School Reopening Rally Planned For Sunday In A Divided Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The issue of whether to reopen public schools full time has sharply divided Middletown, and now a petition is circulating among parents calling for the Middletown school board to take up a vote of "no confidence" in Superintendent Mary Ellen Walker.

There is also a rally planned for Sunday in support of fully reopening schools. Editor's note, Friday, Jan. 29: The rally has been postponed, said Farley. Here's why: Feb. 16 Is Still Middletown's Anticipated 'Reopening' Date

The petition and the rally is organized by Kate Farley, the mother of a first grader at Nut Swamp Elementary.

"People in Middletown have reached a boiling point," Farley told Patch Thursday. "We've been really patient; I appreciated that they had these phases laid out. On the whole, they've done a great job and it seemed like they (the district) really intended on getting children back five days a week. But now we've just been sitting and waiting on her (Walker) to follow through on this last phase of the plan. And she refuses."

Walker did not respond when Patch asked her if she knew about the petition or for her thoughts.

The rally will be at 11 a.m. Sunday outside the Middletown Board of Education central offices; Farley said she's heard that from 30 to 50 people will be there. So far, it appears no members of the Middletown school board have signed her petition, nor is it known if any will attend Sunday's rally.

"We'll wear masks, we'll social distance. It's just supposed to be a show of our frustration. It's people in town gathering to say we want our kids back in school five days a week," she said.

Farley is also one of the founders of the Facebook group Middletown Parents for Full-Time In-Person Learning, which she started in June. The group has about 1,300 members.

So far, 323 people have signed her petition, which she created after Tuesday night's Middletown Board of Education meeting.

Farley said she was angered when, at the meeting, superintendent Walker announced the formation of three subcommittees to weigh in on how to best reopen schools. The subcommittees consist of parents, BOE members, teachers and administration and will meet this Friday afternoon to discuss and make recommendations for implementing Phase 6. If a second meeting is required, that will take place next week. The committees will then make their recommendation to the superintendent and school board on how best to proceed.

Farley said she thinks the subcommittees are overly bureaucratic and also that Walker appears to have completely abandoned a Feb. 16 reopening date that she floated earlier this month.

"She said she wants more feedback from the community, but the community has been giving her feedback for months," said Farley. "The fact that the district is split should be irrelevant as to whether or not it's safe to open schools. That decision should be made based on the public health data alone. As a leader you have to understand you're not going to make everyone happy. Either way, she's going to end up upsetting a bunch of people, so she has to look at what's best for students in the long run."

To Farley, what's best for students is opening schools back up full time.

However, many other Middletown parents want the district to remain on its hybrid schedule (only special-needs students are currently full-time back in class). There were also letters circulating this January from John Cholette, president of the Middletown teachers union (MTEA), calling for the district to temporarily pivot to fully virtual, as cases skyrocketed in the second wave.

Cholette has not returned requests by Patch for comment.

The flames were only fanned when Holmdel school board member Terence Wall called into Middletown's Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, saying that Holmdel schools have been open five days a week since Jan. 4 and "it's going great." He also told the Middletown BOE to "ignore the union rhetoric."

"All experts do say to reopen but when it is safe to do so with reasonable, manageable local area infection rates, as well as many, many safety protocols in place," said Carrie Barreiro, a Middletown mother of two at High School North. "And they all agree, cohorts are a reasonable reopening. Not one expert says going back to a full day, right now, regardless of risk severity, is what’s best before it is safe to do so. And Monmouth County is still very much in the red COVID-risk category."

In fact, Barreiro told Patch she will be seeking legal guidance about filing a formal complaint with the New Jersey School Ethics Commission about Wall calling into the meeting Tuesday night.

"He claims he did this on his own, but I and many others have a hard time believing that. Because it just so happens to conveniently align with well-known Republican rhetoric and propaganda — COVID severity and risk denying and attacking the teachers' union as if that means they aren’t attacking teachers," said Barreiro. "That’s manipulative political garbage. The union is the teachers; the teachers are their union. They are one and the same entity. It is a body that ensures the workplace protections and rights of teachers."

Farley said she created the "no-confidence" petition and rally on her own, and not at the behest of any Middletown school board members.

"I’ve been a vocal advocate for five days since before I even knew any board members’ names (current or former)," she said. "Of all the parents who reached out to me asking what we could do to take action after Tuesday night’s meeting — and there were many — none of them serve on the Board of Ed. or are in any way associated with it. My friends and I have been talking about rallying for some time now, and Walker’s comments at Tuesday’s meeting were what prompted me to draft the petition."

Farley said she will be submitting the "no-confidence" petition to the Middletown school board; a board member would have to formally introduce it for a vote.

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