BLAIRSTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
May 9, 2008

Welcome to Blairstown Elementary School. We are extremely proud of our students, both past and present, and equally proud of our faculty and staff. Blairstown is close-knit community located in northwest New Jersey, near to the historic Delaware River and the world famous Delaware Water Gap.

The Blairstown Elementary School is located on Stillwater Road, Blairstown Township, Warren County, New Jersey. The school facility and property contain slightly over twelve acres. A small two-room school located on Vail Road houses a Preschool Handicapped program for 3 - 5 year old children. The school district also owns 33 acres of land on Lambert Road in Blairstown Township.

Approximately 750 children attend the school in grades pre-school through six. Students from Blairstown and Hardwick Townships form the nucleus of the student body.

The Blairstown School system offers an inclusive educational program that meets or exceeds all state and federal mandates. Blairstown has exceeded test benchmarks created by the No Child Left Behind federal legislation and has met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) since the state and federal government began tracking student test results. Please refer to the following pages of the report card for specific test results.

The school building contains 38 classrooms with special facilities provided for Instrumental and Vocal Music, Art, Child Study Team Services, Speech and Language, Special Education. A full size competition gym is available for Physical Education. A large state-of-the-art library boasts over 13,000 volumes and is used by all students. The computerized card catalog is accessible in all via the local area network (LAN). Sophisticated chorus and band programs are available for students in grades four, five, and six. The Sussex County YMCA provides Before School Care and After School Care Programs on site at Blairstown Elementary.

School facilities are used extensively by community residents. Basketball, wrestling, and soccer programs use the gymnasium throughout the year while Daisies, Brownies, and Girl Scouts hold meetings and events in the cafeteria. Classrooms are often used for adult training sessions and meetings.

Approximately 100 staff members provide the necessary services for educating students and maintaining and operating the buildings and grounds.

The entire school facility is wired with fiber optic and category 5 cabling providing a Windows NT/Ethernet computer environment in all classrooms and offices. Blairstown partners with Blair Academy, a private residential preparatory school, to deliver high speed access to the Internet. All classrooms have voice, video and data availability.

The Blairstown Education Foundation donates $50,000 annually to the Blairstown School District to help fund Reading Recovery™ in first grade. Reading Recovery™ is an immensely successful, one to one intensive remedial program for children experiencing difficulty learning to read.

A class for children with autism was created in 2003-2004. Currently four children are enrolled in the class addressing needs of students in grades kindergarten through grade two.

Blairstown’s partnership with the New Jersey State Systemic Initiative has led to the adoption of a mathematics program for all students. Everyday Math™ is an innovative program that provides students increased opportunities for collaboration, a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, and a solid foundation to develop problem solving skills. Everyday Math™ changes the focus of math instruction from a textbook driven approach to a hands-on, experiential approach.

Blairstown reaps the benefits of an extremely supportive and ambitious parent-teacher group (PTG). The PTG provides a cadre of volunteers that help throughout the school, but mainly in our classrooms and library. Annually, the PTG donates approximately $25,000 to the children and staff of the school adding enhancements that help create a unique educational experience for our girls and boys.

I suggest you take a few minutes to explore our web-site: You will find school photos, the current school calendar, board of education meeting summaries, cafeteria menus, school newsletters, teacher sites, links to our Parent Teacher Group web-site, national web-sites, and much more.

Please call the school at 362-6111 if you have any questions.

W. Michael Feeney
Superintendent

Rosemary Goodman
Principal

Vision Statement

Blairstown Elementary School is committed to using technology as a means of promoting high academic achievement for all students. It is our intention to use the transmission of voice, video, and data to meet and, in many cases, surpass New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Content Standards, help children become active learners and prepare them for the unending changes that will occur in their lifetime.

Teachers and other staff members will use current technology and future technological breakthroughs to elevate student understanding in all phases of learning. Learning and growth experiences will no longer be restricted to the confines of the classroom - such educationally limiting boundaries will be eliminated for future students. The Blairstown Elementary School community will continue an aggressive approach to the infusion of technology throughout its educational programming.