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South Orange-Maplewood School District board meeting, Jul 30, 2026

5 h 36 min · 15 public speakers

Budget cuts and layoffs ▶ 3:37:45

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 5 h 36 min.

  1. Who spoke · first speaks at
  10. William MeyerPresident
What happened

What happened at this meeting

South Orange-Maplewood board approves consent agenda, including revised 2026⁠-⁠27 academic calendar 5:24:25

  • A district staff member presented a transportation update describing a 3-tier bus system and new routing software, and board members asked about route times, loading time and GPS tracking. 3:12:43
  • Speakers at public comment raised staff trips to Israel, the change in paraprofessional vendor and late pay for custodians under a district subcontractor. 3:49:10
  • Board members discussed a plan for the Ritzer project that involves one multipurpose field, with the remaining portion left as a grass field. 4:37:08
  • The board took up resolutions 4994 through 5005 as a consent agenda, and a staff member announced the motion passed after a roll call. 5:24:25

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Item by item (15)
  1. Opening and board retreat 0:00
    • A staff member called the roll and said the board had a quorum. 0:15
    • William Meyer said the board started 2 hours early to hold a retreat on its self-evaluation and annual goals, guided by a New Jersey School Board Association field service representative. 0:44
  2. Fencing team recognition 2:00:10
    • The athletic director said that during the 2025⁠-⁠2026 season the boys team won the North Jersey Sectional State Championship and the girls team won that title and were NJSIAA state champions. 2:00:10
    • A district staff member led a ring ceremony for the boys and girls fencing teams and presented rings to the coaches. 2:00:32
  3. Executive session and minutes 2:08:53
    • William Meyer called for a motion to enter executive session to discuss personnel, legal and miscellaneous confidential matters, with no formal action to be taken. 2:08:53
    • The board returned to public session at 7:35 PM and took up minutes from June 11th and June 25th of 2026. 2:59:31
    • William Meyer announced that the vote to enter executive session was unanimous and said the vote on the minutes appeared to be unanimous. 2:08:53
  4. Superintendent update 3:00:20
    • The superintendent said Columbia High School will use a revised rotating block schedule with 4 rotating days and a common lunch period for approximately 2,000 students. 3:01:42
    • The superintendent said Delta T Group representatives reiterated a pay range of $20 to $22 an hour for paraprofessionals and that Delta T has 166 paraprofessionals ready to start in September. 3:06:42
    • The superintendent said the district has not sponsored, funded or endorsed staff trips planned to Israel and that staff accepted the opportunities on a personal basis. 3:10:46
  5. Transportation update 3:12:14
    • A district staff member said a new director of transportation brought routing in-house and that new start times and a 3-tier system took around 13 to 15 buses off the road. 3:12:43
    • The staff member said no buses would run more than 35 minutes and about 85% of routes were less than 30 minutes. 3:20:29
    • Deirdre Brown said data sent to the board showed 25 of the 35 routes were 30 minutes or more and asked whether time between stops was estimated correctly, and a staff member said the loading time had been changed. 3:27:28
  6. Business office update 3:35:59
    • A district staff member said the business office was closing out the '25-'26 budget year, opening '26-'27 accounts and preparing for a preliminary week of audit on August 17th. 3:36:09
  7. Board president statement 3:37:45
    • William Meyer said the board was voting that night on a new business administrator and would begin the '27-'28 budget process, which would involve another serious set of conversations and cuts. 3:37:45
    • One board member said up to 800 children are now served by aftercare and asked for a future discussion about students just below the busing distance threshold. 3:45:49
  8. Public comment 3:47:15
    • William Meyer said Policy 2200 on curriculum and Policy 5561 on physical restraint and seclusion were retracted for additional review. 3:48:01
    • Several speakers at public comment asked the board to rescind approval of or apologize for staff trips to Israel, and others asked the district to fund school librarians. 3:49:10
    • Several speakers raised concerns about the paraprofessional transition to Delta T Group, and speakers who said they were custodians said a subcontractor had not paid them on time. 4:12:04
  9. Committee report on facilities projects 4:36:22
    • Malini Nayar said the committee discussed boiler replacements expected to be substantially complete by December 15th and a Ritzer plan with one multipurpose field and the rest left as grass. 4:37:08
    • One board member asked why the board was reopening a Ritzer plan it unanimously approved last year, and another board member said the reasons were cost and complexity. 4:41:18
    • Deirdre Brown asked why the district could not move forward with Ritzer and the auditoriums now, and a staff member said Board of School Estimates members asked to bundle Ritzer with other major projects. 4:53:11
  10. Special services committee report 5:07:20
    • Elizabeth Callahan said Policy 5561 was pulled to correct an identified error and will get additional review in partnership with CPAC. 5:09:55
    • Paul Stephan said the district has 29 fewer out-of-district placements than 2 years ago. 5:11:00
    • One board member asked the district to look at the cost of bringing back certain paraprofessionals in-house. 5:12:24
  11. Personnel committee report 5:14:20
    • One board member suggested possibly ending the personnel committee and adding personnel items to the agendas of other committees. 5:14:31
    • William Meyer asked Meredith Higgins to draft a proposal for the board to discuss. 5:18:02
  12. Curriculum and instruction report 5:19:11
    • Shayna Sackett-Gable said the chronic absenteeism rate at Freshman Academy is expected to drop from 11% to 5%. 5:19:41
    • Shayna Sackett-Gable said policies 2260, 5460 and 5461 were up for first read. 5:21:03
  13. Policy and governance report 5:21:50
    • Paul Stephan said policies 0162, 0162.01 and 1643 were up for second read and invited the public to email comments on policies. 5:21:58
    • Paul Stephan said the committee preserved local language ensuring students can use restrooms and join sports teams that align with their gender. 5:22:20
  14. Consent agenda 5:24:25
    • William Meyer said the consent agenda covered resolutions 4994 through 5005, including a revised calendar moving graduation to June 16th, 2027. 5:24:25
    • Meredith Higgins asked about a data cabling contract of $119,000 compared with an estimated $250,000 approved in June. 5:28:18
  15. Second public comment and adjournment 5:34:03
    • William Meyer said no one signed up for the second hearing and that the next monthly board meeting would be August 27th. 5:34:03
    • William Meyer announced the board adjourned at 10:11 PM. 5:34:03

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

What was said

What board members said, in order

I had a question about the use of the term 3-tier system. Um, as I understand it, most of the buses we're having aren't literally running 3 tiers where they go to an early start elementary school, a middle school or high school, and then a late start elementary school.Jeffrey Bennett · Board member3:29:03
In 2025-26, one reason, uh, some kids were picked up very early wasn't that their bus route was actually that long, but we had to leave the kids off at an early start elementary elementary school in order to make the second tier.Jeffrey Bennett · Board member3:35:14
I have a comment and then a transportation question. Um, we haven't talked very much about early care and aftercare in public lately, but if anyone in the public is interested, we have increased over the last few years by I think 400 students the number of kids who are served by early care and aftercare.Jeffrey Bennett · Board member3:45:49
Other meetings

Other meetings of this board

Video: posted by the district as “Board of Education Meeting - Public Session - 7/30/26”