Dear Community Members,

Our petition opposing the Hua Mei Charter School received more than 500 signatures in less than 24 hours. If you haven’t signed it and are worried about the financial impact a charter school would have on our already strapped school budget, you can find it here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/somsdcharterconcerns2/

A decision is expected from the State by January 15th. It is estimated that this school, which is 1 of 17 charter schools still in the running for state approval, might cost our district $600,000 in its first year of operation, with that number increasing every year as the school grows and adds grade levels.

We also urge you to email Acting Commissioner Cerf and Governor Christie. This is a crucial time (decisions will be made on the charter reapplications in the next couple of weeks) and even a short email expressing your feelings about the Hua Mei Charter School is very important. If you believe that communities should make the decision about whether charters open in their boundaries, then also let them know that you strongly support the Charter Reform bills that are currently stalled in the Senate.

You can email Acting Commissioner Cerf at this address:
commissioner@doe.state.nj.us and you can call by using this number:
Phone: 609-292-4450

Here is contact info for Governor Christie: 609-292-6000 or http://www.nj.gov/governor/contact

Additionally, a rally is scheduled for Friday, December 16th between 11 am and noon in Trenton. Many districts who are fighting charters will be there. If you’d like more information click this link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2814547608597&set=o.241786522542296&type=1&theater

If you need more background information you can see the Presidents’ Council letter to the community from earlier this week: http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/op-ed-pta-presidents-council-weighs-in-on-charter-school-application

You can also refer to Superintendent Osborne’s letter to the state opposing the charter: http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/op-ed-osborne-s-letter-to-education-commish-on-charter-application

It is a busy time of the year but we only have a couple of weeks to voice our opinion on this issue. If you are concerned about the impact that a charter school will have on the educational experience of our district’s 6,500 students, please take a few minutes to sign the petition and send a couple of emails.

Sincerely,
Cecelia Cancellaro and Suzanne Turner
Co-Presidents
South Orange Maplewood Presidents’ Council
ccancellaro@verizon.net
sturner99@verizon.net

Clinton School is honored to be the host of the Parenting Center’s symposium on the achievement gap. We would love to have a very strong showing of Clinton parents at this event, which promises to be amazing. Details below:

On Tuesday, October 4th from 7-8:30 pm, at Clinton Elementary School, the Parenting Center’s Leap to Success Committee will be hosting a symposium on closing the elementary school achievement gap.

Speakers include Acting NJ Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, Superintendent Brian Osborne, Board of Ed member Andrea Wren-Hardin, School Administrators Tina Lehn, Marianne Hess, and Raquel Horn, and teacher Shayna Sackett.

Don’t miss this important event.
More information can be found here.

Dear South Orange Maplewood PTA Members,

The decision from the NJ Department of Education about charter schools was released on Friday and the two proposed charters schools (the Hua Mei Charter School and the Rita L. Owens Charter School) that would draw students from the South Orange Maplewood School District were not approved.

As you may know, the legislation designed to give communities a say in whether charter schools open in their communities passed the NJ State Assembly but has yet to be heard in the NJ State Senate. We must do everything we can to be sure the State Senate passes this important legislation.

Although the two schools proposed for our district are not opening their doors in 2012, there will, no doubt, be more applications in the future and it is important that our community has a say.

We will send further information on the bills and their current status in the Senate soon.

You can read the memo issued by the Department of Education here:

Cecelia Cancellaro
Suzanne Turner

Co-Presidents, South Orange Maplewood Presidents’ Council

Presidents’ Council is an organization consisting of all PTA, PTO and HSA Presidents in the South Orange Maplewood School District, whose purpose is:
•    To discuss matters of interest to members including topics affecting the district as a whole, as well as individual schools;
•    To provide an interchange of ideas and concerns among the presidents of various schools;
•    To promote communication and a sense of unity among the schools.

Hosted by the South Orange/Maplewood Special Ed PTO and Maplewood Recreation Department Office.
 
Sunday November 6, 2011 2:00-3:00pm at Maplecrest Park (rain location is Maplewood Middle School Gym.

Children with special needs of all ages – as well as their friends and siblings – are welcome. Parents are expected to stay during the clinic.

For more information, email the South Orange Maplewood Special Education PTO or call 973-868-7595.

Future sports clinic dates to reserve: January 29, 2012, March 25, 2012, May 20, 2012.

Our district has a wonderful foreign language program (French, Italian and Latin) for elementary students.

It begins on October 12th and takes place after school at Columbia High School. It runs through March and it is very reasonably priced ($65).

For more information about the program click this link on the school district website.

The School District’s servers are down again due to electrical problems at the high school, so email is not working at any of the schools. The District has asked that we let all parents know that email is down and if they need to contact anyone in the District, they should do so by phone. Any emails that have been sent already may not get through at all. So if there is information you need to send by email, please resend on Monday.

The District is working to solve the problem, and we hope normal communications will resume next week.

The Clinton PTA