Please note that the NJ State Board of Education hearing described in the posting below has been cancelled. Here’s Roberta Braverman’s email explaining:

Dear NJAGC members and friends of gifted education,

We are now on a detour mode. So sorry to have sent the email to our NJAGC membership before I tried to make my appointment to speak next week. Unfortunately, after this email went out, I was told by the secretary to the board that the public hearing for this month was canceled. And it gets worse. The “open topics” will not be heard until May.

This makes it imperative that as many people as we can reach, write to the State Board of Education NOW to politely and firmly request:

1. that the February State Board of Education public hearing “limited topics” includes gifted education, especially needed due to no action since July, 2005 on the Report of the Governor’s Commission to Study Gifted Programs, and that this issue be given time and consideration.

2. that in the upcoming announcement of the reorganization of the Department of Education that the State Board assures that gifted education has representation at the DOE in Trenton, and a staff person assigned to serve the educators, parents and county offices, as well as to assure that gifted children are included in all Department initiatives.

The letter should be directed to
Dr. Arnold G. Hyndman, President
NJ State Board of Education
500 Riverview Plaza
P. O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625-0500

Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Note that you want your letter to be included as part of public record and distributed to the full board. The Commissioner of Education is a member of the State Board of Education.

It may also be helpful to copy the Governor, as he appoints members to the board, and education falls in the executive branch of government.

*Governor Jon Corzine:*

Office of the Governor _http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html_
PO Box 001 South Jersey Office North Jersey Office
Trenton, NJ 08625 856-614-3200 973-648-2640
609-292-6000

on the web form choose topic: /Education/, choose sub-topic: /K-12 schools/

In most cases, you are writing as an individual, not as a spokesperson of a group, so keep the/ N/A/

subject: /Gifted Education at DOE/

Please copy njagc@njagc.org with any correspondence you send or receive from this campaign.

Thank you so much for your help and for understanding. Although it isn’t easy, we will not give up or give in. Together we can make a difference for gifted children in New Jersey.

Respectfully serving gifted children,

Roberta Braverman, njagc@njagc.org
Vice president Advocacy on behalf of NJAGC Officers
and Board of Trustees