b'Searching for aHAPPIER, HEALTHIER, SMARTER way to school?For kidsfrom 3 to 17Mila Jasey with Representative Mikie Sherrill and Representative Bonnie Watson-Cole-man at a "March to Roevember" rally.andlateratanexperimentalchar- South Orangeand none in Maple-ter school in New York City. Duringwood.ChrisChristiesgubernatorialterms,We were definitely steered, Jasey when school funding was under fre- says.quent assault, Jasey kept tremendousThey bought the least expensive one, pressure to ensure that the most chal- in Tuxedo Park. A few years later, preg-lengeddistrictscontinuedtoreceivenant with her third child, Jasey went theleveloffundingtheydeserved,into labor as they were packing up the Theroux says. house to move to a bigger one in Mon-Jaseyfoughttobringlocalcon- trose Park. Her husband, his nephews trol back to the Newark and Patersonand her brothers moved the household schooldistrictsandco-chairedhear- while she was in the hospital.ings in Newark that led to the disso- There were things I never found, lution of One Newark, a controversialshe says with a laugh.school plan that assigned children toMila and Neil, a retired state Su-schoolsacrossthecity.PeoplecreditperiorCourtjudge,stillliveinthat her for creating the state program thathouse,anditremainsthecenterof allows children from one school dis- her life. On short notice, she threw a trict to opt into another, at no cost tovictory party there in June for Garnet their parents. Hill,hersuccessor.Recently,Jaseys Recently she led the fight to keepwhole family gathered in the house to school-basedmentalhealthservices,celebrate a joint birthday party for her Theroux says. And a bill she co-spon- mother and her older brother.sored expanded suicide prevention ser- We would never move, Jasey says. vices on college campuses. I cant think of living anywhere else.WhenRutgersUniversityfacultyShesaysshelovesSouthOrange went on strike in the spring, she joinednot only for the life it has given her the picket line.Jasey has worked on hous-ing affordability, another inter-estshapedbyherexperience. Sheandherhusband,Neil, livedfirstinManhattanand then in East Orange, his home-town.Whenitcametimeto buy, they looked in Montclair and South Orange.It was 1976, and the Jaseys wereshownthreehousesinMila Jasey with Governor Phil Murphy.feature story /27'