Author: eliu

Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton gave a presentation on the state of the township school district at the Nov. 26 board of education meeting, where he also addressed current district projects and future plans that included elementary-school redistricting.

The board also recognized the Cherry Hill East and West Marching Band Champions.

From a demographic study done in March, Morton said results showed that five elementary schools were expected to be over-enrolled by the 2028-’29 school year: Barton, Kilmer, Stockton, Woodcrest and Mann. elementary schools.

To increase seats for that year, there are now efforts underway to test ways that boundary lines could be redrawn at the elementary level. They include a scenario where the district uses only the 12 existing elementary schools for space, as well as converting the Arthur Lewis administration building into a 13th elementary school.

In the latter scenario, the district would then need to find another venue to house the administration.

“We expect to receive those recommendations back mid- to late-January, and our elementary steering committee would need to work through those scenarios,” Morton explained. “And the second February board meeting is when we predict we’ll be able to share recommendations to the board.

“Once we share those recommendations to the board,” he added, “the next month, we’ll do community meetings, town halls with opportunities for feedback (and) come back and incorporate the feedback into the revised approach in end of May or early June.”

Meanwhile, projects funded by the 2022 passage of a $363-million bond referendum – the largest in state history – are continuing.

“With all of the construction that has taken place so far, all of that only accounts for about a third of what’s scheduled to take place,” said Morton.

That third includes roof repairs and replacements; the addition of all-purpose rooms at six elementary schools; HVAC replacements; new playgrounds; and the multi-year renovation of Carusi Middle School that includes upgrades to the locker room, main office area and gymnasium.

Future projects include renovations and additions at Rosa Middle, temporary classroom units at Carusi, improved accessibility at Cherry Hill West and enhancements to the front entrance at Beck Middle.

Other updates from this year included:

• A full implementation of Eureka Squared curriculum from kindergarten through Algebra 1
• Implementation of the multiple mathematics pathways offered at the high-school level, which include quantitative reasoning and data science classes at both Cherry Hill East and West. More information will be provided at the course-of-study presentation in January.
• English and Language Arts teachers have begun using School AI to establish prompts for intervention strategies.
• More support through the New Jersey Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, including focus on positive climate and culture, effective district and school leadership and family and community engagement
• Preschool expanded by 41 classrooms for the 2025-’26 school year. The district continues to seek private providers to partner with for the upcoming school year.

During his meeting remarks, Morton addressed what he described as hateful comments sent in light of the news that the district had improperly redacted student names, enabling the public to see a list of 92 students who chose to opt out of the family life curriculum.

Though the names have been removed as announced per the last board meeting – and those sending the comments appear to be outside of the community – Morton called for township residents to maintain civility.

“Coming into work, we received a tremendous amount of vile, vulgar, disgusting emails and posts as well with that information,” he noted. “Racial epithets, threatening messages, things that truly have no place in our society. It’s very disappointing.”

To emphasize his point, Morton also displayed one example of the kind of comments being circulated, including a picture of a man tarred, feathered and prepared for the noose with the caption, “Make tar and feather great again.”

“As adults, we have to be role models,” Morton emphasized. “We have to be cognizant of what we are saying, and we have to maintain civil discourse always because (of the) kids. “Even if we dissent, we can do it in a courteous, polite manner.

“We can work through the most challenging things and come to a great solution and to keep civility.”

At the Nov. 12 Cherry Hill board of education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton addressed the recent incident where a list of at least 92 student names who had opted out of family life/sex-ed curriculum that was raised by a parent and former board of education candidate Harvey Vasquez at the previous board of education meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 29

During an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, the names had not been properly redacted were able to be seen by the public regarding opting out of the family life curriculum.

The OPRA request was submitted to the district in 2023 through OPRAmachine.com, Morton recounted, on behalf of an organization, New Jersey Public Education Coalition.

“When the information was provided to them a few weeks later, the information was redacted but it was redacted in PDF format,” Morton said. “We later learned that that redaction in PDF format was able to be undone or viewed in HTML format and the request was made by the district to have that information taken down and replaced. Then again, as we said last meeting, we learned that was not the case.”

He noted that the district attorney, Paul Green, had been working with the New Jersey Public Education Coalition and that they were able to have the information officially removed, and that the information was confirmed to be removed on Nov. 4.

On Nov. 5, he shared that a letter was sent to inform the families for those 92 names that had appeared on the list, and also to the 82 names that they were uncertain if they had appeared on the list. Moving forward, Morton said that the district will “explore opportunities for training our administrative staff and the full team as well on redaction of information.”

“If you look at the information that was sent to him, you’d never known it was possible to be converted to another format, so I think that’s the message for us,” Morton said. “Moving forward, we have to ensure that the confidentiality of our students and personal information is protected.”

The board also gave updates on the preschool expansion which is a five-year process that started in 2022 and will end in 2028.

The five-year plan for growth anticipates adding 41 additional classrooms in the 2025-26 school year, with 16 in-district and 25 provider sites, 25 additional classes provided by provider sites in 2026-27 and 27 additional classrooms in 2027-28, also provided by provider sites.

Farah Mahan, who led the presentation, acknowledged that last year they had three more additional classrooms than anticipated, bringing the total number to 17 this year which allowed them to serve 189 preschool students last year.

This year, they had one more classroom than they anticipated which allowed a total of 309 preschool expansion students, an increase of 120 students from last year.

Next year, they are looking to add eight additional classrooms to the Estelle V. Malberg Early Childhood Education Center, eight classrooms at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School, and three additional private providers, while still seeking 12 classroom additions.

“If we’re able to bring this to fruition, this would increase our preschool universe to approximately 924 students,” Mahan said.