JC School Board Holds Public Meeting on 2020-2021 Budget
A small yet impassioned group of parents and teachers spoke at the school board’s public meeting held at the Jersey City Board of Education’s (BOE) Claremont Avenue office Thursday night.
Entries by Sally Deering
Mayor Fulop and Councilman Yun Design $250 Million Plan to Fix School Budget Over Next Three Years
Taking steps to address Jersey City Public School’s $120 million budget gap, Mayor Steven Fulop and Ward D Councilman Michael Yun partnered on the Jersey City School Funding Action Plan they outlined for the next three years. Revenue from tax abatements, a school tax levy, the sale of city-owned property along with the 1% payroll tax already in place, are all part of the $250 million plan.
JC Council Approves Arts Trust Fund Referendum, Laurel Court Redevelopment, and New City Clerk
City Hall’s council chambers buzzed with local residents including a group of Downtown homeowners who came to address the council. They represented 37 of the 38 homeowners who want the council to pass a resolution formalizing a plan that deems their properties in need of redevelopment with possible condemnation. The developer Lennar Multifamily Communities (LMC) has made a tentative deal with the 37 homeowners to buy their homes for agreed-upon prices. In their place, LMC will build a 50-story high-rise with 810 rental apartments and 14,000 square feet of retail space, a new public park, an expanded Filipino Veterans Plaza, and a new public school for 300-350 children.
Arts Trust Fund, New Hotel and Redevelopment on Council Agenda
Goodman spoke of a “severe and pervasive funding gap that Jersey City non-profits face and have faced for a very long time on the state level”.
“(Jersey City is) on the very bottom of the funding list for counties across the state,” Goodman said. “We have Essex, a comparable county pulling in $5 million in funding. The entire County of Hudson gets $200,000 to share, so there’s a huge funding gap.”
Parents Plea for Funding as Schools Face Massive Budget Gap
Ninety-nine Jersey City residents—mostly moms, dads and teachers—signed up to speak at the Jan. 30 Jersey City School Board meeting at PS 41 (Fred W. Martin Center for the Arts) to address the $150 million budget gap. Many of the parents shared personal stories of the negative effects underfunding has had on their children’s education, and after they addressed the board, the parents ended their speeches with the battle cry, “Fund our schools!”