This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — Schools Superintendent Denise Lowe will focus on the changes in both education and school building assignments for children next fall at her spring town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, 600 Monroe Ave.

The meeting is important for parents in light of the closing of the Barack Obama Elementary School next fall. Students who normally would go to the Obama neighborhood school are being assigned to the two other elementary schools, and if in fifth grade, to the Asbury Park Middle School.

Parents can learn their child’s school assignment and safety measures that will be in place for walking students. In addition, Lowe will discuss a new fifth-grade wing that is being created at the middle school.
That town meeting will follow Wednesday night’s school board reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. at Bradley Elementary School. Incumbents Gregory Hopson and Gregory Brewington will be sworn into new terms and elected newcomers Angelina Ahbez-Anderson and Sheila Brazile will begin their first terms for three-year and one-year terms respectively.

Brazile has three children. Her oldest son is an Asbury Park High School graduate, a second son is at the high school now and a daughter is in first grade at Bradley Elementary School.

Candidate Alena Berry who was the announced winner over Ahbez-Anderson by one vote on election night, but sheturned out to be one vote behind in certified election results Tuesday, school district spokeswoman Nakill Williams said.

Ahbez-Anderson is president of the Thurgood Marshall PTO.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — A bill awaiting Gov. Chris Christie’s signature could mean that Asbury Park school board member Remond Palmer would have to step down from the board.

The legislation, which has been passed by both the state Senate and Assembly, requires that any person elected or appointed to a school board in New Jersey would be disqualified from serving because of a conviction for the type of crime that currently disqualifies a person from working in a public school.

In Palmer’s case, he has previously challenged and lost a state Department of Education decision that he could not work in a school district in New Jersey because of a 1989 criminal conviction in South Carolina on a charge of cocaine possession when he was in his early 20s.

According to a Jan. 12, 2010, decision by the state commissioner of education, Palmer, now 43, challenged the 2008 determination by the state education department’s criminal history review unit.

Palmer contended a 2002 South Carolina pardon for the offense removed him from the reach of the New Jersey law that permanently disqualifies an individual with a drug possession conviction from working in school districts. But the commissioner last year ruled an administrative law judge had correctly rejected that argument by Palmer.

In addition, although South Carolina did not allow a cocaine possession conviction to be expunged and New Jersey does allow that expungement for simple possession, the New Jersey courts have no jurisdiction to expunge the South Carolina conviction, the commissioner said.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Administrator files harassment complaint

ASBURY PARK — With his godfather and newly appointed board member John Morton representing the fifth vote needed to assume power on the city school board, member Remond Palmer made a move Wednesday night to switch board attorneys.

But Palmer met up with a more powerful force, the state fiscal monitor assigned to the district to oversee all finances, hiring and firing. That official, Bruce Rodman, overturned the board vote making the switch Thursday morning.

At the end of the same school board meeting Wednesday, a close Palmer associate, Darryl Hammary, made a comment which school board administrator Corey Lowell said had threatened her. Hammary had requested to use school facilities for an extended period this spring and summer for a basketball clinic, but was turned down.

On Thursday morning, Lowell went to police and signed a harassment complaint against Hammary.

“The body of the complaint says Hammary said: “I’ll get you. You’ll be sorry’ ” and then he used an expletive, police Capt. Anthony Salerno said Thursday.

Lowell said in her complaint that Hammary also made harassing statements to other school officials, Salerno said.

Hammary could not be reached for comment Thursday. He helped Palmer and two running mates get on the school board a year ago and is a campaign manager of four candidates, including Morton, in next month’s elections.

Palmer moved to bring on different attorneys after first asking if the board was going to appeal the fiscal monitor’s decision last week to close the Barack Obama Elementary School.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Board OKs $78M plan allowing for tech upgrades

ASBURY PARK — The city Board of Education has approved a 2011-12 budget of $77,976,306, which provides for numerous educational initiatives, technology upgrades and facility improvements, and will see school taxes on the average home assessment of $80,000 go up by $5 a year.

