Though it won't be official until the new fiscal year starts on July 1, the South Orange Maplewood Education Foundation (SOMEF) is transitioning into the use of a new name—ACHIEVE Foundation of South Orange and Maplewood.

According to SOMEF's executive director Deborah Prinz, a name change had been contemplated for some time, but the timing seemed right, since the non-profit—which runs the ACHIEVE volunteer tutoring program, offers teacher grants, manages a CHS facilities fund and more—is launching a new Web site and celebrating its 20th anniversary this spring.

Prinz said that SOMEF's name led to the assumption that it was officially connected to the school district. "We had a constant issue of trying to explain who we were, and it's not easy to explain what we do to begin with," she said, noting that one reason the new name was settled on is the positive connotations of "ACHIEVE."