Archives for December 2019
SOMSD Equity In Integration Symposium
SOMSD Equity in Integration Symposium | Wed., January 8, 2020 @ 7pm – 9pm
Location: Columbia High School Auditorium
Join us to discuss the SOMSD Intentional Integration initiative. The Office of the Superintendent invites you as we re-engage the community including parents, students, administrators, teachers, staff and concerned citizens regarding the SOMSD Intentional Integration Initiative (SII). We’ll hear from our District Superintendent as well as leading scholars in the areas of equity, access, and integration in the K-12 landscape. The symposium will look at desegregation efforts from a historical, social, legal and educational lens. Speakers will share about the effects of integration, examples of successful/unsuccessful efforts, the process of achieving integration and the sustainability of integration. In addition, models that may best fit the SOMSD community will be discussed. Q&A and community dialogue will follow.
The symposium agenda will focus on:
- Overview of Equity in Integration (SOMSD’s mission/vision on integration), Dr. Ronald G. Taylor, Superintendent of Schools
- Conversation on Equity in Integration (moderated by Dr. Eddie Fergus, with special guests, Elise Boddie, Esq. and Dr. Erica Frankenberg)
- Community dialogue on Equity in Integration
SOMSD December Departmental Newsletter Is Now Available!
The monthly South Orange Maplewood School District departmental newsletter is now available. Click here or on the picture below to view our monthly newsletter.
Preschool Update December 2019
In October 2018, the South Orange–Maplewood School District received a grant from the State of New Jersey to offer preschool education services at no cost to all interested Maplewood and South Orange residents. Prior to that, the District offered an integrated regular and special education preschool program for a number of years. The program shifted from Jefferson Elementary to South Mountain Elementary to Marshall Elementary before finding a permanent home at the Montrose Early Childhood Center (MECC).
At the start of the 2018-2019 school year and with the appointment of a new principal, Ms. Bonita Samuels, the program was ready to move forward. The grant posed the opportunity to expand the program, and with appointed Interim Assistant Superintendent of Special Services, Dr. Laura Morana, the District was now in a position to further advance the preschool program to address the needs of the early childhood population throughout the District.
With the opening of the 2019 registration season, the District received over 100 new applicants interested in enrolling children in the preschool program. To meet that need, the District met with private preschool programs in the immediate area to develop partnerships in an effort to expand the program. 2018-2019 school year, the District partnered with Applecore Learning, a preschool in Maplewood, as an additional Pre-K classroom site. In addition, a full-time Preschool Supervisor was hired to assist in expansion efforts, recruitment, contract development, and overall program management for the District’s preschool program.
The District’s preschool program received applications from 108 students in February 2019. Through a lottery system, all 108 applicants were offered a seat in the program between May and September 2019. Demand for preschool placements continued with the opening of the 2019-2020 school year. In response, the District held another lottery in November to seat applicants in available slots opening up in December 2019. Thus far, of the fifty-five students who were part of the November lottery, thirty-two have been seated and are beginning school this month.
As we enter a new decade, we will continue to seek additional partnerships to meet the growing need of parents in our District. The South Orange & Maplewood Universal Preschool Program continues to grow and is currently housed across four sites: Montrose Early Childhood Center, Marshall Elementary, Applecore Learning, and Zadie’s of the Oranges.
- Effective January 13, we will have a new partner, LaPetite Academy
- For more information on the Preschool Education program
2019 SOMSD Parenting Center Toy Drive – December 2 – 13, 2019
“Let me say thank you for the gifts, and more thanks because the greatest thing you gave is all the joy you brought my family. Thank you for remembering us.” (From laid-off SOMA parent of four school-aged children, 2018)
We all know how generous the South Orange Maplewood Community is, especially when it comes to making life easier for one of our own neighbors. Never is that spirit more evident than at the holidays when the South Orange Maplewood School District Parenting Center runs its annual Holiday Toy Drive.
Now in its 22nd year, the South Orange Maplewood School District Parenting Center Holiday Toy Drive provides holiday gifts for children of families in need in our school district. Last year our toy drive benefited over 500 children in 150 families in our two communities. This year, we hope to provide the same and more to children in need throughout our SOMSD community.
Please feel to bring new, unwrapped gifts and toys to one of our drop-off boxes located in schools and businesses in our town between December 2 – 13, 2019. Your tax-deductible contributions will be used to purchase books and gifts for children from infancy through age 17; no donations will be used to cover administrative costs. Unwrapped gifts will be provided to parents who, in turn, will wrap the items themselves and give them to their children during the holidays.
If you don’t have time to shop or aren’t sure what to get, then feel free to contribute via one of the additional channels below:
- Buy gifts online: SOMSD Amazon.com gift registry
- Make an online tax-deductible donation: SOMSD Parenting Center Holiday Toy Drive GoFundMe page
- Make a check to payable to SOMSD Parenting Center: Mail to – Parenting Center | 525 Academy Street | Maplewood, NJ, 07040
On behalf of the South Orange Maplewood School District Parenting Center, we offer our heartfelt thanks for your generosity. Your gifts will provide the holiday joy this year that our district’s most vulnerable families might not otherwise have.