South Orange-Maplewood School District Board of Education

8 meetings on our record, 6 of them from the past year and 2 with unconfirmed dates · typical meeting 4 h 18 min · 7,047 students · 9 members on our roster

Latest · Aug 27, 2026: School board approves consent agenda by unanimous vote Play 4:09:03
Newest meeting we have: Aug 27, 2026 · District's board page ↗ (it may list later ones)

Also on the board: Bimal Kapadia, Board member · Shayna Sackett-Gable, Board member

Watch the board’s yearA decision it made, its hours, its busiest night at the mic and where its time went, each with its source

Recent meetings

What the board took up lately

Board meeting · 4 h 24 minThursday, August 27, 2026School board approves consent agenda by unanimous voteBudget cuts and layoffsSpeakers: William Meyer, Elizabeth Callahan, Malini Nayar, Meredith Higgins and 2 more

Play 4:09:03

Board meeting · 5 h 36 minThursday, July 30, 2026South Orange-Maplewood board approves consent agenda, including revised 2026-27 academic calendarBudget cuts and layoffsSpeakers: William Meyer, Elizabeth Callahan, Malini Nayar, Jeffrey Bennett and 2 more

Play 5:24:25

Board meeting · 7 h 08 minThursday, June 25, 2026School board approves amended paraprofessional services contract with Delta TBudget cuts and layoffsSafety, weapons and policeSpeakers: William Meyer, Elizabeth Callahan, Malini Nayar, Jeffrey Bennett and 2 more

Play 6:30:05

Board meeting · 3 h 12 minThursday, June 11, 2026Chronic absenteeismAI in schoolsBudget cuts and layoffsReading and test scoresSafety, weapons and policeSpeakers: William Meyer, Elizabeth Callahan, Malini Nayar, Deirdre Brown and 1 more

Watch

The board

Who talks on this board

Minutes speaking per full board meeting · 6 board meetings, May 21, 2026 – Aug 27, 2026 · talk time only, never tone or stance

Listed by seat6 board meetings on our record; we rank members seated for 8.

Coverage: about 60% of members’ speaking time named (40%–76%)

Minutes = time we heard them speak per meeting, from the speech we have named so far, so each is a floor: at least that much.

Runs the meeting

William MeyerPresident · runs the meeting, not ranked16.6min, at least6 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—runs the meeting, counted apart1.1questions asked per meeting, at least

Members · listed by seat

Jeffrey BennettBoard member · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 82.9min, at least3 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.3questions asked per meeting, at least

Deirdre BrownBoard member · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 82.9min, at least4 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.6questions asked per meeting, at least

Elizabeth Callahan1st Vice President · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 84.3min, at least5 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.8questions asked per meeting, at least

Meredith HigginsBoard member · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 85.2min, at least5 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked6.7questions asked per meeting, at least

Bimal KapadiaBoard member · Seated for 4 board meetings on our record; we rank at 80.1min, at least1 of 4meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Malini Nayar2nd Vice President · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 83.8min, at least6 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.1questions asked per meeting, at least

Shayna Sackett-GableBoard member · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 82.0min, at least4 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.2questions asked per meeting, at least

Paul StephanBoard member · Seated for 6 board meetings on our record; we rank at 81.8min, at least4 of 6meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked2.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Minutes speaking per full board meeting held while seated; a meeting they missed or stayed silent in counts as zero · bar = minutes named so far · talk time only, never tone or stance · Hamlet

Meetings on our record

All 8 meetings on our record

Clips

What board members said

Meeting time

Where the board's meeting time went

Public comment22%14%–29%

Budget and finance18%5%–41%

Ceremony and recognition4%0%–13%

Safety and discipline3%0%–8%

The two readers didn’t agree on 28% of the time; it counts toward no topic, so every share above is a floor.

Not shown: facilities, closures and enrollment, curriculum and instruction, student services and special education, labor and personnel, governance and policy, routine business, other subjects, whose checks haven’t passed

Public comment

Of the 8 meetings on our record, we counted public speakers at 7; 5 had at least one. The busiest, on Jun 11, 2026, heard from 29.

29 on Jun 11, 202629 speakers15 speakers14.1 a meeting on average

Attendance

The roll call at 6 of the 8 meetings on our record: the ones where we could read it

Roll-call attendance, member by meeting
Member	Aug 27	Jul 30	Jun 25	Jun 11	May 28	May 21
Meredith Higgins	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present
Jeffrey Bennett	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Present	Not recorded
Paul Stephan	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded
Deirdre Brown	Not recorded	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Present
Malini Nayar	Not recorded	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Present	Present
William Meyer	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present
Elizabeth Callahan	Present	Present	Not recorded	Not recorded	Present	Present
Bimal Kapadia	Not recorded	Present	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded
Shayna Sackett-Gable	Present	Present	Present	Not recorded	Present	Not recorded

PresentNot shownNot recorded

Federal district ID 3415330 · student count from the federal 2023-24 count · meeting videos posted by the district