By Wendi Patella

On a recent friday night, the youngest of the Cranbury School elementary students sat attentively in the audience with their parents, studying the stage full of the “big” sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

“Look! She’s in my Buddy Class!” a young child shouted as she watched the play.

“Oh, there’s my buddy!” another student replied.

Earlier that day—and on any given day inside the Cranbury School—seventh graders and third graders can be seen exchanging high-fives and waves in the halls; fifth graders will be seen reading to kindergarten students, or sixth graders visit the first grade classroom for a party or craft.

From the naïve kindergarten student to the seasoned teen in 8th grade, the 650 students of Cranbury School know each other. One reason they know each other is the school’s “Buddy Class” program, which pairs younger students with older “mentors.” Although buddy programs are in place in many schools, the Cranbury School’s program is strengthened by the school’s environment as a K-8 building, said John Haney, chief school administrator of the district in Middlesex County.

“It is nice to see groups of older children and younger children greet each other. It helps build a community of respect and tolerance,” Haney said. “The buddy class meetings allow students to see teachers in a different light and it is a pleasure to see older students reconnect with teachers they used to have.”

Experts say K-8 school districts such as Cranbury can help strengthen education and enrich communities while building character and responsibility among school students.

John Kline, appointed New Jersey’s Teacher of the Year for 2007, said K-8 schools have an inherent sense of community because of the range of ages, making for more responsible students.

“In my building, most of the students walk to school, escorting younger siblings. I think this reduces the impersonal nature sometimes associated with larger schools,” said Kline, a social studies teacher at Norwood Public School in Bergen County. “It is hard to be a big tough 8th grader when you are holding hands with your eight-year-old sister. I think this reduces some of the nastiness that takes place at larger middle schools.”

Once the norm of American public education until the middle of the 20th century, K-8 school buildings are no longer standard in public school districts. And while the system of K-8 communities has many strong proponents, more of these schools could be threatened under a school district consolidation proposal by Governor Jon Corzine.

Last year, Corzine appointed Executive County Superintendents and has charged them with developing consolidation plans “to create or enlarge regional school districts in order to eliminate all but K through grade 12 districts.”

The plan doesn’t explicitly call for eliminating K-8 school buildings. And some K-8 districts separate their students into younger and older grade level schools. But of the 222 K-8 districts in New Jersey, most educate their students in K-8 school buildings before sending their high school students to regional high schools or to local high schools through a sending-receiving relationship.

Consolidating K-8 districts with K-12 regional districts which operate separate elementary and middle school buildings could threaten the existence of the K-8 model.

Despite the threat in New Jersey, education experts throughout the nation are beginning to identify a return to the philosophy of K-8 school buildings. Urban, suburban and rural districts across the nation have begun to convert their buildings to eliminate middle schools—and the difficult transition that comes with them. Studies, too, have recently begun showing that test scores improve among students who remain in the comfort of an elementary school setting until 9th grade.

For example, a 2003 study by the Philadelphia Education Fund found that students of K-8 schools outperform their peers in traditional middle school settings. Philadelphia is now one of many large American cities moving toward K-8 schools.

Even while Governor Corzine seeks to realign New Jersey’s K-8 districts and other smaller school districts, the state’s large urban centers like Paterson, Newark, and Trenton have begun closing the doors of traditional middle school buildings, opting instead for K-8 models.

One reason for the change, educational experts agree, is to eliminate the difficult middle school transition, which arrives at a critically vulnerable age.

Lee Connor, president of the Board of Education in Morris Plains, said students in her district are given the middle school experience in grades 6-8 in terms of programs and activities, but without the additional stress of getting to know a new building, staff, and students.

“They don’t have the big trauma of suddenly going to the junior high,” Connor said. “They don’t physically move to a new school, but beginning in sixth grade they can try out for sports and try out for the play and they rotate throughout the building for academic classes. At the same time, they still have teachers that they recognize and there is a real comfort level that goes along with that.”
Connor said that sharing a long history together with the same students and adults—especially during the pre-teen and early teenaged years—is “grounding to them for their whole lives.”

