Principal's Message
From the Office of the Principal
Selzer School’s primary mission is to educate its students, offering them the opportunity to fulfill their potential and progress toward full and productive participation in the greater community. We believe that each individual has been endowed with gifts that can be cultivated and nurtured through our diverse programs. There are many ways to achieve at Selzer School and we attempt to recognize individual success. Students are our main focus. All of our efforts are designed with their welfare at the fore. Fortunately, our students have flourished after leaving Selzer School, consistently succeeding in their chosen career paths and places of higher learning. The synergy created by the interaction of students, staff and parents has provided a healthy, viable and durable environment. Our staff members are all highly qualified professionals who participate in continuous professional improvement activities. They are all dedicated to our students’ learning and character development, offering their extraordinary skills and knowledge as well as their fine example as role models. Complementing the rapport between staff and students are the parents and the very active Selzer School Parent Teacher Organization. Parents are continuously interacting with their children and the staff to support and enhance the learning milieu. We have established many opportunities for communication between parents and staff. These include parent/teacher conferences set aside twice per year. School hours are adjusted to accommodate them. There is a computerized student information management system that includes a function that allows parents continual on-line access to their children’s academic progress. A full time guidance counselor is provided at the middle school level and a part-time counselor for grades K-5. Teachers are in regular contact with parents and the parents often call teachers or e-mail them about issues with their children. It is a very active and open system of communication. Students benefit from the partnership between the home and the school.
The program emphasizes academics. Our curriculum is reviewed and revised regularly, and it is articulated from grade to grade. Grades prekindergarten through five are self-contained programs. At grades six through eight, the program is designed as a middle school. Students receive a fully departmentalized program. The middle grades are organized into teams and the teachers meet several periods per week to plan together. Students also have quarter courses that they cycle through to experience art, music, college career readiness, and S.T.E.M. Physical education and Spanish are also offered. Selzer School also offers an inclusion preschool program, where three and four year olds interact in a structured classroom environment. The kindergarten is full day. We offer a full range of Special Education Services, including resource room and in-class support. In addition, the school offers an enriched curriculum for the gifted learners in the regular classroom setting, and the school also offers an Academic Enrichment Program for some learners who qualify for mini-course selections and other experiences. Some other features of our program include the use of the Challenger Space Center experience, Outdoor Education Program, Trout In The Classroom, an Algebra I course for qualified eighth graders, participation in the National Geography Bee, the Washington Trip, a New York City trip and Broadway show,and many other field trips planned by staff members. Our technology program is a vital aspect of our curriculum. All classrooms are equipped with the most recent Mac computers and state-of- the art Promethean boards and SmartBoards. The school also has two computer labs with high end Mac computers and a full service media center equipped with Mac computers and a SmartBoard. Selzer school students also enjoy the use of laptop carts and Ipad carts as part of their regular instruction. Currently, the district is in the process of implementing a one-to-one initiative for computer devices by providing Chromebooks for students in Grades 5-8. The academic program is highly successful, as evidenced by our continual high performance on the NJSLA-S and PARCC state assessments. We also have an vibrant athletic program with a full schedule of interscholastic basketball for boys and girls.
Selzer School offers a wonderful experience for children in an environment that is firm, fair and safe. We have an effective discipline program that teaches children good citizenship. We also have created an ethos in the school that promotes a positive self-image for students and a respect for each person as an individual. The school maintains a high level of expectations for student learning and for all persons who provide services to students, directly or indirectly.