Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Climate topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District presents NJSCI climate survey: safety and belonging score well, student behaviors flagged
Summary
Dr. Priolo told the board the district’s June 2025 NJSCI survey returned 2,325 responses and an overall mean score of 3.12/4; strengths reported were physical safety and staff–student relationships while negative student interpersonal behaviors were the primary area of concern across respondent groups.
Dr. Priolo presented the Haddonfield School District’s first-year results using the New Jersey School Climate Improvement (NJSCI) platform, reporting 2,325 responses from students (grades 3–12), parents and staff and an overall mean district score of 3.12 on a 4-point scale.
Dr. Priolo described the survey’s scoring rubric—responses near 4 indicate strengths while scores 2.5 or below are labeled areas of concern—and directed the board’s attention to three identified strengths (physical safety, staff–student relationships and a sense of belonging) and to a single consistent area of concern across constituencies: negative student interpersonal behaviors (bullying, name-calling, exclusion).
Key numbers and interpretation: Dr. Priolo said 590 respondents were grades 3–5 and noted staff participation at roughly 60% locally and parent responses at about 17.5% (317 responses). The district’s overall mean was 3.12; domain thresholds used for interpretation were: <=2.5 concern, 2.6–3.24 growth, >=3.25 strength.
Perception gaps and follow-up: the presentation highlighted perception gaps between staff and students—for example, staff rated student voice substantially higher than elementary and secondary students did—prompting planned follow-ups. Dr. Priolo said school-based disaggregated slides and links would be published for community review and that each school would convene climate teams and stakeholder feedback forms to convert quantitative results into local priorities and action plans.
Board questions and context: members asked whether NJSCI provides normative comparisons with other districts; Dr. Priolo and the Rutgers representatives acknowledged NJSCI’s state-level dataset is nascent and normative comparisons are limited but expected to expand. Board members also requested more detailed middle-school disaggregation and survey question samples, which the presenter agreed to provide.
Next steps: the district will circulate school-level slides and a stakeholder feedback form, collect qualitative priorities from the community teams and use the combined input to set climate goals and PD priorities.
