• January 30, 2020

    Greetings to our Tenafly School Community!

    As we close out the first month of 2020, we take a moment to wish a happy new year to all those who observed the Lunar New Year last week.  We thank all of the faculty, staff, students and parents who contributed to and participated in our in-district celebrations.  May the new year bring health, peace, love and prosperity to all!

    We conclude January with gratitude to Mother Nature for the warm, dry weather that has allowed us to stay on schedule with our school calendar . . . not very typical for the month of January.  However, the warmer daytime temperatures have blended in with cold mornings and chilly evenings, resulting in the loss of multiple young lives across our state due to activities on bodies of water that appeared frozen but were not.  Along with the Tenafly Police Department, we remind all students to refrain from engaging in any activities near or on bodies of water, such as brooks, ponds and lakes, during the winter months. Your health and safety is so important to us!

    At its 2020 Reorganization Meeting, the Tenafly Board of Education welcomed its newest trustee, Ms.Paula Newman and welcomed back trustees Jocelyn Schwarz and Mark Aronson.  Ms. Janet Horan remains in her role as President, and Jocelyn Schwarz will continue serving as Vice President.  On behalf of the district, we extend gratitude to all of these elected Tenafly community members for their time, advocacy, dedication and voluntary service to the district’s education system and those it serves.

    This past month, our district welcomed the county monitors of the New Jersey Department of Education Quality Single Accountability Continuum (otherwise known as “QSAC”).  These monitors evaluated our district’s performance in all indicators as determined by the NJDOE, including personnel, governance, fiscal, operations and curriculum and program. The process involved walk-throughs of three schools as well as a thorough onsite examination of a multitude of records as required by law.  We were pleased and proud to receive overall positive feedback from the county officials, and now await official results of our performance from the NJ Commissioner of Education in early spring.  Once received, we look forward to sharing with you. Many  thanks to all of the district principals, supervisors, faculty, staff and to our central office administrators who contributed to the successful preparation of “all things QSAC” for this year’s monitoring.

    In the next few weeks, we will be sending out a survey to kickstart our strategic planning process.  Please watch for this, along with opportunities for community input into this planning process, in the month ahead. Your ideas, input, and insight are valuable to us and we hope you will be a part of our continued work in support of Tenafly’s students.

    Very Truly Yours,
    Shauna C. DeMarco
    Superintendent of Schools