Dear Editor:
You may fool some of the people some of the time. However, you can not fool all of the people all of the time. At the Feb. 17th Secaucus Board of Education meeting newly appointed truant officer Eric Roque reported that he discovered a number of students attending our school system illegally. Message being this Board is dealing with this problem, no fooling around.
While many people are delighted that the Board of Education is looking into this problem, there are always some doubting Thomas. Some have questioned the numbers Mr. Roque stated believing he overstated his claim. Others have questioned his claim that “once they realized the Board was investigating some voluntarily left the system”. As one of nine Board members I can attest the validity of Mr. Roque’s statement. However, confidentially prohibits giving the names of the students and addresses they used. Again, you can rest assured this Board is not fooling around with those involved.
So, to silence the doubting Thomas I plan to, once again, call for the Board to adopt a policy I proposed back in Oct. 2001 in a letter to this column. Yes, ten years ago I proposed that a reward be given for information regarding non-resident students who are illegally enrolled in our school system. I pointed to Clifton school system that at that time offered a $200.00 reward to residents that uncovered students
“ illegally” enrolled in their system.
I view this reward system as a way to get around the confidentially rule. We give a reward to Mr. or Mrs. John Doe and he/she takes the credit or the heat. Either way the Board can not be accused of not doing anything about students attending our school system illegally. We will have a cancelled check to prove it.
Tom Troyer