By Candace Kelley
Correspondent
Most high school students who are suspended stay at home.
“Sometimes they think it’s the game to play to get suspended and have a couple of days off from school,” said Montclair Neighborhood Development Corporation Executive Director Al Pelham.
But suspended students from Montclair High School now have the option to be a part of the Project Oasis Student Support Program, spearheaded by Pelham. It kicked off Feb. 2 and is headquartered at the Montclair Neighborhood Development Corporation. The advocacy group is a voice for the disadvantaged.
“Full day, 8 to 3, four hours of academic training and two hours of academic counseling,” Pelham said.
It’s an optional program, and parents have to give permission for their children to enroll. According to the district’s New Jersey School Report Card, in the 2013-2014 school year, 2.2 percent of the Montclair High School’s student body was suspended. Pelham and his team have been organizing school-approved substitute teachers and tutors for satellite locations like a new facility on Pine Street.
All students are welcome, but his group emphasizes what he sees as a national epidemic of school suspensions of African-Americans and other minority students. Pelham is also the president of the Montclair NAACP and believes this issue needs to be front and center.
The program is free and staff members will also help parents come up with a strategic plan that will help students overcome some of the obstacles they may be facing.
Pelham says the program helps not only students, but their parents.
“Single mom household could be needing help with energy assistance. The child could be having other issues, so through the counseling piece of it and the intake piece we want to see if we can help in other areas,” said Pelham.
The development corporation has already received a number of grants but they received $15,000 from the Board of Education for this program. Pelham’s next step? Take the program to middle school and put an end to the concept of suspension altogether.
“Overall we’re in the community to serve the under-served populations,” said Pelham.
It’s work, he says, that the Montclair Neighborhood Development Corporation has been doing for 30 years.