COLTS NECK – Teachers and administrators welcomed 958 children back to school on Sept. 6 as the 2017-18 school year got underway in Colts Neck.
The 2016-17 school year ended with 940 pupils in the schools that make up the Colts Neck K-8 School District: the Conover Road Primary School, the Conover Road Elementary School and the Cedar Drive Middle School.
“I am truly looking forward to the 2017-18 school year and all that our students will experience with their teachers for the next 181 school days,” Superintendent of Schools MaryJane Garibay said.
“Our custodians and maintenance staff did a fantastic job painting and cleaning our facilities in preparation for the return of staff on Sept. 1 and students on Sept. 6. Our buses were ready, our classrooms were ready and our staff was ready,” she said.
Administrators announced that for the 2017-18 school year, the district will not charge parents a fee for a student’s participation in school-sponsored athletics or co-curricular activities.
A school lunch will cost $3.60 at the primary and elementary schools and $3.70 at the middle school.
Administrators said teachers will use a new primary math program for kindergarten through fifth grade with enVisionmath 2.0, a comprehensive mathematics curriculum for Grades K-5 that offers the flexibility of print, digital or blended instruction in the form of project-based learning, visual learning strategies and extensive customization options. The district provides online access to all curricula.
Units of study or topics are developed into curriculum that contains the following components:
- Enduring understandings – Big ideas that have lasting value beyond the classroom
- Essential questions – Designed to help students organize their thinking
- Content – What teachers want their students to know and understand about the unit or topic that is being taught
- Skills – Processes students will acquire or practice as they work through the content of a unit
- Daily objectives – The identification of goals to be achieved for each instructional day of a unit.
Third grade pupils will be assigned a Chromebook laptop computer. The computers will be used and stored in the classroom, however, administrators said they will determine if students at this grade level can take their Chromebook home. The third grade joins grades four through eight in being assigned a district authorized electronic device.
“Our mission is to empower and inspire students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute as responsible participants in their ever-expanding world,” administrators said in a back to school newsletter.
“We continue to be very proud of our initiatives that support the education of the whole child. From Mindfulness to Innovation Labs, preschool to Geometry, our learning environments are designed to cultivate academic growth, engagement and overall student confidence,” administrators said.
