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Aaron Morrill

Mayor Spars with Lavarro Over Liberty Science Center High School

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Mayor Steven Fulop and his city council nemesis Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro sparred yesterday over the mayor’s plan to fund the operation of a new “state-of-the-art” public high school adjacent to Liberty Science Center.

At issue during the semi-monthly council caucus meeting was a resolution that would commit the city to contributing $2 million every year for thirty years towards the operation of the public school, which will be run by Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST) which currently operates five schools open to county residents.

Along with Liberty Science Center, the school will be part of the future SciTech Scity, a 30-acre “innovation campus” billed as a “future technology hub for students, innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists.” According to the administration, the school will “offer skill-centric science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes for 400 science-talented high school students in grades 9–12.” The administration claims that students will have access to “a work education program” at “200-plus technology startup companies…that will call SciTech Scity home.”

The school would be built with the proceeds of a $45 million bond offering.

Before yesterday’s caucus, activists like Chris Gadsden, principal of Lincoln High School, questioned the mayor’s plan. “I find [the plan] to be a little bit disrespectful to the budgetary process that’s taking place right now where the Jersey City Board of Education is asking the city to come through on its commitments to fully fund the Jersey City Schools.”

In a letter to Hudson County View, McNair Academic High School Athletic Director Kristen Zadroga-Hart asked “why are we paying the county to build and run a school that will house students from outside of Jersey City on top of the money we already pay from our County taxes? Why not invest that money in our own Jersey City Public School students?”

Several council members expressed concern that Jersey City was shouldering too much of the financial burden given that the school would be open to students from across the county. Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano said he supported the school but added, “if you’re going to include all 11 other municipalities in the county, they should be kicking in also.”

Council President Joyce Watterman said, “My concern is for the kids who may need extra help to get to that level to even get into a school like this. Lavarro concurred, opining that if standardized tests were the measure for admission, the school would not provide “an equitable opportunity.”

To these concerns, Paul Hoffman, the President and CEO of Liberty Science Center, told the council members, “We’ve already raised $300,000 for 7th and 8th graders who are really into science, but maybe their skills in math are behind some of the other children who are entering the school. So we will work with them to get their skills up so that they can enter the school on equal footing with the other students.”

Hoffman said students would be admitted based upon “science interest and science talent” but that the county had yet to develop the specific criteria.

Hoffman also said that a program in the works called “High Schools of the Future” would train Jersey City students “for 21st century jobs that they could get when they graduate” and involve commitments from employers to hire such students out of the schools.

Lavarro said, “I’m not in favor of a county school. I would like to see every single seat go to Jersey City kids.”

In a similar vein, Ward E Councilman James Solomon questioned why the city would only get a portion of the seats having donated thirteen acres of land for SciTech Scity.

With Hoffman fielding a barrage of questions, Fulop asked if he could jump in and comment.

According to Fulop, Hudson County has committed to allocate sixty percent of the available spots in the school to Jersey City students. “Hopefully it’s more than that.” Normally, based upon its population, Jersey City would receive forty percent of the seats in a county school.

Fulop called it a “gross misrepresentation” to link the city’s donation of land to the plan for the high school. “The idea behind [donating the land] was not just the high school…it was an entire ecosystem that would create scientists… and foster a global brand for Jersey City around science and technology.” The mayor predicted that the 200-plus businesses incubated at SciTech would build their headquarters in and around Jersey City.

“We explored with them this apparatus because there was no other mechanism to create the same kind of educational opportunity, the same kind of flexible curriculum, and we’re having a cost savings for Jersey City residents.”

As to the cost, Fulop said that the $2 million per year “is a massive discount to what the Jersey City taxpayers pay per school…less than $10,000 per student is a huge discount to what we pay for the Jersey City public school system.”

“This is a good thing. And it’s really sad that it’s falling in the social media world into a political conversation.”

Both Fulop and Hoffman said that the previous Jersey City Public Schools administration had been offered the opportunity to build the school but that there hadn’t been a funding mechanism by which it could be done. Nor, Fulop said, did the Jersey City Schools have a way to create “the same flexible board and the same flexible curriculum.”

The mayor called the school a “layup” for the residents and taxpayers.

To Solomon’s concern that the city doesn’t have a written promise from the county to guaranty the number of Jersey City seats, Fulop said that that’s the mechanism used at the county’s Explore 2000 School. “They’ve kept their word and exceeded it every year.”

