Back to School BBQ!

What a beautiful afternoon it was, this past Sunday at Shalom Torah! The Shalom family came together to reunite, after a long summer away from each other, and to welcome new families and students.

We had beautiful weather- the rain held up (!)- delicious food, and a wonderful time getting re-acquainted while the children enjoyed balloon creations, bounce houses and running around and seeing their friends again! An enjoyable time was had by all!

We are just about there.!!

With the new school year right around the corner we would like to share with you what we have been up to! 

• New flooring- throughout the hallways and in the Pre-School classrooms, we have installed new, modern flooring to give our building a much needed facelift.

• Solar- Shalom has gone solar! We have installed new roofing (ask your children about that part!) as well as solar panels which will provide for all of our school's electricity needs.

• Professional Development- As your children are winding down their summer vacation, our teachers and staff have been hard at work preparing for the new school year. Setting up their classrooms, honing their curriculums and finally- our staff professional development days!

Note about security

With the events of the past few months there is a renewed focus and concern about the state of school security. We have spent time in consultation with our security agency, Praetorian Agency, as to what steps to take to increase our school's security and to do our part to ensure that our students are as safe as possible.

We would like to share with you the some of the steps we have taken as well as review some of the security measures already in place:

• Increased security presence- As you are aware, we have always had daily armed security at the most vulnerable parts of the school day. For the coming year we will be increasing our armed security presence significantly. Starting on the first day of school we will have armed security at our school for most school days, for the entire school day. 
• Lockdown capabilities- As you were probably aware, we have had enhanced lockdown capability installed at our school. We recently improved those lockdown capabilities with ensuring that Administrators have the ability to lockdown the building, securely, at the first sign of potential danger. Once the building is locked down, the police department is automatically informed and the doors cannot be opened unless the alarm is cleared.
• Secure entry/ exit & Keycard system- All of the exterior entrances of the building are locked, even during the school day. These entrances are monitored by security cameras which are monitored in all of the administrator offices and require an administrator to buzz the door open or to be opened with a keycard.
• Security Cameras- Our building and the surrounding grounds are covered by a comprehensive blanket of security cameras which pick up any motion and is monitored and maintained by an offsite technology company to ensure constant vigilance.
• Monitoring of Social Media and local threats- As part of the arrangement that we have with our security company, they monitor and inform us of any potential threats in the area. These threats can be on social media, police blotters, classified security chat rooms, the dark net, etc. Once these threats are brought to our attention we adjust our security and coordination with the Marlboro Police Department.
• Safety training and drills- As part of our security protocol we hold monthly security drills to ensure students and staff know exactly what to do in the event of a security event. In order to keep our staff properly informed and educated we have security briefings from our security company as part of our professional development.

Enjoy this recap video of last year!

What amazing memories

and promise of new experiences,

growing and learning, together, yet to come!