SOMa Board of Ed’s Intentional Integration Initiative-Update
by Mary Ellen Dawkins
Last week I heard updates about the South Orange Maplewood School District’s (SOMSD) Intentional Integration Initiative (III) twice – at the monthly Board of Ed meeting and at a special presentation for realtors (thank you Community Coalition on Race!). So I took that as a sign that I should summarize it here for you. (See below for links to the source materials.)
After years of planning, the SOMSD set into practice its III prior to this current school year with the incoming Kindergartners. Kindergartners were placed in elementary schools using an algorithm that is based on Socio Economic Status (SES). The goal is to ultimately achieve SES distributions at each school that reflect the overall SES of the two towns. As a result of these placements, at each school the Kindergarten classes more closely reflected the two town’s overall socio-economic breakouts. The placements did result in more Kindergartners being bussed than last year (135 this year are bussed versus 88 last year), but over 60% of all Kindergartners do attend the elementary school that is closest to their homes.
This week the BOE approved extending the III to rising 6th graders. Current 5th graders will be assigned to either Maplewood Middle School or South Orange Middle School in such a way that the SES for their classes reflect the overall towns’. About 100 students’ placements will change between the two middle schools, but the overall number of students needing bus transportation will stay the same. Students will be informed of their 6th grade placements by the first week in April.
The current Kindergartners will continue where they are as first graders, and new Kindergartners will go through the same algorithm for placements. (Note that new Kindergarteners will learn of their school placements in June 2022). So in the 2022-2023 school year, three grades will be intentionally integrated (K, 1 & 6). The following year, five grades will be intentionally integrated (K, 1, 2, 6 & 7). You can follow the logic – in a few years we will have achieved the III throughout all of the elementary & middle schools. Being just one school, Columbia High School will not need any algorithms.
The powerpoint deck for the Superintendent’s presentation is here. Or, you can see the entire 5 hour meeting on Youtube here. Lucky for you I took some notes and can direct you to the clips that might interest you in the BOE meeting.
- The Superintendent’s Construction Updates on the Long Range Facilities plans start at the end of minute 18;
- The Super’s Update on Staff Recruitment and Retention starts at Minute 26;
- There is an Access & Equity Update at minute 29;
- There is an update on Intervention & Referral Services at minute 33;
- The review & update of the III begins at minute 42;
- If you would like a description of the Berkeley Algorithm and the modifications to it, refer to minutes 52 & 53;
- The recommendations for Year 2 of the III begins at the 1:00 mark. Dr. Taylor describes how the makeup of next year’s 6th grade classes will change with the plan.