Middletown Board Of Ed. Kills Redistricting Idea

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — In a stunning chain of events, the Middletown Board of Education unanimously voted last night to kill a redistricting proposal put forward by the school district. Every single member of the Board of Ed. voted against the proposal Monday night at a jam-packed meeting filled with angry and worried Middletown parents. Even board president Danielle Walsh and vice president John Little, who both sat on the very committee that created redistricting, surprisingly voted 'no' last night.

But does this mean the specter of redistricting is gone from haunting Middletown for good?

In a word, no.

"This might come back," board member James Cody told Patch on Wednesday. "The superintendent has the right to recommend anything to the school board, but the school board has the right to turn around and vote 'no' on anything, too."

When asked by Patch, Middletown schools superintendent Dr. William George was coy about whether the idea of redistricting will resurface again.

"The board voted two weeks ago in a closed session to bring this to the public," said Dr. George. "I won't individually be bringing another redistricting proposal forward. It has to be done in conjunction with the board, as this was."

Neither Walsh nor Little returned Patch's requests for comment.

Cody was the one who first introduced the motion to vote against the proposal last night. "I was always against this redistricting idea," he said. "Middletown is a town made up of 12 little villages, where you know your neighbors and they help you raise your children, and that's what makes Middletown such a special, unique place to live. This proposal was going to tear apart the very core of Middletown. "

But Cody also said both the superintendent and the board's attorney, Jeff Merlino, told him several times both before and during the meeting that the board could not vote last night.

"I was surprised how much pushback I was getting from the administration not to take a vote on this. Both Dr. George and the board attorney said last night was not a voting meeting," Cody said. "At the end the lawyer did agree that we had a right to do what we did. He (Dr. George) cannot implement this kind of change on his own."

The Middletown redistricting proposal was deeply unpopular: Parents worried their children would sit on buses for over an hour to get to a new school. Others said they bought property in certain parts of town specifically because of the existing school zoning. And the changes would take place very fast: As early as September 2018, students enrolled at one elementary could find themselves uprooted and forced to attend a whole new school full of strangers, miles away from home.

Middletown school district said it was needed because Nut Swamp Elementary and Thompson Middle School are slightly above capacity and are overcrowded.

Cody also implied the school district tried to rush redistricting through.

"I first saw this plan Oct. 19, and I sit on the Board of Ed. They rolled it out to the PTAs and PFAs on Oct. 19. Then the public hearing is Oct. 30, and they wanted to vote on it sometime in November," he said. "I can tell you I've been sitting on the Board of Ed. for six, seven years and we've never turned anything around that fast. The superintendent must have thought he could get this passed."