HOWELL – Howell Township’s Board of Education met for one final summer session before the upcoming school year. They discussed their future plans for the school year, along with previously established problems that they plan to address.
Discussion about the township’s curriculum and lesson plans began the meeting, with encouragement to join the committee of curriculum development from the board members. The biggest issue with the curriculum, however, arises from the COVID-19 pandemic.
For older students, the board members noticed an issue with homework and other related assignments – they said students appear to be given an extensive amount of leeway when it comes to turning them in.
“There’s also been a miscommunication since COVID that assignments are never really due on the date that they are due, that they can be made up at any time for full credit,” said Bruce Preston, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Personnel. “This is not the case, however it is a common belief. This year we will be correcting that. We will be getting back to the submission on due dates for assignments.”
There are exceptions to this rule, in cases where a child is sick or has another reason for an excused absence, he said. The policy for a child who misses school due to illness remains the same: one sick day allows for one day of makeup time, as does two days and so on.
If the assignment is missing for a different reason, Preston presented the idea to the board that there would be potential for a lowered grade or for the assignment not to be accepted at all. There were no objections to this policy.
Not only will there be less leeway for submitting late assignments, there have also been developments in conditions for turning in an assignment past the due date. A late assignment will not be allowed to be accepted at all if the class has moved on from the corresponding unit.
“If [an assignment] is going to be turned in late, it has to be turned in within the unit that it is being studied. The work is meant to be practiced with the content they are learning,” he said. “To hand it in at the end of the quarter or later does not support their learning at that moment. That is the intention [with this change], to really engage students or re-engage them while [learning] is taking place as opposed to just getting things done for a grade.”
For younger students, Vice President of the Board Dr. Stephen Levine presented a second concern since the pandemic: the development of social skills.
“We lost sight of the fact that when it comes to reading, if a child doesn’t get it this year, he or she will get it the following year. If they miss out on social skills, it is not just a delay of a year, it is something that will affect the individual for the rest of their life,” he said.
Levine appeared to be speaking specifically about students enrolled in kindergarten, but this concern can spread to every student in the elementary level of Howell schools.
He also made it a point to the committee that while learning is a very important element of public school, social skills are equally important.
“Somehow we have lost sight of one of the most important things that a child needs to acquire when going to school,” he said.
These changes and concerns will be effective immediately as the 2024-2025 school year begins. The board has noticed changes in their children since the pandemic and are taking active steps to prevent these changes from furthering.
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