N.B. students’ status uncertain

725 families have not yet reverified their residency

BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

Only 20 percent of North Brunswick families in town who needed to re-verify their residency status for the school district’s Residency Verification and Re-Certification Initiative have yet to do so.

According to acting Superintendent Geri Margin, 725 of the 3,500 families with children enrolled in the school district have still not returned the appropriate voter registration or taxpayer information to the board office to verify that they are attending school legally. District Business Administrator Marshall Sigall said he was unable to estimate how many children these families have in the schools.

In total, 1,084 families did not match voter registration or taxpayer information at the beginning of the process. As of Tuesday, 536 were cleared, whereas 548 families still had not responded despite several letters and phone calls.

Of the 395 families whose records matched the voter registration but did not match the taxpayer information, 218 were cleared and 177 still had not responded. Also, 15 special education students attending out-of-district schools have not yet replied to the various notices.

With the first day of school fast approaching, Margin and the Board of Education hope that the families will either return the proper documentation or have instead withdrawn from the district. However, if need be, the students will still be brought by bus to their respective schools and handled once the school day begins.

In the elementary schools, the children will be put into their homerooms and receive schooling for one day, with a letter sent home advising the child not to return. In the middle and high schools, the students will be given a schedule but will be pulled out during the day and asked to immediately contact their parents.

The administration expects to wait until the following Monday to take any drastic measures.

“We hope we can at least get the appropriate phone numbers for the parents,” Margin said, adding that ultimately any child not belonging in the district will eventually not be allowed back.

Although she said the initiative is necessary to maintain quality standards in the school district, Margin does not believe financial costs will be significantly reduced, because even if all 20 percent of the families do not prove to be residents, the mobility rate is 15 percent, with new student registration booked solid for the next week.

“And I don’t think we will find they are not non-residents,” she said.

The costs of implementing this program have been minimal, according to Margin. A substitute secretary was hired at a substitute rate, but left when her term ended in June. Ten-month secretaries and board secretaries were then hired for summer work but have since returned to their home buildings in preparation for the new school year.

Since there is currently no one specific available to handle all of the documentation because of the high demand for personnel to handle new student registration, volunteers from the school board will donate their time to review the documents.

“This has been a diligent effort on behalf of the administration, the secretarial clerks and members of the board to make the transition of the first day of school as painless [as possible] for the children,” board President Ann Casey said.

The re-certification program began in May in response to resident concerns that children were illegally being provided an education from the North Brunswick School District. The administration took measures to hire a private investigator to double check residency and implement the program, which so far has been deemed successful.

“It certainly has provided us with information we can now put in our student information program, and as we go forward we are able to check with each family that has a lease that their residency has not changed,” Margin said. “We are affirming for community taxpayers the children of North Brunswick’s education and that no one else can take advantage of the fine education we offer our students. The Board of Education is also cognizant of the responsibility of being fiscally responsible, and this is one more example of making every attempt to monitor our spending.”

The district is once again encouraging residents whose residency is in question to submit their appropriate paperwork as soon as possible. Homeowners must provide a copy of their deed, lease, or tax receipt as well as two other forms of identification featuring an address, such as a bank statement, utility bill or credit card statement.

For more information about the process, call (732) 289-3000, ext. 4545. To notify the district of any suspicious activity, call (732) 940-5541.