Hoffman noted that private philanthropists have donated $5 million dollars to a public school. “They don’t have control over this school. That is something which is very unusual that we’ve been able to bring to this.”

“This is not at the expense of the Jersey City public school system.” said Fulop.  “We have committed a lot… in the last year alone.”

Lavarro said he wanted to look at the neighborhood and demographic breakdown of students admitted to the Explore 2000 School. “If that’s the model for admission that’s going to be utilized…to make sure that that’s the model that you want for admission to go into this proposed county STEM school.”

The mayor said he had promised Council President Watterman that the city would “set up a program to make sure that the south side of the city actually has an infrastructure around it to support children actually getting into this school.”

Lavarro called the mayor’s promise to Council President Watterman “a recent conversation” that “didn’t go into the overall planning.” Fulop called it “an absolute false statement.”

Fulop said that Lavarro, as former Jersey City Redevelopment Authority chairman, was “the architect of the deal” and knew that making it a county school was an option.  “The only thing that’s changed is that it’s an election season now.”

Resolution 21-260 is on the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting of the Municipal Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea Crowley-Hughes

BOE Wrestles With Property Tax Hike

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The Jersey City Board of Education has until tomorrow to decide whether to approve a $827 million budget that fully funds the city’s public schools and raises the school tax levy by $103.7 million.

The proposed budget presented by Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker at Monday’s public hearing uses $100 million from a state “banked cap” to help close a $117.3 million projected shortfall for the 2021-22 school year. It would help fund a trauma-sensitive schools program, bilingual education, summer enrichment and a 3:1 device initiative among other services and would raise school taxes on the average home by $1,168 per year or $97 per month. 

The board has a deadline of Wednesday, March 17, to vote on the budget, which will then be sent to the county superintendent. A virtual board meeting with a budget vote is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.

“We must reframe educational equity by breaking down the barriers to learning that existed long before the pandemic, and now the health crisis has exacerbated,” said Walker on Monday.

Jersey City Public Schools educate more than 30,000 students, including 3,800 with English as a second language, 3,900 with special needs and 16,000 who qualify for free and reduced lunch. 

The schools have been underfunded for the past decade, board president Mussab Ali said at a previous budget hearing. The district is facing a $71 million cut in state aid and the city has only committed to providing $65 million in payroll tax to the schools. 

Every member of the public who spoke during the meeting asked the board to support a budget that fully funds the public schools. But school board members had conflicting opinions on using the banked cap, which allows districts to raise school taxes above the state’s 2% cap on increases by using saved additional taxing authority not used in prior years, according to New Jersey Education Aid. 

Trustee Noemi Velazquez said those who have a problem with taxes do not own homes and are worried about rising rent costs and gentrification. Trustee Gerald Lyons said the board hears from city residents who are “hanging on by a thread” and cannot afford a tax increase.  

In his presentation, the superintendent said a failure to use the banked cap underfunds the budget “and we lose a once in a lifetime opportunity to permanently add $100 million to our revenue base.” 

Nancy Pokler of civic group Jersey City Together highlighted that the city allocates just over 25% of its budget to the school district and 50% to the municipal budget.

 “In most other parts of New Jersey, you’ll see those numbers flipped,” Pokler said.

Megan Howard Noveck said the blame that can be placed on city leaders is well-understood and documented, but “the part we don’t talk about enough is just how low our school tax rate is.”

“As our tax-paying property base has rapidly grown over the past few years, our public school tax levy has not nearly kept pace with that growth,” said Novek. 

Noveck and other members of Jersey City Together who wrote Facebook comments on the live-streamed meeting said the way to get the city to increase its funding of the schools is for the board to raise the local tax levy. 

Trustee Lorenzo Richardson made comments supportive of this tactic. “We have to raise the levy and we have to force the city to deal with it,” Richardson said. 

Trustee and former mayor Marilyn Roman encouraged board members to start an awareness campaign and pressure city officials to direct more funding to the schools.

Board president Ali originally told board members a second budget would have been presented at the hearing, but administrators did not produce that alternate option. He directed the administration to develop a second budget with a lower proposed tax levy by tomorrow, identifying more limited-time expenses that could be covered by government or grant funds. 

Walker and Regina Robinson indicated they will work on adjustments to show the board at Wednesday’s meeting.

 

Andrea Crowley-Hughes

Group Urges BOE to Fully Fund Schools

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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. 

