BOE thanks community for speaking at meetings

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Board of Education released the following letter to the community on March 19:

“On behalf of the Board of Education, we want to thank parents, teachers and the West Orange community for speaking out at our board meetings. Our board hears you very clearly, as you have expressed the need for:

• Improved communications, empathy and tonality;
• Accountability and follow-up on improving special services;
• Addressing our teachers’ concerns about support, respect and a desire to be heard on issues including: the need for a new elementary school reading program, securing greater input from the teachers on the front lines and more advanced planning when implementing new programs or initiatives, recognition of time allocation and priorities that impact instruction time and lesson planning, and avoiding over-testing that stresses teachers, students and parents; and
• Approaches, as requested by parents and teachers, to ‘heal’ our school community.

Leaders and members of West Orange Special Education Parent Advisory Council, West Orange Cares About Schools, Essex Rising and the PTAs have emailed us or called to offer support, and to ask about our plan for the process of healing, and our approach to school-community partnership, in order to advance student achievement. To begin the process of healing and strengthening our partnership with you, we are implementing the following board initiatives:

• Expansion of the PR Committee to become a PR/Community Relations Committee, chaired by our Vice President Mark Robertson and board member Ken Alper, whereby we are inviting parent/community organizations to the table to work with us on solutions;
• Regular special services progress reports at board meetings and WOSEPAC meetings; and
• Follow-through on previously proposed board initiatives to ensure parent, teacher and community input, including but not limited to: town hall meetings with breakout groups for various high interest topics, and more public forums and listening sessions where your voice can be heard and your ideas put into action; climate surveys for parents and teachers with safeguards for confidentiality and curtailing duplication; adding a student representative to the Board of Education; new board committees, including a Safety & Security Committee and possibly Finance and Curriculum; and diversity training by a certified company and a Diversity Recruitment Job Fair in 2019.

Thank you for your patience and partnership throughout the process. We welcome your partnership, and we will be reaching out to you.”

  West Orange Board of Education