TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The Newark Public Schools have until Nov. 1 – All Saints Day – to get into the New Jersey Department of Education’s good graces when it comes to serving its handicapped or special needs students.
NPS, under the NJDOE’s Corrective Action Plan issued on Aug. 25, is to provide new training for child study team members and have created an “oversight mechanism” to comply with the requirements that the state agency has set.
State education administrators, in a June report, determined that New Jersey’s largest public school district had failed to meet six requirements under the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Those areas include failing to report Individual Education Plans and missing meetings with parents and students – if they had notified them of the meetings to begin with.
IEPs, by state law, are to detail what services students with disabilities are to have and in what classrooms they are to be in. The IEP program is funded with federal IDEA and Every Student Succeeds Act. NJDOE, after a February visit to NPS, found that the child study team had failed to write and/or revise IEPs.
Problems with IDEA and ESSA compliance have been a long-standing issue. NJDOE had found that Newark Public Schools had failed in four areas in 2019 – before the COVID pandemic. Parents and teachers have told of lost IEPs and related horror stories during the 2014-17 “One Newark Plan,” which closed and/or consolidated some of NPS’ then-73 schools.
NPS Superintendent of Schools Roger Leon, in a 2021 school budget hearing, said that the district would partner with Rutgers’ ABA Center, STAR Autism and other local groups to provide more services. The NPS Board of Education had allocated more funds and resources to the IEP program.
IRVINGTON – The travels in and around the “Local Talk” area of township native Dr. Donald A. Merachnik, 93, have ended with a Sept. 2 graveside service at Woodbridge-Iselin’s Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. The psychologist and teacher who became a high school superintendent had died Sept. 1.
Merachnik, who was born in Newark July 27, 1929, was a Frank H. Morrell High School Class of 1947 graduate whose Army enlistment postponed his career. He became a medical technician in the 34th Combat Engineer Battalion during the Korean Conflict.
Merachnik returned here by way of the G.I. Bill and Upsala College. The 1951 graduate in education was hired by Irvington Public Schools as a school psychologist and mathematics teacher. He would attain a masters from City College of New York in 1952 and a doctorate in philosophy from NYU in 1961.
The practicing psychologist found his niche in the Springfield-headquartered Union County Regional High School District, first as a teacher in 1955. He was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Pupil and Personnel Services in 1969 and as its superintendent in 1971. Merachnik was the district’s last superintendent when its six towns gained local control of the four high schools June 30, 1996.
Merachnik became a familiar face in several cameo roles. He was Interim Assistant Superintendent for the South Orange-Maplewood and Paterson school districts after being the superintendent in the West Essex Regional District and in Bound Brook. The SHU, Kean and Jersey City State College adjunct professor was consulting psychologist for the East Orange School District for the last 18 years.
The Berkeley Heights practitioner and resident is survived by son Richard, daughters Beth and Kathy and four grandchildren. His wife Sondra predeceased him.
Memorial donations may be made to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10065.
EAST ORANGE – Owners and administrators of what the New Jersey Department of Health calls a Long Term Care center are hoping that whatever improvements they have made in the last quarter will prompt state officials to give them a higher rating by Nov. 1.
State DOH inspectors are to visit Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center this month – if they have not yet visited already. Grove Park, formerly known as New Grove Manor, has received one-star scores from the state every quarter since July 2021.
The 185-bed former East Orange Hotel building at 101 North Grove St. had received scores of one star in nine of the last 36 quarters going back to January 2013. It had received scores of two stars 22 times – largely between January 2013 and January 2019.
Grove Park had scored zero April 2019-April 2020 while it was on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Special Focus Facility program.
The LTC is the only one in the “Local Talk” area among the “15 Lowest Rated LTCs Participating in New Jersey’s Medicaid Program” in a Feb. 2, 2022 Office of the State Comptroller report. “The Lowest 15” have continued to receive Medicaid funding despite “failing to improve the safety and quality of their care.” The OSC has recommended cutting the $100 million of Medicaid funding to those nursing homes who have long failed to improve.
Allaire Health Services, of Freehold, recently bought New Grove/Park Grove and has been renovating the five-story building in stages. Allaire owns and operates eight LTCs in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
ORANGE – “Local Talk” had received a statement from the Orange Public Library Board of Trustees Sept. 28 that they are negotiating with city elders in increasing this year’s library budget.
“The OPL Board of Trustees are working with the Orange City Council President (North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason) to increase funding to the library,” said Trustee President Janet Mateo in an undated press release. “Mayor Dwayne D. Warren has been instrumental in bringing both entities together for a resolution that will benefit the residents.”
Calendar Year 2022’s Municipal Budget has the minimum $531,000 municipal allocation for OPL. That minimum is based on a state formula calculation. The minimal line item is down from about $750,000 allocated in 2021 and nearly $950,000 from 2020.
