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Metuchen superintendent reports SSDS incidents and HIB counts; principals used Option G once
Summary
The district reported 31 Student Safety Data System incidents for Jan. 26'June 26 (27 at Edgar Middle School, 4 at the high school) and 35 HIB instances by school; the administration said principals used "Option G" once during the period. Board members asked for comparative data with state averages.
The Metuchen Board of Education heard its Student Safety Data System (SSDS) and HIB report for the Jan. 26'June 26 reporting period at its July 21 meeting.
Superintendent Doctor Caputo told the board the district recorded 31 SSDS incidents in the period: "27 at Edgar, and 4 at the high school," and broke incidents down by category, saying 20 were violence-related, four were vandalism, three involved substances, one was recorded in the transcript as an HIB/HIV case, and three were listed as other removals. He also reported 35 total HIB instances by school in the period: "6 at Campbell, 25 at the middle school, 4 at the high school." "Option G," a policy reference the superintendent discussed that allows principals in rare cases not to investigate a matter as HIB, was used once in this reporting window, he said: "We rarely use that, and we only use that one time in this period."
Board member Mister Suss asked whether Edgar's high number was proportionally greater than other districts and whether middle schools statewide have similar shares of incidents. Doctor Caputo cited the state's annual report and said the state range is roughly 55'57% of cases occurring in middle school; he said Metuchen's middle-school share was a little higher in this period and the district would gather comparative data to follow up. "The state of New Jersey puts out an annual report and it's somewhere in the 55 to 57 percent range of cases throughout the state are in middle school," Doctor Caputo said.
The presentation also noted that the district posts SSDS and remote-plan documents on its board portal and website; the superintendent said the remote-plan materials would be posted by the following morning. The board discussed grade-configuration effects (for example, changes to which grades are in Edgar's middle school) and asked for follow-up data to evaluate causes and trends.
Note on transcript language: The meeting transcript repeatedly uses the word "HIV" in places where officials intended the established education term HIB (harassment, intimidation, and bullying). The article uses the correct education term HIB and notes the transcript wording to avoid confusion.
