement to intervene if students show warning signs, and improving schools’ physical security in a targeted way.
Andrea has been a gun safety advocate for several years and has been recognized as a Mom’s Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate 2022.
NJ law recently requires each school district to develop and adopt a policy for the formation of Threat Assessment Teams beginning in 2023. These teams are to be multidisciplinary and supportive rather than punitive, diverting the individual in crisis who would do harm to themselves or others. A key element is to help identify students who are at risk of committing violence and resolve these incidents by getting the students the mental health help they need.
Nutley School District has a similar team in place and we look forward to learning more about the resources made available to this team and the actions they have been empowered to take. We also know that more than a half dozen employees have been authorized by the Board of Education to be armed in all of the Nutley Schools. We seek to understand more about the reasons for this, the data that supported the decision, and the assessment of the outcomes thus far.
https://www.everytown.org/solutions/threat-identification-and-assessment/
https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562022/approved/20220801b.shtml
Violence Prevention/Anti-Bias Trainings – New Jersey State Bar Foundation (njsbf.org)
https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/safety/emotional-safety
Positions
NJ PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION GRANT: Andrea speaks about the $1.2 dollars in state aid that Nutley will receive to create or expand access to a “high-quality preschool program.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
BE SMART GUN SAFETY: Andrea speaks about gun safety in the schools and at home for Nutley Parent Academy Presentation March 30, 2022
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xAy1OmSUMU5-Bb9_r8Rki2SjoahDkCsz/view
Nutley Gun Violence Awareness Day Proclamation: Andrea accepts the Gun Violence Awareness Day Proclamation from our Township Commissioners June 7, 2022
Health/Physical Education State Standards and the Nutley District Curriculum
Candidate Position Paper
- Current Context
New Jersey Student Learning Standards — Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards (NJSLS-CHPE)
“Successful preparation of students for the opportunities, rigors and advances of the 21st Century cannot be accomplished without a strong and sustained emphasis on the health and wellness of all students. Today’s students are continually bombarded with physical, mental and social influences that affect not only learning in school, but also lifelong health. To that end, NJSLS-CHPE were revised to address the need for students to gain knowledge and skills in caring for themselves, interact effectively with others, and analyze the impact of choices and consequences.” Excerpt from NJ State Standards. https://www.nj.gov/education/standards/chp/
The standards are intended to provide a blueprint for curriculum development, with local school districts given the freedom to tailor the curriculum based on feedback from the community, including educators, administration, and families.
Nutley School District administration continues to demonstrate awareness and respect for shared community values in curricular decisions. Nutley School District Administration appears to be making curricular decisions that are respectful of community values. An example of that can be found in the District’s August Parent Academy presentation:
A 5th grade, mandated Core Idea: “Puberty is a time of physical, social and emotional changes.” The associated state Performance Expectation; is to “Explain common human sexual development and the role of hormones (e.g., romantic and sexual feelings masturbation, mood swings, timing of pubertal onset). The items in parentheses are possible examples given by the state but are not required. Therefore, as As was explained by Ms. Devore, with regard to the potentially sensitive topic of masturbation, “…we have taken that out of the lesson”.
Additionally, Nutley School District decided to push demonstration of mastery to the upper grade limit within the mandated grade level bands, to allow for maximum student maturity for topics which may be considered sensitive. For example, mastery of the Standard for Using Correct Names for Body Parts, which is in the K-2nd grade band, was pushed to the end of 2nd Grade.
- Why we Support the NJ Student Learning Health and Physical Education Standards
This underlying philosophy is evident, for example, in the Nutley School District’s implementation of Personal Growth and Development discipline throughout the grades. It acknowledges students as full human beings: who they are, how they grow, and how interaction with others affects the process of growth physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally throughout childhood and adolescence. Within the School District, particular attention has been given to building a strong age-appropriate curriculum with instructional resources that integrates this discipline across topics.
As a result of our careers as educational administrators, we know and appreciate the value of a curriculum in which lessons build upon each other successively and that utilizes a best practices teaching model.
We concur with the NJ Department of Education’s perspective that all students should acquire the essential knowledge and skills to become individuals who possess health, social-emotional, and physical literacy in the pursuit of life fulfillment. By preparing students with a well-rounded, 21st century education, we equip them to live balanced, productive lives that positively impact their careers, families, relationships, and communities.
In addition, we endorse the outcomes of a comprehensive health and physical education program, as outlined in the NJ Department of Education’s Vision Statement. These include effective cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution skills and acceptance and respect for individual and cultural differences.
Finally, we are confident that the implementation of the Health and Physical Education curriculum as developed by the District actively supports the District Goals for 2022-2023, specifically “the district will support the whole child (academically, socially, emotionally) by providing pathways for growth and learning that meet the needs of our diverse student population.”
REFERENCES:
Vision of a Quality Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Program
- Maintains mental health awareness and relies on social/emotional support systems;
- Engages in a physically active lifestyle;
- Maintains awareness of health and wellness and how to access resources;
- Recognizes the influence of media, peers, technology, and cultural norms in making informed health-related decisions as a consumer of health products and wellness services;
- Practices effective cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution skills;
- Builds and maintains healthy relationships;
- Accepts and respects individual and cultural differences; and
- Advocates for personal, family, community, and global wellness and is aware of local, national and global public health and climate change.
https://www.nj.gov/education/standards/chp/
2020 Health and PE Standards | Nutley Public School District (nutleyschools.org)
Nutley School District Goals 2022-2023
1. By June 2023, the district will support the whole child (academically, socially, emotionally) by providing pathways for growth and learning that meet the needs of our diverse student population.
2. By June 2023, the district will develop conscious and consistent practices in order to foster positive interactions and encourage student citizenship.
3. By June 2023, the district will collaborate with local, state and national organizations as well as expand internal resources to enhance current procedures and identify new methods of security, while continuing to promote the philosophy of “see something, say something.”
Looking Forward Nutley 