When Montclair’s public school students put the long summer break behind them and return to classes next Thursday, many of them will be encountering plenty of changes.
The familiar classrooms will still be there, but when students and parents enter the new 2008-2009 school year they will find many new faces in the ranks of their principals and teaching staff.
New codes of conduct will regulate student conduct both on and off campus, taking special aim at cyberbullies, or thugs who harass or intimidate people via the Internet. School officials are also imposing more safeguards for upcoming class field trips.
The Board of Education will launch a new Department of School and Community Relations to help reach out to students, parents and the community at large.
At least one school – Mt Hebron – will sport a new facelift, thanks to a landscaping beautification project organized and funded in part through the efforts of school parents.
Montclair’s student/athletes will finally get the modernized and expanded new Woodman Field House. And users of the Woodman sports complex will encounter new traffic and parking regulations governing the surrounding streets.
The construction of the long-awaited new school on Washington Street will get underway, promising a modern state-of-the-art teaching complex that should be ready to accept students within three years.
Thanks to new state and federal mandates, there will be curriculum changes.
The district’s promised China Initiative will get underway with Mandarin-language instruction being offered to students attending Nishuane and Glenfield schools.
District officials who always seem to be scrambling to put together parent/faculty committees to examine a variety of issues will establish a group this autumn that will help them select a new leader for Montclair High School.
There was little doubt that the pace of the changes at Montclair’s seven elementary schools, three middle schools and its high school was unusually brisk this summer, leading into what promises to be a very busy autumn.
No one felt that pace more than Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez, who kicked things off with the announcements of a series of personnel changes that included staff departures, retirements and promotions.
Alvarez said he finds staff attrition "usually comes in cycles," with more than one key position opening in a given year, followed by several years of "staff retainment." This year’s changes seemed to come in waves and opened up lots of opportunities for current staffers.
"We consider ourselves fortunate to have such a wealth of talent to draw on when making personnel decisions," Alvarez said.
Following what Alvarez described as "10 years of outstanding service" to the students of Montclair, MHS Principal Mel Katz retired this summer. He will likely remain involved in education, either as a college professor or as a mentor to student teachers, Alvarez said.
Judith Weiss, a former assistant state commissioner of education, was named as an interim replacement for Katz. Weiss will hold the position throughout the hiring process, which will consist of the formation of school and community committees in the autumn, with interviews of applicants expected to get underway in October or November.
The search for a permanent replacement is already underway. Parents and community members who are interested in participating in a principal search committee can contact the School Superintendent’s Office, 973-509-4010.
There were eight other changes among the district’s principals and assistant principals.
Gail Clarke will begin as principal at Nishuane, following several years as Watchung’s principal.
Cenithia Bilal, formerly a language arts and social studies teacher-on-special-assignment at Central Office, has been promoted to assistant principal at Nishuane.
Bilal will be replaced by Mt. Hebron language arts teacher Guy Whitlock.
Marcus Rhaney, the former assistant principal at Glenfield, replaces Clarke at Watchung.
Anthony Benjamin, the health and physical education teacher at Renaissance, assumes the assistant principalship at Glenfield.
In the district’s Central Office, Felice Harrison will head the newly-created Office of School and Community Relations. Harrison served as principal at Nishuane for the past 14 years.
Joan Moriarty, the district’s supervisor of math and science, will retire in September following 20 years of service to the district, including several years as principal of Rand.
There were also other changes at MHS. assistant principals William Gibney and Peter Renwick have departed to become principals in other districts. Gibney will go to Englewood High School and Renwick will become the principal at Westfield High School. Renwick will also be joined at Westfield by former MHS Director of Guidance Scott White.
Renwick will be replaced as the assistant principal at the Ninth Grade Academy by Health and Physical Education Supervisor Francine Bonczkowski.
"In education today, so much is changing rapidly," Alvarez said. "We have to make sure we stay ahead of the curve."