Reading from a letter Jersey City Together sent to Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker and the board, Nancy Pokler said, “You can and must propose and pass a fully funded, initial budget, one that meets the needs of our city’s children.” 

The group’s request is based on surveys and small group listening sessions with 1,000 residents. 

Jersey City Together’s letter says the New Jersey budget is expected to cut $83 million in state aid to the Jersey City Public Schools, as estimated by the Education Law Center, and the city’s payroll tax is expected to deliver approximately $20 million less revenue for the schools in the 2021-22 school year.

Education Law Center Research Director Danielle Farrie was quoted in the Jersey Journal about the potential for the district to lose $83 million in state aid. She said the cut would bring the budget shortfall to more than $350 million and leave the district with few options to fill the gap. 

The estimate from the Education Law Center is higher than what the superintendent estimated in November 2020, when he spoke of a coming shortfall due to a $30 million cut in state aid.

Pokler and Brigid D’Souza, who also spoke at the meeting, signed the letter as members of the Jersey City Together Education Core Team. 

“As a parent, I am seeing at home the impact of underfunding,” said D’Souza.

D’Souza told the board her son is on a Zoom call with more than 30 students in his fourth grade class each day. “I see him getting lost in the calls, not because of any deficit on the teacher’s part, but just because the class size should be smaller,” she said. 

“I ask you to please define adequacy so the public understands what a fully-funded budget should look like,” said D’Souza.

Board president Mussab Ali acknowledged, “it’s no secret that we have been underfunded for more than the last decade.” He said the district is currently underfunded by $57 million from the state, which is below the state’s own adequacy standard.

“We’re expecting between an $80 to $90 million dollar additional cut,” on top of being underfunded, he said. “If we were just to raise taxes $90 million dollars, all we’re doing is catching up from the hole the state’s about to put us in.”

For the 2020-21 school year, the board approved a $736 million budget that increased the school tax levy by 39 percent. 

Board trustee Marilyn Roman said in last year’s budget process, the board “bit the bullet” in asking the public to approve a budget that would raise taxes. 

“Our children not only have problems in terms of their learning but they are in dire straits in some instances when they are outside of school as well,” she said. Looking toward the future, Roman said the board needs to find a stable source of funding for the schools. 

Board trustees said they hoped the district’s three state monitors would communicate the district’s need for more funding. 

Also at the meeting, the superintendent said more details on what a school district re-opening would look like will be shared next week. In January, the board decided to keep learning remote for the third marking period at least until April 23.

“Our goal is to bring students in for in-person learning in incremental stages,” Walker said. “All the students will have the option to return for in-person learning, not simultaneously, but in groups.”

He said the re-opening process involves a school readiness assessment using recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), holding meetings with staff, conducting walkthroughs and reviewing the findings with the health department.

Jersey City Public Schools’ reopening plan, which includes a building readiness document, has been posted on the district website.

 

Ron Leir

Board of Education Elects New Leaders

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The man who called himself the “youngest elected Muslim in America” after winning a seat on the Jersey City Board of Education in 2017 now heads up that body.

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

Lekendrick Shaw, who ran on the same slate with Richardson in last year’s BOE election, took over as vice president, turning aside challenges by the current vice president Gina Verdibello and by Noemi Velazquez.

Ali and Richardson had been on opposing sides on several key issues on how best to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on city schools and on relations with the city administration.

Two members of the public who spoke after the board’s actions expressed their displeasure with the results.

Monique Andrews interpreted the vote to mean that Mayor Steven Fulop “now has control of the board,” adding that “taxpayers and the [city teachers’] union are in jeopardy … Politics is still here. Everybody is just trying to move up the ladder, and no one cares about our kids.”

Charles Balcer griped, “To have [Richardson] tossed aside leaves the board in uncharted waters. It’s a sad commentary.”

But after the reorganization voting, Richardson and Ali pledged to work together for the betterment of the local district and its approximately 30,000 students.

Richardson, a Ferris High School graduate who got an accounting degree from St. Peter’s College, said 2020 “has been a difficult year” for the district.  A youth mentor, Richardson added that “God saw us through it. We hope that in 2021 we can move the district forward.”

Ali, who heads the city’s Immigration Affairs Commission, is a McNair Academic High School alum and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University in Newark where he led the Muslim Students Association. He is working to develop a non-profit to train grassroots leaders of the future.

Acknowledging that he and his colleagues face tough times ahead given state school budget cuts, Ali said he hoped that with the ultimate distribution of COVID vaccines, “by the end of the year, we can see kids back in schools.”