The minimum comes after Library Director Stephanie Flood had presented OPL’s proposed budget before the City Council June 9. Flood, since coming aboard from Morris County’s Lincoln Park Public Library, had been righting the library after a decade of mishaps, neglect and malfeasance.
The improvements range from a new phone number and mostly working rest rooms to hiring a new children’s librarian and visiting the Park Avenue Elementary School on September’s Library Card Sign Up Month.
Flood recently told “Local Talk” that she would have to “make some hard decisions” should the $531,000 minimum stand. Those decisions will likely involve acquiring new lending materials and maybe limiting staff employment.
Any increase to OPL’s funding minimum would mean the City Council amending the 2022 municipal budget. Some may recall that Mayor Warren received a State Legislature special allocation of $2.5 million to purchase the Orange YWCA at 395 Main St. in 2015. (Half of the amount was used for the actual purchase with the remaining for renovation or replacement as the Orange REC Center.)
WEST ORANGE – County and township detectives are looking for two armed suspects who assaulted and shot two men, one of whom later died, in what they called an ambush on a Watchung Heights street corner Sept. 27.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and West Orange Chief of Police James Abbott said that the suspects, who were driving a car in the neighborhood, saw two other men walk into 48 Watson St., at the northwest corner of Chestnut Street, that Tuesday.
The suspects got out of their car once the victims left Watson Grocery & Deli. The victims were aggravatedly assaulted, one account included a pistol-whipping, before both were shot at about 3:20 p.m. Residents and witnesses meanwhile called 911.
Responding WOPD officers soon found the shot victims by 3:23 p.m. The unidentified man was taken by a private car to RWJBarnabas Health’s Cooperman-Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston for his wounds. He was listed in stable condition Sept. 28.
Corington Valentin, 21, of Newark, was also rushed to Cooperman-Barnabas – where he was declared dead at 11:37 p.m. Valentin’s funeral arrangements have not been announced as of Oct. 5.
One report stated that the suspects’ getaway car was soon found abandoned in Newark. The shooter and the driver remain at large.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – An arm of the two-town public school district has scheduled an Oct. 6 meeting to see whether re-establishing courtesy school busing later in 2022-23 will be better than having none all this school year.
The South Orange-Maplewood Board of School Estimate is to convene a public session to “preliminary discuss Courtesy Transportation” 6 p.m. Thursday 5:30 p.m. at the district’s Administration Building at 525 Academy St., Maplewood. The Oct. 4 announcement includes, ” Action may be taken.”
BSE, made of Maplewood and South Orange board members and elected officials, normally develops and approves an annual school budget for the two-town district. This special panel is reconvening because a prospective restart of courtesy busing would require an amendment to the 2022-23 budget.
The South Orange-Maplewood School District had ended courtesy school busing at the Sept. 1 start of the school year. By “courtesy,” students who live between a mile and two miles of their schools or two miles would be allowed onboard for their daily commute. The state requires school bus transportation to students who live beyond the two mile radius of their schools.
The SOMSD Board of Education waived its re-entry into the 2022-23 school budget Aug. 1. Board President Thair Joshua said there was “not enough time or resources” for its restoration. (Joshua has since declined seeking board member re-election on Nov. 8.)
Critics have since said that the lack of courtesy busing inconveniences parents who have to drive their children or find other means to get them to school and back. The lack of a courtesy busing program, they further reason, may affect SOMSD’s plans to further integrate its school children.
The BSE session is scheduled to be carried live on SomaTV, SOMSD YouTube Livestream and SOMSD’s Webex Platform. Check these sources for the meeting’s later livestreaming or broadcasting.
BLOOMFIELD – A Brookdale section elementary school was evacuated before its scheduled dismissal time here Oct. 4 as the result of a called-in bomb threat.
“At approximately 2:21 p.m., I received information that a potential bomb threat directed towards Demarest School,” said Principal Mike Sullivan later that Tuesday. “Immediately upon receiving this threat, I called the Bloomfield Police Department and evacuated the building out of an abundance of caution.”
Responding BPD officers simultaneously searched the school building for any explosive devices and for the threat caller.
Sullivan, in his open letter to the Demarest community, said that BPD had “identified the suspected caller.” Neither the principal or the police have disclosed who the caller was and whether that suspect is facing criminal charges.
Demarest administrators and teachers returned to the building once BPD officers gave the “all clear” signal. Demarest and the other Bloomfield Public Schools remained closed until Oct. 7 to observe Yom Kippur as scheduled.
“Students and staff returned to the building and took part in dismissal,” said Sullivan. “I want to thank the teachers and the students. I’m proud that they did an incredible job of evacuating the building quickly and safely while staying calm under stressful circumstances.”
GLEN RIDGE – Relatives, friends and classmates of Jordan Ali Mayrant, 21, gathered at Bloomfield’s Van Tassel Funeral Home Oct. 5 – some of whom have left a makeshift memorial here on Bloomfield Avenue and Hill Street’s northwest wall since Sept. 27.
