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NJ Spotlight – Hespe Keeps Low Profile During First Day Back on the Job as NJ Education Chief...Despite well-wishers and welcome-back greetings, new commissioner's repeat performance won't be piece of cake
NJ Spotlight - ‘Breakfast After the Bell’ Rings True in Efforts to Combat Kids' Hunger...Legislation seeks to expand state program that makes sure kids get healthy meal at start of school day
NJ Spotlight – Hespe Keeps Low Profile During First Day Back on the Job as NJ Education Chief
John Mooney | March 21, 2014
Despite well-wishers and welcome-back greetings, new commissioner's repeat performance won't be piece of cake
Greeted outside his office with a marble sheetcake reading “Welcome Back, Dave,” David Hespe yesterday returned to Trenton to serve as New Jersey’s state education commissioner for a second time.
Appointed by Gov. Chris Christie to replace outgoing commissioner Chris Cerf, Hespe’s first day back on the job was described as relatively routine. He met with some top staff and caught up with a position that he served in more than a decade ago under former Gov. Christine Whitman.
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Hespe did not give any interviews yesterday or make any public appearances, with his staff saying he would first focus on getting reacquainted with the job that he held for two years in Whitman’s second term.
Hespe, who also served as Cerf’s chief of staff from 2011-2012, comes back to state government after being president of Burlington County College for the past year.
Coming in to serve in Christie’s second term, Hespe will have little time to catch his breath as a host of looming -- and in some cases urgent -- decisions await him.
Among them is a request from Newark’s state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson to waive seniority regulations in the planned layoff of up to 1,000 teachers and other staff in New Jersey's largest district.
The commissioner also must soon rule on another hot-button topic: whether to clear two more charter school networks to open as many as 10 schools in Camden over the coming years, under the state's new Urban Hope Act.
A host of smaller issues also must be resolved, including a closely watched proposal from Pascack Valley Regional High School to use a day of online learning to make up for a snow day this winter.
And there are the massive efforts he will oversee in the department’s continued phasing-in of the new teacher evaluation system this year, alongside new PARCC testing aligned the Common Core State Standards that will start in 2015 and is being field tested in more than 1,200 schools this spring.
Most immediate may be the state’s education budget for fiscal 2015; Christie has proposed a minimal $20 per pupil increase for the year, amounting less than 1 percent overall.
The budget hearings are slated to begin next week, with Hespe likely to testify for the education spending before the Senate budget committee on April 3 and the Assembly budget committee on May 5.
“One of the immediate focuses will be the upcoming budget hearings,” said Michael Yaple, a department spokesman. “That in itself will be a heavy lift.”
NJ Spotlight - ‘Breakfast After the Bell’ Rings True in Efforts to Combat Kids' Hunger
Andrew Kitchenman | March 21, 2014
Legislation seeks to expand state program that makes sure kids get healthy meal at start of school day
Reasons why school kids go hungry in the morning range from not having breakfast available at home to being embarrassed about getting a free before-school meal.
“Breakfast After the Bell,” a new program backed by state lawmakers and education officials, aims to eliminate a key problem with serving breakfast before the school day begins -- few students are actually in school to eat the food.
The program, which school administrators are being urged to join, lets schools take 10 minutes at the start of the day to quickly serve and have students eat breakfast.
The increasingly popular initiative has contributed to surging participation in the school breakfast program.
The number of free and reduced-price breakfasts served in schools rrose from 136,000 in October 2010 to 184,000 in April 2013. Since then, state officials say, the number of meals served has risen even more. When all school breakfasts, including unsubsidized meals are totaled, 254,000 morning meals are currently being served statewide daily.
A bill passed yesterday by the Assembly, A-679, would require the state to keep track of the percentage of eligible students participating in the school breakfast program for each district, as well as the form in which breakfasts are served, as part of an effort to encourage wider adoption of “Breakfast After the Bell.” The bill also requires the Department of Agriculture to “make every effort” to help districts implement the program.
“We’re happy that the Legislature is sending a strong message to school districts,” said Nancy Parello, spokeswoman for Advocates for Children of New Jersey, an organization that supports school breakfasts.
State officials noted the progress being made earlier this month during a hearing of the Assembly Women and Children Committee.
But Agriculture Commissioner Douglas H. Fisher also noted that while 254,000 children are being served breakfast at school, a total of 649,000 children receive school lunches.
“We still have a ways to go, but at the same time we’re making extraordinary progress,” Fisher said.
The federal school lunch and breakfast programs are open to all schools, but districts usually must apply to participate. Districts with at least at 5 percent of their students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches and at least 20 percent eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts are required by the state to participate in each program. Federal subsidies of $1.58 for free breakfasts and $1.28 for reduced-price breakfasts are available, depending on the incomes of children’s families or whether the families receive assistance from various federal safety-net programs.
Fisher noted that while the state is encouraging districts to participate in the program, some districts see a stigma attached to participating.
Fisher added that some school officials don’t like the idea of taking time away from academics to serve the meals, but he said he believes that ithe positive impact of having fed the students yields benefits throughout the day.
That’s a point reinforced by Parello. “There are fewer classroom disruptions and misbehaving because they’re hungry,” if students receive breakfast, she said. “The instruction time you have is more productive for every single child in that classroom, and that’s the most important thing.”
Parello noted that the first several minutes of the school day are generally taken up by school announcements, making it a good time to serve the breakfasts. In addition, teachers can provide instruction as the food is served, she suggested, such as providing nutrition information or incorporating calorie numbers into math instruction.
Adele LaTourette, director of the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, also supports the bill.
“You’re serving breakfast at a time when kids are in school -- you’re not going to serve them when the kids aren’t there,” said LaTourette, co-chairwoman of the New Jersey Food for Thought School Breakfast Campaign.
Districts that participate in the breakfast or lunch programs charge families of children who aren’t eligible for free meals. The Assembly also passed a bill, A-1796 that would give those families an additional 10 days to pay bills that districts have found to be in arrears before the districts could cut off students from the meals.
Another bill passed yesterday, A-2644, would establish a website for farmers to list produce and dairy products they’re making available for school meals and food banks.
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ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
ASSEMBLY, Nos. 679 and 2186
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
216th LEGISLATURE
ADOPTED MARCH 10, 2014
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOSEPH CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Assemblyman TROY SINGLETON
District 7 (Burlington)
Assemblywoman PAMELA R. LAMPITT
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Assemblywoman CELESTE M. RILEY
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Assemblywoman NANCY J. PINKIN
District 18 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Encourages the establishment of "breakfast after the bell" programs in school districts, public school, and nonpublic schools participating in the federal school breakfast program.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Substitute as adopted by the Assembly Women and Children Committee.
An Act concerning school breakfast programs and supplementing Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. A public school operated by a school district of the State participating in the federal school breakfast program or a nonpublic school participating in the federal school breakfast program is encouraged to increase the number of students participating in the program by establishing a "breakfast after the bell" program through the incorporation of school breakfast in the first-period classroom or during the first few minutes of the school day.
b. The Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Department of Education shall:
(1) make every effort to assist, guide, and support school districts, public schools, or nonpublic schools in planning, establishing, implementing, or modifying the "breakfast after the bell" program to increase the participation rate of all students in the school breakfast program, especially students from low income families; and
(2) prepare and issue an annual report to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature on the number and percentages of students from low income families participating in the school breakfast program, and the format used for providing breakfast, for each school district, public school, or nonpublic school.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