Haney, of the Cranbury School, said that same sense of comfort exists between all the educational partners—students, teachers, administrators and parents. “Being a K-8 school allows us to get to know the whole child better and to form closer relationships with students and their families,” Haney said. “It is no accident that parents are such an integral part of the school. Parents volunteer in the PTO, the education foundation, on sports teams, music programs, school show, lunch room, recess, classroom readers, and in many other ways.”

That involvement by parents and families extends beyond the school walls.

In Cranbury, like many smaller towns throughout the state, the Cranbury School stands as both the figurative and literal center of the community, Haney said. When students feel they are part of a community, there is a sense of responsibility and a sense of belonging that comes along with it.

Connor, of Morris Plains, said the same is true of her community. “In a small district, in a small town, the school district becomes the heart of the town in many ways,” Connor said. “Whether it’s for the community clean-up day or the play, there are so many ways in which we gather around the school district to benefit the whole town.”

But teachers and administrators say the biggest impact is felt in the classroom. The K-8 environment, they say, is conducive to mentoring—both between students and between teachers.

“A K-8 environment makes all staff realize that an 8th grade teacher is also a kindergarten teacher,” said Haney. “We are all responsible for helping children become learners and good people after nine years with us.”

The Teacher of the Year agreed, adding that by the time his seventh and eighth grade students enter his classroom, he already knows them by name.

During the course of a year, Kline said, seventh and eighth grade students will create PowerPoint presentations on American heroes to second graders, host a Native American Powwow for third grade, give persuasive speeches about the Revolution to fifth graders, and demonstrate a 1960s-style Peace Rally with the lower grades of K-6. In addition, first through fourth graders will be visited by eighth grade students dressed as Harriet Tubman, Andrew Jackson, Elizabeth Blackwell and other 19th century heroes to play “Who am I?”

“Finding the most engaging way to teach a lesson frequently involves coordinating programs throughout the school,” said Kline, whose innovative methods helped earn him his title as New Jersey Teacher of the Year. “Often my students become the teacher. My students love to show off their efforts—especially to younger students, often siblings. The younger students greatly identify with the older students, latently raising the value of learning within our school. In other words, making school ‘cool’.”

Wendi Patella is a member of the Cranbury Board of Education and a public relations consultant. She can be reached at wpatella@verizon.net.

An overview from the New Jersey State Police

By Michael Scala, Sergeant First Class

School Safety is a topic that is never far from the headlines or the consciousness of school boards, administrators, or parents. The shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University—as well as tragic incidents in elementary and secondary schools around the country—have everyone who is responsible for school safety and security, wondering, “Are we prepared for this type of incident?”

Making schools safe isn’t the responsibility of any one group. Educators frequently tell us “We’re educators and administrators, not security experts.” Law enforcement officials often feel that “We’re cops, with many responsibilities within the community. We just do not have the staffing to assign a member of our department to the school on a full-time basis.” Emergency first responders feel that they, too, have many responsibilities and cannot take on sole responsibility for school security.

The fact is, no single individual or group is expected to have all the answers when it comes to school safety and security. The components of a good school safety and security plan involve too many disciplines for this to be a solo endeavor.

For this reason, an important first step is the participation, coordination and collaboration of the stakeholders. Stakeholders in this process include school administrators, school boards, emergency management planners, fire officials, local government officials, teachers and staff, facility and maintenance personnel, mental and health professionals, parents, students and law enforcement.

What’s New in School Safety and Security? Over the last twelve months, several updated or new documents have been released to the education and law enforcement communities, to help provide direction, in an effort to enhance school safety and security. Here’s a rundown of what’s new.

New Jersey Department of Education’s School Safety and Security Manual Best Practices Guidelines In January 2007, the Department of Education (DOE) updated and released its publication, School Safety and Security Manual Best Practices Guidelines. The mere size of the document (429 pages) is intimidating, however, it’s a great reference and resource document specifically designed with New Jersey schools in mind. No other single document can duplicate the amount of information and guidance that this manual offers. Also, it is important to emphasize that the manual was not produced with the intention that readers will memorize it from cover to cover. The intention was to use the manual as a guide and tool, to aid in the collaboration and planning efforts of the stakeholders.

