8/15/19

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome Back to West Cape May Elementary! I hope you had a restful and enjoyable summer. We have several new and exciting changes for the upcoming school year including a new sensory path, new staff members and new student dismissal procedures. As always the district’s priorities include the safety, educational success, and well-being of all of our students and we look forward to a fantastic school year. 

Back to School:

The first day of school for all students, Pre-K through 6th, is on Tuesday, September 3, 2019.  We will have early dismissal days the first week of school  for grades K to 6. Students will be dismissed at 12:40 pm. Pre-K students will be dismissed at their regular 11:00 a.m. dismissal time. Beginning on Monday, September 9th, all Kindergarten through Grade Six students will be attending full days of school, 8:00 a.m. to 2:55 p.m. Please refer to our website for the school calendar and events: https://wcm.capemayschools.com/.

Sustainable Jersey School Award

We are excited to announce that West Cape May School District has received a Bronze Certification from NJ Sustainable Schools.  Bronze certification signifies our success in implementing the first steps toward our commitment to school sustainability.  

Staff Members  

The staff members are excited for the start of the school year.  I am pleased to announce the following instructional staff members for the 2019-2020 school year:

PK/K-Ms. Wilson

Grade 1- Ms. Bleming

Grade 2-Mr. Bongiovanni

Grade 3-Ms.  Mahoney

Grade 4-Ms. Mroz

Grades 5/6-Ms. Lawrie

STEM/Grade 5 Math- Ms. Baldacchini

AAP/Grade 5 Math-Ms. Calabro

SE-Ms. Gagliardi

PE/Health-Ms. Ridgway

Art/Library-Ms. Farrell

Music- Ms. Henrich

Spanish-Mr. Andris

After Care Program

The After Care Program will start on the first day of school following student dismissal and students must be registered prior to attendance.  To register, please download the registration form from our website and return the completed form to school. For questions, please contact Program Director Debbie Lewis dlewis@wcm.capemayschools.com.  

For your review, enclosed is a copy of the 2019-2020 school-year calendar. School events are also posted on our website, http://wcm.capemayschools.com/ .   Please save the date for our Back to School Night, which will be held on Wednesday, September 12th from 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.  The Parent/Student Handbook and other official school forms will be sent home with students during the first week of school. 

We look forward to seeing you and your children on the first day of school.  Enjoy the rest of the summer.

 Sincerely,

Robert Garguilo

Chief School Administrator

In our efforts to enhance our children's education and address skills needed for state assessments, the following strategies were developed for 2018-2019. These strategies were monitored throughout the school year.

• Individualized evaluation of student performance on a vertical grade level articulation.
  • We reviewed each students scores from prior assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses.
• Individualized instruction with students on areas of need with concentration on their needed skill sets.
• Assesment ready instruction.
  • Students were taught on strategies to take a standard assesment.
• Concentrated effort on teacher stability in key grade levels.
  • We attempted to not move teachers around grade levels.
• Technology targeted instruction on how to use the computer to take a standardized assessment.
• Focus on Social and Emotional learning strategies.

We will continue to revew, revise and implement new and innovative methods to enhance our students learning. 

The Annual School Performance Report was released last spring. An article by Vince Conti titled Schools Receive Annual Grades was published on March 20, 2019 in the Herald. I did not recieve that report. Mr. Ken Hanover  supplied me with the document. 

As we reported out in the fall and this Spring at our Board Meetings, our scores for 2017-2018 were not up to our standards for our students. There are several factors that come into play but the reality is we need to do better. Due to our years of high test scores our state benchmark is at 80%. We have the highest bench mark in Cape May County. We have been actively taking measures to address these concerns. 

The newspaper article ranked our Summative Rating at 22.39%. THis rating shows how our school ranks in percentile groups when compared to other schools in NJ that have similar grade configuation. That includes all K-6 schools regardless of their population or location.

The West Cape May Board and staff take all of the data and utilize it when determining areas of strengths and need. As we move forward, we will continue to monitor the assessment results and act accordingly.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Robert Garguilo