LEGO FRIDAY AT THE LIRBARY

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Main Library * All ages * Drop in
Supported by ALA’s Junior Maker Grant, we have lots of LEGOs for everyone to build and display their creations at the library!

CHS PARCC UPDATE: BACK ON TRACK?

From Columbia High School tonight:

Good afternoon, CHS. 
Our 9th graders and staff did a great job with PARCC this morning, and the testing went smoothly, so our 9th graders will finish their English Language Arts testing tomorrow. 
Please be sure that you have your students report on time as per the schedule sent home; we expect testing students to enter at 8:15 and all other students to report at 10:15 for students to begin their classes at 10:20. 
If you can, please join us tonight at 8 pm for our first of three concerts in our new-this-year chamber music series, free to SOMSD music students and their families, with a suggested $20 donation for others. The concert is in our CHS Auditorium. Thank you to our partners in this concert, our Achieve Foundation and the Columbia High School Music Parents Association (CHSMPA). 
We appreciate your support during this week of testing, and remind you to remind your students to that their teachers made plans to extend their learning during the week even if they didn’t have classes meeting….so please be sure to have your students doing that work! 
Best regards, 

Elizabeth Aaron

CHS "CURBATHON" TONIGHT

CHS student producer Jacob Hirsch

We told you earlier this month about Columbia High School's own Curb Your Enthusiasm series, the product of young student producers Jacob Hirsch and Ben Krueger.

See their story and their work HERE.

Tonight is the Curbathon at CHS's Black Box Theater, where you can see all four of their episodes and the premiere of the fifth and final.

So show up at 6 p.m. and get ready to laugh. More info on the event HERE.

AMBULANCE DELAY FOR EIGHT-YEAR-OLD SEIZURE VICTIM BLAMED ON "GLITCH"

The ambulance delay that caused an 8-year-old boy suffering a seizure last month to wait 16 minutes for an ambulance was caused by a dispatcher mistakenly calling the South Orange Rescue Squad for back-up when Maplewood emergency crews were unavailable, according to Mayor Vic Deluca.

"We did see that there may have been a bit of a glitch in the process," Deluca said at Tuesday night's Township Committee meeting, where he offered an update. 

A copy of the police report from the March 23 incident at Ridgewood Road and Ridgewood Terrace indicated that the call first came into 911 operators at 3:32 p.m., but an ambulance did not arrive until 3:48 p.m.

The boy, a Marshall School student, had just gotten off the school bus.

The report indicates the Regional Emergency Medical Communications System or REMCS, received the first call at 3:32 p.m. and a unit was dispatched from Orange due to Maplewood being unavailable. 

But at 3:46 p.m., that unit was diverted and a new ambulance was dispatched through MONOC, the Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation, which provides ambulance service to many counties in the state, including Essex County.

Deluca said part of the delay was due to the fact that the 911 dispatcher reached out to the South Orange Rescue Squad as a secondary unit, but they are not on for mutual aid until 6 p.m. 

From now on, he said, the secondary ambulance between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. will be from MONOC.

"We will continue to work with South Orange Rescue Squad as our back-up," Deluca said. "But during the day, we have made clear to our dispatchers that MONOC is the back-up."

The mayor also said more reviews and improvements will be done and revealed that he had received calls from two other people in town saying they had suffered response delays one two other occasions, but offered no details.

"The first 911 call, the caller hung up after reporting the incident," the mayor said about the seizure case. "We will do an education program to urge people that when they do a 911 call, they stay on the line."

He said that helps the dispatcher receive more details and information about the situation.

PARCC BACK IN ACTION TODAY? WE'LL SEE

Students head back to school this morning hoping the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test is back in operation after two days of glitches, including a complete statewide shutdown on Wednesday.

State officials have said the problem was corrected.

Columbia High School Principal Elizabeth Aaron sent this letter to parents yesterday explaining how the time was used for PARCC students once the test was canceled.