School Security Task Force The mission of the Task Force is to improve school safety and enhance communication among law enforcement, educators and school administrators. In September 2007, Governor Corzine’s School Security Task Force submitted its findings and recommendations. I had the opportunity to participate on the Task Force which included representatives from the Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey Prosecutors Association and various law enforcement agencies and associations. In addition, there were many voices from outside law enforcement that were members of the Task Force including: NJ School Superintendents Association, NJ Principals and Supervisors Association, NJ Department of Education, the Governors Office, NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, NJ Office of Children and Families, NJ Fire Safety Division and the NJEA.

The Task Force recognized that many federal and state agencies (including various New Jersey agencies and departments) had developed policies and procedures relating to school safety. The Task Force sought to incorporate the lessons learned from other agencies, and assess and evaluate them for use in New Jersey schools. The Task Force identified best practices and industry standards, and has utilized them to develop the following Model Policies:

• Bomb Threat Policy
  
  
• Evacuation Policy
  
  
• Rapid Response to an Active Shooter Policy
  
  
• Lockdown Policy
  
  
• Public Information Policy

The Model Policies were specifically designed for law enforcement and intentionally developed to allow for modifications to meet each municipality’s specific need. The Model Policies contain baseline components to be used as a foundation for the stakeholders of each school to build upon. However, the School Security Task Force hopes that any modification is consistent with the goal of improving school safety, as well as, improving the lines of communication among the stakeholders.

The Model Policies were subsequently submitted to the Office of the Attorney General for review and approval. On July 13, 2007, Attorney General Anne Milgram signed Directive No. 2007-1, Model School Security Policies. This document directs the twenty-one County Prosecutors to distribute the Model Policies to all law enforcement agencies having patrol jurisdiction within their respective counties.

The Task Force had other recommendations, too, including one that school districts develop local school security groups and institute procedures that include regular drills and training in school security scenarios. The Task Force also recommended enhanced training for school resource officers, as well as basic training on model school security policies for all police officer candidates.

What About School Administrators? The Department of Education distributed a companion document to law enforcement’s Model Policies. The DOE’s document was released in October 2007 and is titled, School Administrator Procedures: Responding to Critical Incidents. From a law enforcement perspective, this is a helpful document and tool. That’s because when law enforcement meets with a school official, they both can now refer to their respective, complementary document and say, “Here’s an outline and overview of my role and responsibilities if this situation occurs.” It provides a guide to help them plan together, having a better understanding of the other’s respective responsibilities. This document is crucial to your district’s safety plan.

Uniform State Memorandum of Agreement Between Education and Law Enforcement Officials (MOA) Released in November 2007, the MOA is based upon earlier memoranda of agreement that were issued in 1988, 1992 and 1999. The revised MOA has several updated sections and a new article pertaining to School Safety and Security. The MOA was prepared with the same mind-set as law enforcement’s Model Policies. It was written to provide guidance and a framework. The MOA describes responsibilities and interactions between educators and law enforcement officials in emergency situations affecting schools.

What Should Schools Be Doing? What should your school district be doing? Your school administrators should be meeting with their local law enforcement officials, as well as the other stakeholders. A great starting point is to discuss the Model Policies, DOE’s School Administrator Procedures: Responding to Critical Incidents and the MOA. Together, they should review responsibilities, and jointly develop a plan that would best serve their school district and community. If you already have a plan, it’s time to review, update and practice it.

When it comes to school safety and security, there is no “one size fits all” plan that is already right for your school district because no two schools or communities are alike. The reality is, an effective prevention and preparedness plan for a safe and secure school environment requires the personal attention of school and law enforcement officials, as well as, all the participating stakeholders. Obviously, this takes time. But with all the stakeholders working together, an effective school safety and security plan can be achieved.

Sergeant First Class Michael Scala is with the Infrastructure Security Unit of the New Jersey State Police. He is also a member of ASIS International, an organization of security professionals and has obtained that group’s Certified Protection Professional designation. He can be reached at Michael.Scala@gw.njsp.org

Post-election violence in Kenya sparks adjustment to high school’s Harambee project

By Roberta H. Van Anda

The approximate distance from Rumson, N.J. to Nairobi, Kenya is 7,368 miles.

