Op-Ed: We Are the 700

So far 700 people in the towns of South Orange and Maplewood have signed a petition to “Keep 8th Grade Leveled.”

Some naysayers have brought up that this is such a small number considering our combined towns have over 40,000 total residents. But if one looks a bit deeper, looks at the comments alongside those signatures, a bigger picture of this small number shows up. If there are approximately 2,000 high school students at Columbia, and 1,500 middle schoolers, then that 700 represents nearly 15-20% of those students and their concerned parents (some parents with younger children signed, but much less frequently; also less frequently two parents signed for the family, more often one parent signed).

In alienating this large number of our school population, the Board of Education is marginalizing this very substantial and significant segment and making these families ask themselves some tough questions: If [Superintendent of Schools] Brian Osborne and the BOE are going to ignore my absolute frustrations with these deleveling changes, not to mention that I am paying these exorbitant taxes to support this school system, then what is my stake in this community? 

Our two towns are not Millburn or Short Hills. Our residents are not made up of the many stockbrokers and lawyers as are in those communities, parents who can afford to send their kids to private schools. In our towns, we proudly stand as a more creative group: architects, writers, designers, teachers, professors, musicians. But the reality is, many of us just can’t afford to send our kids to private schools, we rely heavily on the public school to give our kids the best. 

I wonder, what with the changes the BOE and Osborne have proposed for 8th grade and now 9th and 10th, in terms of condensing levels, if many a dining room conversation is taking place as to whether the stay-at-home moms should consider working full time to send their child to private school in the upcoming year.  Or moving to a smaller house in Millburn. 

These are not the questions we want to be asking ourselves. We want to feel that the top performing kids in each grade are being pushed to their limits, just as the more strugglingkids deserve to be. But putting them all together in one level, and expecting miracles from their teachers who will be forced to differentiate in a tizzy makes no sense to us. Just read the comments. There’s the frustration, the anger, the throwing up the hands and asking, “what the hell?”

Now the real question is, will this BOE who we’ve elected listen to the voices of these families. History shows they simply plow through and keep at their insular agenda. They remain removed from the people, while telling us how well things are going. Well, Brian Osborne, have you read the petition, it’s there in clear language, we the 700 and counting, nearly 20% of this school district, don’t want this. And here’s our question to you, are you listening?

Please attend the BOE Open Forum at the Columbia High School Auditorium to discuss this proposal of deleveling 8th grade on Wed Feb 8 from 7 to 8:30 PM. Can you imagine if we all show up at the meeting, all 700 of us? By then our numbers may well be over 800. No decision has been made yet on the fate of 8th grade. So now is our time. I know we're all busy, but ironically we're all working so hard to promote our kids' educations! Keep fired up, send in your most valuable comments on the petition, we will be listened to if we continue this momentum.

To sign the petition go directly to this link of "keep eighth grade leveled".