Moorestown schools present state anti-bullying report, emphasize prevention over counts

Sherry Caravano, principal of WAMS and the district’s harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) coordinator, presented the Student Safety Data System (SSDS) report to the Board of Education, Moorestown Township Public School District, describing fall data compiled through Dec. 31 and the district’s prevention efforts.

Caravano told the board the SSDS is “the Student Safety Data System” and that “we are required to report certain information twice a year to the state.” She said the material she reviewed covered incidents through Dec. 31 and that the administration is compiling the second-half data for submission next fall. She also said the district will post the full PDF of the required school self-assessment to the district website the following day.

The SSDS report matters because the state-required submission and the district self-assessment feed into how schools identify problem areas and shape prevention work. Caravano and other administrators emphasized that the district focuses on the types of incidents and patterns rather than raw yearly totals when deciding interventions.

Caravano said, “We don’t necessarily look at quantity mainly because when a Hib happens, it could be a 1 time incident or it can be repeated. What we focus on are really the types of Hibs.” She described building-level programs used across the district — Week of Respect, Unified Club and Unified Sports, and in-school recognitions such as Quaker Spotlight at WAMS and the WAMS “Woot Woot Wagon” rewards system — and said counselors, anti-bullying specialists and administrators review incidents and prevention programming together.

Board members asked whether the district tracks trends over time and across dayparts. A board questioner asked about trend analysis, and Caravano said the discipline committee meets monthly to review write-ups by grade level and time of day and uses that review to target prevention work. “We will take our Hibs… and we have a discipline committee where once a month we break down the monthly data in our write ups,” she said, noting lunch and recess often generate more conduct reports because those are less structured times.

Caravano also described how the district’s age-appropriate social-emotional learning and character-education curriculum is adapted with a toolkit and local additions: “Character Strong is the program that we utilize here at WAMS… something that we do have some autonomy over is, the toolkit, which are things that we can put into place in addition to the curriculum.”

The board took formal action on the HIB report later in the meeting. The agenda item listing “substantiated and unsubstantiated HIBs” was put to a vote and approved by voice vote; no roll-call tally was provided at the time.

Administrators said they will continue monthly review of discipline write-ups, continue to emphasize prevention over punitive measures where appropriate, and post the state-required self-assessment PDF to the district website as mandated. The SSDS presentation will be repeated in the fall to cover the next reporting period.