School District Revisits Residency Policy

CAPE MAY – A mother’s drive to keep her children enrolled in the city’s elementary school, despite their moving out of the district, has caused the superintendent to seek clarification of its residency policy, reversing its original position.
Jessica Orlowicz, who now lives in North Cape May with her four children, said she was told her two youngest children could not return to Cape May City Elementary School (CMCE) after the Christmas break, because they had moved out of the City of Cape May.
According to the application for enrollment form, the school district requires that students live in the district, unless they were part of the school choice program. Orlowicz said she was told there were no open school choice seats available for this year.
“If the policy is that children can’t return to the school the following year, even in cases where one parent has a residency on the island, fine,” she said. “However, forcing children to leave school immediately is extremely detrimental to them. I was transparent with the Principal/Superintendent of CMCE, Mrs. (Victoria) Zelenak, about the move, and she assured me that, because their father maintains an address in Cape May, the children could stay at CMCE.”
However, about two weeks before the Christmas break things changed. “I was called to the office and told that someone complained to the school that they’ve seen me dropping off and picking up my children, and that the children don’t sleep at their father’s residence in Cape May,” Orlowicz said.
“When I asked why things changed from what I was originally told, I was told that it’s a common occurrence for a spouse at the Coast Guard base to call and complain when someone’s living situation changes, and that, if they took it up to the Board of Ed(ucation), she’d (Zelenak) be held accountable,” Orlowicz said.
The father, Brandon, is a company commander at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Cape May. He said the children would “be able to stay with me overnight, but due to my schedule, it is not as frequent as I’d like.
“Our goal was always to keep the children stable in this school,” he continued. “Before purchasing a home in North Cape May, we communicated our situation to the school and were assured that our children would be able to stay long term because of my residence on the Coast Guard base.”
One child is in second grade and is on the autism spectrum, another is in pre-school. The two older children attend high school. “Part of the reason we wanted to stay at the same school is because my second grader does not deal well with change,” Orlowicz noted. “She relies on routines.”
New Jersey’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program enables approved choice districts to enroll K-12th-grade students who do not reside in their districts without cost to their parents. According to the state Department of Education, “The program increases educational opportunities for students and their families by providing students with school options outside of their district of residence and giving parents the power to select a school program that best serves their child’s individual needs.”
District participation in the program is optional but requires application to the Department of Education. Once approved, the choice district designates the available seats in specific grades and programs that are open to choice students. Where choice options are available, any student who resides in New Jersey is eligible to apply.
In emails exchanged over the Dec. 16 weekend, Zelenak said she would clarify, on Dec. 18, the ability for students to remain in the school for the remainder of the year with the Public School Choice administration. In the meantime, she offered “a family in distress arrangement” if letters from Orlowicz, her husband or both were received.
“We are not a family in distress,” Orlowicz replied via email to Zelenak. “N.J. Dept. of Ed. policy states that children are allowed to stay in school to finish the year, even if they move. How many children, including my own, have been thrown out of school in recent years because of a mid-year housing change? And in my situation, we still maintain a residence in Cape May.
“Nowhere does the policy say anything about how many nights the children spend sleeping at either residence,” she continued. “This is a much larger issue than what’s happening to my own family, although the situation we’ve been put in is clearly upsetting and unacceptable.”
When contacted Dec. 19 about the situation, Zelenak, who has been superintendent/principal at the elementary school for 14 years, would only state that the “school was following state education policy,” referring to its website where it says, “In the case where a resident student moves out of a choice district during the school year, the parents/guardians of the student have the option of keeping the student in the choice district until the end of the current school year or moving the student to the new resident district.”
She would not elaborate or comment on previous situations where students were asked to leave mid-year.
“Mrs. Z (Zelenak) apologized and said she misinterpreted the law, and offered to let my second grader come back,” Orlowicz said. “She’d have to ask permission for my other daughter because pre-K doesn’t fall under the same school choice guidelines.
“I told her we’ve chosen to send our children to private school,” she added. “We’re lucky that we are able to do that because not everyone can.
“This is the third incident I’m aware of this year alone where someone moved in the middle of the year and a Coast Guard spouse called the school to complain that their children should leave,” she added. “That is more frustrating to me because the children could have stayed in school all along.
“I hope this clarification helps others who find themselves in this situation,” Orlowicz said. “Children (of Coast Guard parents) go through too much transition already.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.