Good neighbor policy helps kids

Photo by Ron Leir/ East Newark School Superintendent/ Principal Richard Corbett anticipates improvements for the coming school year.

By Ron Leir

EAST NEWARK –
After a one-year interruption of the program, this borough’s sole public school will resume the education of pre-schoolers in September, courtesy of neighboring Harrison.
The school boards of East Newark and Harrison recently signed a shared services agreement that paves the way for Harrison to accept 15 East Newark children, ages 3 and 4, for full-day pre-school.
Harrison Schools Superintendent James Doran said that Harrison will assign those 15 youngsters to one of the five nonprofit child care centers to which the Harrison public school district sends its pre-school population.
Although those centers have had a full enrollment, Doran said that after hearing from East Newark Superintendent/Principal Richard Corbett that he was looking for space to accommodate kids from the borough, “we hired an additional teacher and aide to take on his 15 kids as a single class at one location.”
Doran added: “There was a need for East Newark to place these kids somewhere, and Harrison was the closest place available.”

To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.

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