Commentary: Celebrating a special landmark in a special community: 50 years of the Morris School District

Students come together at Morristown High rally against gun violence, June 1, 2022. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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Editor’s note: Forged by court order to promote integration, the Morris School District opened its classrooms a half century ago. This Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, the district celebrates its golden anniversary with an exhibit at the Morristown & Township Library and tours of Morristown High School from 11 am to 2 pm (pre-registration required), followed by the Colonials’ Homecoming Game against Randolph.

By Paul Tractenberg

The Morris community has marched to the beat of its own special drummer for the past 50 years, and actually much longer.

Paul Tractenberg
Paul Tractenberg

Its formal action in 1972 to create a merged K-12 school district culminated an effort that had begun years earlier to provide its students with rich educational opportunities in a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse setting. In that regard, it was far ahead of most communities in Morris County, New Jersey, and the nation.

The Morris School District then and now is an outlier in its commitment to diversity, not only at the school district level, but also at the building, classroom, and program level.

Even though New Jersey has the nation’s strongest state law prohibiting segregation in the public schools and requiring racial balance to the extent feasible, the record on the ground falls far short.

Indeed, overall New Jersey ranks among the most segregated states in the United States regarding both Black and Latino students. Yet Morris persists in valuing diversity and its students and the broader community are the better for it.

Key figures in 1971 Morris School District merger: From left, Beatrice and George Jenkins Sr.,; Beatrice was plaintiff in the lawsuit that created the district; district founding board member George Kelley; lawyer Steve Wiley, who won Jenkins’ civil case. Screenshot by Kevin Coughlin

When merger first occurred 50 years ago, the naysayers predicted that the flight of white students from the district en masse would be the inevitable consequence and that Morristown High School would wind up in short order as a virtually all-Black school.

Morristown High School. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Morristown High School. File photo by Kevin Coughlin

That never happened, to the credit of the Morris community. A critical mass of you in Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains have always believed that education in a diverse setting is far preferable to education in a segregated setting.

Even today, the Morris district’s white student population mirrors the statewide breakdown of more than 45 percent white students. Also like the statewide breakdown, the Latino student population has increased massively, and the Black population has declined.

These changing demographics have posed substantial educational and social challenges, but the district’s staff and the broader community have been up to the challenge. Indeed, a resilient, can-do attitude best characterizes the collective response.

Just two years ago, my colleagues, Allison Roda, Ryan Coughlan and Deirdre Dougherty, and I published a book about the Morris merger experience entitled Making School Integration Work: Lessons from Morris.

There we tell in detail the story of the district’s awe-inspiring, and ongoing, efforts to fashion a special school district. It has not always been easy, as many in the Morris community can attest. But it has been worth the effort. Those interested in learning more about this remarkable story can find many dimensions of the story recounted in our book.

One of those who led the way to the merged Morris School District was Steve Wiley, a towering figure in so many aspects of the Morris community. That makes it especially fitting to close this brief celebratory piece with a quote from Steve, which is at the heart of the Morris School District’s commitment to affording its students with the best possible education to prepare them for life in a diverse world:

Our schools teach the ABC’s with distinction, but young people in Morristown High and the grade schools also learn the D’s, E’s, and F’s. By association and experience they learn about democracy and diversity, about equal opportunity and ethnic strengths, about freedom and fraternity, about the whole alphabet of America.

With that message as our watchword, let us all celebrate a wonderful occasion—the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Morris School District.

Paul Tractenberg is a Board of Governors Public Service Professor of Law Emeritus at Rutgers Law School in Newark. During a career of more than 50 years, and counting, he has used law to advance the right of students to a “thorough and efficient” education in a diverse setting. He established the Education Law Center, the Institute on Education Law and Policy, and the Center for Diversity and Equality of Education. He is co-author of Making School Integration Work: Lessons from Morris (2020, Teachers College Press).

MORE ABOUT THE MERGER OF MORRISTOWN AND MORRIS TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS:

Foundation report praises Morris school merger, as district faces new tests from immigration

A legal genius who courted Einstein: Wiley statue evoke warm memories

Lookback: The Morristown High Riots of 1974

Morris District…honors pioneer of historic merger

Remembering one of Morristown’s Finest: George Jenkins Sr., a community cop for turbulent times

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