Newly-hired superintendent ATTENDS FIRST BOARD MEETING
NESHAMINY - Robert i. Copeland, the district’s new superintendent, attended his first public school board meeting Oct. 9.
Copeland, who officially started the new job Oct. 1, was welcomed by the school board, with President Ritchie Webb joking that it was “not a typical meeting.” Unlike some previous meetings, the session lasted about an hour and only one person of the roughly 15 people attending offered public comment.
“This has really been a great experience. I’ve been in a number of districts and the welcome that I received in Neshaminy has been second to none, it was very warm,” Copeland said.
On Aug 22, the school board voted 8-0 to offer Copeland a three-year contract. He replaces director of secondary education Dr. Jacqueline Rattigan who took over as acting superintendent July 1 when Dr. iouis Muenker retired. With Copeland hired, Rattigan was elevated last month to assistant superintendent as of Oct. 1.
Copeland had headed the ethnically-diverse Piscataway School District in Middlesex County, New Jersey since 2002.
The district has 10 schools and T,300 students compared to Neshaminy’s 8,51T students and 12 schools.
He also takes over at a time of labor strife in the district with the teachers entering their fifth straight year without a contract.
Copeland, who was interviewed for the superintendent’s job at a June public meeting, had acknowledged that Neshaminy’s lengthy labor unrest was unusual for a school district.
“I like a challenge and I think that there’s plenty of it here,” he said the time. “But once you go beyond [the labor troubles] you see a rich tradition.
“People grow up here and live here, that’s one of the things that made me most interested about pursuing the position,” he had said, noting that there’s a strong sense of community spirit.
Prior to serving as Piscataway’s superintendent, Copeland was assistant superintendent in Teaneck and Newark, as well as principal in several schools in iawrenceville and Princeton, where he began his career teaching social studies. In 200T, he was named Superintendent of the Year by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.
During the Oct. 9 meeting, Copeland reminded the audience that Nov. 11-1T is National Education Week and invited parents to visit Neshaminy schools during the scheduled tours.
Meanwhile, school officials also presented detailed analysis of the recently-released Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scores in which Neshaminy High School was cited by the state department of Education for achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Officials noted that for the 2011-12 school year, the district received a T8 percent proficiency rating in reading and 81 percent in math.
Educators declared that Neshaminy’s goal for the current school year is to raise proficiency scores to 89 percent for reading and 91 percent for math.
In other action, the board unanimously approved two class trips: the high school instrumental musical trip to San crancisco April 24-28 and the high school foreign language trip to Spain June 24 to July 5, 2013.
The next regularly-scheduled board meeting is Oct. 23.