Board members and the public may gain more insight into how learning will proceed when the board next convenes on Jan. 21. Franklin Walker, the district’s superintendent of schools, said he expected to share more details on that topic at that time. Since the pandemic hit, public school students have received virtual instruction.

Factions on the board have debated whether to reopen schools now or to wait until the district could adequately clean and ventilate classrooms and ensure that students would be re-entering a safe and secure school building.

Acknowledging that board members “don’t always get along, and that’s okay,” trustee Alexander Hamilton said, “Yeah, [our] leadership has changed, but we’ve worked together before.” Now, he said, “we need to work in a civilized way to make sure kids are our number one priority. It’s good to see two guys from the local school system as board officers …. Let’s put a smile on our face and get behind them.”

The Board also heard public comments from Mary Cruz, who congratulated Ali and Shaw and urged board members to unite to develop a strategy to “close the gap on student performance, which has been getting wider” since the onset of the pandemic; and from Robert Knapp, who lauded Superintendent Walker for “balancing the budget without a single layoff,” for re-launching, with New Jersey City University, the special needs program based at the A. Harry Moore School, and for securing free Wi-Fi hotspots and thousands of meals for children in need.

Following the public remarks, the board participated in a training session conducted by Charlene Peterson, a field representative of the N.J. School Boards Association, who reminded the trustees that their road to success depends on working together as a team. She added that their power derives not from the community that elected them, but from the legislature, and that it falls to the superintendent, not the board members, to run the schools; they should hold him accountable for the outcome.

 

 

 

 

Daniel Levin

Board of Education Mum on Reopening

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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.

The subject was touched on obliquely by Trustee Mussab Ali, who noted that the FDA has yet to approve a Covid vaccine for children under 16. Trustee Gerald Lyons questioned whether vaccinations will be a requirement for staff and students. He added that policies will need to be established.

While several large cities including New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago have rolled out in-person learning without a vaccine, a debate over whether it should be suggested or even mandatory has broken out.

In other matters, President Lorenzo Richardson and Superintendent Franklin Walker spared over $35,000 thousand in raises for 12 non-union employees who report directly to the superintendent. Walker first requested the raises in June.

Walker, apparently eager to bring the matter to a close, claimed that the Board was violating district protocol by not pursuing his recommendations. Richardson argued for taking up the issue up in closed session, as did Corporate Counsel Michael Gross who said that Mr. Walker’s public comments put the district in legal jeopardy. Another attorney, General Counsel Bryant Horsely disagreed, saying that Walker’s comments were not a problem. Ultimately, Richardson’s position prevailed and the discussion was put off.

The board will hold its reorganization meeting as a virtual meeting on Tuesday, January 5 at 6 p.m.

The next virtual Jersey City School Board meeting will be held Thursday, January 28, at 6 p. m.

For past coverage of Jersey City School Board meetings, please click here.

Jersey City Times Staff

Editorial: It’s Time to Bite the Bullet on School Reopening

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On Monday night School Superintendent Franklin Walker predicted that Jersey City schools would continue remote learning until February. Walker had previously targeted November for reopening. While some educators and parents are no doubt relieved by the news, we believe that Walker’s recommendation is a cop out.

According to the Jersey Journal, which covered Monday’s caucus meeting and later interviewed Walker, the superintendent explained, “We have had schools (in the state) that have gone to some hybrid structure, and they have had incidents where they had to close down. We certainly had a chance to learn from our neighbors and other areas that started school long before us, and the indication at this point and time is not to put ourselves in that situation.”

At first blush, Walker’s explanation seems to make sense. If school districts nearby have been unable to pull off a return to school, why would Jersey City be able to? Why not err on the side of caution?

Here are five counter arguments the Board of Education should consider:

1. There is evidence that virtual learning is having dire educational impacts. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has cited data showing a sharp drop in the number of the youngest students who are meeting literacy benchmarks. According to the Washington Post, D.C. Public Schools released data showing a decline of 22 percentage points in the number of kindergartners meeting literacy goals at the start of the school year compared to a year ago and a nine-percentage-point drop in students through second grade who are meeting these targets. There’s no reason to think that these numbers would be different in Jersey City.

2. Though many large cities in New Jersey are electing to stay with remote learning, other larger cities, including Chicago, Miami-Dade County, Houston, and San Diego are opting to resume classes in some form. New York City, a much larger and more complex school system, has managed to implement a partial reopening.