The breakdown of the budget includes $64,964,314 in operating funds, of which the tax levy of $6,130,395 will stay the same at $1.43 per $100 of assessed property — the minimum levy allowed by law, Business Administrator Corey Lowell said in a budget presentation Wednesday night.

The two other budget components include $11,575,762 in federal and state grants and $1,436,230 for repayment of $5.75 million in bonds. It is the $456,826 local tax levy on the bonding that will have a tax rate increase from 10 cents to 11 cents per $100, raising the total school tax rate to $1.54 per $100. That translates into an increase from $1,227 to $1,232 on a home assessed at $80,000.

The levy will be put to vote on April 27 with polls open from 3 to 9 p.m.

The overall budget is up $2.1 million from last year and reflects both an increase in state aid, up $656,276, to a total of $55,211,650, and the use of surplus funds. That includes funding from the $1.9 million in federal stimulus money the district received last year, but used only $300,000 so far.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Asbury Park – Struggling with a declining enrollment and state-wide budget issues the Barack H Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, New Jersey will be closing its doors for good this summer.

“Bruce N. Rodman, the state-appointed monitor who oversees the district’s finances, Thursday ordered that elementary students be reassigned to the city’s two other elementary schools,” reports the Asbury Park Press.

Rodman also cited a decrease in enrollment by almost a third and said “he took into consideration the age and condition of the Obama school, built in three stages from 1910 to 1950.” A savings of almost a million dollar is projected by the third year following the closing of the Barack H. Obama Elementary, according to the APP.

Myra Campbell, a city resident and Obama supporter who pushed for the renaming of what was Bangs Avenue School has said that “If closing the school means children would get a better education, she would not oppose it.” Campbell’s effort to rename the school was largely met with criticism in New Jersey with opponents saying that it would not improve the grades of the approximately one thousand students who attended Bangs, reported NewJersey.com.

Campbell’s reply: “The new name will send a subliminal message to the students. Every time they walk through the school doors, there’s going to be a certain amount of pride in where they go to school,” she said.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Written by NANCY SHIELDS

ASBURY PARK — The century-old Bangs Avenue School … renamed for President Barack Obama just a year ago … will be closed as a neighborhood school this summer, largely because of a steep slide in the district’s total enrollment the past decade.

Bruce N. Rodman, the state-appointed monitor who oversees the district’s finances, Thursday ordered that elementary students be reassigned to the city’s two other elementary schools as of July 1.

According to a plan presented at a community meeting Monday night, all kindergarten-through-fourth-grade students living west of Comstock Street would go to Bradley Elementary School at 1100 Third Ave., and those east of Comstock would attend Thurgood Marshall Elementary at 600 Monroe Ave.

Fifth-graders would be moved to the middle school.

The Obama school closing is expected to result in 470 students enrolled at Bradley and 540 at Thurgood Marshall.

The fiscal monitor had indicated some action was imminent after Superintendent of Schools Denise Lowe could not get the Board of Education’s backing Wednesday night for an alternative plan to create two pre-kindergarten-to-third-grade learning centers at two elementary schools and send all fourth- and fifth-graders to the third school, thereby keeping all three schools open.

“Look, a decision had to be made to either support the superintendent’s grade reconfiguration or close down one of the buildings as a fulltime educational facility,” said board member Garrett Giberson, who released information about the school closing that came to him from the state monitor.

This is an AP article from the San Francsico Chronicle website, SFGate, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — A central New Jersey elementary school that was renamed in honor of President Barack Obama last year will soon be closed.

The state monitor who oversees financial operations for the Asbury Park School District cited declining enrollment for the decision announced Thursday.

Monitor Bruce Rodman told the Asbury Park Press newspaper the Barack H. Obama elementary school will be closed July 1.

