Troyer on Policy No. 5111.1

Dear Editor:
I would like to explain why I pushed for Policy # 5111.1 “Reward for information regarding illegally registered students in the Secaucus School System.”
Over the 15 years that I have served on the Board of Education, many times a resident believing that a student was illegally registered in our system called this to my attention.
I believe other board members past and present shared the same experience. The only hope the informant has was to trust that the board member would follow through with the information they provided. The process I followed was to inform our Superintendent and follow through so that I would know for a fact their concern was looked into.
However, the informant upon seeing the student still enrolled in our system and not knowing the circumstances as to why the student enrolled was legal, would accuse me of “doing nothing.” As a board trustee information of this nature is to be kept strictly confidential.
With the passing of this policy, no longer can a Board of Education trustee be accused of “doing nothing” after being notified of a student illegally registered in the district.
Bottom line: This policy will silence those who in the past accused board members of looking the other way in regard to the problem of illegally registered students in our system.
With the passing of this policy, one can now follow through with their claim, by-pass the “doing nothing” middle man, (Board Trustee) and receive a reward besides. It is a win, win situation. All one has to do is follow the process in Policy NO. 5111.1.

Tom Troyer

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