But to Megan Arnone, a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School teacher, her students, and the Kenyan beneficiaries of a community service project she began, that distance seems considerably smaller.

Arnone began the organization, called “The Harambee Project,” nearly two years ago. The term “Harambee” is the national motto of Kenya and can be defined as “coming together for a mutual cause.” Since the founding of the group, Rumson-Fair Haven students, their families and local businesses have been raising funds and collecting school supplies, clothing, books and toys for rural and urban slum schools and rescue centers in Kenya.

The impact of the donations has been dramatic. Last year, when the Harambee Project’s first large shipment of school supplies arrived at the Ramah Care Center in Nairobi, it was described as “the biggest event in the seven-year history of this school” by Stacy Harris, a Fair Haven man who runs the center and is Arnone’s contact in Nairobi. He added, “The kids were so happy to receive the books that they started crying. They had a prayer service to thank the Americans for helping. These simple things of paper and school supplies that we take for granted are changing an entire school and the community.”

The other main initiative of the project is raising funds to help pay school fees for students in Kenya. Last year, RFH students sold woven-African style friendship bracelets in an effort to raise funds to help pay school fees for students in Kenya. Although elementary schools are technically free to all, families must pay for the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, transportation and school maintenance. That cost – about $350 per child—makes an education prohibitively expensive for most poor children. Secondary education is tuition-based, and few families can afford the $1,000 or so a year it costs for their children to continue beyond grade school. The Harambee Project has donated the school fees for several young people.

Letters from the Kenyan students describe what the project means to them. One student, Wendy, lost both parents to AIDS and was being raised with her brother by her grandmother until she “chased us away.” She is attending Lady of Lourdes Girls’ High School in Nyeri, Kenya and is ranked first in her class. She hopes to continue her education by attending a university. “My dream is to one day achieve in life and help those who are unfortunate just as I have been helped to be where I am today,” Wendy wrote. Retune, another student being sponsored by the Harambee Project, “lost her entire cultural and familial existence,” said Arnone. Fees are being provided so that she can be helped at the Suguta Marmar Rescue Center, a place of refuge, care, residence and education for Samburu girls who run away from their tribes to avoid early marriage and female circumcision. “These are children who have ambitions for University and will no doubt come back to their communities as major assets to development. But for right now, they need refuges where they can feel safe as they prepare for bright futures,” said Arnone.

Letters from the Kenyan schools and students have had a dramatic effect on Rumson-Fair Haven students. “The Harambee Project at RFH is, in my opinion, one of the most important projects our school has ever been involved with. It makes me very happy to know that we are really helping not just people in need but fellow students as well. There is nothing like walking into my 3rd period history class and seeing a huge pile of supplies and clothes that people have donated filling up a whole corner of the room,” said Mike Ryterband, one of Arnone’s students. Matt Wassel, another student, agreed. “These two years working with The Harambee Project have made me a more diverse person,” he said. “I am more cognizant of the things that are going on outside of Rumson. It makes me proud to be a part of an organization that can offer so much help to people in need.”

Given the close ties with the African project, it’s not surprising that when tribal violence began to flare up after the disputed December, 2007 Kenyan presidential elections, the RFH students took an immediate and intense interest in the events. For the students it was a lesson in global politics in real time. “When the violence broke out, I had a student come in my room that morning, saying ‘did you read the news? What’s going on in Kenya?’” said Arnone. As the students followed news reports on a daily basis, Arnone was receiving updates from a friend in Nairobi who is the East African regional officer for Catholic Relief Services.

Several of the Harambee Project’s initiatives were affected by the unrest. The Ramah Care Center is located in a neighborhood that was hit by violence; a local government minister was assassinated. At a center for Kenyan children in the central highlands that the project supported, the cook’s son was killed and a few workers had to flee to Nairobi because they feared tribal violence.