The school was built more than a century ago and formerly was known as the Bangs Avenue School.

Students who now attend classes there will be reassigned to the district’s two other elementary schools for the next school year.

The state’s Schools Development Authority had planned to build a new school to replace the historic building, but those plans recently were canceled.

 This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Written by NANCY SHIELDS

ASBURY PARK — School Superintendent Denise Lowe Wednesday night was once again rebuffed in her effort to get the school board to accept her reorganization plan that would create early childhood centers of preschool up to third grade at two elementary schools and have fourth- and fifth-graders go to a third elementary school.

With six of nine board members present, the result was a 3-1 vote with two abstentions. The proposal needed a majority of the board, or five votes, to pass.

Lowe did not ask for a vote on a backup plan to close Barack Obama Elementary School, which also could result in bringing the district’s youngest children together in two locations.

It appeared likely, however, that some change will take place because Bruce Rodman, the state monitor who works each day in the district and has the final say on all fiscal matters, announced he was reserving the right to take action. After the meeting, Rodman said he has not yet made a final decision but plans to implement what is best for the district. Lowe said she and Rodman are working very closely.

A significant loss in enrollment the past eight years and lower standardized test scores for elementary students are driving the need for the district to make significant changes in how students are taught and in the use of district buildings.

At the meeting, board president Gregory Hopson and members Gregory Brewington and Garrett Giberson supported the superintendent’s plan. Connie Breech voted no.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

Written by NANCY SHIELDS  (nshieldsnjpressmediacom)  

ASBURY PARK — The school board tonight could once again consider a grade reorganization in the district, although board members were unsure whether they would vote on the matter at their 7 p.m. meeting at Bradley Elementary School.

Schools Superintendent Denise Lowe and her curriculum leaders, principals, vice principals and supervisors Monday night gave a detailed presentation to about 250 teachers, parents and community members on an early childhood grade reorganization plan Lowe has said it can bring continuity and a strong foundation to the city schools.

A backup plan presented as a second choice after the school board would not approve Lowe’s early learning grade reorganization would still regroup the children by closing the Barack Obama Elementary School altogether and have the students attend the two other schools.

Administrators reported on numerous curriculum and teacher development changes already in place and those that are coming. The plan Lowe has been fighting for would group preschool through third-graders in two of the elementary schools — Obama and Thurgood Marshall — and group all district fourth- and fifth-graders in the third elementary school, Bradley Elementary. Five existing preschools at Bradley would stay there.

The plan is driven by both a drop-off in test scores in the elementary schools and declining enrollment. Lowe was hired in August 2009 to turn around a failing school system.

“I can tell you right now that what we’re doing is not working,” Lowe said at the meeting. “As far as addressing the needs of students, we have a great curriculum.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article: 

ASBURY PARK — A new location has been selected for an upcoming meeting for parents, teachers and the community about plans to either reorganize city schools or close the Barack H. Obama Elementary School.

The meeting, proposed by board member Garrett Giberson after a large turnout at a meeting last week, is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 14 in the all-purpose room at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School.

Schools Superintendent Denise Lowe said she also plans to hold a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at West Side Community Center, 115 Dewitt Ave. That meeting is to discuss the applications being submitted to compete for up to $6 million over three years in federal School Improvement Grants for each of three schools — the high school, the middle school and more recently the Obama school, Lowe said.

Lowe has worked for more than a year to try to win enough support to set up a new educational initiative by having all district children go to two pre-kindergarten-through-third-grade centers in two of the city’s three elementary schools — Obama and Thurgood Marshall.

The third elementary school, Bradley Elementary, would become a school for all fourth- and fifth-graders, although it also would have preschool classes available. The middle and high schools would remain unchanged.

The superintendent said during the March 2 meeting that her proposal for the early learning centers is similar to one that has been successful in the Jersey City schools.

But she has run into opposition and cannot get enough votes from the nine-member school board to make it happen.