Consultant outlines redistricting plan for Matawan-Aberdeen schools; parents press for grandfathering and schedule changes

Fred Bedjovsky, a consultant with City AGIS, presented a draft redistricting plan to the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District board on Jan. 7, saying the proposal balances attendance areas with school capacity and incorporates housing development yields and community feedback.

The plan, Bedjovsky said, used parcel boundaries and aggregated them into “planning units” to create clear attendance lines and to project enrollments by geography. He told the board the online engagement tool, published Jan. 7, drew 3,167 unique visits and 62 verified comments, and that software projections show each school staying within a reasonable deviation of capacity through 2034.

Why it matters: the proposal would change attendance boundaries and could alter start times, class sizes and transportation routes for elementary students across the district. Those operational changes prompted several parents to urge adjustments during public comment.

“As they are currently presented, schedules are drastically different,” Amanda Allen, a Cambridge Park and Lloyd Road parent, said during public comment, arguing that staggered start and end times would make morning drop-offs and afternoon pickups difficult for families with children at both schools.

Another resident, Richard Elle, asked the board to allow current fourth graders to be grandfathered so they could finish elementary school with their classmates. “Allowing grandfathering for current fourth graders would not change positions [in the] long-term plan,” Elle said, arguing the change would have minimal impact on class size but a meaningful benefit for affected students.

District staff and board members acknowledged the requests but said accommodating individual grandfathering would push several buildings over capacity. Presenter (Speaker 2) told the board staff had worked “tirelessly” to try to make grandfathering happen but that doing so “put us over capacity,” leaving the district to prioritize stability across the next decade.

Transportation and special education access were recurring themes. Bedjovsky described transportation modeling that identifies which students would be bused versus walking, and a routing analysis the consultant said supports the plan’s viability. District staff noted the district currently operates four tiers for transportation eligibility and plans outreach to confirm whether eligible students are riding buses; the presenter said the district identified 53 students relevant to that outreach.

Staff also summarized frequently asked questions received through the engagement process, including concerns about special education programming and ensuring related services are available across buildings so students do not lose access to supports.

The board heard a summary of personnel items (including the retirement of Kelly Barra after 32 years of service) and a second reading of Policy 8561 on school nutrition procedures. Several procedural motions were called during the meeting; the transcript does not record final roll-call vote tallies for those motions.

At the end of the public meeting, the chair read a resolution to convene an executive session to discuss privacy, personnel matters and legal advice, estimated at about 45 minutes; the board said action would not take place during the closed session and requested a motion and second to proceed.

Next steps: the consultant outlined a timeline that included scenario development (Dec. 2025–Jan. 2026), community engagement that began mid-January and further opportunities for public feedback via the district’s redistricting webpage and email. The board encouraged residents to continue submitting location-specific comments online and by email.