CHATHAM, NJ — A thorough "District Back-to-School Update" outlining changes for the upcoming school year, which starts for students on Aug. 25, was recently sent out by Chatham Superintendent Michael LaSusa.

The comprehensive update covers a wide range of subjects, including enrollment, school safety, and the shift in daily start times, among others.

In terms of school security, Chatham will begin the academic year with three Special Class Resource Officers and is working toward having one at each of the district's six schools.

LaSusa claims that finding officers is entirely dependent on the pool of candidates that the local police chiefs have access to, followed by the approval procedure through the municipal governing bodies.

The Special Class Resource Officers are hired specifically to protect schools and receive specialized training.

"They are not involved in student discipline or other student matters, but rather are present to build relationships and respond to any critical incident. We are grateful for their service and recognize them as valuable members of our school communities," LaSusa said.

Additionally, the school district has implemented a 911 Inform alert system. One feature of this system is a geo-fence that surrounds all school grounds and alerts police dispatch and school staff whenever 9-1-1 is dialed from any phone. With the system, panic buttons are also placed in each school's offices that alert police dispatch and activate strobe lights to signal an emergency.

"Members of both police departments and I have been trained in behavioral threat assessment and we have drawn on this training in the course of managing incidents of concern. We will continue to utilize best practices in this area and will carefully look at the instructions and requirements put forth by the NJDOE and Attorney General’s Office once they formulate and distribute them," LaSusa said.

LaSusa also announced that opening delays caused by inclement weather would be cut down from two hours to one hour and a half.

"When there is the need to delay schools due to inclement weather or any other reason, we have historically used a 2-hour delay," LaSusa said. "We are moving away from that practice and instead plan to delay schools by 90 minutes. All announcements about a delay will reiterate the 90-minute timeframe."

LaSusa also offered an update on the new start times for all Chatham schools.

Classes at the high school, which used to start at 7:40 a.m. will now begin at 8:20 a.m. for the 2022-2023 school year. The Lafayette School start time is moving from 8:40 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and pre-k to third grade will move from 8:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. Classes at Chatham Middle School will remain at a 7:55 a.m. start time.

End times will shift to accommodate later start times. Starting in September, high school students will be dismissed at 3 p.m. instead of 2:35 p.m. Students at the Lafayette school will be dismissed at 3:30 p.m., pre-k to third grade at 3:25 p.m. and Chatham Middle School at 2:30 p.m.

"I will simply mention at present that any change may be beneficial to some, but carry disruption or inconvenience to others. We are making this change because we believe it is what is best for students," LaSusa said.

The district also announced they will no longer keep a dashboard of cases or send alerts for each successful case that comes to their attention. They will let parents know if there is a specific outbreak in a classroom so they can keep an eye on their kids for illness.

"We will no longer provide virtual instruction for a student who tests positive and must isolate. While this may have been helpful to some, it diverts the attention a teacher has to devote to their class and adds one more distraction to the in-person classroom experience," LaSusa said.

In addition, LaSusa pointed out that the district's enrollment is still dropping, with 329 graduates expected in 2022 and the new first-grade class size only being 237.

"We are in the process of completing an updated demographic report to analyze current trends post-pandemic and also the composite impact of new housing developments in the Borough and the Township," LaSusa said. "We hope to have this study completed and presented by December/January. We will also discuss enrollment trends and their impacts at upcoming Board of Education meetings this fall."

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