DOE Reorganization Could Mean Less Attention, Accountability in Chatham

The state Department of Education (DOE) will change to a “rules compliance” body whose goal it is to graduate “all of New Jersey’s children regardless of birth circumstances, their zip code and their level of need and graduate them college and career ready,” according to documentation read at Monday's Board of Education meeting.

The reorganizational plan, which was unveiled to school districts this week, creates seven Regional Achievement Districts (RAD) each to be run by a Regional Achievement Director. The primary focus, the DOE said, will be the 100 to 150 lowest performing schools, the bottom 5 percent of the state. 

High performing districts such as Chatham will receive less attention and have fewer accountability requirements than in the past. 

According to DOE Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf, “one of the greatest regrets I have is that we don’t differentiate between school districts. There are districts where the best thing that we could do is leave them alone.”

Interim Superintendent Dennis Fyffe said Cerf's statement needs an exclaimation point.

Morris County’s RAD will also include Sussex and Warren Counties. Each RAD will have two branches: Compliance and achievement.

The primary function of the compliance branch will include budget, contracts, facilities, certification and transportation. The county business administrator will also be assigned to this branch.

The primary functions of the achievement branch will relate to core curriculum content standards, reading, mathematics, preschool, principal leadership and schools in need of improvement.