The following remarks by Dr. Qawi Telesford and Thair Joshua were made during public comments at the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting on October 30, 2025, in which Board members discussed potential changes to the Intentional Integration Initiative (referred to as the Triple I). Watch their comments beginning at 4:07:47 in the video:
From Dr. Qawi Telesford, who served on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education from 2022 to 2024, including as President in 2024, and is a graduate of Columbia High School:
Good evening, I’m here to talk about the Intentional Integration Initiative, and why it’s important for the district to remain committed to the work and stay the course.
III was created to correct long-standing socioeconomic imbalances in our schools, and the data show that it’s working. Every elementary school is moving toward the 5% variance target that the Alves Group itself determined was best for this district, as described in their Year One Report.
That balance matters. It means that no single school bears a disproportionate share of economic disadvantage, and every student benefits from learning in a more representative community.
Now we’re hearing proposals to raise the variance to 10%, to remove the middle schools, and to increase proximity-based placements. These are not small adjustments. Even by the Alves Group’s own analysis, raising the variance would result in only about a three-percent increase in students attending their closest school, roughly 15 students. That minimal change is not worth the risk of weakening integration.
We also have to remember that III is still in progress. We haven’t yet seen a full integration of our elementary schools, and we have yet to see how this generation of students will fare in later years. Until that happens, we can’t claim to understand its long-term impact or justify changing it before it has matured.
To be clear, I’m not opposed to testing new models or reviewing data, but those efforts must start with the right questions:
- Will this change improve integration or increase segregation?
- Will it reduce imbalance or make it worse?
- Does it expand opportunity, or does it narrow it?
Proximity alone cannot be the goal. A system that recreates neighborhood divisions isn’t efficiency, it’s resegregation by geography.
We keep hearing words like “efficiency” and “sustainability,” but true sustainability means maintaining equity, not cutting corners that reintroduce segregation. The most efficient system is one that works for every child, not just those who live closest to their school.
What families are asking for isn’t a retreat from integration; they’re asking for better operations: transportation that works, expanded before- and after-care options, and school cultures that foster real connection. That’s how we build shared experiences and a stronger community.
Integration isn’t what’s broken, it’s what’s working. The progress we’ve made under III is too significant and too hard-won to risk undoing now. Integration is not a checkbox or a bus route; it’s a commitment to what kind of community we want to be.
Thank you.
From Thair Joshua, who served on the Board of Education from 2020 to 2022, including as President in 2021 and 2022:
I am here to address the district’s latest statements on the Intentional Integration Initiative (III) as it relates to the middle schools.
The district is planning to remove III from middle school because “Currently, 91–93% of middle school students already attend their closest school, making the process more efficient and geographically consistent.”
This reasoning completely ignores the SES differences between the two schools before the implementation of III. In 21-22, 12% MMS were classified as low-SES, vs 8% at SOMS, which is a 50% difference. Not to mention that in 21-22, MMS had 33% black students population vs. 22% at SOMS, again a 50% difference. Let me be clear, both school communities suffer when they do not reflect the overall diversity of the district.
Furthermore, the rising sixth grade class is the last one that was enrolled without III. To remove it now robs them of an opportunity to experience the diversity of the district as they enter their middle school years.
Contrary to what some have said, implementing III for middle schools was necessary. The evidence suggests that even with an overall decline in low-SES, one middle school community will have a substantially higher percentage of low-SES students than the other if the district moves away from III. It makes no sense to have SES-balanced elementary schools, only to remove it at middle school.
A designed feeder system from elementary to middle school will only increase transportation costs, since students can be assigned to an elementary school and then “fed” to a middle school more than 2 miles away. And will likely lead to an increase in elementary transfer requests as families realize their middle schoolers will need transportation.
Schools have never worked well for those with non-standard work hours. This is not new. School start times have been staggered for years. To use that as a reason to “modify” III ignores that generations of Marshall and Delia Bolden parents could have kids in both schools with 2 different start times. There were no calls to unpair the schools; In fact the pairing was largely successful after a few years, because the community stayed the course. In fact 8 of the 9 members of the board who worked with the district on the initial III implementation were current or former Marshall/Bolden parents.
As a proponent of moving III forward, I do not look at our students as data points. But those using selective data points to further their own personal preferences are doing a disservice to our Black students. If there are instances of isolated black students, that is indeed problematic. But isolated placements were an issue pre-III and the solution is not to create MORE variance in the student assignment model, but less.
In conclusion, I strongly encourage the district to continue implementing the Intentional Integration Initiative student assignment algorithm in the middle schools.
Thank you for your time this evening, and as always, thank you for your service.