3. According to an article in The New York Times, experts believe that children are unlikely to stoke coronavirus outbreaks. Infection rates are particularly low at the elementary level. The Times quoted Dr. David Rubin, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think there’s a pretty good base of evidence now that schools can open safely in the presence of strong safety plans and even at higher levels of case incidence than we had suspected,” he said.

4. In an interview on CNN last night, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that the U.S. may not return to “normality” until late 2021 or possible early 2022. If Superintendent Walker and the Board of Education are thinking that the situation in February will be substantially different from the situation we confront now, they may be sorely disappointed.

5. Jersey City has a seven day average infection rate of approximately 7.6 cases per 100,000. Chicago and New York, which are both reopening, are at 28.7 and 7.7, respectively.

Restarting classes, even with a hybrid system, is a weighty decision. The health of our children and our families should be paramount. And there is some evidence that communities of color will need more convincing as to the safety of reopening. However, the health calculus must also include the mental health and the education of school children, many of whom come from homes that cannot provide the support they need to learn online.

The superintendent, the Board of Education and the teacher’s union can’t put this decision off forever. One approach would be to start with elementary school students who pose the least risk and may be suffering the most academically. The CDC has published an exhaustive list of strategies to minimize spread. Jersey City should study these options and use its best judgment to choose how it will reopen schools prior to next February. However, simply kicking the can down the road and hoping that the decision will get easier any time soon is a mistake.

 

Daniel Levin

Superintendent Walker Doubts JC Schools Will Reopen Before November

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At the Jersey City School Board meeting this past Thursday evening, Superintendent Walker cast doubt that Jersey City’s schools would reopen before November.

“My concerns are that if we are out in September, there is a good chance we will be out in October as well,” the superintendent said. He added that if they do decide in September that the schools will reopen, it will still take weeks to put things in place:

“There is a good chance with us not going back in September it probably means we will not go back until November, if we go back. If we do not go back in November, we could be out till January. Our position is to err on the side of caution when it comes to the safety and welfare of our children.”

Superintendent Walker also spoke about scheduling and other matters.

There will be a “hybrid schedule for staff and possible furlough for others,” he noted, and class schedules would be posted on the district’s website. Teachers will take attendance at the start of each class and, as requested by parents, all schools will have “a nurse and an assistant.” The superintendent also reported that terminal pay for retirees had been approved by the board and would be released.

The meeting also featured remarks by Victor Pennetta, whose company, Pennetta Industrial Automation, has been brought in by the district to address concerns over ventilation in the schools.  Pennetta said that the board had “kept up with code” over bring fresh air into classrooms and other spaces in the schools including the older buildings over the years. He noted that each classroom has ventilation equipment that brings in the legally requisite amount of fresh air and has an exhaust system that pulls the inside air out.

“We are constantly bringing in fresh air, and we are  constantly purging classrooms,” Pannetta said. “The air goes through a filtering system before being distributed. When reducing students in the space, the ventilation will be much better, and there will be additional ventilation and exhaust. They have been going through the buddings with Facilities [the Facilities Department] making sure systems are up to snuff, and so far everything has been pretty good.”

Finally, the meeting featured discussion about when the school board should meet next. Board member Mussab Ali asked whether the next meeting, which is slated for September 24, should be moved up to give parents more notice should the district decide to reopen schools in October. Given the length of time needed to prepare for reopening and the fact that it is already late August, Superintendent said that the next meeting could indeed remain September 24.

The next virtual Jersey City School Board meeting will be held Thursday, September 24, at 6 p.m.

For past coverage of Jersey City School Board meetings, please click here.

 

 

 

Sally Deering

J.C. School Board Prepares for September Reopening

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A week after voting to adopt a $736 million budget for the 2020-2021 school year, the Jersey City Public Schools met to discuss preparations for the September reopening of the district’s 39 schools. Since schools closed March 16, teachers have been instructing students via the internet. They’ll continue doing so until Governor Phil Murphy authorizes schools to reopen.

At Thursday’s virtual meeting, the board’s nine trustees addressed special education classes’ returning to A. Harry More School and bringing in professional cleaning services to help district custodians get the schools ready for the fall. In addition, Superintendent Franklin Walker announced that due to Covid-19 restrictions, all June graduation ceremonies will be held virtually.

