Secaucus Board receives annual HIB self‑assessment; one reported HIB incident investigated

Christopher Innes presented the Secaucus Public Schools’ 2024–25 harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) self‑assessment at the Oct. 16 Board of Education meeting and summarized building‑level scores, state reporting requirements and next steps.

Innes said the district’s school climate teams — composed of teachers, parents, students and administrators — completed the self‑assessment under the Anti‑Bullying Bill of Rights (ABR) requirements and that new reporting documents have been uploaded to the district website. He identified the district‑level HIB coordinators as Christina Wisswasser and himself and named building coordinators for each school (presentation list: Tara Tavares at the high school, a middle‑school coordinator listed in slides, Jamie Vigiana at Hubert Street School, and Dawn Deere at Clarendon School).

During the reporting period from Sept. 3 through Sept. 17, 2025, the district recorded one HIB report at Secaucus High School. The district said a principal or the principal’s designee completed a prompt investigation — within one school day of the verbal report — and that written investigative findings were submitted no later than 10 days after the written report. The district reported that appropriate disciplinary and follow‑up actions were taken in accordance with the code of student conduct.

Innes reviewed the eight ABR core elements used in the self‑assessment (policy and training; instruction; personnel; reporting and investigation procedures; and related elements) and identified areas for improvement by building, including staff training and incident‑reporting procedures at multiple schools. He said the district plans to streamline HIB reporting through the HIBster platform, expand social‑emotional learning and suicide‑prevention training through grant funding, and continue diversity and mental‑health programming.

After the presentation, a board member moved to accept the HIB findings as reported by the interim superintendent; the motion passed on roll call with all present board members recorded as voting yes. The presentation and associated reporting documents are available on the district website, Innes said, and administrators encouraged parents to use posted online forms to make confidential HIB reports.