New SOMSD Superintendent Jason Bing Shares His First 100 Days Plan

Maplewood, NJ – SOMA’s new Superintendent, Jason Bing, shared a presentation of his first 100-day plan during the July 25 Board of Education meeting. He noted that his plan is a “living document” and BOE members have already given him feedback. Bing urged residents to also offer comments.

He began, “The four values we [have in] the mission are integrity, excellence, teamwork and equity as we move forward and work with Dr Fergus, our Equity and Access Department, our parents, community and board members.” He said that equity work begins with the BOE. “Equity will become a driving force of everything that we're doing,” Bing remarked.

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He presented a slide show of 10 major areas he’ll work on in his first 100 days:

• Develop Key Relationships
• Organizational Review
• Financial Review
• Observations
• Curriculum Review
• Human Resources
• Transportation
• Technology
• Public Relations & Communications
• Career & Technical Education/Workforce Readiness

To Develop Key Relationships, Bing stated that he’s meeting with mayors of both towns, police chiefs, Seton Hall University and Kean University Presidents, Essex County officials, the community college president, booster clubs and more.

He noted that Financial Review as well as Organizational Review will involve restructuring the special services department. “Dr Gilbert has spent a lot of time on [this]. We have been listening to phone calls, listening to our emails from our parents, our community members and our SEPAC [Special Education Parent Advisory Council] -- which has been a wonderful working partner with us in regard to how to restructure that department. We continue to move forward on those initiatives and are excited to tell the community about them in the very near future.”

Bing reported that he worked with Facilities Director Tom Giglio on the capital projects and observed the construction “that is really transforming this district.” He shared, “I know the board is very proud of the infrastructure changes that are going on now, especially in regard to clean air and HVAC, which will make a huge difference, and also adding the extra space in our buildings as well as we start to grow.”

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Regarding Curriculum Review, he acknowledged that Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction (CNI) Ann Bodnar had been busy as interim Columbia High School Principal, and she can now devote all her time to the curriculum. She and Director of Curriculum & Instruction Zoila Correa have been researching and acquiring innovative curriculum like Eureka Math and Magnetic Reading.

Bing spoke of a new Response to Intervention model launching in September. “It will give our kids nice tier one, tier two and tier three interventions to support what we have in place.

He mentioned that the BOE receives a good deal of correspondence about transportation. “Our transportation department has been very nimble. They're just going into their second year. We had some issues with the extended school year, which, working with SEPAC and our parents, was fixed, and that was just a miscommunication from the school year.”

Bing said that he has a continuum of and timeline for transportation through September, which will be posted on the website next week. “Parents can simply click on the website and look at that continuum so they know what's coming up in the future.” The transportation tracking app will be launched in late August.

Bing shared that he was very impressed when he reviewed the district teachers’ qualifications and saw that many had master’s degrees, which ultimately helps the district with its goals.

Bing mentioned the technology supporting Perkins Grant . It requires a great deal of time to apply for. He plans to complete the paperwork and has applied for it many times in the past. It will help with art programs, entertainment technology and more. Teaching students real life skills fits into the Career & Technical Education/Workforce Readiness objective.

He stated that Dr. Fergus reported that the district has made some good progress, and Bing looks forward to continuing to working on implementing Fergus’ recommendations.

Under the Public Relations and Communications category, Bing announced, “We'll be putting some of our board members in the spotlight, moving them around to some Q and A's, the most popular one being, ‘Why the heck did you decide to become a board member?’” He plans to host open sessions with community members and hold conversations with board members semi-monthly for the next four or five months.

In addition, the district hired a Director of Communications to make the district’s website more user-friendly. Regarding human resources, a couple of people who were laid off have been rehired.

In terms of Financial Review, Bing said, “We start budgeting for the 2025-2026 school year very soon. So, you'll be seeing some surveys in the near future, in regard to what things you want to prioritize, coming out sometime in September or October.”

He ended his presentation speaking about improving the website and communicating more with the community via social media and phone calls to ensure that parents and stakeholders are aware of the work that the school district is doing to provide transparency.

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