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By JOSEPH P. SMITH • Staff Writer • April 22, 2009

VINELAND -- This may be the last year 12-year-old Jose Joel Peralta takes a school bus here from Bridgeton.




Peralta is one of 560 children attending a New Jersey Department of Children and Families regional school. The department intends to close the school system in phases.

By June 2010, the goal is to have all students back in their home school districts. The Cumberland Campus has not been assigned a closing date.

Cumberland Campus students either will be taken care of in their home districts or be placed in special schools somewhere in the state.

"We're working very closely with the Department of Education and whatever district is taking the lead for that county," department spokeswoman Kate Bernyk said.

Cumberland has between 25 and 30 students, and it is one of 18 such campuses in the state.

Peralta, who has impaired vision and suffers from seizures, was enrolled 6 years ago at the West Sherman Avenue school. His conditions require special attention, and that keeps him out of regular classrooms, his mother Grissel Ayala said.

"They sent him here and he never left," Ayala said. "I am happy here. The staff, they love these kids like they were their own."

Ayala is co-president of the Cumberland Campus Parent Teacher Association and, with unionized school staff, is trying to keep the system open.

"I wouldn't be comfortable at home knowing my son is somewhere else," Ayala said.

On Thursday afternoon, Vineland Mayor Robert Romano toured the school.

It was a first look at the school for the first-term mayor, and he emerged after about an hour and said he'd do what he could to change Trenton's mind.

"I don't really know what the governor's thinking," Romano said. "It's a great school and the kids seem like they're content."

The mayor said he'd be writing Gov. Jon S. Corzine about the closings and talk to state legislators, as well as U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo.

Later this month, Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matt Milam are going to visit the school.

Bernyk stressed that the closing is not "budget driven," something employees dispute.

"Our enrollment has been steadily declining and that's really because of the local school districts and counties building their ability to serve these students," she said. "We actually had closed schools in the past. A year ago, we had a school in Somerset County that, because of the low enrollment and the needs of the students, we closed."




The regional school system has four categories of students: The severely cognitively and physically disabled; those with behavioral and mental health problems; those "at risk" for failing in school; and pregnant teens or teens with children.

Bernyk said that each student sent back will come with his or her individual education plan, or IEP. An IEP specifies what special conditions must be followed in teaching a student.

Peralta, who got letters March 30 notifying her of the planned closing, said she wants the governor to tour the school.

"We have tried sending e-mails, but we haven't gotten any response," she said.

Lyshiron McClendon, president of Communication Workers of America Local 1034, works at the campus. She is among 24 full-time workers and 10 part-timers.

McClendon said the closing is a cost-cutting move, not a response to lower enrollment.

"He's making it seem like they are bottom of the barrel," McClendon said. "But they still deserve what everyone else gets."