District administrator to be honored

Claire Keller, the director of student achievement for the Bloomfield School District, will be recognized March 19 as a leadership model at the annual National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators Conference in Washington D.C.

AFEPA provides support to educators working with federally funded programs.

Keller, who was selected by her peers to receive the NJ State Leadership Award for Program Administrators and represent the state, has been with the district for seven years. She was its mathematics supervisor for five years previous to her current position.

She attended The College of New Jersey and received a BA in elementary education and mathematics; holds a masters in administration from Montclair State University and another in curriculum from Western Governors University.

As director of student achievement, her work revolves around grant money, some which are entitlements while others are competitive. Often what she is seeking, for a layman, is couched in a puzzling array of acronyms.

Large grant sources that Keller works with include ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965), ESSER (Elementary and Secondary Education Relief) and Perkins CTE (Career and Technical Education Act). During a recent interview in her office, she also mentioned, in ordinary language, High-Impact Tutoring and Trees for Schools grants.

“I have two big goals,” she said. “One is evaluating and obtaining grants that meet the needs of our community. I am able to do this with the support of the Board of Education, the central office and the community. My other goal is managing grants with fidelity to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students.”

Keller said that to some degree, all school districts are eligible for entitlements such as ESEA grants. Its availability is based on socio-economic needs and reflected in lower student standardized test scores.

“One of the great opportunities is taking these grants and using them to increase student achievement,” she said. “That is essentially the purpose of my job.”

A Perkins grant, she added, which provides students with career and technical experience, is also an entitlement grant.

Keller applied for and received more than $560,000 of grant funding in 2023.

“This included three new grants,” she said. “These were the Climate Awareness Education Grant, Sustainable New Jersey Tree for Schools Grant and the High-Impact Tutoring Grant.”

The Trees for Schools Grant was a competitive grant and will pay for 100 trees and have them planted on district property. Keller said the grant made it possible to “grow” a program in the district.

“We’re tying this into the curriculum,” she said. “The idea is to reduce heat islands. Basically, we need more trees. This is going to be a nice resource. We try to make it cohesive and connect it to as much as possible. You make more of an impact that way.”

In 2020, NJ was the first state to mandate that climate change study be part of the K-12 curriculum. Connecticut followed in 2023.

“And the competitive Climate Awareness Education Grant purchased a large greenhouse for the middle school,” she continued. “That’s being built now. And each school has a ‘green team.’ That’s a group of staff that meet to consider ways to become more sustainable.”

One way to do this, Keller said, was to create student clubs focusing on environmental issues.

Another competitive grant which Keller obtained was the High-Impact Tutoring Grant.

“This was for student achievement and targets kids that really need academic support,” she said. “They’re really small groups, three or four kids a group. There’s 120 students involved, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders and 46 tutors. Our goal is for this effort to be shown in math and language test scores.”

But not every grant application results in a win for the district.

“I did apply for a climate change grant,” Keller said. “It was a competitive grant. State and federal agencies released a certain amount of grant money and I checked to see what was good for us. We met the requirements and applied. But sometimes you’re in a place where you’re beyond it or not ready for it.”

An exciting development for her job, she said, was the requirement to be in partnership with a college for grant eligibility. According to Keller, this connection allows high
school students to earn college credits and for student-teachers to work in district classrooms.

“It’s something new happening in the nation,” she said. “The idea is to alleviate the financial burden for future teachers. The grant money will go to the college to help its student-teachers meet their tuition obligations. It’s nice to have a relationship with a college and we have a bunch: Montclair State, William Patterson, Essex County and Kean.”

  bloomfield, Bloomfield Board of Education