SOMA Schools Superintendent Bing says diversity is top strength, calls for “getting everyone on the same page”

MAPLEWOOD, NJ __ The first few weeks into his role as the new Superintendent of South Orange & Maplewood Schools, Jason Bing doesn’t hesitate when asked about SOMA’s biggest strength, and its biggest challenge.

Diversity is the strength of SOMSD, and its two towns, and “getting everyone on the same page” is among its top challenges.

A longtime educator and Union County native , who officially took over a few weeks ago, Bing sat down with TAPinto SOMA to discuss his impressions of the district so far and how he plans to approach his role.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

For starters, he’s doing a lot of listening – meeting each day with stakeholders, such as local government officials, community members and advocates, and others to understand all he can about SOMA.

When the new school year starts, he’s keen to see teachers in action. He’s passionate about instruction and feels that it must become more personal as students get more diverse. When he was starting out as a teacher, he said, teachers were told to “teach to the middle” to be at the level of most students. But that’s not the case anymore.

“Now you've got such diversity, whether it's neurodiversity, physical diversity, cultural diversity, religion, gender diversity. You've got so many factors that go into instruction nowadays. It's a much heavier lift, much heavier,” he said.

His listening will extend into the community. Bing said he plans to hold open houses and community Q&A across SOMA, at libraries and community centers. He added he expected the Board of Education to start doing the same.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

“Getting people engaged in the process is what a lot of this job is about. So I'm looking forward to the outreach,” he said.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What attracted you to the role of superintendent at South Orange & Maplewood Schools?

Bing: I'm a Union County person. I grew up in Union Township. I had family who lived in South Orange, Maplewood, aunts, uncles, my grandmother, who I was very close to. So I spent a lot of time in Maplewood and South Orange growing up.

I was in Jersey City for some time and doing equity work. And the South Orange & Maplewood school district came across our plate as a case study. And again, I never was too deeply into the school system, just the two towns. That’s probably what caught my interest. That's over eight to nine years ago. And then, when the job popped up, a colleague of mine gave me a ring and said it was open. I said that’s on my shortlist of schools I’d like to lead.

Q: You’ve said the needs of the students are your biggest priority. What do you think their most pressing needs are and how can you help?

Bing: Well, I think the answer changes since the pandemic. I think you're seeing mental health and just overall safety, both physical and mental, as one of your top priorities because that affects and impacts everything, including academics. So, if you don't have that safety portion right where kids feel safe in school and feel like they have solid relationships with their peers and teachers and administrators, it's tough now to do the academic side of the house. For me, it's a focus on that side of the house and then we start looking at achievement gaps and really trying to personalize learning.

Right now, as our students get more and more diverse, the need for more personalized learning is a necessity. It's just the reality. I started teaching 27 years ago…you could teach to the middle and hit most of the kids. Nowadays, you teach to the middle, you lose most of the kids. It’s a total change from when I started so that's the differentiation of instruction and trying to meet kids where they are is an important piece of this job now.

Q: What are your impressions of the district’s staff and administrators so far?

Bing: I've met some principals and some teachers who work in the extended school year. My senior leadership team here is wonderful… I've been really pleasantly surprised. They're just a wonderful group. You get excited when you meet people that are just invested in the district and want the best for it. I'm expecting the same with the teachers as well when I meet them. And the ones I've met so far have been wonderful. You really do have a great bunch of professionals in this district. I think it's just getting everybody on the same page. With this job, you have a lot of outside factors that impact what you're doing. And part of my job is to protect people from those outside factors so they can just focus in on the very difficult job of instruction.

Q: What are your other priorities now?

Bing: For me, it's really assessing. My first two months are really just going to be the listening and assessment piece. Better understanding our folks, our infrastructure and facilities, safety protocols. Until school starts I won’t be able to see the instruction curriculum in action. So for me, it's building relationships and better understanding the resources that are available between the two towns.

Q: Before school starts, do you have any goal you've set for yourself to accomplish?

Bing: I want to make sure I'm meeting with stakeholders that have been identified by my board and also by our staff and local governments… So I'm going down that list as we speak. It should take another two to three weeks before I meet the key people and then, obviously, more people come into that mix. But right now, every day I have a meeting with a stakeholder in this district, just meeting someone, introducing myself. It could be anywhere from… I just met the president of Essex County Community College, I had a meeting with the two police chiefs the other day, meeting with the mayors, with local legislators, some grassroots groups. I just met with the booster clubs. Just getting to know the territory.

Q: What do you think the greatest challenges are in this district and how are you going to address them?

Bing: I think it's getting everybody on the same page. Because they all have good intentions. Everyone I have met has wonderful intentions for the students and these two communities and the school district. I think it's just getting everybody focused and on the same page.

If we're truly a district around equity, then that's our core, and our work goes through equity. And it's really putting equity in the forefront. And if that's our choice, that we want to be an equitable district, and that's what we're pushing, which it seems we are, then that needs to be in the forefront and that needs to be in 95% of the discussions. There's a lot of ancillary discussions. It's really just getting focused around equity and student achievement.

I really want to look at the data and start driving decisions based upon that data. I also want to tap on our community resources more. We've got industry, business, local government, parents, guardians, teachers that all have something to add, and I don't think we've tapped those resources well enough. Everybody should be bringing something to the table that can better our students. So that open communication… that's going to be a big piece of building relationships.

Q: You have broad experience in a lot of different districts. What do you see that’s unique in SOMA?

Bing: I think your diversity is your strength here. To me, it's a wonderful opportunity to really build relationships and really learn about each other's culture…  Everyone I meet here has a great unique story… I've always thought diversity is a great strength of any town. So for me, I get the pleasure of working with kids… around diversity and building relationships and getting the best out of themselves and, a growth mindset. It's an honor and I'm excited.

I think this is my 13 ^th or 14th year as a superintendent… I've seen a lot of a lot of things. And I'm lucky, in all honesty, I think we've got a really nice board who wants the best for these communities. And that's really all you can ask.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net