10th Grade Re-Registration Email Goes Out

On Friday, Oct. 28, parents and guardians of 10th grade students in the South Orange-Maplewood School District received emails notifying them of the process to re-register their students. District administration had announced the program as part of the district goals for this school year at the September Board of Education meeting. All 10th grade students will be re-registered, starting in November.

Assistant Superintendent for Administration James Memoli explained the process will come at a "nominal cost." The district has trained a number of staff to do the work, and the cost of re-registering sophomores is largely covered by hiring a number of substitute secretaries for about two weeks, totalling around $1,000.

Superintendent Brian Osborne noted this is, to his knowledge, "the first-ever re-registration" in this district. "We'll see what we learn," he said.

Re-registering the entire student body was not seriously considered, as the process is "costly, time-consuming and generates ill will," said district staff. "We don't want to create an undue burden on staff or community," said Memoli.

Instead, tenth graders will re-register in a staggered schedule. Ninth grade, said district staff, is an entry point, when many student come into the district, including "questionable enrollees." The hope is that a tenth grade effort will yield information about student residency.

In answer to a question from board member Andrea Wren-Hardin, distict staff explained renters do not re-register annually. Once a child is registered for school, whether the guardian is a homeowner or renter, there is no need for further paperwork unless there is a change of address, or mail is returned to the district twice. Should mail come back to the district twice, that student is flagged and the district pursues.

"Putting [re-registration] in the district goals," said Osborne, "is a signal to residents that we take the residency issue seriously."