Holmdel School Board To Vote On Repeal Of Trans Student Policy

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Holmdel Board of Education is expected to vote Wednesday night on a first reading to repeal a state education policy that addresses how districts can counsel students who identify as transgender.

The meeting begins with an executive session at 6 p.m. at Holmdel High School, according to the posted agenda.

State Department of Education Policy 5756 was put into place in 2019 in the district, and it offers guidance for school districts regarding transgender students, based on the Law Against Discrimination.

The policy was originally characterized as mandated by the private policy-writing company, Strauss Esmay Associates. But in a legal argument by the state Attorney General in a case involving Hanover in Morris County, statements were made that the policy was not mandatory.

This opened the door for repeal of a policy that many parents oppose because it puts conditions on notifying parents whose children may approach school counselors about identifying as transgender or nonbinary.

Colts Neck and Howell school boards repealed the policy at meetings last week.

Marlboro, Manalapan-Englishtown and Middletown districts all amended the policy this year to require, in most instances, involvement of parents in a discussion of their child's transgender identification and are currently under an injunction not to implement the policies based on a lawsuit brought by the state Attorney General.

The Hanover (Morris County) Board of Education has already voted to repeal 5756, and was to vote on Sept. 26 to make its repeal permanent, the board president there said last week.

According to a statement by Hanover Board President Lisa Bomengo, "Hanover Township Board of Education was well within our legal rights to repeal policy 5756. At oral argument on Sept. 6, 2023, the Honorable Stuart A. Minkowitz, A.J.S.C. and Deputy Attorney General James Michael acknowledged and confirmed that Policy 5756 is not mandatory and, rather, 'a voluntary policy anyway subject to repeal by the Board at any time.' "

In Holmdel, the board, in a poll at the Committee of the Whole meeting Sept. 20, agreed - with six votes - to put the matter on the public agenda at the meeting Wednesday, Sept. 27, at Holmdel High School (6 p.m. executive session, 7 p.m. public session).

You can read more about last week's meeting and comments in support of or in opposition to the policy in a Patch story here.

The board's counsel last week said the vote will require a first reading, and then a second vote, with proper notice of the meetings to the public.

And Board President Peter Reddy, who supported putting the matter on the agenda, said a Policy Committee has just been created and will have its first meeting in October to begin a review of the 180 to 200 policies that Holmdel, like other districts, has on the books.