Students With Special Needs

Jersey City parent Barbara Hildner opened the public comments portion of the meeting to say she was concerned about  students with disabilities’ moving back to A. Harry Moore School. Last year, the students were relocated to Gerald R. Dynes Regional day school when a portico at A. Harry Moore School collapsed, halting classes until repairs were made. Once A. Harry Moore School reopens, only two of its five floors will be used for classroom instruction, Hildner said, crowding students into already cramped classrooms. There also seems to be an issue with meals for students on special diets: They aren’t getting them.

“Everybody agrees that the school cannot be successfully housed at Regional day (school), and there’s a plan to bring A. Harry Moore back to its original building, but the problems will move to A. Harry Moore if it’s relocated to just two floors,” Hildner said. “The plan is to have the same food service that provides meals throughout the Jersey City school system provide meals for A. Harry Moore students, (but) they are unable to accommodate any of the students who have dietary needs. That’s a problem that’s moving from Regional day to A. Harry Moore.”

Superintendent Walker responded by saying that A. Harry Moore School had been fully evaluated and cleared to reopen in September:

“We set up a timeline and currently that timeline is in place. We are on pace to develop a structure to provide full services and be fully functional to students at A. Harry Moore. As we move through this process, we are still tweaking some of our plans to make it the best circumstance for A. Harry Moore students.”

Vice President Gina Verdibello asked that the plan for A. Harry More School be made available to the board for review, and Superintendent Walker assured the board he would send them each a copy.

Cleaning Schools A-Z

Bayonne resident Mary Cruz called in to share her concern about mold and fungus growing in the closed school buildings. She recommended hiring a professional cleaning service so that all buildings are safe for children and staff. Cruz said: “Mold is the result of the air conditioning system being shut down since March. Take this time to bring in professionals to work with our custodial staff to clean each building to prevent students and staff from becoming ill.”

Every year a plan is put in place to ensure the entire school district’s buildings are clean, sanitary, and healthy for anyone who enters, Superintendent Walker said. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, every building will be thoroughly cleaned before the September reopening.

“Our top priority is the health and welfare of our students,” Superintendent Walker said. “That’s not something were going to take for granted. We have a custodial stuff in place for when school reopens. We also want to make available a (professional) cleaning service. As we did in the past, we will have air quality control measures that are taken where we test air quality. Some places we even test the walls, take chips from the walls to make sure they’re safe.”

Board trustee Gerald Lyons addressed custodial concerns. School custodians who have been cleaning the buildings told him they wanted Superintendent Walker and the board to know that when they do come up with a cleaning plan, if additional services are needed, the custodial staff is both trained and willing to do what’s necessary.

Bridging the Divide with Remote Learning

During the pandemic, teachers have been teaching remotely with the help of guidelines and tips from the state board of education. While this has allowed classes to continue uninterrupted, it has exposed serious inequities within the district’s student population and a significant conceptual flaw : Not all families in Jersey City have computers and internet access at home; therefore not all children could immediately or easily participate.

“Remote learning will never take the place of in-person instruction, but there are things we can do that are beneficial to the learning process that support remote learning,” Superintendent Walker said, referring to the board of education’s recent distribution of 3,500 Chromebooks (laptops) to students in Grades 3 to 12.

School Schedule for 2020-2021

Jersey City School Board Virtual Meeting Thursday, May 21, 2020

Schools will not be open in the summer, Superintendent Walker said. There will be an enrichment program for students and professional development programs for teachers. Deputy Superintendent of Schools Dr. Norma Fernandez announced that teachers would return to school on September 8 and students on September 10. The last day of the 2020-2021 school year will be June 25.

Virtual Graduations

 All commencement celebrations in Jersey City public schools will be virtual, Superintendent Walker said. To celebrate Jersey City’s graduating students, the Loew’s theater in Journal Square will honor them on its marquee.

Superintendent Walker advised parents, teachers and school board members to be patient as the board of education makes preparations to reopen the schools.

“We need to be a little patient to help students to succeed and prepare for September,” Superintendent Walker said. “We have committees in place for the closing and reopening, (and) we are all meeting and exchanging ideas, but the pandemic has changed everything. As soon as we receive the guidelines (to reopen) I will make them available to the public.”

The next virtual school board meeting will be held Thurs, June 25 at 6 p.m.

For previous reporting on A. Harry Moore school, click here.

Brigid D'Souza

Op Ed: Invest in Our Schools Now!

