MALESPINA/FREEDMAN RESIGNATION LETTER

The South Orange-Maplewood School District administration has repeatedly stressed that the development of our new strategic plan will be a transparent, organic process, driven by public input and community engagement. Unfortunately, we have found that this process has actually been a fake form of engagement and the district has imposed what is essentially a “gag order” on all members of the action planning committees.

Under what it terms “norms of confidentiality,” our public school district has essentially prohibited the free speech of people chosen as representative stakeholders for the action planning process. These committee members, if they choose to remain, will be unable to freely share progress or solicit input without express permission from the administration. 

When the administration hand-picked committee members for the strategic direction committee without a specific call for applicants -- and then secretly met at a local house of worship -- there was public outcry over the lack of transparency.  

Now the district has singled us out apparently because of benign comments that we posted about our participation in the action plan training session, on our closed Facebook page--”South Orange-Maplewood Cares About Schools.” We were informed that this posting in itself was construed by the administration as being not in “good faith” to the process, with no further explanation. Neither of us were ever informed that we were not supposed to discuss our participation on these committees at any point until we received an email from the superintendent.

We wonder if the only opinions that the public will ever hear from members of the strategic planning teams will be those that have been vetted by the administration. How does this allow an open and transparent process? 

The success of our schools is arguably the most important discussion that a community can have. We respect the right of and the need for the public to be informed and involved throughout this process, and not just through boiled down reports delivered third hand by district administration at the end of the process.

To that end, we respectfully resign from our positions on the Communications Action Plan and Scheduling and Facilities Committee.