Tag: Camden County

The Camden school district has dropped its longtime mandatory school uniform policy at its five high schools.

Instead of wearing uniforms that included khaki pants and a shirt based on their school colors, students returning to school on Sept. 3 will have a dress code that allows more flexibility but bans durags, bonnets, hair rollers and curlers, pajamas, and revealing clothing.

Superintendent Alfonso Q. Llano Jr. said the decision was made after feedback from students and staff in the South Jersey school system. Elementary and middle school students will continue to wear uniforms. In a social media post earlier this month, the district explained the decision as a response to students who expressed “desire for greater opportunities to express themselves through their clothing while maintaining a safe learning environment.”

High school will also start an hour earlier at 8:05 a.m. and run until 2:25 p.m. The district said the earlier time aligns with national start times and better meets the needs of students who work after school or have extracurricular activities.

The new dress code has drawn mixed reaction from students and staff. It will impact students at the district’s two traditional high schools, Camden High and Eastside High, and three magnet schools, Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High, Creative Arts High, and the Big Picture Learning Academy.

“I think it’s a good idea. It allows students to break the mode, creates more creativity,” said Odalys Dejesus, 17, a rising senior at Eastside. “It’s a good step forward.”

Former school board member Jose E. Delgado said the uniform policy was established more than two decades ago to improve security by making it easier to identify students entering buildings, curb bullying, and stop students from wearing gang colors.

Delgado and others who served on the board that adopted the uniform policy have asked state Department of Education Commissioner Lily Laux to review whether Llano followed procedures for switching to a dress code.

“It makes no sense,” Delgado said. “The uniform policy was working.”

A state education department spokesman said the dress code policy was a local matter. Camden has been a state-operated district since 2013.

Llano has been making changes since becoming schools chief in March. He sent pink slips to the entire central office staff. He backpedaled on a plan to merge the three magnet high schools after a backlash.

Delgado believes the dress code policy is too subjective and can be interpreted differently by school leaders. He also worries about enforcement.

“The teachers are not going to enforce this,” Delgado said. “They have enough problems.”

Camden Education Association President Pam Clark said she supported the new policy for high school students only.

“I’m for the district giving the students a chance to wear their regular clothes,” Clark said. “However, the students need to know there will be consequences if they do not come to school presentable.”

The policy also bans open-toe shoes, most face coverings like ski masks, baseball hats, short shorts and mini-skirts, and baggy pants with underwear showing. Hoodies are allowed but the hood must be removed when the student enters the building.

The policy calls for progressive disciplinary action for violators, beginning with a warning, and possibly escalating to in-school suspension and a meeting with a parent or guardian for repeat offenders.

Last year, then-acting Superintendent Davida Coe-Brockington said the district would enforce a long-standing policy banning students from wearing all-black outfits at the Camden High campus.

The complex houses four separate wings, and students were assigned shirt colors based on their school. Coe-Brockington said the all-black outfits made it difficult for staff to easily identify which school a student attends.

Karen Borrelli, a veteran health and physical education teacher at Brimm, does not support the move to a dress code. She said the uniforms gave the schools identity, especially at the Camden High campuses. Some parents depended on district-issued vouchers to purchase uniforms, she said.

“They don’t have the money to get outfits and keeping up with the Jones,” Borelli said referring to possible peer pressure students may face to wear the latest fashions. “Our parents can’t afford that.”

Llano said students may still opt to wear uniforms. Borrelli expressed doubt that they would because they would stand out.

“The focus shouldn’t be on what they are wearing to school, but on academics,” Borrelli said. “It’s going to be a mess.”

Tuskegee University sparked a national debate earlier this year when president Mark Brown tackled the thorny issue of proper attire for students at the historically Black college.

Like Camden, Tuskegee banned students from wearing hair bonnets and durags, which customarily are worn to protect Black hairstyles while people sleep.

The Philadelphia school district leaves it to schools to set a dress code policy for students “so that their appearance does not constitute a health or safety hazard.”

Last school year, an uproar flared at Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts when female students complained they were unfairly flagged for dress code violations.

Students said they were told by administrators that the crackdown was imposed because men outside of school were following female students. The district said it would review the dress code policy.

Staff writer Kristen A. Graham contributed to this report.

The ACLU of New Jersey has urged the Bellmawr Police Department to investigate its officers’ conduct after local protesters alleged the department gave out citations while attendees engaged in “free-speech activities.”

