Brick Preschool Program Holding New Lottery After Error

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township School District is holding a new lottery for its preschool program after it was discovered some students were left out of the original drawing, the superintendent announced Monday.

In a letter distributed to parents involved in the program, Superintendent Gerard Dalton said a new lottery will be held on Monday, May 20, at Warren H. Wolf Elementary School. All families impacted by the program are invited to the lottery, which will be preceded by an information session beginning at 6:30 p.m. with the district's administration.

Dalton said that, after the original lottery was finished and notices distributed, it was discovered that some of the applications for the preschool lottery had been missed, and after discussions with the state Department of Education, the district decided the best move was to hold a new lottery. The district received more than 360 applications for the program for general education students, which has 150 spots. About 30 applications were left out of the original drawing, Dalton said.

"We have folks who were left out, which was unfair," Dalton said. "We felt to be equitable, we needed to rerun the lottery."

Parents who reached out to Patch were critical of the decision to redo the lottery, which means some who were selected the first time could find their children without a slot in the preschool, which is funded by a grant from the state.

"We were notified weeks ago, on April 16, that our child was selected," said Courtney Rzeplinski, whose daughter, Lillian, was among those chosen the first time around. "We made arrangements for the fall based on that. Now, a lot of families, mine included, may not be in the program at all."

Rzeplinski said that in the month since getting the news, the family had given up the a spot for September in a private preschool program and told their child care provider she wouldn’t be needed in September.

"She (the child care provider) has since found another family and cannot return to me if my daughter isn’t chosen," Rzeplinski said. "This will also break my daughter's heart. We have been talking about 'big girl school' and riding the bus ever since we got the phone call. If she isn’t as lucky this time, all of that will be taken away from her."

Dalton acknowledged the frustration of parents who had made plans for the fall.

"I am frustrated this happened, too," Dalton said, adding it is being addressed with those involved. "I am not happy this happened. But we needed to do the right thing," and give everyone who had applied for the program an equal opportunity.

The preschool lottery process was questioned at the May 2 Board of Education meeting. Sharon Cantillo, who served as board president four years ago, asked how the lottery was conducted after she had heard some applications submitted were missing. Kristen Hanson, the director of special services, said each child was assigned a number and the numbers drawn in a process supervised by Hanson and two others. Students who participated in the program this spring were not automatically renewed to allow a wider group of students to have the possibility of receiving the free program.

The new drawing, for both the preschool spots and the waiting list, will be held in front of parents at the May 20 meeting in the all-purpose room at Warren H. Wolf Elementary.

Dalton said the district is investigating ways to handle the process in the future to eliminate the possibility of a similar error occurring.

"The modifications to the process are not 100 percent defined," he said, but the district is looking at possible electronic methods of handling it. The district's main registration process, for kindergarten and new students transferring into the district, has been moved to an online system, but he said it's not clear if that system is the solution.

"If you can eliminate paperwork, you eliminate human error," Dalton said.

The district is funding the preschool program for general education students through a three-year grant that is part of state efforts to expand early learning programs for children. The program was piloted in Brick this spring and is expanding for the 2019-2020 school year.

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