BOE Discusses Busing, New Charter School

Board of Education members discussed the planned Hebrew-immersion charter school, subscription busing and heard from high school students involved in a mentoring program at Wednesday night's public meeting. 

Read more in the meeting recap below: 

ACE MENTORING PROGRAM

At the start of the meeting,  students in the were in attendance to explain their year-end project, which was the creation of a “super, ultra, mega” version of Dave & Buster’s restaurant and arcade.

The ACE program started in November at the high school and offered students who were interested in careers in architecture, construction or engineering the chance to meet with professionals and work on a project under their supervision.

The students met every week for 15 weeks with several professionals and presented their project in March at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Yvonne Witter, of the Employment Enrichment Program, spearheaded the program and said she expects the program to continue next year. No further specifics were offered because professional mentors weren’t yet signed up for the next school year. 

SUBSCRIPTION BUSING LETTERS GOING OUT

Alan Sohn, who , began the public-comment portion. Sohn brought up the topic of subscription busing.

He said notifications have been and are still going out to the parents of students in grades 1 through 4 who for the next school year.

Subscription busing entails parents paying a fee in order for their child to have a bus seat, if one is available. Buses hold about 54 students.

School Business Administrator Robert Finger said a letter about subscription busing had been written and approved by Superintendent Barbara Pinsak. The letter contains a form for parents to fill out and return. Finger said the letter should be mailed out in the next couple of days.

BOE Trustee Margot Embree Fisher asked if other parents could participate in the subscription busing. She brought up the example of families who lived within the lower limits of the busing radius but still didn’t quality for courtesy busing.

“Right now we’re limiting it to those parents and guardians of students who were receiving courtesy busing last year,” Finger said of the subscription busing.

Finger said he’d take note of Fisher’s question and see if such an offer could be made to other parents if room was available on the buses.

SHALOM ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL UPDATE

Pinsak said the district has received a list of students from Teaneck who .

“We know the students who are currently in our public schools and the students who are not in our public schools,” Pinsak said. 

She said parents are coming in to get forms and register their children.

Finger said no addresses accompanied the student list provided by Shalom Academy, but those students in Teaneck who currently attend the public schools do have their addresses on file. He said as parents of students who don't attend public schools register, the district will get the remaining addresses.

The location of the charter, planned to serve Teaneck and Englewood, also remains unclear. 

While Shalom Academy's charter application indicates it will be located on William Street in Englewood, questions have been raised whether the proposed site is still available.  School founder Raphael Bachrach, of Englewood, has not responded to numerous requests for comment.

Finger said the state came up with the enrollment figure of 96 students, which required the district to budget $1.4 million for the planned Hebrew immersion school. But, Finger said the district has only received a list of 87 students that the school says are Teaneck residents.

In the charter's first year of operation, the state will cover costs for students coming from out of the district while students who leave district schools for the charter will have 90 percent of the per-pupil costs covered by the district. 

Walser, the BOE president, emphasized that the Board is not against charter schools or “our neighbors and friends who will take advantage of the charter school.”

He said the main concern is on the way charter schools are created, its vetting process, the way they’re funded and how the charter is assessed.