After several months and three town halls, the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education weighed in on the middle-school redistricting plans at its Feb. 8 meeting.
Feedback from the board will be used by the administrative committee that had initially proposed five options and allow it to go back to the drawing board for a final recommendation to the board sometime in March. At that point, the board will vote to approve or reject the recommendation that will be implemented in the 2023-’24 school year.
While the board reached a consensus that the sixth-grade center should be ruled out and students should be allowed to stay at the school where they were, member Kimberly Friddell and Superintendent Dr. Joseph Meloche emphasized that the board could not give a definitive answer at its meeting because it could not guarantee that it would work out logistically without the administrative committee’s examination of the numbers.
The voices of the community were clearly heard, as the board discussed the potential of redistricting by neighborhood. That is something the committee previously did not consider and would need to get data on. If that were implemented, it may hamper a leading priority, namely the board’s commitment to equity, as its President Ben Ovadia pointed out.
“Equity was that central piece to it, and that means to me, that you won’t just take bubbles geographically from each school,” he said. “You want to look at the diversity that makes this township great within our school communities as well, and that adds a complexity to this.”
Board member Sally Tong pushed for examining elementary-school redistricting before the middle-school dies the same, as those numbers would affect middle-school figures and several members requested keeping the sending schools together.
Board member Miriam Stern asked whether or not there was any reassurance the board could give parents who were looking to apply for the last selection process at Rosa International Middle School, which ends on Feb. 25. Parents also wanted to know whether their kids could stay at the school, but until the committee gives its final recommendation in March, the board can not guarantee anything.
Meloche said more information would come out in the upcoming meetings and acceptance for Rosa International would not occur until March 11. He explained that according to policy, those who accept attending Rosa should commit to three years, but each case could be looked at on an individual basis, depending on the committee’s findings.
Board member Dr. Benjamin Rood proposed having soft boundaries where redistricting would take place, but that also would give families a mechanism where they could choose for their kids to attend another school if desired.
As per the most recent town hall for parents of students with individualized learning plans, Stern and other board members also asked about the possibility of taking special-education programs further into consideration, though they acknowledged it may not be possible to have everything at all schools.
While no decisions were made at the meeting, middle-school redistricting committee member LaCoyya Weathington said the feedback was useful.
The next board meeting will take place on Feb. 22.