“There was a great deal of concern, not just for our initiative, but also for the country. Kids were saying that they thought Kenya was a stable country and wanted to know how this could happen in a stable country,” said Arnone. “I had to explain that they can’t lose faith in Kenya just because it is struggling. The true test is how they have come out of it with a restructuring of government that I think will prevent issues like this from happening in the future. Many nations in Africa are young and suffer from the same sort of upheavals that this country suffered from in its young years.”

Since the violence, Arnone has been unable to make contact with the Suguta Marmar Rescue Center. Because it is located in a remote rural area which, in the best of times, only has contact with the outside world via mail delivery once a week, she believes the nuns who run it have chosen to isolate themselves until the trouble subsides. Arnone is also unsure of the status of a Nairobi slum-area school it has made donations to.

Arnone has been in touch with two of the other institutions, the Lady of Lourdes School, which has not been directly affected, and the Ramah Center, which has escaped violence, despite its location. The Harambee Project is continuing to support those initiatives, as well as arranging for donations of books, toys and clothing to go to a government center. Arnone and her group will evaluate future support of the other charities after she can communicate with them and assess the situation. “We’ve had to streamline our activities, but that’s what you deal with in a project like this,” she said.

The Rumson-Fair Haven Board of Education members have supported this venture from the beginning. In 2007, the board provided a $2,100 Summer Incentive Grant that enabled Ms. Arnone to travel to Africa. There she delivered a shipment of supplies and visited facilities that might be suitable beneficiaries of the Harambee Project.

Board member Kathleen Gasienica stressed how participation in this activity touches students, “This project is important because we know that our students have not seen anything other than the lifestyle of this suburban community. Many are given their own cars when they turn 17. They don’t take the school bus; it isn’t ‘cool.’ Our Lost and Found bin is overflowing with beautiful clothing, because they don’t even try to find lost items—they just buy new ones. They have been given everything and don’t know what the ‘real world’ is. As they transition to the ‘13th year’ and leave the insulation of this community, our students need to know how different life is in other places and that an education is not taken for granted in other cultures. We have always had a goal of developing more community service and outreach projects, and the Harambee Project gives great benefit to the people in the developing African countries as well as giving a much-needed sense of perspective to our students.”

At Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, the Harambee Project is an integral part of SAVE (Student Activism Via Education), an extracurricular organization which provides a way for students to research and become active in their choice of a variety of social causes. English teacher Dana Maulshagen and Megan Arnone are co-advisors of SAVE; Megan manages the Harambee Project, and Dana handles all other activism initiatives.

Board of Education President Ann Rossbach points out the minimal expense incurred by the district. “As far as our board’s investment goes, this is a self-funded project, except for the initial summer grant and Ms. Arnone’s stipend as advisor to the SAVE extracurricular activity. Ms. Arnone’s and our students’ time, energy and dedication cannot really be quantified—they are priceless. Megan is a terrific role model—for her students, fellow teachers, and our parent community.” 

What does the future hold for the Harambee Project?

While the specific initiatives the project undertakes may shift as needs and political realities change in Kenya, Arnone is fully committed to continuing, and even growing, the project. Donations continue to pile up in her classroom; they will be delivered in a few months. She plans to visit Africa again this summer.

Currently, all of the initiatives being funded are in Kenya, but her hope is to expand into Uganda in the future. Arnone has long lists of Kenyan students who would like to correspond with Americans, and her long term goal is to start a visiting student program. She also has dreams of expanding the project beyond the Rumson-Fair Haven community. “The Harambee project is at this time centered at RFHRHS, but it is such a worthwhile venture that it should be shared with other schools nationwide,” said Dr. Peter Righi, superintendent of the district. “We would be gratified to see this expand to other schools so that more and more young people in Africa can enjoy the gifts that a good education can bring.At the same time, American students can see first-hand the benefits of education and how lucky they are to be learning in the United States.”

As Arnone points out, “The whole point of the Harambee project is to encourage student activism and make them participants in a global society. So many people see the suffering of African children as overwhelming and hopeless. I find it to be incredibly inspiring and hope to foster that same inspiration in my students. I believe that the children of Africa are all worth saving, and I am trying—one at a time.”