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As a resident of South Orange, with a child in Middle School and one in Elementary, I want to say the schools are great. Where the problem exists is not in the diversity, but the track your child is on. My kids started in Marshall Elementary and after grade two moved to Jefferson. That particular path worked very well for my youngest who embraces everything academic, but not so much for my eldest who is more creative in nature. The Marshall/Jeff track unfortunately puts your child in an academic box which doesn't always allow for creativity. Both schools are diverse, ethnically, socially and in terms of family composition. I have friends who have their kids in South Mountain and believe they are richer for the experience. I don't know as much about the Maplewood schools boarding Union. When we first moved to the area in 2001, Tuscan was a great school and by all accounts still is. The schools that were considered troubled were Clinton Elementary and Seth Boyden. Personally my belief is they both housed a large number of Black kids and the district didn't know how to either handle the students culturally or academically. We moved to this area because of the diversity as well as the educational system. When my family bought our house in the Montrose section Columbia High school was rated 75 it is now rated 47th. The Elementary schools are slowly learning to deal with cultural issues however unfortunately have lost two great educators in Marshall's former Principle Ms. Angelica Allen, and in the Columbia principal. South Orange Middle is a better school with the placement of the new principal. Anywhere there is no open discussion on race there are bound to be some issues. But I will say I have found the school system and the residents of South Orange welcoming and accommodating. The biggest issue I have found is that friends complain cultural differences in learning aren't taken into account. Therefore more black kids, especially black males are being placed in special education which is a relatively new area for the district. There also seems to be a push to label kids ADHD if they do not respond to the methodology of teaching at the individual schools. All schools have good parental involvement. Welcome to the SOMSD. I hope you and your family find the experience satisfying.
as a current student of somsd, i can say that the elementary schools are probably the best part of the school district, it goes downhill from there, marshall jefferson and south mountain have a reputation as being the best elementary schools in the district. it is worth noting however that south mountain is the least diverse school in the district.
i believe that with the sudden departure of the columbia principal (she announced she was leaving a week after school ended), columbia will improve with a new principal. dr. lilly was more of a statistics person, not a people person. from the perspective of a student, she has done next to nothing. she was not visible in the hallways, and responded to any emails. columbia may be ranked number 47 by nj monthly, but in reality, columbia can be great or horrible depending on the student. columbia is a relatively large school (1800 students (it would be much larger, however many parents have their students leave the somsd after middle school b/c they don't want their children going to columbia)), and many students fall through the cracks. that is not to say that the school is bad, there are some great teachers, and some not so good ones.
when you say that the school district "didn't know how to either handle the (black) students culturally or academically" and that they are "learning to deal with cultural issues", that does not make much sense because in the south orange maplewood school district, minorities are the majority, 62% of chs is minority, whereas 28% of south orange village residents are black and 35% of maplewood township residents are black.
one of the things that the elementary schools do well in is parental involvement. all schools have a very active pta which does a lot of programs for the schools.
the somsd also handles to esl program well. there are a large number of Haitian students in the district who do not speak english as their first language.
I just wanted to follow up. Columbia may catch a lot of flack from people sometimes, but if you do well there you have a lot of options. My sister went to a top 10 university. I graduated last year and I was accepted to 5 top schools and basically had my pick of where I wanted to go. The AP math and science tracks are very good with many kids routinely getting 5s.
Just because you can afford to live in Millburn doesn't mean you have to. My mother earns over $400,000 a year and preferred the town feel of Maplewood over Millburn. We've left the town now that I've graduated, but it is definitely a good place to live. Looking back, I can say I will miss my childhood there.
Since she could afford it, your mom should have brought you up in Chatham or Millburn. Your life would be infinitely better...or it would be exactly the same.
I have been in Essex county for the last 30+ years. What I know about the much glorified Millburn high school is that they have a serious drug problem which is not known to many. As for CHS, I currently have my 16 yr old stepson there and he is not doing so well. However this is not CHS's fault. My stepson is a very smart kid, but he is also a follower. We had to pay for him to attend summer school this past summer or else he would not have been allowed to go to the eleventh grade.
I have friends whose kids graduated there five yrs ago and are already doctors and lawyer and yes those were black kids of Haitian parents. I have to mention that because most Haitian parents do not play when it comes to education.
