Boro school district to improve education plans
Eatontown schools receive accreditation by international group
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

EATONTOWN- The Borough School District has earned an international recognition that calls for the district to improve educational programs and school facilities.

The school district received the Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools (MSCES) accreditation in 2007, which is an official approval that encourages schools to seek to better themselves.

When a school receives the accreditation, it must seek to better itself within seven years of the recognition through developing and implementing self-improvement plans, according to Eatontown Schools Superintendent Barbara Struble.

"All four schools in the district won their accreditation independently," Struble said, adding, "It is rare for public elementary schools to receive accreditation.

"[The preparation process] was very comprehensive," she said.

The Eatontown School District comprises the Vetter, Woodmere and Meadowbrook elementary schools and the Memorial Middle School.

The MSCES program is a voluntary commitment to an ongoing school improvement process designed to assure the public of the quality of a school's offerings, according to Struble.

For a school to receive an MSCES accreditation, it must develop a plan to address how it will seek to improve in 12 areas set forth by the commission, according to Struble.

The 12 areas include improving school governance and leadership, health and safety, educational programs, student services, mission statement, organization design and staff, learning media services and technology, student life and activities, facilities, assessment of student learning and planning.

The MSCES accreditation will ensure that each of Eatontown's four public schools will continue to improve themselves over the next seven years in order to stay within the accreditations' guidelines, according to Struble. Struble said she is hopeful the MSCES's accreditation will have a positive affect on district students, both academically and socially.

"I am just proud of everything in Eatontown right now," Struble said. "I feel we are on a path of tremendous success."

Eatontown schools began preparing for their accreditation process in 2005 by creating core teams of teachers in each school, Struble explained.

The district was seeking the accreditation as a way to evaluate the individual performance of each school and to develop programs that would improve the educational process, according to Struble.

Groups of staff members within the Eatontown school district formed teams to take part in a two-year study as part of the process to obtain the accreditation.

The groups developed plans on how each school would improve, according to Struble.

The plans developed by the groups call for the district to implement activities that will form a "positive" connection between home and school for the students, according to Struble who added that the district also plans to address tardiness.

"Tardiness has decreased in the schools we are addressing it in," Struble said.

"We are also working on respect with the children and what changes [the students] feel are needed based on needs assessments that they completed," she said.

The plans were submitted to the MSCES in January 2007 and in November 2007 the four schools learned that they had achieved the accreditation, according to Struble.

"In March 2007 . . . representatives from the MSCES toured each Eatontown school in order to see if they were eligible for accreditation," Struble said.

"Representatives from MSCES will come back and see if we are following our action plans," Struble said. "We have to fill out a form yearly and make our teams meet three times a year in order to keep track of what we are doing at the point and time."

In addition to receiving accreditation from the MSCES, Struble said the district continues to make positive changes, including the recent completion of a major renovation project at the four district schools.

The Vetter and Memorial Schools were both originally built in 1955. The Woodmere School was built in 1967 and the Meadowbrook School was built in 1964.

A $29 million renovation project at the four schools was completed in January, according to Eatontown Board of Education President Mark Van Wagner explained.

The district-wide project included renovating bathrooms, science rooms, gymnasiums, art rooms and main office areas.

The project also consisted of upgrading the infrastructures and HVAC systems at the four schools, as well as replacing ceiling tiles, doors and emergency lighting and fire systems.

The Eatontown Board of Education is now seeking to upgrade the telecommunications and technological infrastructure at the four schools, according to VanWagner.

"We are looking to go wireless, increase our Internet speed and improve connectivity between the four schools," Van Wagner said.

Plans for the technological upgrade are still in the beginning stages, according to Van Wagner.