BOE, Civil Rights Commission, Planning Board in Week Ahead

The Montclair Board of Education will meet Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the George Inness Annex, located at 141 Park St. A meeting agenda is attached as a pdf.

At the previous meetings last week, the board of education passed a preliminary $111.5 million school budget for 2013-14, which it sent to the county superintendent for approval.

The budget is a 3.3 percent increase from last year but will be accompanied by no tax hike. 

In addition, Superintendent Penny MacCormack unveiled last week how she plans to reshape Montclair schools next year.

MacCormack said Central Office will be renamed “Central Support," and the district will focus more on teacher effectiveness in the classroom by altering current positions and creating new ones. 

These positions include a supervisor for kindergarten through third grade reading; four dean of students positions at Watchung, Northeast, Bullock and Bradford elementary schools; two chief talent officers; and an Effective School Solutions councilor. 

The eight new positions that will cost more than $800,000. 

The Montclair Board of Adjustment will meet Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the municipal building, at 205 Claremont Ave. A meeting agenda was not available.

The Montclair Civil Rights Commission will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the municipal building, at 205 Claremont Ave. 

At the previous civil rights meeting in February, MacCormack responded to concerns from the commission about the racial distribution of students in learning levels based on tracking.  

MacCormack said the district is concerned about how the student tracking system may impact racial distribution in the learning levels, and that it will be analyzed in the coming months. 

"That is data we need to collect," said MacCormack at the time.  

However, she was unable to elaborate on how student learning levels in the schools were broken down by race, or whether any racial segregation could arise from the tracking system.

The effect of the tracking system on race will be presented at the beginning of April with the superintendent's Plan of Entry for the district's future.