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Board hears HIB and school-safety update; district reports 30 investigations, 13 confirmed
Summary
District anti-bullying coordinators reported 30 investigations from July–Dec 2025 with about 13 confirmed as HIB; the student services director described SSDS reporting, declines in suspensions after an in-school intervention program, and ongoing prevention efforts.
The South Brunswick Board of Education received a half-year harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) and school-safety report Thursday that covered incidents from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.
Blair Eisman, director of programs and professional development, and Peter Ratine, director of special projects and district anti-bullying coordinators, told the board the district completed 30 investigations during the reporting period; roughly 13 of those investigations (about 43%) met the state's legal criteria and were confirmed as HIB incidents. "We conducted 30 investigations and approximately 13 met the specific legal criteria to be confirmed as HIB," Ratine said.
Ratine described how the district categorizes confirmed incidents by state-protected classes and uses a range of responses, including disciplinary measures when appropriate, restorative practices, counseling and parent conferences. He emphasized prevention activities across schools: Week of Respect, school climate surveys, peer-leader programs, character-education newsletters and other schoolwide initiatives intended to reduce incidents and improve climate.
Raphael Morales, student services director, explained the School Safety Data System (SSDS) the district uses to report violence, vandalism, substance-use incidents, weapons incidents and in-school/out-of-school suspensions. Morales said the reporting period tends to be quieter than a full-year report and confirmed the district has seen a reduction in high-school suspension rates after switching from an in-school suspension model to an in-school intervention model that keeps students in instructional settings with social-emotional supports.
Board members asked clarifying questions about why some suspension counts appear without corresponding reportable incidents and whether reported suspension figures can reflect code-of-conduct violations that do not meet SSDS reporting thresholds. Morales and Ratine explained that some suspensions are for code-of-conduct violations that do not meet the state's reportable-incident criteria and therefore may be recorded separately.
The board was invited to review the district's prevention work and a list of anti-bullying specialists assigned to each school. No formal action was taken on the report; the HIB and SSDS materials were presented for transparency and to satisfy required reporting obligations.