Good morning, CHS.
We  regret to report that problems outside of SOMSD prevented our students from being able to take the PARCC assessment this morning.
When the time came to make a decision about whether or not testing might occur within the designed timeframe, CHS staff quickly pivoted to make the time useful to our 9th graders. Teachers assisted each of our 9th graders in logging into the website of the Khan Academy at www.khanacademy.org to set up a free account for access to online tutorials in all of the key high school content areas, SAT prep and practice, and more.  Students may have used their own gmail address, their SOMSD student account, or another email that they have to do so.  Please discuss this with your students. It would be a good idea for you to take some time to sit with your students and have them show you the site, what they did to create the account, and what different things they can use Khan Academy to learn and do.
We also strongly encourage you, parents and guardians, to set up your own account on Khan. You’ll see where you can do so on their homepage.
Khan has partnered with the College Board to provide a completely free diagnostic assessment on the SAT. Students began that diagnostic assessment this morning, and some even finished. Once completed, students will receive customized tutorials to help improve their performance.  They can log into their account to work on that individualized academic support and practice at any time to become more confident about and be successful on the PSAT and SAT.
We are thrilled that we were able to use this time so effectively, and thank your students for the way they so quickly shifted gears with us to make the time productive.
This partnership between your student, the Khan Academy, and the College Board is an important step to take toward college- and career-readiness.
Please view the California television news clip below to learn more about how schools and students are using this site for their students’ growth.
(Of course, while you watch, please be reminded that at CHS, no drinks or food are allowed in computer labs!)
 (https://youtu.be/AoOKSqWclY4) .
Thank you, once again, for your support of CHS, and especially thanks to our 9th graders.  We will update you on our remaining PARCC schedule when we have that information to share.

Best regards,
Elizabeth Aaron

Columbia High School Home and School Association:  www. columbiahsa.org
Information about logging into the Parent Portal of Powerschool to review your students’ grades and attendance: rvoorhee@somsd.k12.nj.us
School district website:  www.somsd.k12.nj.us

SPRINGFIELD AVENUE PARTNERSHIP HEADS HILTON MEETING TONIGHT

From the Hilton Neighborhood Association:

"I've Heard of the Springfield Avenue

Partnership, But What Does It Do?"

The Hilton Neighborhood Association's meeting in DeHart 

Community Center, 120 Burnett Avenue, 

Maplewood at 7:30 PM, will feature Julie Doran, Springfield 

Avenue Partnership District Manager, who will discuss the work of
the Partnership.  Learn about its programs, its funding sources, 

and plans for the future. Some merchants new to the Avenue may 

attend. Bring your questions and ideas.

The meeting is free and open to the public. 

Everyone is welcome.  Refreshments will
be served.  For further information, contact 

973-761-4672 or cabms@aol.com

MORE DETAILS ON PARCC TESTING CANCELLATION TODAY

From the South Orange Maplewood School District to parents today:

Dear SOMSD Community:
Pearson, the vendor that is hosting the PARCC testing service, experienced additional technical issues on their side today. As a result, students in SOMSD and across the country were unable to participate in the PARCC exam today.
The latest email from the New Jersey Department of Education (see below) informs districts that Pearson is working to resolve the technical issues before tomorrow morning.
The Schools are rescheduling testing as appropriate.  If you have any questions regarding the testing schedule, please contact the main office at your child’s school.
South Orange Maplewood School District
**********

New Jersey continues to work through issues with the Pearson Access Next (PAN) system which is inhibiting testing for many districts.

Between now and 1PM ET, if you are currently testing, please continue to do so. All testing must be completed by 1 PM. For instance, 11:30 AM ET would be the latest time to start a new testing unit.

If you have student authorization tickets already printed but are unable to start and unlock units, please contact Pearson Customer Support to have them perform this function for you….

Pearson believes it has identified the root cause and will be working on the problem between 1 and 4PM ET today. During this time, PAN will be unavailable and please do not login. Pearson and NJDOE will work this evening to ensure the system is in optimum state prior to testing beginning tomorrow morning. We plan to give you an update later this afternoon on the status of testing.

If you have not started testing due to aforementioned complications, we advise you to send students back to the classroom.

We sincerely apologize and we are doing everything possible to get the system back up. We will continue to be in touch with updates.

Sincerely,

Peter Shulman
Deputy Commissioner

7-11 SHOPLIFTING, OTHER THEFTS LEAD POLICE WEEK

From Maplewood Police today:

April 12, 2016; Theft from Auto; During the overnight hours an unsecured vehicle parked on Collinwood Rd had paperwork removed from it.

April 15, 2016; Shoplifting; At approximately 12:15 AM, Seven-Eleven on Irvington Ave reported that three males wearing hooded sweatshirts entered the establishment.  The males picked up multiple Entenmann’s products and then ran from the store.  Officers responded and checked the area, but were unable to locate the suspects.

April 15, 2016; Bicycle Theft; At approximately 9 PM, a resident of Overlook Terr reported that a bicycle that was left in the driveway of the home had been stolen.