Sunday, May 12, 2013
A look at what's ahead.
School News: The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. at 525 Academy Street. The agenda can be found here. Third and fourth graders will take the NJ ASK this week. Also, secondary school progress reports will be mailed this week. The South Orange Middle School (SOMS) 6th, 7th and 8th grade orchestra will have a concert on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Columbia High School Special Dance group will have a performance on Friday at 8 p.m. The Maplewood Planning Board will meet Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Town Hall. The agenda can be found attached as a PDF to this article. The Community Coaltion on Race will host a public forum on Wednesday at Morrow Memorial Church at 7:30 p.m.: "Conversations on Race: How are We Doing…
Thursday, May 2, 2013
New filing procedure and deadline for interested candidates.
The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education elections are now in November, instead of April. According to the Essex County Clerk’s Election Division, there are new procedures for candidates for the November elections. In the past, interested candidates could pick up candidate packets at the BOE office in Maplewood. Now, all interested candidates must pick up packets at: Essex County Clerk Election Division, Hall of Records 465 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd., Room 246, 2nd floor, Newark, NJ 07102 Hours: Monday – Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Contact information: (973) 387-7311 All candidates petitions must also be submitted to the same office. The Petition Filing Deadline for the School Board Election is: June 4, 2013 at 4:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Vote on 2013-14 South Orange - Maplewood school budget will follow public hearing.
The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education will hold a special public session tonight at 7:30 p.m. to conduct a public hearing on the budget, after which it will vote on the final budget. On March 4, the BOE passed a $104,473,642 preliminary budget for 2013-14 with an operating budget with a 2.47% tax impact and an "all-in" total tax impact of 2.93%. The board is currently addressing a $2.8 million shortfall in the 2013-14 budget. At Monday's regular Board of Ed meeting, Columbia High School senior Ellie Williams gave an impassioned plea to the board to save the position of Student Assistant Counselor, one of which which will be cut if the budget passes. Williams, who told Patch after the meeting she was planning to bring "a …
Sunday, March 10, 2013
This week's most-read stories.
CHS Student Arrested for Terroristic Threat, Cops Say A Columbia High School student was arrested Tuesday and will be charged with making a terroristic threat after he allegedly placed an envelope filled with white powder under a dean's office door, said Capt. John M. Perna of the Maplewood Police Department. The incident led to the school's evacuation on Tuesday. Urban Design Study Released for Maplewood Village In August, the Maplewood Township Committee hired Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) to conduct a planning and design study to outline and identify potential uses for the Post Office site. The study, which cost $20,000 and is titled, "Re-thinking Maplewood, NJ: Transit, Growth and Density," is complete. The report …
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Two key meetings -- and votes -- are on the horizon
Here are some stories Maplewood Patch will be following this week: The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education will hold a special board meeting on Monday, March 4 to discuss and vote on a preliminary 2013-14 budget to send to the county for approval. Members of the public may speak. For more information on the budget, see this Patch article for an overview and this Patch article on proposed personnel cuts, and the district website budget page. You can find the agenda here. The Maplewood Township Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 5. Members of the public may speak. On the agenda: Maplewood Patch will have an upcoming story on plans to introduce a "Walking School Bus" to Tuscan Elementary School. Reminder: the district's …
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
At Monday's BOE meeting, the administration announced awards and honors.
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Wednesday, February 27
Monday's Board of Education meeting kicked off with a rousing performance by the Columbia High School acapella group The Unaccompanied Minors. (Check out a video of the group performing earlier this year at CHS; attached to this article.) BOE member Lynne Crawford announced the following board recognitions of students and teachers: Columbia High School Student, Michael Ferranti, a freshman member of the CHS honors wind ensemble, was selected as a member of the 2012-2013 North Jersey Junior Region Band for his audition on the trumpet. Three members of the CHS Honors Wind Ensemble were selected as members of the 2012-2013 North Jersey Area Symphonic Band. Junior Ryan Morey will be joining the Area Symphonic Band for the second year in a row …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
District's only reading specialist makes spirited statement against proposed budget cut.
The article has been updated to include a comment from Board President Beth Daugherty. A South Orange - Maplewood School District employee whose position is likely to be cut if the Board of Education votes to approve the administration's proposed 2013-14 budget spoke out against the move at Monday night's BOE meeting. Elimination of the district's two elementary curriculum specialists (one each for reading and math), is part of a package of reductions being proposed by the administration in an effort to close a $2.8 million budget gap. Elementary Reading Specialist Donna Grohman read from a written statement deploring the cuts, to the enthusiastic response of several district teachers in the audience. "At a time when teachers have more …
Monday, February 25, 2013
With only four months to go before contract expires, BOE and union reps have yet to meet.
Sandra Karriem, chairperson of the South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education's negotiating task force, said at Monday's board meeting that the South Orange Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA) teachers' union had not yet responded to the board's overtures to begin negotiations on the current teachers' contract, which will expire on June 30. Since September, Superintendent Brian Osborne has issued monthly reminders at board meetings that the current contract will expire in June of this year. Monday night, Karriem said she thought the public deserved to know where the negotiations stand. The board is "deeply committed" to reaching a mutually satiscfactory contract and the task force has been meeting regularly with a consultant since …
Sunday, February 24, 2013
A look at what's ahead in town.
The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education will meet on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at 525 Academy Street. The BOE will continue its discussion of the 2013-14 budget, including how to plug a $2.8 million shortfall. If you want to let the board know what you think of the proposed plan to cut teachers, you will want to be at this meeting. Also on Monday, this month's Maplewood Green Drinks event will feature guest speaker Nora Shepard of Safe Routes to School (SRTS), which is helping Tuscan Elementary School pilot a "Walking School Bus" program. Patch will interview one of the parent coordinators of the initiative. Elks Lodge, 220 Prospect Street, 7 p.m. We will also be looking into the continuing discussion of the township's budget, …
Monday, February 18, 2013
Wednesday's public meeting will address projected $2.7 million budget gap for 2013-14.
The South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education will hold a special budget workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 pm, in the district meeting room at 525 Academy Street. Board members will discuss the 2013-14 school district budget, and the possible impact of using "banked cap" to plug — at least in part — an estimated $2.7 million gap in the 2013-14 budget year. At January's regular BOE meeting, Business Administrator Cheryl Schneider estimated the shortfall would necessitate trying to find further efficiencies in programs considered "variable costs," as well as cutting 20 full-time positions. However, she explained that the district can utilize $975,328 in banked cap available through 2013-14 (after which it expires) and $506,833 …
Kalani Thielen
10:12 pm on Thursday, May 2, 2013
This ought to be a very interesting election. Good luck to anyone who puts their name out there. more ›