Authorities have been looking for the cause of the collision between Mayrant’s motorcycle and an SUV at that intersection at about 4 p.m. that Tuesday. Mayrant and his Yamaha YZF were going west on the avenue when they and the Audi Q5 met.
Responding GRPD officers promptly closed the avenue between Hillside and Ridgewood avenues. Traffic, including NJTransit and Decamp buses, were detoured via Belleville Avenue.
Mayrant was rushed to University Hospital – where was declared dead at 4:45 p.m. The Q5 driver, said an ECPO spokesman, was not facing charges.
Mayrant, a Bloomfield High School Class of 2019 graduate, held an engineering associate’s degree from Bergen Community College. Cars, car repair, motorcycles and go-karts were among his many passions.
Parents Violetta Kasprzak and Robert A. Mayrant, Jr., stepparents Edgardo Mendoza and Tranaya Harris, sisters Sajada and Nina Mayrant, half-sister Laila Mayrant, half-brothers Ryan and Mason Mayrant and Christian Stewart, grandfather Robert Mayrant, Sr. and grandmother Marianna Kasprzak are among his survivors.
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council, after four hours’ deliberation before a capacity council chamber gallery of 150, approved its fire service contract with Glen Ridge, 4-3 here Sept. 28.
At-large councilmen Robert Russo and Peter Yacobellis and Deputy Mayor William Hurlock, who attempted tabling the approval, said that a contract analysis by the township CFO’s office was not included. They also questioned whether or how Bloomfield’s non-bidding was communicated to them.
Mayor Sean Spillar and respective second, third and fourth ward council members Robin Schlager, Lori Price Abrams and David Cummings approved the 10-year contract. Schlager said that the threat of Glen Ridge possibly suing Montclair should the latter withdraw from the pact was a factor.
Katon Washington (1994-2022)
Montclair High School Wrestling Champion Katon Donte Washington, who was killed in Orange Sept. 22, was laid to rest here at Rosedale Cemetery, after a memorial at O’Boyle’s Funeral Home, Oct. 4.
Katon, who was born Feb. 4, 1994 at RWJBarnabas Health Clara Maass Medical Center, was a MHS 2012 graduate by way of Hillside Elementary and Glenfield Middle schools. His entrepreneurial spirit and experience led him to start a trucking company this year.
Parents Katon, Sr., and Amber Quince, grandmother Jacqueline D’Arco and siblings Alana Quince, Karon, Sr., Quaizon, Keionte Washington and Zhanera Mumford Washington are among his survivors. His Sept. 22 homicide at Orange’s Cleveland and Alden streets remains under ECPO investigation.
BELLEVILLE – One township resident has started a petition drive to urge the Township Council to grant physical or online access to the municipal government’s monthly bill lists.
Bill lists are monthly line items of invoices that a government body has received and paid. They serve as a means to track a government’s outgoing revenue. Several “Local Talk” entities, including the City of Orange, make them available online and at their city council meetings.
The absence of a published or posted township bill list was noticed by former Belleville Board of Education Trustee Michael Sheldon. Sheldon, while he was on the school board. said that Belleville Public Schools posts their lists, subject to trustee approval, on BoardDocs ahead of their public meetings. He said that the BPS practice goes back to early 2018.
Sheldon added, however, that the township does not post their bill lists on CivicWeb, ICompass or similar publically accessible software. Furnishing bill lists, he reasons, would cut down the volume of OPRA requests made by citizens and the municipal clerk’s processing thereof.
Sheldon has started “The Belleville Town Hall’s (Intentionally Hidden) Bill Lists” petition on Change.org. He is aiming for a goal of 100 signatures before presenting the said petition before Belleville’s elders.
For the record, Sheldon is running for BOE trustee in the Nov. 8 General Election.
NUTLEY – Bella Luce Restaurant and Bar – going by its Sept. 29 Facebook posting for its fall specials – may have resolved their dispute with the N.J. Department of Labor that led to its Sept. 21 closing.
NJ DOL Wage and Hour and Contract Compliance inspectors descended on 507 Franklin Ave. that Wednesday and issued a stop work order. The inspectors had handed Bella Luce/GLO LLC and its owner, Joseph Capasso, violations for not paying employees the minimum wage, overtime or tips from credit card transactions.
The state agency said that the dispute goes back to 2018, when an initial investigation found that tips generated from customers’ credit cards were not given. A 2019 DOL audit calculated that the eatery’s 19 workers were owed $95,653.12 in back wages. The state also added $9,565.31 in fees plus $5,000 in penalties.
DOL, furthermore, had received a court judgement in 2019 but had been unable to collect. The business and its owner were further cited for hindering the investigation and failing to keep proper records.
State inspectors may be monitoring the restaurant that specializes in northern Italian cuisine. They have the power to invoke $5,000 in daily civil penalties should the business continue to operate in violation of the law.
