Education

For all the fanfare surrounding Friday’s guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to reopen schools nationwide, New Jersey’s famous home rule still appears the prevailing guidance when it comes to public education in this state.

Education chief hears of need for special effort to get public education back on track.

Members of civic group Jersey City Together urged the Jersey City Board of Education to fully fund the city’s public schools at Monday’s listening session on the 2021-22 school budget, at which board trustees said the district is in need of more money from the state. 

Up-to-date Instructional plans approved by the state Department of Education

At its annual reorganization meeting held Jan. 5, Mussab Ali edged out incumbent Lorenzo Richardson by a 5-4 vote to gain the presidency of the school board.

There was no discussion during Thursday’s Jersey City Board of Education meeting about when public schools might reopen for in-person learning. Superintendent Franklin Walker has previously said that schools won’t reopen for live classes before February 2nd.

But like with many other topics and issues these days, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new twist to that conversation, as the prospect of an effective vaccine against the coronavirus in the coming weeks and months has raised questions over whether it, too, will be required in schools — and if that vaccine mandate would include students, teachers and all school staff.