Matawan-Aberdeen High School To Accept Addiction Relief

Carol Williams/Patch Staff

ABERDEEN, NJ - The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District Board of Education will consider at its regular meeting whether to accept $1.3 million in grant money to combat addiction and aid student recovery under Gov. Christie's announced plan to battle opioid abuse. It is already a done deal with officials announcing they will begin to accept applications for some 30 students by the end of the month. The state plan is two-fold. The Recovery High School Access Project will enable high school students in recovery to attend existing recovery high schools. A second program, the Recovery High School Planning Project, would fund a school district in the southern part of the state to work with a substance abuse treatment center and establish a new recovery high school program for students in the southern counties.

According to the state, recovery high schools facilitate a smooth transition from treatment to innovative, safe and supportive academic environments where the goal is to prevent relapse and prepare students to graduate and achieve success after high school. Meanwhile, the district has changed the location for Monday's regular action meeting, which previously had been scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ravine Drive Elementary School in Matawan to the same time but as the Administration Building, 1 Crest Way in Aberdeen, according to a public notice on the district's website.

The 23-page agenda includes a number of other noteworthy items from the consideration of the 2016-2017 board audit to accepting grant funds for the installation of additional security cameras. The audit, by the firm Suplee, Clooney and Company, contains recommendations for two changes, although they are not specified in the proposed agenda already posted on the website. Among other highlights are the appointment of an assistant principal for Matawan and the endorsement of the use of the program Rethink, a proprietary web-based program for students in the district's autism program. Finally, the district will report that it confirmed four of 15 reported incidents of bullying, harassment and intimidation, according to that monthly report.

Narcan is a heroin antidote now widely available.

Photograph by John Minchillo/Associated Press