The letter, sent by email Tuesday, said ACLU-NJ had been contacted by several members of Cooper River Indivisible, a Camden County-based grassroots organization, after members alleged that they were targeted by Bellmawr police officers during months of summer protests against President Donald Trump and his administration despite sidewalks and streets being “traditional public forums.”

“As I understand the facts, officers have been issuing traffic and criminal citations — for honking, jaywalking, and other offenses — to participants and supporters during lawful roadside rallies,” the letter reads.

Rebecca Uwakwe, ACLU-NJ’s criminal law reform advocacy director, said Cooper River Indivisible members told her that Bellmawr police have been targeting them since at least June, but that the citations have ramped up this month. She could not confirm how many citations have been given out but said she is representing “a good amount of people” affected by the citations in municipal court.

“No one’s freedom of speech should be chilled because they’re afraid of getting a citation,” Uwakwe said.

The letter asks the police department to investigate officers’ conduct and requests that the department respond by Sept. 11.

The Bellmawr Police Department declined to comment. Uwakwe said she has not heard from police yet.

Cooper River Indivisible, a South Jersey affiliate of nonprofit Indivisible, hosts weekly roadside rallies at an intersection in Bellmawr Borough, Camden County, where people gather to “joyfully disturb the peace” to protest fascism and actions taken by the Trump administration.

Neither Cooper River Indivisible nor its founder, Craig Strimel, immediately responded to requests for comment.

A recent newsletter by the organization said the Bellmawr group “has been unfairly targeted by local police,” noting that one attendee who was recording during a rally was arrested.

It was unclear who was arrested or whether charges were filed after the recent rally.

If the police department is not receptive to dialogue, Uwakwe said, the ACLU will continue to defend protesters and drivers against citations. ACLU-NJ is still interviewing people affecting by the citations, she said, and investigating the situation.

A former landfill in Voorhees Township will become the home of a new solar field aimed at expanding access to renewable energy and lowering utility bills for New Jersey residents.

Once complete, the 13.5-acre community-scale solar array will join the more than 200 solar projects that make up the state’s Community Solar Energy Program.

Started in 2019, the program allows households served by the state’s four major electricity providers — Public Service Electric & Gas, Jersey Central Power & Light, Atlantic City Electric, and Rockland Electric Co. — to subscribe to a participating solar facility to receive renewable energy credits on their bill without requiring that they install solar panels themselves.

The program also mandates that a majority of the available renewable energy be set aside for low- and moderate-income households, who are less likely to be able to install their own systems, program manager Sawyer Morgan said in an email.

There are now more than 51,000 households subscribed to the community solar program statewide, Morgan said, receiving over $18 million in net savings since the first projects came online in 2021.

Most of the existing community solar projects are at capacity for participating households, he said, but the program anticipates over 100 additional solar projects to be completed and operational before the end of the year.

While New Jersey is currently home to 209 community solar projects with a total capacity of 291 megawatts, Morgan said, an additional 392 projects that are in development or under construction will add 703 megawatts of capacity to the grid.

“These projects are all on rooftops, canopies, landfills, contaminated sites, mining sites, and certain bodies of water as floating solar,” he said, including the solar project in Voorhees.

The 35-acre landfill on Centennial Boulevard ceased operations in 1972, and the property was acquired by the township five years later. In the decades since, the land has remained largely untouched, unable to be developed because of its prior use.

Now, solar panels are expected to cover about half the property, according to development plans approved by the Voorhees Township Planning Board last month. The exact configuration of the panels will be finalized before construction begins, the plans show.

The developer, Voorhees Solar LLC, was not immediately available for comment about the construction schedule, overall cost, and other project details. The company is owned by the Pegasus Cos. Inc., a wireless and broadband service provider based in Bala Cynwyd, according to the application submitted to the township.

“We can’t build a park or redevelop it with homes,” said Stephen Steglik, Voorhees Township administrator. “The only other option was keeping it empty and in its current state.”

At least with the solar project, he said, the township can create savings for residents while also collecting nearly $900,000 in one-time land lease fees.

The project will have the capacity to produce around four megawatts of energy when operating at full power, according to the project plans, enough to power up to 4,000 typical households.

Of the energy is generated by the project, 51% is going to be dedicated to low- and moderate-income households, Steglik said.

“While costs are going higher and higher, at the very least Voorhees Township is trying to take steps to maintain utility costs and at least try to save people a little bit of money,” he said.