Marked absent

There were comments about taxes and municipal services. A few audience members chimed in about police-related matters and lauded town staff for their efforts. The mayor, Borough Council, municipal department heads and several Board of Education members heard it all.

There was one noticeable absence. School Superintendent Dr. Roberta Freeman was not present.

Freeman had been invited by Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk to participate in the town hall held on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at the Ronald S. Dobies municipal building. She notified the mayor the prior Friday that she would be unable to do so.

Local schools still generated their share of audience remarks. Mikolajczyk was diplomatic and urged attendees to be “respectful” on those topics. He responded to a few of them. School board members present did not.

The mayor has said that he occasionally gets asked about the schools during his trips around town. Some constituents mistakenly believe that he has authority over goings-on in the K-12 district.

One of the initial school-related commenters advocated the re-registration of all district students. That’s become a hot-button issue in light of Freeman’s statements at board meetings that the district is out of classroom space. Some Middlesex taxpayers suspect that not all children being educated in local schools are truly borough residents.

Mikolajczyk framed re-registration in terms of a building project that could potentially be put before voters for approval. A small-scale $9 million referendum was passed by voters in March 2022. A much larger, more than $50 million referendum was overwhelmingly rejected in September 2017 by a 7-to-1 margin.

The mayor said he “believes” in the need for pupil re-registration, adding that he could not see a future school referendum passing without a student residency verification.

Without re-registration, any coming referendum “will go down worse” than the 2017 school plan, according to Mikolajczyk.

At the school board’s Feb. 20 meeting, the suggestion for a districtwide re-registration was raised by then-board member Amelia Sherr. Dr. Freeman responded that a re-registration would have to be done over multiple years since the department involved consists of one person, according to minutes of the session.

If the town hall is a barometer, however, the re-registration issue is not going away.

The need for better communication between municipal and school  officials was raised by another town hall attendee. The audience member noted that both the council and school board handle large amounts of tax money and there should be “a line of communication.”

Mikolajczyk agreed, but said the matter has been “a one-way conversation,” implying there has not been cooperation from the school district.

Along with re-registration and communication, attendees had other comments about the school district.

One saw the current administration as “top heavy.” Another said the school board should immediately respond to public comments made at meetings. Typically, Freeman takes a few days to reply via email.

Future hires should be based on merit, not DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), according to one town hall attendee. Others advocated changes in the school budgeting process including the release of more information and a presentation being held at a council session.

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