With only one day left before the start of school, 88 students who are matriculated in the Roselle Park School District have yet to be re-registered for the 2016-17 school year. Full registration of all students in the district is conducted every five (5) years in line with a BOE policy put in place in 2006. This number of students who have not confirmed that they reside in Roselle Park, about 4.5%, was a reduction of the over 400 students that were not re-registered by the end of August.
School Superintendent Pedro Garrido made the announcement at last night’s Board Of Education (BOE) meeting.
“As of 2 p.m. today we were down to 88 students not re-registered,” he said. The superintendent added that it was expected to have another 20 or so students re-registered by today. With respect to the remaining students who show up to the first day of school tomorrow, Mr. Garrido remarked, “We have a plan in place . . . We are going to use some of our staff that are not directly involved with the students to have a holding station and we’re going to start making phone calls to the parents.”
It appears, by the superintendent’s comments regarding students who may show up unaccompanied, that a large number of those not re-registered are middle school and high school students. The school superintendent clarified that those students would be allowed in the building but that they would not be allowed into classrooms and be placed in auditoriums or other similar locations while their residency was confirmed with the required documents.
“I know the integrity of the re-registration was questioned and I can assure you that we will re-register every single student in the district,’ concluded Mr. Garrido.
He stated that he would have a full report on the enrollment at the next BOE meeting. BOE member Alex Balaban asked if there were more students’ families who had given notice that they had moved out of Roselle Park. He was notified by the school superintendent that there were no other notifications given other than the six (6) families referred to at the August meeting who had notified the district they had moved out.
No details were provided regarding what would occur if students repeatedly returned to school without proper documentation.
The next BOE meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 20th, at the Roselle Park High School auditorium.