Monday, March 25, 2013
The average household will pay about $123 more in school taxes this year, even under a budget that hews close to the bone, said Superintendent Kevin Kitchenman.
Had the ratable base in West Deptford not declined by some $188 million in 2012, the average household would have seen almost $60 savings in school taxes under the budget proposed by the Board of Education at its March meeting Monday. But that's not the case. Instead, taxpayers can expect a net increase of 6.01¢ per $100 of assessed property valuation this year. Based on the average assessed value of $207,966, that’s an average annual increase in costs of $123.03, or $10.25 per month. The district put forward possibly its most curriculum-intensive budget in history, said board President Christopher Strano—a necessity as the district works to bring its performance assessments in line with state expectations. “The school board does not want …
Saturday, March 23, 2013
The Township Committee issued a special proclamation commemorating another championship season for the green and white.
Before the evening shifted gears into a budget-focused discussion, the West Deptford Township Committee took care of an important piece of business at its March meeting: issuing a proclamation commemorating the success of the 2012 West Deptford High School Marching Eagles. After a third straight Atlantic Coast Championship at which they rated their highest score ever (97.65) and a top-six finish at the U.S. Bands National Tournament, it was business as usual for the band in 2012. Three students—Caitlin Fenning, Morgan Gilligan and Jackie Wallowitch were named to the Tournament of Bands All-Star Marching Band and also made an appearance in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade. Fenning also was named the first marching band All-American …
Saturday, March 16, 2013
'Bye Bye Birdie' wraps Sunday at West Deptford High School. Come visit the fictional town of Sweet Apple, OH, and turn back the clock.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Wendy Rooney's language arts class got a visit from Det. Cpl. Richard Henry to round out their reading unit on mysteries. Crime solving creates critical thinkers, she says.
Ne'er-do-wells in West Deptford, beware: Wendy Rooney's sixth-grade class (Team 6B at West Deptford Middle School) is just itching for a new case to crack. Together with her teaching partner, Nicole Hopkins, Rooney created a mystery unit that is designed to be a gateway to deeper, higher-skilled reading and critical thinking. That unit was supplemented by an in-school visit from West Deptford Det. Cpl. Richard Henry on Friday. It's the perfect exercise for plastic, young minds, she said. "We use higher-level reading skills," Rooney said. "The intention is to make them more creative thinkers, and kids love mysteries." "Our teacher gives us the cases and we try to solve them," said Connor Woods, 11. Woods showed off his case folder, which …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Pies were flying—directly at teachers' faces—for a messy Pi Day celebration at West Deptford Middle School.
With their classmates cheering them on and big grins plastered on their faces, three West Deptford sixth-graders smashed a whipped cream pie in the principal and two teachers’ faces Thursday, all in the name of math. March 14 is Pi Day, a day to celebrate the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. As that sounds like a celebration only a mathematician could love, West Deptford Middle School found many ways to elevate 3.14 (pi) to new levels of fun. The sixth-grade class’s entire day revolved around the marvel of pi, culminating in pie-throwing privileges for the students who could recite the most digits of pi—a number that never ends. “It’s a whole day of cross-curricular activities,” said math teacher Laura Sandy, who …
39.828933
-75.193411
West Deptford Middle School
675 Grove Rd, West Deptford, NJ
/articles/west-deptford-middle-school-pi-day-2013
1818970
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Fifth-grader Zach Varela took home first place in the Jersey Juniors Southern Regional Spelling Bee, and he's going for a repeat in the state spelling bee.
It all came down to “orchid.” No, not the flower, the actual word. And when fifth-grader Zach Varela saw his opponent falter over the spelling of it, he knew he had the Jersey Juniors Southern Regional Spelling Bee in the bag. Placing second in the West Deptford Junior Women’s Club Spelling Bee, Varela took home first place in the Jersey Juniors Southern Regional Spelling Bee, held at the Haddon Fortnightly on Feb. 24. Leading his region, Varela will be one of six representing South Jersey at the Jersey Juniors State Spelling Bee at Rutgers University in New Brunswick this weekend. An avid reader, Varela says he has built up an extensive vocabulary over the years from flagging unfamiliar words. Over the years, any new word he would …
39.828933
-75.193411
West Deptford Middle School
675 Grove Rd, West Deptford, NJ
/articles/winning-first-place-in-regional-west-deptford-student-will-go-for-a-second-win-in-state-spelling-bee
1818970
/locations/8963436
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
A revamp of the school district's policy page created a cleaner design to make it easier for the public look up specific documents.
Anyone who has gone to the West Deptford School District website to find copies of school board policies in recent years may have had trouble finding what they needed due to a cluttered design. Now, looking up district's policies should be much easier thanks to a new layout introduced last Friday. Superintendent Kevin Kitchenman briefly mentioned the new look of the policy page during his report at the Board of Education meeting Monday night. He mentioned that the new look was created to make the page more user-friendly. The new-look policy page breaks the board of education policy guide into 10 separate categories. After clicking on a specified category, the user will be given a list of all of the policy documents that fall under that …
The West Deptford Board of Education passed a preliminary budget that included a reduction in the tax rate increase thanks to a boost in state aid.
A bit of relief in the form of increased state aid has helped to lower the initial tax levy on township residents in the tentative West Deptford School District budget for 2013-14. The school board passed a tentative budget of approximately $44.696 million at Monday night's meeting. The tax increase, which was originally presented as 9.90¢ per $100 of assessed value at a budget work session meeting back on Feb. 23, now stands at a 8.344¢ increase per $100 of assessed value. Much of the reduction in the tax rate increase was due to an increase in state aid. Last week, the school district received a 3.8 percent increase in state aid from the 2012-13 school year. The total amount of state aid the school district will receive for 2013-14 is $…
Concerns about a field house's costs to exclusivity swirl as the school board and public press for more information on a field house in memory of Nick Brandemarti, a township resident who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
A large crowd gathered at the West Deptford Board of Education meeting on Monday night sought to have some of their questions answered about a proposed field house donation for the high school's football team. In January, a community group led by former soccer coach John Cobb and former board of education member Edward Houghton proposed donating a field house for the football team to the school district. The field house would be named after Nick Brandemarti Jr., a West Deptford High School alumnus and football player who died at the World Trade Center in the 9/11 attacks. Since the initial meeting, the proposal has ignited a firestorm of questions from the board of education as well as local residents. Brian Gotchel, the chairman for the …
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The district's 3.8 percent increase in state aid comes as New Jersey gives more total funding for education than it ever has.
In what the Christie administration calls “the largest appropriation of K-12 education dollars in the state’s history,” West Deptford got a bump in its state aid to schools. The district will receive 3.8 percent more in the coming year from its state package than it does now. State aid will total $11,973,549, an increase of $441,890. The news of any state aid increase is likely welcome to West Deptford administrators, who have taxpayers staring down the barrel of a tax hike. The preliminary budget presented at the school’s board workshop meeting featured a tax rate increase of 9.9¢ per $100 of assessed property value. A steep drop in West Deptford’s ratables—the number of taxable properties—in West Deptford. This year's decrease amounts to…
Madeline Fucci
4:14 pm on Monday, April 1, 2013
How far down in the sand do ostriches have to stick their head before they find they are suffocating? Continuing to ignore the fact that our debt and interest is $200 million defies logic.Who created the debt? It wasn't Ray Cintall or Sam Cianfarini. How many court cases do we need to lose and how much more should be paid in legal fees? The only people benefitting from the litigation were the … more ›