After much discussion and debating between board members, administrators and parents, there is only going to be administrative changes to the open enrollment policy for Rosa International Middle School.
A revised open enrollment policy was passed on first reading by the Cherry Hill Board of Education during its meeting on Tuesday night. However, it did not include any changes to current process of open enrollment.
The revised policy replaced the word “lottery” with “enrollment process” and a paragraph was added to recommend parents to drop off the open enrollment application in person to the Central Registration Office. If a parent chooses to mail the application it is their responsibility to email or phone the office to check that the application has been received.
The actual selection process remains the same. Fifth grade elementary school students who wish to attend Rosa will have their names entered into a pool. Names will be chosen at random until all of the openings for sixth grade are filled. Students who do not have their name pulled will still be able to go onto a waiting list if they wish.
This process is the same as in previous years. However, the board acknowledged that discussions will continue about making changes to the process in the future.
“We will continue to discuss changes to the process on an ongoing basis, but this is all we have time to move forward with for the upcoming year,” Steve Robbins, the chair for the board’s policy committee, said.
A change completely separate from the Rosa open enrollment debate took place with Johnson Elementary School. The board passed a revised student attendance area policy that will allow Johnson students who live in the 08034 zip code to have the option to choose open enrollment to either Beck or Carusi Middle School.
The changes for Johnson Elementary were discussed over the past month after it was pointed out that students were previously sent to one school or another based strictly on boundary lines and they didn’t have the choice to continue going to middle school with friends. Johnson is the only elementary school that sends students to Beck and Carusi middle schools based on the district’s boundary lines.
The change will take place in time for the 2014–15 school year, pending that the policy is passed on second reading at the board’s December action meeting.
“Our target was to have this policy approved by the time the middle school principals and elementary school principals are talking about Rosa and presenting that as an option to parents,” Superintendent Maureen Reusche said.
The policy states that families who fall under the Johnson open enrollment clause will need to respond on their choice of schools by January 1. Reusche said that date will be pushed back this year since the policy can’t officially take effect until Dec. 17.
In Other News:
• Third graders from the school district were on hand to receive dictionaries donated by the Cherry Hill Rotary Club. Bob Downie, the president of the rotary, and Eleanor Stofman the president of the Cherry Hill Education Foundations, were on hand to make the presentation.
“We go directly to the schools and we give them to the students along with some encouragement in how to use a dictionary,” Downie said.
• The next Board of Education meeting will be on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. There is no work session scheduled in December.
