MPS families,
Seeing you in person at our return to school events has been an absolute joy! I hope to see you at many more of our in-person events throughout the school year.
As we approach the end of September, please consider these important updates:
Monday’s Superintendent Coffee will focus on school security with a special guest, Investigator Ashley Craig of the Morris County Sherriff’s Office.
As school security is something that our entire community is responsible for, we will also be launching a new school security Thoughtexchange to solicit community members' input. We will also allocate time to explain the recent NJSLA individual score reports. Please join us tomorrow at 5:30pm or watch the recording on Youtube.
The MPS website and app just updated to a new version.
Most of the functionality should be the same or enhanced. Please be patient, as it will take some time to identify and resolve issues. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the improved features, which include the ability to sync district and school events to your calendar (each event has an “Add to Calendar” button). The district will be soliciting parent and student feedback regarding our website later this fall. Please contact John LaPierre or your child’s school if you encounter any issues using our website or app (available on Appstore and Google Play).
The anticipated referendum proposal will be formally introduced to the community in October.
After two years of preparation, the district is nearly finished developing a facilities referendum proposal in response to the feedback we have received from community members. If you are interested in learning about our progress, please review the Superintendent Coffee sessions where this topic was addressed. We will provide the final details of the proposal and the date for a vote in the coming month. In the meantime, please anticipate that the vote will take place sometime in the winter of 2023.
MPS will return to a two-year curriculum development timeline, impacting the new Health and PE curriculum.
In response to nearly two decades of state-led curriculum and assessment mandates, many NJ school districts have shortened timelines for developing new curricula to achieve compliance. Moving forward, MPS will return to a more deliberative, two-year program evaluation and curriculum development timeline. Due to the public interest in our current Health and PE curriculum update, it will be the first to use this new extended timeline. We anticipate final Health and PE curriculum documents to be presented to the Board and community in the winter of 2023 for implementation in September 2023.
Thank you for taking the time to consider these updates. On behalf of all Madison Public Schools, I wish you a pleasant end of the summer season. I hope to see you soon!
Sincerely, Mark Schwarz
Superintendent of Madison Public Schools
Upcoming Events:
Sept 19 - Superintendent Coffee
Sept 20 - BOE Meeting
Sept 26 - NO SCHOOL - Rosh Hashanah
Oct 5 - NO SCHOOL - Yom Kippur
Oct 9 - MHS PTSO Jets Day Fundraiser
Oct 17 - NO SCHOOL - Staff Professional Development
Oct 17 - Superintendent Coffee
Oct 18 - BOE Meeting
Nov 10-11 - NO SCHOOL - NJEA Convention
Nov 14 - Superintendent Coffee - State of the Schools Address
Nov 15 - BOE Meeting
Nov 21-23 - Parent Teacher Conferences
Nov 24-25 - NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving
Dec 12 - Superintendent Coffee
Dec 13 - BOE Meeting
Dec 23 - Single Session Schedule
Dec 26-Dec 30 - NO SCHOOL - Winter Break
Jan 3 - Board Reorganization Meeting
Jan 16 - NO SCHOOL - MLK Day
Feb 20-21 - NO SCHOOL - Presidents’ Day & Staff Professional Development
Mar 20-24 - NO SCHOOL - Spring Break
April 3-4 - Parent Teacher Conferences
April 7 - NO SCHOOL - Good Friday
May 26-30 - NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day & Staff Professional Development
June 14 - Last day of school
KEEP MADISON SAFE! If you see something, say something:
For emergencies and immediate threats, call 911
For all other health, safety, and welfare concerns, report anonymously using the “RSVP-3 Morris County, NJ” app
For child abuse, call 877-NJ ABUSE, or 1-877-652-2873
For bullying concerns, contact your child’s teacher, guidance counselor, or principal.
Together we are Madison Strong.