Meet the Middletown Board of Education Candidates' Night Oct. 19 With a Focus on Special Education Issues

Middletown Township Friends of Different Learners (MTFOdL) is hosting a Meet the Board of Education Candidates Night October 19 at 7 p.m. at the Middletown Public Library. Community members are encouraged to meet the candidates and ask questions about general and special education issues. Three of nine seats on the school board are up for general election on November 7, 2017. The candidates include current board members Ernest Donnelly, Susan Griffin, and Andrew Nicholes, who have filed for re-election, as well as, Nicholas Di Franco, Adam Gentile, Frank Higgins, Pamela Rogers, and Robin Stella.

We hope to learn about candidates’ vision and ideas for general education as well as special education. Making up about one-fifth of the school population, students who receive special education services have a large range of needs whether in preschool, self-contained, resource rooms, high school honors classes, or career transition programs. The great majority of Middletown’s students with disabilities are in the general education setting.

MTFOdL is a district-wide parent organization that works with the community and the schools to share information and support the education of students with special needs. MTFOdL was established in 2008 to promote inclusion and acceptance of students with special needs and learning difficulties, serve as a resource to parents, and collaborate with district administrators to positively affect policies, practices, and programs for students with IEPs and 504s. For the 2017-18 school year, MTFOdL meetings for parents of students, who have special needs, are the last Tuesday of the month (Nov. 28, Jan. 30, Feb. 27, March 27, April 24, May 29) from 7:00 to 8:45 p.m. at the Middletown Public Library, Large Conference Room 55 New Monmouth Road Middletown, NJ 07748. Find out more on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtfod...