Defend Inclusion in New Jersey Schools

I.The Statement

We, the undersigned, including New Jersey residents and supporters across the country, stand for public schools that reflect — not erase — the communities they serve. We are alarmed by a growing trend in our state: school signage and messaging policies that, in the name of "neutrality," prohibit our schools from acknowledging the holidays, heritage, and observances of the families and students who fill them.

The first such measure to come to a vote is the Montville Township Board of Education's proposed Policy 7523 (School Signage and Electronic Messaging), scheduled for adoption on May 12, 2026. We oppose this policy, and we oppose any like it in any New Jersey school district.

As proposed, Policy 7523 would not permit schools to display, on district electronic signage and messaging, recognition of the holidays, observances, and heritage months that reflect the community. Section III of the policy strictly limits permissible content to four narrow categories — emergency notices, logistical deadlines, student achievements, and district events.

Section IV(4) reinforces this by requiring that "content related to holidays and celebration months, including but not limited to religious holidays, cultural celebrations, and observances, shall be avoided."

Together, these provisions would prohibit, or effectively prohibit, district signage from acknowledging:

II.Why We Object

Policy 7523 is disguised as an attempt at neutrality. By treating every cultural, religious, civic, and heritage acknowledgment as something to be removed from public view, the policy does not produce neutrality — it produces erasure. It denies the rich diversity of cultures, heritage, national pride, and religions that make up our communities, and it teaches our children that the safest response to difference is silence.

The policy is also incoherent on its own terms. Section I states that the signs exist "to facilitate communication between the school and the community." Yet Section IV(4) forbids the school from communicating with the community about virtually every shared moment of the calendar year. A policy that allows the sign to say "Congratulations to the State Science Fair Winners" but does not permit it to say "Honoring Our Veterans" on Veterans Day, or "Happy Memorial Day," is not a communications policy — it is a policy of withdrawal.

Public schools should reflect the communities they serve. New Jersey is home to veterans and immigrants; to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and people of no faith; to families whose roots reach across continents and across generations of American history. A district sign that cannot honor Memorial Day, that cannot acknowledge Black History Month, that cannot say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Diwali," does not serve its community — it withdraws from it.

What is being decided in Montville will not stay in Montville. Signage policies of this kind tend to spread from district to district once one board adopts them. New Jerseyans across the state have a stake in the outcome — and so do parents, educators, and former residents nationwide who care about the direction of our public schools.

We are not asking any board to favor one tradition over another. We are asking that schools be permitted — and trusted — to acknowledge the holidays, heritage, and observances that their students, families, and neighbors actually live.

III.Our Demand

We, the undersigned, respectfully demand:

1. That the Montville Township Board of Education withdraw proposed Policy 7523 in its entirety, and decline to take a final adoption vote at the May 12, 2026 meeting.
2. That every New Jersey school district reject signage and messaging policies that erase the holidays, heritage, and observances of the communities they serve.
3. That New Jersey school boards continue to trust their administrators and educators to communicate with their communities about the moments those communities share.