Nearly 20 years ago, West Orange Public Schools decided to do something unique with its sixth graders.
The Essex County public school district began sending all of the sixth grade to a single, stand-alone school.
The Thomas A. Edison Central Six Middle School was created to ease the transition for students as they left various elementary schools around the district, where they usually spent their days with one or two main teachers in a single classroom.
For sixth grade, West Orange had its 400 sixth graders come together in one school for a year before they headed off to larger middle schools in West Orange for seventh and eighth grades.
“They were able to be separated from both the younger and the older kids, getting their own safe place to mature a little bit before hitting seventh grade,” Ken Alper, a former school board member whose two children went to the school, said on Facebook.
Last week, West Orange‘s school board voted to end the Central Six program at Edison. The school will remain open, but all three middle schools in the district will now serve sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. There will no longer be a single school just for sixth graders.
Cutting the 20-year-old program for sixth graders will save the West Orange school district, which faces a $9 million budget deficit, 5% of what it needs to make up the gap.
“We anticipate saving approximately $500,000 annually minimally in transportation costs and we may realize other savings in staffing costs for transportation,” district officials said in a statement.
In addition to redistributing all sixth graders to the three existing middle schools — Edison, Roosevelt and Liberty — the district revealed a plan to cut nearly 60 positions and raise the average class size to 25 across all grades.
The district’s Mandarin foreign language program in middle school was also on the chopping block, but funding was restored in the final budget.
Community members said they were frustrated the district gave them little time and no other viable solutions to stave off ending the Central Six program.
A March 31 letter from West Orange Public Schools Superintendent Hayden Moore posted on the district’s website said changes to the middle school structure in West Orange might be necessary.
“Our 3 middle schools can be reorganized to serve grades 6-8 in each. This will lead to savings in transportation costs, provide greater continuity for students, and positively impact academic performance,” Moore wrote.
Two months later, the decision was made to close the school. That was too fast, according to some critics of the decision.
“Twenty years ago, we had 42 community members that met for nine months to arrive at the Central Six configuration,” said one West Orange resident who works as a paraprofessional at an elementary school in the district, speaking at a recent school board meeting.
West Orange serves students from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Almost 40% of the district’s students are “economically disadvantaged,” according to New Jersey’s School Performance Report from the 2023-2024 school year.
The Edison Central Six Middle School serves more than 40% economically disadvantaged students, according to state statistics.
District officials said they needed to cut programs to fill its budget deficit for several reasons.
Between 2021 and last year, state aid to the district increased by $18 million, district officials said. But most of the increase was from an infusion of COVID-related federal dollars.
Transportation, salary, health benefit and special education costs are rising at the same time funding for West Orange’s schools is shrinking, district officials said.
West Orange is scheduled to receive more than $32.5 million in state funding next school year, according to Murphy’s budget proposal. That is about $1 million, or 3% less than last year.
The district decided to cut the Central Six program rather than raise school property taxes for residents, the superintendent said.
“Unlike our neighbors, our changes can be implemented without further burdening the taxpayer,” Moore said during a school board meeting last month.
Some families are questioning why the community didn’t have more say in what programs were being cut.
Resident Tierney Norris said she has heard people in the district talk for years about Central Six “like it was this most magical time experience and really valuable,” she said.
Norris’ son was supposed to attend Edison’s Central Six program next fall. She’s assuming her son will go to the middle school closest to her house instead. But the district isn’t sending out official placements until May 30.
“While some students may remain in their school and others may be bussed, the intention is to integrate our buildings and maintain our rich diversity and existing demographics,” the district said in a FAQ posted on the district’s website.
The FAQ also said parents should “emphasize that this decision is made with their best interests at heart,” when speaking with their children about the new middle school configuration.
Norris belongs to a group of parents trying to change how the board and district make decisions. People are messaging on WhatsApp and organizing to ask for greater transparency and community voice in decision making, she said.
“We all have lives and kids and underwear to wash and dishes to clean and dinners to make. And it’s amazing to me that we all are finding the minutes,” she said of the advocacy work she and her fellow parents have been doing.
The group put out a petition — “Request for Transparency in Response to West Orange 2025-26 Budget” — and received 400 signatures within a week from parents across West Orange schools. About 10% said they have children in the Central Six program this year.
“The scale of this year’s budget cuts — alongside the lack of clarity on how decisions have been made — has left many in our community concerned, confused, and feeling unheard," the petition said.
Alyssa Bowen, parent of an incoming kindergartner, said cutting the Central Six program and saving $500,000 isn’t moving the district toward the financial stability it needs.
“It’s not a long term solution that’s going to help make sure we don’t have a deficit moving forward,” Bowen said.
Though tax increases are unpopular, Bowen said she sees them as a better way to close the school district deficit instead of shuttering a sixth grade program so many families say they love.
Will Donahoe, who is part of the community advocacy group that created the petition, spoke at a recent school board meeting and thanked the board for providing a more detailed version of the budget than they had in the past.
“We as parents and residents are ready to advocate alongside you for funding for state support for sustainable solutions. But we need your continued transparency and trust to do that,” Donahoe said.
Several speakers repeated the request in the petition asking the school board to create a community budget advisory council to weigh in on cuts.
When asked if they planned to create a community advisory council, school officials only said they are open to having the community participate in the budget process.
“We are open to the involvement of our families and various stakeholders,” district officials said in a statement to NJ Advance Media.
“As expressed by the Superintendent at our most recent Board of Education meeting, we value all parent input that we receive,” the statement added.
Stories by Liz Rosenberg
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Liz Rosenberg may be reached at lrosenberg@njadvancemedia.com.