PHILLIPSBURG | Phillipsburg
School District officials have hired a Cherry Hill-based consultant
to help them through the state's new, extensive assessment
and monitoring process.
The district must submit New
Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum materials to
the Warren County superintendent sometime in November. With
several administrative positions vacant, district officials
have said they feel they could use the help from an experienced
consultant.
Acting district Superintendent
George Chando said the district requested a 12-month waiver
due to the administrative changes, but that request was turned
down.
"After that, we began to take
a look at what had to be done," Chando said.
Phil Esbrandt, the firm's president
and chief executive officer of LeadershipEnergies LLC, has
been through the QSAC process.
"What we're going to try to
do is provide accurate ratings, great documentation as well
as any corrective action plans that may be needed," said Esbrandt,
a longtime and former school administrator.
That is just one aspect of
the process, which includes about 325 compliance indicators
in five major areas: instruction and program, personnel, fiscal
management, operations and governance.
The district will pay LeadershipEnergies
$28,500 plus expenses for the work.
The state Department of Education
needed to simplify progress and quality monitoring by using
one set of standards, according to a fact sheet on the agency's
Web site. The system addresses federal legislation and state
regulations. It also focuses more on assistance and improvement
than punishment, according to the site.
This school year, 124 districts
embarked upon the process, DOE spokesman Rich Vespucci said.
He said 240 districts will do the same in each of the next
two school years. It is a three-year cycle.
The system includes guidelines
for scores between 79 and 50 percent, including improvement
plans, and for scores below 50 percent, which could mean a
type of limited state intervention.
Fifty-eight of 124 districts
were deemed high performing and another 30 districts scored
about 80 percent in four of the five areas, Vespucci said.
The process begins with the
district's self-assessment.
"There isn't an area of the
district that is (supposed) to be overlooked," Esbrandt said
of the system.
The Phillipsburg School District
is forming a committee of school staff and school officials,
and Esbrandt said he'll serve as an adviser to that group.
They'll essentially be connected to every process and aspect
of the district and will assess each of the state's indicators
against district practice. If there is a discrepancy, Esbrandt
will work with the committee to devise strategies to close
the gap.
In the fall, the school board
will consider the assessment documents and vote whether to
send them to the county superintendent. Esbrandt said that
is due to the county in November.