On this very last note, I would like to tell all readers and parents to begin to look at yourselves before you blame the schools. Know what your kids are up to, be a participants in any school activity, let your kid know you are there for them, visit college campusses with them even before they are ready to make a dicision etc. Do not wait until there is a problem to react. Play offensive. In Haiti I was not a bad student, but I used to get tutored after school every day. Today I am a scientist for a big company. We used to say back home that there are no bad schools, just bad students. Here in the states I have to say that you need to find a safe town the rest is on you. PS: I also have a 7 yr old at Marshall and she is doing very well there.
As for CHS, ... I have friends whose kids graduated there five yrs ago and are already doctors and lawyer and yes those were black kids of Haitian parents.
5 years after graduating USA high schools, most are just graduating from college.
A lot of people just have a lot of hate in their hearts.
And this isn't just exclusive to NJ. Check out good performing diverse communities in other regions...they are usually also unfairly bashed. On LI, there are districts such as Valley Stream, Baldwin and Malverne that rank pretty good and have some pretty damn good performance but some people still choose to tell ppl to avoid them.
So it's not exclusive to North Jersey. Such diverse school systems will unfortunately always be targeted but it's up to students in these school districts to do well and continue to prove to people that they will not be the scum that so many people out there want them to be.
Response:
Ironically, I grew up on Long Island and my black parents refused to allow us to attend Malverne H.S. in the 70s. My siblings and I attended a private school on the North Shore in Brookville. Currently, my family resides in the South Mountain section of South Orange. We originally considered living in Montclair, but found it too large a city. Briefly, we looked in Glen Ridge, but it had just been rocked with the scandal of the sports jocks gang raping the disabled girl in high school around 1995 if my memory serves me correctly. My parents felt that Columbia H.S. which was ranked about 46th at the time, was at the "tipping point," code for "too black." My mother, a retired educator warned that my children should attend private school and join "Jack and Jill" to maintain their cultural heritage with the "right folks of color." My daughters attended public school at South Mountain, SO Middle school and Columbia H.S. We briefly considered Kent Place and Newark Academy but found their core values and actual student behavior a bit disconnected. My son, however attends Seton Hall Prep, however as I personally find that S.O.M.S. does a poorer job of challenging him academically and presuming that he's a "menace to society" when he wears his "hip hop" casual attire. He has both black and white friends that dress in the same fashion, however only he is stopped by the police when driving our car in Essex County and on the N.H. Turnpike.
I state all of the above to say simply that, SOMA school district offers the best curriculum if your parents are actively engaged K-12. In addition, although I am opposed to academic levels in the high school, my daughters both did well in their AP classes and attended top tier colleges upon graduation. One is at UVA, and the other is at Wellesley. My son will attend Georgetown next Fall 2015. Choose you schools based on primary research and not online rants on public forums. I still pay ridiculous taxes in South Orange because I enjoy and appreciate that we are honest about our problems and embrace cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, religious and social economic diversity! My daughters exclaim that they were socialized much better than their peers in college because of Columbia H.S. demographics with their Nigerian, Haitian, Black American, bi-racial, Jewish, WASP, Gay, Bisexual, bi-racial and Hispanic students living in town. If the rest of America, and the world were as progressive as our two towns, the society in which we live, would be a better place indeed.
I don't live in either town, however I live on the "border" of both. Though I know many ppl who live in the towns mentioned (Milburn/Maplewood) your experience will vary. The parents I know speak very highly of the curriculum and the bonds they've built with the staff and administration. However, the truth you won't hear about is how the middle school and high schools are infested with drugs (the prescription kind and the non-regulated ones). Remember not many "affluent" towns or areas for that much will EVER air their dirty laundry (unless it's too major to conceal) but are quick to point the finger at others. Also, just this past month a parent from a school in South Orange whom relocated from Italy (for business) was appalled that her 6 yr. old daughter reported that one entire school day was about drills on how to react if someone (GOD FORBID) threatens the class with a firearm! I guess that parent didn't do all her research - but how can you really? Good luck!
"Infested" with drugs? Really? What a strange first post from a new account. What's your agenda? Hey, I'll bet you're a Morristown real estate agent trying to scare prospective Maplewood/South Orange homebuyers your way!
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I have some disagreements
