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SOMSD Community Awareness: Threat of Violence Circulating on TikTok

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December 16, 2021

Dear SOMSD Community,

The state has notified us of recent internet chatter on social media about a concern of school shootings taking place tomorrow, Friday, December 17, 2021. This chatter is not specific to a locality or time.

We have been informed by the NJ Director of the Office of School Preparedness and Emergency Planning that at this point, there is no viable intelligence to support this as a legitimate threat. Messages such as this current one, circulating in numerous states, are often posted to cause confusion and heightened anxiety among members of the school community. While this threat has not been deemed a credible threat, we still encourage students, parents and staff to report any concerns they may have going forward.

Parents/guardians, we encourage you to speak with your child and let them know that the South Orange & Maplewood School District takes every threat seriously. In addition, as always, in conjunction with the county prosecutor’s office and our local police department, we remain vigilant and investigate every threat that we receive.

Please know that the safety of our students and staff is always our number one priority. We want to reiterate there are no specific threats directed toward any SOMSD School.

More information regarding the rise of unsubstantiated school threats throughout the country can be found in this nj.com article by clicking here: https://www.nj.com/education/2021/12/nj-schools-grapple-with-spike-in-threats-of-violence-shootings-on-social-media.html

South Orange & Maplewood School District

Letter to Seth Boyden Community (October 8, 2021)

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October 8, 2021

Good Afternoon Seth Boyden Community,

We want to provide you with some updates.  Yesterday, the District was made aware of an allegation of possible misconduct by a Seth Boyden teacher, and working with our school administration, immediately began an investigation. The District released a statement yesterday and shared it with the entire community in the early evening.   You can read the full statement on the District website: https://bit.ly/2WUhd5r

To that end, this morning upon dropping your students at school, you may have noticed police presence at the school.  In addition, this afternoon in picking up your student(s), you may once again see police presence on campus.  In light of the tremendous social media and news coverage, and anticipated news media coverage on the campus, the District and MPD in their partnership, took the steps to proactively ensure that there was no disruption to students/staff upon their arrival and dismissal from school.  Lastly, as a precaution, an administrative decision was made this morning, to hold indoor lunch/recess for all students (mitigation efforts were put in place).  We’ll continue to monitor the situation and make a determination on a day-by-day basis concerning outdoor lunch/recess.  

Please know at no time were the students/staff in danger.  These steps were implemented as a precaution.  Our utmost priority is always the safety of all students, and our staff did a wonderful job in ensuring that their educational day continued as normal. 

Seth Boyden is dedicated to maintaining a culture of wellness, diversity, and safety that creates a positive environment for our students to thrive on campus. We are grateful for our wonderful students, staff, and parents who strive to uphold these values and improve our community on a daily basis.  

Lastly, as shared in yesterday’s District communication, there is an ongoing investigation into this allegation. As such, we are not able to comment or provide any additional details regarding these personnel matter to our greater Seth Boyden community.

We thank you for your cooperation and patience.  

Sincerely,

 

Shannon Glander, Principal, Seth Boyden Elementary School

cc:  Sheila Murphy, Assistant Principal, Seth Boyden Elementary School

cc:  Dr. Ronald G. Taylor, Superintendent of Schools

 

Free and Reduced Price School Meal Program Available to All Students for 2021-22 SY

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SOMSD would like to announce that as we continue to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, the USDA has extended meal waivers for the upcoming school year and all District students will be able to receive free lunch at no charge for the 2021-2022 school year.

Although the District is providing free meals to all students who wish to participate, the Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals is still available and is used to determine eligibility for P-EBT benefits and state funding. We encourage you to complete the Free and Reduced Price Meal Program application for the 2021-2022 school year.

There are several options to complete the application – online or by printing the application, completing it & returning it to the district. Please see below for ways to submit applications:

  1. Fill out Application Online:https://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/district/food-services/freereducedapplication/
  2. Print and Mail: Download the application from the website and mail it to the Administration Building, Attn: Business Office, 525 Academy Street, Maplewood, NJ, 07040 (faxed applications will not be accepted)
  3. Pick-Up: Families can pick up paper applications at Columbia High School or Seth Boyden Elementary from 12 pm – 2 pm during Grab and Go lunch pick-ups

All students in the household must be included on one application. A new meal application is required for the 2021-2022 school year in the event that additional P-EBT cards are to be issued by the State of NJ. This must be completed by October 15, 2021.

If you received a Direct Certification letter from the District you do not have to complete an application.

