For Immediate Release

South Mountain Y – Collaborative Community Commitment PR / Statement on the Community

South Mountain YMCA Partners with South Orange & Maplewood School District

to Help Families Access Child Care

MAPLEWOOD, NJ – The South Mountain YMCA, the Achieve Foundation, Parenting Center, and the South Orange-Maplewood School District have formed a partnership to ensure that equity and opportunity are hallmarks of our community. The collaboration is focused on providing financial support for child care options for families who are most in need.

The Y is committing to provide up to 80 percent financial assistance to all families in the school district that are part of the free and reduced lunch program, and the Achieve Foundation is launching a fundraising campaign to support those families with an additional 10-20 percent scholarship.

“The Y is dedicated to youth development and social responsibility. This important partnership will ensure that our students and families have the resources they need to succeed,” said James Goodger, District Executive of the South Mountain YMCA.

This partnership will ensure that district students have the programs necessary to thrive in and out of the classroom and provide families with the financial support needed to navigate this challenging time.

The South Mountain YMCA, in partnership with the SOMSD, recently opened registration for school age child care programs. In order to provide flexible child care solutions to serve our families and students, the Y is offering a mix of options that include half day, full day, partial week and full week care.

Over the course of the pandemic the Y has been following state, CDC, and local health department guidelines while safely operating Emergency Child Care for essential employees, summer camp, and the Early Childhood Learning Center. The Y’s Financial Assistance program has made this possible for many families that have encountered difficult circumstances.

“Achieve is committed to educational equity and pleased to partner with the Y and the Parenting Center on this initiative. Our fundraising efforts are intended to ensure that SOMSD families who need it most have access to 90-100 percent scholarships for in-person educational support, child care and enrichment programming during distance learning this fall,” said Eileen Collins Neri, Executive Director, Achieve.

“The Parenting Center is so proud to be part of this unprecedented collaboration to support our most vulnerable families during this time of uncertainty and crisis,” said Parenting Center Director Karen Weiland. “In response to this pandemic, the SOMA community has joined together on so many fronts to help all of our families. Providing scholarships for children to attend the Y child care program will mean so much to so many families who need this support right now.”

“We are so pleased to work in partnership with the Achieve Foundation and the South Mountain YMCA to bring this great support to our students and families,” said Dr. Melody Alegria, Assistant Superintendent of Special Services for the South Orange & Maplewood School District. “By linking accessible child care to families in need, and the addition of our new learning management systems (Canvas for K-12 and Tools of The Mind for preschool), we are able to provide quality instruction and supervision in a safe manner.“

For more information about School Age Child Care programs at the Y, visit metroymcas.org.

To donate to Achieve’s Y Scholarship fund visit www.mightycause.com/story/Achievefoundation.

About The Y

Established in 1885, the Metropolitan YMCA of the Oranges invests in its diverse communities to promote wellness, safety and quality of life for children, adults and seniors. Its seven branches in East Orange, Livingston, Maplewood, Hackensack, Hardyston, Stillwater and Wayne are committed to nurturing the potential of kids, promoting healthy living and fostering a sense of social responsibility through an array of programs. Some 35,000 people belong to the Metro Y, which awards more than $2.8 million annually in direct and indirect financial assistance.

About SOMSD Schools

The School District of South Orange and Maplewood serves more than 7,200 students in 10 schools, including one early-childhood center, six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. 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 Achieve

Achieve is an independent 501(c)3 organization that serves as the local education foundation for the School District of South Orange & Maplewood. Over the past two decades, the organization has raised more than $4 million to promote academic excellence and equity in all our public schools.

About the Parenting Center

The Parenting Center serves elementary school families in the South Orange Maplewood School District. The Center’s goal is to be a dynamic resource in our community addressing children’s needs and parent’s concerns. Its aim is to provide parents with a full range of supports as they help their children grow and develop.

Dear SOMSD Community,

I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well in the midst of what has become our new shared reality.  I’m grateful for your support, understanding, and patience as we’ve weathered the many facets of the COVID-19 pandemic. As you know, educators all across the country are grappling with how to reopen schools.  While education systems are inherently designed to promote and facilitate social interaction, the health and safety of our scholars and staff remain our highest priorities and at the center of our decision-making. 

To engage multiple voices and perspectives in our planning process, we established the SOMSD Rethink-Reopen Taskforce to weigh state recommendations, identify reopening strategies across the world,  identify community concerns and needs, and to make realistic recommendations for reopening. The Taskforce is comprised of  14 sub-committees and consists of over 100 members of our district community including:  senior leadership, school administrators, supervisors, teachers,  nurses, mental health professionals, social workers, our Townships’ health department leaders, health-care professionals, members from the teachers’ union, South Orange Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA), and administrator’s union, Administrative, Supervisors, Coordinators Association (ASCA).  

We recognize the importance of hearing and weighing staff, parental, and student voices as we work on reopening in the fall.  Therefore, to guide our reopening plan and to ensure that our planning is well-informed, we have developed several ways in which our SOMSD stakeholders can share their feedback.  

• In late June, we provided a survey to staff members to provide them with an opportunity to share their feedback/concerns regarding reopening.  
• Subsequently, on Tuesday, July 7, we administered a “Return to School” survey, (https://bit.ly/SOMSDReopeningSurvey) with parents/guardians to also provide families with an opportunity to share their individual feedback.
• I am meeting with members of the school’s PTAs, President’s Council, HSA, and Community Coalition on Race to gain further insight.    
• In addition, The Parenting Center in partnership with my office is hosting two virtual focus group discussions with a parent panel that is representative of our schools.  A parent panel interest email was sent to parents/guardians on July 7, and a follow-up email with information and the link to the interest participation form ( https://bit.ly/2AYPnKt) for assembling the parent panel focus group on reopening our schools was sent on July 14.  
• Finally, we also want to hear from our students; a return to school survey is in development and will be sent to middle school and CHS students this week.

The Rethink-Reopen Taskforce began meeting in June and will continue to work together through mid-August.  To guide our reopening planning, the Taskforce began its work by reviewing comprehensive literature of reopening plans and recommendations from around the country. This information was disseminated to the Taskforce members as a prerequisite review to set the expectations for our conversations. 

We have also gained a great perspective via our experiences (and feedback) from the emergent closure distance learning methodology, as well as our current virtual learning programming (Extended School Year (ESY), Summer School, Middle School Bridge, etc). Our Taskforce is now moving expeditiously towards the development of specific plan recommendations, within the following subcommittee areas:

• Cleaning & Disinfecting
• Communications
• Curriculum & Assessment
• Elementary Schools
• Emergency Closing Plan
• Health/Wellness
• Policy
• Pre-K
• Scheduling
• Special Education
• Sports & Co-Curricular
• Staffing
• Transportation
• Virtual/In-Person Learning

We are preparing to take several precautions to reduce the inherent safety risks as we come together in our schools, while also working to develop offerings that give parents and families options that best fit their particular needs and comfort level during our current circumstances. 

We thank you in advance for sharing your insights and helping to improve our plans. To ensure that you have the latest and most accurate information, please visit our webpage frequently and follow our Twitter and Facebook pages. Our final School Reopening Plan will be released in early August.

Educationally yours,

Dr. Ronald G. Taylor