• Coffee and Conversation

    Posted by Dr. Louis Moore on 2/8/2023

    You are invited for Coffee and Conversation with RBR’s Superintendent, Dr. Louis Moore

    Thursday February 9, at 7 pm Red Bank Primary School Cafeteria 222 River Street, Red Bank  

    • Come learn what is going on at the high school.
    • Bring your questions to this informal event.

    Dates for future coffees are set for:
    Saturday, April 22, 2023, 9 am, RBR board office

     

     

     

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  • Students Reporting to Cafeteria/Class Coverage

    Posted by Dr. Louis Moore on 12/19/2022

    December 2022

     

    Dear RBR Parents and Guardians,

     

    Recently I have received a number of questions about students having to report to the cafeteria in the event of a teacher's absence.

     

    Normally, when a teacher is absent, classwork is posted in Google Classroom and students complete their schoolwork in their assigned classroom while being supervised by a substitute teacher. Classroom coverage is provided by regular substitute teachers or by RBR teachers who are pulled from non-teaching responsibilities.

     

    In the event that individual classes cannot be covered by a substitute, students are assigned to the cafeteria where they are supervised by RBR staff and administrators. During this time, it is expected that they complete the assignments posted by their teacher as they would if a substitute teacher were available. 

     

    The root cause of this problem is a shortage of qualified substitute teachers facing many school districts. To address this, we have stepped up efforts at recruitment and recently boosted pay 25 percent to $125 per day for substitute teachers. Please be advised that the students are always supervised and attendance is taken whether they report to their regular classroom or to the cafeteria.

     

    I hope this helps to clarify any questions you may have. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

     

    Thank you,

     

    Louis Moore
    Superintendent

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  • Student Safety and Reporting Requirements

    Posted by Dr. Louis Moore on 11/21/2022

    November 2022

     

    Dear RBR Families and Students,

     

    Protecting the well-being and safety of our students is a sacred obligation and will always be our highest priority. I am writing to review some of the procedures we have in place at our school to protect our students from harm.

     

    Establishing clear expectations and guidelines for reporting concerns is essential for the system to work. Each year, requirements for reporting child abuse, endangerment, and neglect are reviewed with all staff at the start of the school-year. 

     

    District policy and the law requires that concerns about the abuse of a child by any adult must be immediately reported to Mr. Clark, our Principal. School personnel may also be obligated to report the incident to the Division of Children and Families (DCF), the Institutional Abuse Unit of the DCF, and law enforcement. The following actions will occur:

     

    1. If appropriate, the staff member will be placed on administrative leave until all investigations are completed. 

    2. The school district is obligated to cooperate fully with DCF and law enforcement and these agencies will complete their inquiry before the school can begin its investigation. 

    3. Regardless of the findings of DCF and law enforcement, the school district may also conduct its own investigation and take disciplinary actions.

     

    Parents and students may also bring concerns directly to the school administration or other school personnel, who are obligated to share this information with appropriate authorities. Our administrators and counselors are always available to all students, staff, and families to provide support and serve as a resource.

     

    Despite the severity of the situation that was recently reported, I continue to have great confidence in RBR’s administrators, teachers, counselors, and coaches. I say this to you as both the superintendent and as a parent of two RBR students. The outstanding reputation of RBR’s staff is well-deserved and the situation that came to light last week is appalling to all of us. 

     

    In all cases involving student safety, our school will always act swiftly to investigate allegations and take appropriate actions. At the same time, we will continue our efforts to strengthen the protections that are in place to keep our children safe.

     

    Sincerely,



    Louis Moore
    Superintendent

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  • Traffic Safety Update

    Posted by Dr. Louis Moore on 10/4/2022

    October 3, 2022

     

    Dear Students and Families,

     

    The increase in traffic congestion during arrival and dismissal times poses a potential danger to our school community. In addition, it is stressful and contributes to air pollution and climate change. You can help us to alleviate this problem by taking the following steps:

     

    • Consider walking or biking to school. If everyone does this one day per week, congestion will be reduced by 20 percent! Twice a week and it will be reduced by 40 percent!

    • Utilize bus service if you are eligible.

    • Reduce trips to school by car and carpool.

    • If you must drive your student to school, please utilize both the main entrance curve and the Media Center area for drop off.

     

    In the afternoon, please pick up your student after 2:50 PM. By this time the buses have usually departed and most of the senior lot is also empty.  By arriving a little later, you will help to reduce congestion, improve traffic flow, and greatly enhance everyone’s safety.  Students are welcome to wait in the Commons and they may also study in the library until 3:00 PM. The media center is open until 4:15 on homework help days.

     

    Important Traffic Safety Updates

    General Concerns for Morning Drop-off

    Students should be dropped off on school premises only. In addition, Ridge Road is not a double lane roadway. Vehicles are passing into the opposite lane of travel or crossing into the bike lane to pass, creating dangerous conditions. 

