South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education Members Discuss Hardship Transfer Requests

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – Board Of Education member Kaitlin Whittleder began a discussion about regulation 5124, the internal student transfer wait list regulation, which has been in draft form for a few months. “The board has heard from parents about their experiences with hardship transfers and lists at specific schools over the last few months.” She continued, “I feel, and I shared this feedback with Mr. Bing, that the regulation in and of itself lacks detail, particularly explaining the process, the guidelines for submitting hardship requests, timelines and requiring documentation.”

Whittleder spoke of asking the district to review how other integrated districts are handling hardship and wait list policies. “I sent materials to Mr. Bing today for Cambridge Public Schools, because they've been an integrated district for 40 years. They clearly define what a hardship is, and they outline the process for all stakeholders, so that there's transparency,” she shared.

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She inquired, “Is socioeconomic status (SES) a factor in the hardship decisions? For me, I personally don't believe that SES should disqualify a family from having their hardship reviewed. When you look at what Cambridge Public Schools does, they review each hardship on a case by case basis, and the focus is solely on what's in the student's best interest. SES is not considered when determining a school transfer.”

Whittleder noted that SES is only considered when they're determining which school the child will be transferred to because of an integration balance.

She also reported that she expressed some concerns to the district about the Finance, Faculties & Technology (FFT) committee's involvement in reviewing student transfer appeals in their August committee meeting. “FFT members were given access to student and family information and made final determinations on student transfer appeals. I know of at least one family whose request was denied by the FFT committee,” stated Whittleder.

She asked why FFT was involved in the administrative process, how many transfer appeals FFT reviewed in August, and why the full Board wasn’t notified of FFT’s involvement. Whittleder added, “Our district policies and processes on student placement and transfer appeals should never involve the board.”

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She concluded that the Cambridge Public School district does recommend considering forming a hardship appeals committee that's made up of neutral staff to handle cases like this and the materials, but it would be good for neutral parties to be looking at these things.”

Bing explained, “I shared my decision with them [FFT], and went over the hardships in regard to here's what's here, the trends and patterns that I'm getting, and we need to start collecting this data.” He added, “Nobody was involved in the decision-making. It was just an example to see that this is the data that's coming over my desk.”

BOE First Vice President Arun Vadlamani confirmed that the FFT didn't make any decisions about hardship transfer requests.

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