All SOMSD Schools for All Grade Levels to Begin on Monday, September 13

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September 8, 2021

Dear SOMSD Community,

The purpose of this communication is to confirm that the first day of school for all District schools across all grade levels (PreK – 12)  is Monday, September 13, 2021. 

We thank our facilities and transportation staff, as well as our partners for their assistance and hard work over the holiday break to ensure that our facilities and transportation vehicles are ready for us to open schools on September 13th.  

Be sure to follow all first day of school guidelines/protocols communications sent to you by your school building administrators.   Refer to the fall 2021 Return to School Guidebook (https://bit.ly/3BuAWHF) sent to families on September 1st. This guidebook provides an overview of our plans for a safe return to in-person instruction, five days a week, for all students. Please call your school building directly with any questions regarding the first day of school.

South Orange & Maplewood School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SOMSD Launches Atlas, First-Ever Public-Facing Website for the District’s K-12 Curriculum

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOMSD Launches Rubicon Atlas the First-Ever Public-Facing Website for the District’s K-12 Curriculum

August 10, 2021 – The South Orange & Maplewood School District's Curriculum & Instruction Department is proud to announce that the District’s K-12 curriculum will now be available online.  The District has partnered with Rubicon Atlas to build out a digital public-facing platform for the K-12 curriculum which is now open to SOMSD families and the broader community.  

The District’s partnership with Rubicon Atlas brings to fruition a two-year quest to provide the District community with transparency and access to the curriculum across all grade levels.  Rubicon Atlas is a leading online planning, assessment and reporting platform for independent and international schools worldwide. By providing schools with one unified system on a consistent, modern and mobile-ready interface, Rubicon Atlas via its platform AtlasNext offers a seamless & integrated experience for school leaders, teachers, students, and parents.

In the past, the District’s curriculum has been scattered across multiple portals for documentation and lacked a centralized location to document curriculum in addition to a common language or focus.  It has been a goal of the District for a couple of years to coordinate the curriculum process with a fresh start of curriculum documentation and review. To do this, the District needed to establish a centralized place for curriculum documentation, as well as ensure that teachers/parents are able to view how curricula are aligned and referenced from Common Core NJSLA standards.

Dr. Matthew Friedman, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum & Instruction, says “We are excited to finally bring to fruition this District goal.” He continued, “The process of transferring our curriculum to an online platform, allowed us to find the crucial gaps and overlaps in our current curriculum, where similar aspects of curriculum were being repeated year to year, while across grades, there was a lack of consistency in curriculum. In transferring curriculum to Rubicon Atlas, we sought to achieve a more cohesive and standard sequence across curricula.” 

Providing access to the District’s curriculum via a user-friendly site not only provides transparency and allows parents to view what their child(ren’s) will learn at their grade level, but it also beneficial to teachers, allowing them to view mapped curricula by subject area, grade-levels and standard alignments on one site and in one-location.  Within Rubicon Atlas, school and District-wide curriculum is one click away for all teachers, spanning all subjects and grade levels.  In addition, teachers will easily be able to apply filters by grade, subject, or course.

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Ronald G. Taylor shared, “We are so excited to add this high-quality tool to our District. During my tenure, I have heard concerns from stakeholders regarding the need to anticipate what students will be learning next or questions regarding the pacing of instruction or even questions about curricular compliance with state mandates.”  Taylor continued, “Rubicon Atlas is a proven platform that offers a user-friendly transparent solution addressing those previously stated concerns, while also significantly increasing the access of instructional resources to our educators. Kudos to our Curriculum and Instruction Team, led by Dr. Friedman and Director Ann Bodnar, who worked many hours with our Academic Content Supervisors to bring this much discussed need to reality.”  

More information and access to the SOMSD Atlas site can be found here:  https://bit.ly/SOMSDAtlas

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About the South Orange & Maplewood School District

The School District of South Orange and Maplewood serves more than 7,200 students in ten schools, including one early-childhood center, six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. The community and its schools are racially and economically diverse with more than 90 percent of Columbia High School graduates planning to attend college each year.   The mission of the South Orange Maplewood School District is to empower and inspire each student to explore and imagine, to pursue personal passions, and to collectively create a better future by creating a learner-centered environment through multiple pathways; re-imagined structures, systems and supports; innovative teaching; partnering with families; and maximizing community expertise and resources.

About Rubicon Atlas

Rubicon Atlas is the leading curriculum planning platform designed to meet your school’s needs. With Rubicon Atlas, schools around the world initiate, revamp, and continuously refine and improve their curriculum development process in one unified system. As the trusted choice for over 6,000 schools in 130 countries, Rubicon Atlas offers a seamless and integrated experience for teachers, administrators, and curriculum writers.

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