    Do Not Drop Off Students on Harding Road and Ridge Road

    Dropping off on these roadways is a major safety issue and is against the law. Individuals deciding to drop off on Ridge Road may be subject to a traffic summons. 

    Dropping off/Picking Up on Cambridge Avenue in Fair Haven

    Parents should not drop off or pick up students on Cambridge Avenue across the street from the high school. A crossing guard or police officer cannot be present at the intersection and having students cross the busy roadway is an obvious safety issue. Furthermore, Cambridge Ave is a residential roadway that becomes congested when vehicles are lined on either side, creating a hazardous driving environment. 

    Avoid left turns into the main entrance

    Making a left turn into the main entrance of the school is highly discouraged. Due to the large number of cars making right turns into the main entrance, it makes left turns difficult and dangerous. Please utilize the eastern entrance, closer to Hance Road, to make a left turn into the parking lot. This entrance is much easier for left turns as there is very little traffic flowing in the opposite lane allowing for a faster and safer turn. 

    Thank you for your cooperation and support. Please be careful, especially as we head into the fall and driving conditions become more challenging.

    Sincerely,


    Louis Moore                             Paul Halpin                                          Jack Massaro
    Superintendent                          Chief of Police, Little Silver               School Resource Officer

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  • Enough is Enough. RBR Students and Staff Demand Action to Reduce Gun Violence

    Posted by Dr. Louis Moore on 6/12/2022
    Dear Families and Students,
     
    This week students and staff gathered in the Field House to make a simple statement: Enough is enough. Leaders at the national level must do their part to reduce gun violence in our country. I've attached to photo and a statement I prepared after 17 students and teachers were murdered at Parkland High School in Florida in 2018. Little has been done to address this issue and gun violence has now surpassed automobile accidents as the leading cause of death for children ages 1-18 in the United States. Our country reached that milestone in 2020.
     
    I salute those members of our community who are taking a stand today on this issue. 
     
    Thank you,
     
    Louis Moore
     

    Schools Will Not Be Secure Until We Address Access to Lethal Weapons

     

    Since the tragedy at Columbine High School almost 20 years ago, school districts have implemented measures to protect students and staff from the threat of a mass shooting. Entrances have been hardened with “mantraps” and bullet resistant glass.  “Active shooter” drills are now regularly conducted along with fire drills. New security staff have been hired and all staff are trained on best security practices.

     

    Yet the brutal massacre in Parkland, Florida demonstrates that schools remain vulnerable  and the threat is ongoing. In addition to Parkland, there have already been 13 shootings at schools and and colleges this year.  Some argue that an appropriate response is to boost the number of security personnel allowed to carry guns. It has even been suggested that arming qualified teachers is the best way to protect against the next assault.

     

    But before we start an arms race in our schools, it’s time to pause and start to consider actions that will actually help to improve things.  Let’s start by acknowledging that regardless of how carefully we secure our schools, we will never be doing all we can until our society puts responsible limits on access to deadly firearms.  Common sense precautions that New Jersey and other states have established should become nationalized. These include instituting permits for handgun purchases, setting strict limits on magazines, and requiring licenses to own certain types of weapons.  At minimum it must be mandated that all gun buyers be subject to appropriate background checks. Current estimates are that 30 percent of gun sales take place--including gun show purchases--without this essential precaution.

     

    Yet all this is only a start.  If we are truly serious about school safety, we need to demand that whole classes of firearms be taken off the marketplace.  AR-15s and other assault rifles are the most notorious symbols of our country’s permissive attitude toward firearms access. But handguns with high capacity magazines exact an even greater toll on the innocent.  A child is shot or killed by a gun every 30 minutes in the United States; over the past five decades a staggering 160,000 children have been lost to gun violence. In 2016, the American Journal of Medicine reported that that among two dozen of the world’s wealthiest nations, this country accounted for 91 percent of firearms deaths among children 14 and under.

     

    Emotional claims that the right to possess lethal weapons is sacrosanct discredits the wisdom of the Constitution’s framers and ignores our own legal history.  Despite outcries from extremists that access to guns is threatened, the United States remains a society awash in firearms. Americans make up about five percent of the Earth’s population but they own nearly 50 percent of the world’s gun supply.  Until quite recently, the Supreme Court continually upheld the right of Congress and state legislatures to place substantial restrictions on access to firearms while respecting the Second Amendment. In practice this meant that Congress took sweeping action to ban weapons such as machine guns, assault weapons, and sawed-off shotguns while protecting the rights of responsible gun owners.

     

    Young people from Parkland, Florida and other communities throughout the nation are forcing all of us to come to terms with this issue.  This time we owe them more than platitudes, non-solutions, and nonsense. Ongoing improvements to school security are certainly necessary and we will continue to do our part.  But if Americans really want to avoid another tragedy, we must deal with the root cause: the irresponsible and permissive access we allow to guns in our society.

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