Summer Greetings to the Monroe Township and Jamesburg Communities,
I hope each of you has enjoyed the pleasant weather we have experienced this summer. The nice weather has afforded us the opportunity to maximize the time spent on our outside projects as we prepare the schools for the return of students in September. Building projects to improve our facilities, securing supplies, writing curricula, analyzing data, opening a new budget year, registering new students and hiring new personnel are just some of the many tasks that are accomplished during the summer months.
We presented schematics of a proposed new elementary school, new middle school and an addition to our high school at the June 14, 2017 Board meeting. This upcoming school year, we will be scheduling meetings for parents and community members to discuss new schools and how we intend to house students until the new schools are built. Times and locations for these meetings will be widely disseminated and I encourage all of our parents to attend the meetings to stay informed. Concurrently, we are supporting a voter registration drive by the League of Women Voters, who will have tables at all of our Back to School Nights. It is extremely important that all eligible voters are registered, as we expect to propose a referendum for the building of new schools.
This past school year, members of the community, Board of Education, teachers, administrators and elected officials attended NJ Senate and Assembly hearings to continue our fight for fair funding. I am happy to report that we were successful in getting the State legislators to agree to increase school funding, in part, to underfunded school districts throughout the State of New Jersey. The Monroe Township School District received an additional $458,098, which the Board agreed to put toward tax relief for the Monroe Township community. This addition will further reduce the already lowest tax increase that the school district has proposed in the last ten years. We feel that it is important to continue to be fiscally prudent with district finances, while still meeting the needs of the students and staff. This additional state aid is being regarded as a down payment from the State, as we plan on continuing to fight for our fair share of school funding.
We are continuing to expand upon our Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) initiative, as well as Language Arts, Social Studies and all other areas of our curriculum. Teachers and supervisors worked during the summer to ensure all curricula areas are up to date and we are looking forward to another successful school year with our students.
There is information contained within this newsletter regarding the opening of school, transportation and other important topics. Please be sure to align the school dates with your home calendars.
I look forward to seeing all of our students return in September. Until then, please enjoy the remaining days of August.
Yours in Education,
Michael Kozak
Dr. Michael Kozak
Superintendent of Schools
