All Around Pennsauken

By Ronnie Tarchichi, Superintendent of Schools, Pennsauken School District 

I would like to first thank the administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students for their hard work during November. In addition, I would like to thank all Township and School District personnel, as well as the Board of Education, for assisting us with our first “Touch-a-Truck” event. It was an enormous success. Thank you to all the parents and students who came out to support this event.

High School

The high school continues to operate professionally and skillfully through the assistance of our administrators, teachers, staff, and students. Block scheduling has promoted academic growth in our students through a focus on specific courses in a semester’s time and increased instructional time. Our athletics, music program, and clubs are top notch; and we continue to grow through the birth of even more extracurricular activities. For example, through Pennsauken’s “Green Initiative,” we are teaching our students precaution and sustainability; and that they can play an integral role in making our schools, communities, and planet more sustainable and healthy.

Congratulations to our fall athletes and coaches for their hard work and consistent efforts this season. Pennsauken athletics is truly a step ahead of their peers. Mr. DeNofa, Mrs. Brown, and our music program, have set the bar for all music in secondary and post secondary education. This program truly knocks on the door of Juilliard.

Our articulation agreement between Camden County College and Pennsauken Public Schools, where we are aligning high school curricula to the college courses offered, continues to move forward with a high degree of meticulousness. Students have completed the Accuplacer exam, which was offered last month to all students. The following curricula have been written for 35 courses that will be offered in our district:

1. AUT-101 – Automotive Fundamentals
2. AUT-111 – Automotive Braking
3. AUT-121 – Automotive Steering and Suspension Systems
4. AUT-131 – Automotive Heating and AC
5. AUT-141 – Automotive Electrical & Electronic Prin
6. AUT-261 – Manual Drive Transmissions and Axels
7. AUT-262 – Automotive Transmissions and transaxles
8. BIO-111 – Biology I
9. BIO-112 – Biology II
10. BIO-211 – Anatomy & Physiology I
11. BIO-212 – Anatomy & Physiology II
12. CHM-101 – Chemistry 1
13. CSC-121 – Programming C++
14. ENG-101 – English Comp I
15. ENG-102 – English Comp II
16. ENG-271 – World Literature I
17. HIS-121 – US History I
18. HIS-122 – US History II
19. HIT-120 – Medical Terminology
20. MTH-011 – Pre-Algebra
21. MTH-100 – Algebraic Concepts
22. MTH-120 – College Algebra
23. MTH-123 – Precalculus I
24. MTH-124 – Precalculus II
25. MTH-125 – Advanced Precalculus
26. MTH-140 – Calculus I
27. MTH-145 – Linear Algebra
28. MTH-150 – Calculus II
29. MTH-210 – Calculus III
30. MUS-111 – Music History I
31. MUS-112 – Music History II
32. PHY-101 – Physics I
33. PHYS-102 – Phyisics II
34. PSY-101 – Psychology
35. SOC-101 – Sociology

We also look forward to the growth and development of our career and technical education division, as we prepare to offer the following programs for the 2017-2018 school year:

1. Automotive
2. Cosmetology
3. Culinary Arts
4. Carpentry
5. Child Care

Middle School And Intermediate School

Students at our middle and intermediate schools have grown collectively in mathematics, language arts, science, social studies and related arts. Activity periods have assisted students with growth in content and subject matter, especially mathematics and language arts. Students participated in election-related activities for this past historic election; it was a lot of fun to see them articulate their points on policy and politics at such a young age. New robots in our robotics class and virtual field trips in our Spanish class, along with 3D printing, have our students growing in science and technology. Close to 250 new Chromebooks were delivered to our Park Avenue campus to promote technology in our classrooms.  Growth in social studies curricula and pacing guides has been initiated to align pedagogy with standards needed for educational development of our students.

Elementary Schools

Our elementary school students have shown tremendous growth and maturation both socially and academically this month. Our Hispanic heritage events, parent involvement nights and Halloween parades were a lot of fun and very successful. Students have shown incredible growth in all content areas, especially mathematics, language arts, and science. We are very proud of our elementary students and look forward to their academic development this year.

Spend Time With The Super

We had a great “Coffee and Questions with the Superintendent” meeting with members of the community at the Pennsauken Country Club on Nov. 4 and again on Nov. 17 at Pennsauken High School. The next “Coffee and Questions with the Superintendent” will take place on Thursday, Dec. 15 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the High School Cafeteria, 800 Hylton Rd. In order to make these opportunities more convenient for residents, they will now be held each month, two hours prior to the Board of Education’s business meeting.

These are times where concerned parents or Pennsauken residents can come and ask questions regarding any topic within the school district in a casual, informal setting.

I look forward to seeing you, hearing your concerns and growing both personally and professionally from you.