ORANGE, NJ — Attempts to both change the Orange School District from a Type 1 appointed board to Type 2 elected board and then change it back to its original status have left residents questioning the priorities of the Orange Board of Education.
In November 2016, according to the Essex County Clerk’s Office, 3,899 Orange residents voted to change from an appointed board to an elected board and 1,178 residents wanted to maintain the status quo. Although this means almost 77 percent of the 5,077 Orange residents who cast ballots on Election Day voted to change the way BOE members are chosen, there are roughly 15,000 registered voters in Orange and business administrator Chris Hartwyk estimated another 9,000 to 12,000 unregistered residents.
According to Orange City Council President Donna K. Williams on Wednesday, Jan. 25, having an elected BOE will engage voters and keep members accountable.
“From my standpoint, it gets the people more engaged; the people get to pick the people who will represent them in making policy for our children and our school district,” Orange City Council President Donna K. Williams said Wednesday, Jan. 25. “Everybody gets to come out and vote for those persons and they also get to engage them and get candidates who have their concerns at heart — their platforms and what they’re running on at heart. And also, it makes them more accountable to the people, as opposed to an individual.”
“The city has tremendous budgetary challenges and I’m very fond of saying and I’m going to keep repeating this until I get state legislators and federal legislators to pay attention: This city has a census-tracked population of 32,000 people; we have an actual population of 51,000 people and you can look that up on notable think tank websites that track population that’s not picked up in censuses,” Hartwyk said Thursday, Jan. 19, at South Ward Councilwoman Jamie Summers-Johnson’s Community Meeting at Heywood Avenue Elementary School. “And what that presents us with is we have the cost of a population of 51,000 and the resources from federal and state government for three-fifths of that. So those are the challenges that frame what we do every day.”
This means the Orange School District educates more children than any current census report might lead a casual observer to believe, according to Hartwyk. This comes with a corresponding need for the resources, funding and public will to educate students in the most thorough and efficient way possible.
According to Williams, Jan 31 was the filing deadline for the current seven-member appointed Orange Board of Education to ask the Essex County Clerk’s Office to add a referendum to the March 14 special election ballot that will ask voters for permission to bond for $2.5 million that BOE President Cristina Mateo has said is needed to fund necessary capital improvements at city schools. In that election, Orange voters will select two new BOE members to round out the board.
“They have until Jan. 31 to put that question about the bond on the ballot for there to be a referendum vote. Whatever the barriers is, the solution has been put out there. We fix the potholes. They need the boilers,” Williams said Jan. 25.
Board of Education President Cristina Mateo said the district does need new boilers in many schools. She also said the board is not trying to disenfranchise any Orange voters or otherwise defy the will of the people expressed in the affirmative vote to change from an appointed board to an elected board last year in Public Question No. 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“If it’s agreed that the process was done correctly, we welcome whatever process we need to work on,” said Mateo at the board’s special meeting Monday, Jan. 23. “Whatever process we need to work on, we will work on. If we get two more members, we will do everything possible to educate those members to make sure they also need to do what needs to be done. Eventually, this is a position that you’re either elected or voted on. This is all temporary, so we’re going to make sure that whoever takes our place or comes to the board is prepared enough to take over and to do what needs to be done.”
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