The Board of Education agreed to allow local elementary schools to reinstate previously eliminated clubs at Tuesday night's meeting at Montville Township High School.
The Board ruled that each elementary school may restart any desired clubs that had been cut from this year's budget through each school's individual fundraising efforts made as donations to the Board of Education.
"It's obvious that the grammar schools are all in favor of this moving forward and I think there's a great era of collaboration," vice president Dr. Matthew Kayne said.
The action was supported by representatives of each of the five area elementary schools of William Mason, Cedar Hill, Valley View, Hilldale and Pine Brook. The representatives noted that all of the elementary schools were in agreement on the concept of supporting clubs in their schools on an individual basis.
Margaret Gorski detailed the efforts of her school community and their expectations going forward.
"This is something we've been doing all year and maybe no one thought we were serious but we were," Gorski said. "We were hoping to start it in February, go through the half of the year and see how it worked. At that time we were told about some concerns that Dr. Fried had and he wanted to discuss with the rest of the board."
The concerns were raised by Superintendent Dr. Paul Fried and Board memeber Mike Palma over the policy diminishing equity among the schools.
"The experience I've had in the past is working in a school district where some athletic teams had to be cut," Dr. Fried said. "Particular parents of children who would be playing on those high school teams were interested in fundraising and bringing those teams back. We faced the issue of if we cut three boys teams and three girls teams, and the number of teams remaining was equal, and then the interest of parents was to bring back boys teams, what would that mean in terms of gender equity?"
Mr. Palma's concerns were based on opportunities becoming uneven amongst the different elementary schools.
"There's a difference between the schools being equal and the schools being identical," Palma said. "What I'm trying to be sensitive to, and I think Dr. Fried is also, is having some schools where they have a rich culture of diverse clubs to treat their students to while other children in other schools have practically nothing."
The proposal was agreed to unaminously by the Board without an official motion and the elementary school representatives were congratulated for their efforts.
"The PTC and PTO Home Schools should be congratulated in their efforts to bring clubs back," Board of Ed President Dr. Karen Cortellino said. "So kudos to you."
