The Trenton Times published the following article on July 29, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Trenton superintendent prepares for district reconfiguration, new initiatives
By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton
on July 29, 2013 at 7:00 AM, updated July 29, 2013 at 7:01 AMTRENTON — Superintendent Francisco Duran is preparing to begin his second year overseeing the district’s 12,000 students with a major reconfiguration of the schools and raft of new initiatives, including new supports for struggling middle schoolers, high school academies aimed at lowering the dropout rate, bilingual elementary classrooms and new efforts to reach out to parents.
“When I came here I knew that it was a district in need of improvement,” Duran said. “I knew there was going to be a lot that needed to happen for schools to improve academically.”
“It doesn’t start in high school. Addressing graduation rates starts in fifth and sixth grade,” he said. “You can’t wait until ninth grade, when they literally drop out.”
Another priority of his is to upgrade poor building conditions at TCHS, and he said he has already become frustrated at the district’s inability to get the state Schools Development Authority to move more quickly to perform urgent repairs. The school has old drain pipes that burst, causing ceilings to collapse and floors to buckle, no air conditioning, a leaky roof, asbestos and many other problems.
“The conditions of the high school aren’t acceptable to me, and it should be an emergency,” Duran said. “I don’t think it is moving quickly enough.”
“We are helping develop our young people to be citizens and effective contributors to society,” Duran said. “I don’t think a test score defines all of our students.”
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.