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This is a guest opinion piece by Brigid D’Souza and Dr. Jyl Josephson who are parent leaders with Jersey City Together’s Education Team. Ms. D’Souza is the parent of two children at PS 3 and the creator of CivicParent.org (and a writer for this publication) and Dr. Josephson is the parent of a child at PS 26 and an associate professor of political science, women’s & gender studies at Rutgers University Newark.

For the last two and a half years, Jersey City Together’s Education Team and parents across the city have been engaged in a focused fight to increase local funding for our public schools. For the first two years, our work helped create incremental progress — an extra $5.3 million in 2018, another $6 million in 2019.

But this has not been nearly enough.

Jersey City Public Schools is a 40-school Pre-K through Grade 12 district serving nearly 30,000 students. Our public schools are the most diverse institution in the city. Seventy percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch while 38% of our students are Hispanic, 27% are Black, 18% are Asian, and 14% are White.

This is the diversity our political leaders lift up every chance they get. It’s the kind of institution in which they should be clamoring to invest.

But, for the last decade, while gleaming skyscrapers and luxury apartments have gone up across the city, Jersey City has instead stripped educational resources from the children — mostly black and brown, mostly lower income — attending its public schools.

At a time when state funding is repeatedly being cut and our schools are already $125 million underfunded, Jersey City sends only 24 cents of every dollar of property taxes to its schools. Last year, we saw the immediate impact of this when our schools lost 250 staff, including 160 teachers.

It is utterly unconscionable.

This year, however, the Jersey City Public Schools have had a real leader in Superintendent Franklin Walker.

Superintendent Walker stepped out and offered a budget that spoke to the real needs of the children of the district, adding $50 million to the budget.

His proposal would rehire the hundreds of teachers we lost last year, hire 13 new social workers, 3 new high school counselors, a mental health specialist, and other support staff. It would invest in English Language Learners, visual arts, STEAM programming, and make targeted investments in some of Jersey City’s highest needs schools.

These resources will be all the more important next year as we deal with the fallout from this pandemic.

But the reaction from the political class in Jersey City has been both swift and exactly what you might expect in Hudson County politics.

One BOE trustee said new teachers aren’t needed because “class sizes don’t matter.” Another trustee was dismissive because the people who called in to support the budget were “just moms.” More than one claimed they didn’t want to take anything away from children, while at the same time proposing cuts that would do just that.

In short, Superintendent Walker is being told to lower his sights. Our children, it seems, are not worth the investment.

While it may seem politically expedient now to demand the district reign in local property taxes, we believe we will look back on this moment and see these calls as more than just cowardly. They are proposals that will actively harm our city’s most vulnerable residents.

Education policy experts agree that budget cuts during the Great Recession hurt kids like those in Jersey City Public Schools. Now, they argue, is precisely the time to invest more in our public schools, particularly if we claim to care about inequality.

There is still time for board trustees to make the right choice. But time is running out.

It is always a good time, and a responsible decision, to invest in the next generation. But the current moment demands that investment even more.

 

Header: Public speaking at the January 30 Board of Education meeting, courtesy Jersey City Together’s Facebook page

City Hall of Jersey City
Alexandra Antonucci

Referendum Making Jersey City Board of Education Appointed Body To Be Withdrawn

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Amidst the Covid-19 panic, Mayor Steven Fulop and Jersey City Council announced that they will be withdrawing the referendum asking voters if the Jersey City Board of Education should become an appointed body rather than an elected one. A resolution to formally withdraw the referendum will be voted on by the Council at its next meeting on Wednesday, May 6. With nine members, the Board represents nearly 30,000 students in 42 public schools.

“We still have major concerns with the Board of Education’s decision to raise taxes on residents during the pandemic, but the reality is we don’t want to be more disruptive to the schools when  they return in September after being closed for months,” said Fulop. “We’ve been working closely with the superintendent to help get the schools back on track as swiftly as possible due to the unforeseen obstacles we’re facing amid the pandemic.”

The referendum, which was first approved on Jan. 8, received mixed reviews from educators, union representatives and parents, some of who referred to the idea of a board unilaterally appointed by the mayor as “sneaky” and “an opportunistic power grab.” Others felt that the decision had been made in good faith, spurred by serious management problems the Board had had for years, most recently the resignation of five members right before Jan. 8.

“There’s no arguing the schools needed help when we first introduced this,” said Council President Joyce Watterman,” Today, we’re in a much different climate, and we need to think about the best course of action in this new environment for our students, parents, teachers and residents.”

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