Parents urge district not to split siblings under new redistricting plan

At the public-comment portion of the meeting several New Providence residents urged the Board of Education to reconsider a redistricting approach that will split a small number of sibling pairs between the town’s two elementary schools.

Speakers said the change would create social‑emotional disruption and practical burdens for families. Meredith Russo said the board should “reconsider instituting a one-size-fits-all, no exceptions policy that unduly impacts the handful of families who have older children at AWR and incoming kindergartners in the next two years.” She described how, as a parent, having an older sibling in the same school “was a massive source of confidence” for her younger child.

Other residents described logistics they said would be difficult for working families: staggered drop-offs and pickups, conflicting event schedules such as Halloween parades, and increased costs and time off work. Chrissy Malusi and Melanie Katz spoke about family strain and the difficulty of changing childcare or commuting patterns if siblings attend different elementary schools.

Several speakers asked the board to evaluate the actual number of affected families each year and to adopt flexible, case-by-case accommodations where capacity allows. Allison Caravano asked the board to “evaluate the kindergarten class sizes at AWR on a year to year case by case basis to try to allow families with older children already enrolled at AWR to keep their siblings together.” Several speakers said the district’s survey of families was a welcome step and asked for timely follow-up on results.

Board members acknowledged the comments and said staff would continue to collect registration and survey data as the district finalizes placements for the coming school years.