OPRA Reveals Major Broken Link on Plainfield Schools Regulations

Much has been said about the school board setting policies for the district. And much policy work took place after the 2007 NJQSAC (State Review) revealed that the Plainfield school district lacked updated policies and that it was missing vital policies. The school board of back then, and still the one of today, have been working to update, amend and adopt needed policies and they are to be commended for such action. I really mean it.

But while policies are quite important, they are the basis for Regulations. It is through Regulations, based on school board adopted policies (which in turn are adopted after legislation), that superintendents, administrators and staff know and do their job. Regulations, in my opinion, also ensure continuation regardless of who comes and goes at the school district. In short, the school board adopts policies, but superintendents write, and amend with the blessing of the school board, all regulations.

So, I filed an OPRA with the Plainfield school district for few of these Regulations. I was expecting to be denied access to one or two even though they are public documents, but what I was not expecting was the response my OPRA produced:

I requested copies of 17 Regulations based on 17 Policies. I received 4. I asked if the other 13 Regulations were being denied, which the school board and district sometimes do(challenging their denials is then the fun part). But no. The 13 missing Regulations were not denied, they just didn't exist.

What????

You mean to tell me that the school board has allowed superintendent after superintendent to come and go and they have not requested one single superintendent on the past 4-6 years to update, or write up the district's own Regulations based on school board adopted Policies?

You gotta be kidding. Really. Google school district regulations and you will get an idea that Regulations are a pretty important component of a district and while not all districts post them at their website, many do. Woodbridge does and so does Vineland.

With this said, Regulations is one more thing in the district that is broken. This broken school system of ours has been allowed to go on and on to the detriment of not only the students that attend Plainfield public schools but also to the detriment of the community; a failing school district lowers the community pride, scares away investors and demoralizes, or detaches, those residents that stay foot here in the Queen City. It is time to demand that existing Regulations be posted at the district's school website and that those non-existent or in need of update get the attention of the district's top administration and the current and future school boards.

As someone recently told me: Plainfield is a trip. Yes. Plainfield can be pretty unbelievable. It is up to us to change it for the better.

The following policies are the ones I requested, the ones on dark are the only ones I received (link).

Plainfield Public Schools Policies
-- 4000/4010 Concepts and Roles in Personnel
--4111 Recruitment, Selection and Hiring
--4111.1/4211.1 Non-Discrimination and Affirmative Action
--4112.2 Certification
--4112.8/4212.8 Nepotism
--4113/4213 Assignment and Transfer
--4115 Supervision
--4116 Evaluation
--4119.21/4219.21 Conflict of Interest
--4121 Substitute Teachers
--4211 Recruitment, Selection and Hiring
--4215 Supervision
--4216 Evaluation
--4123 Classroom Aides (Paraprofessionals)
--4131/4131.1 Staff Development/In Service Education
--4231/4231.1 (same as above)
--4222 Non-Instructional Assistants