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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.

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

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

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.”

School Board Approves $736 Million Budget Proposal Representing a 47% Increase in the School Tax Levy

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Final Budget for FY 2020-2021 Still Weeks Away
Board to Use Time for More Discussion and Public Input

At Friday’s special meeting of the Jersey City School Board parents praised Superintendent Franklin Walker’s proposed $736 million school budget for FY 2020-2021 and urged board members to approve it. If approved, it would increase the school tax levy (the part of assessed property taxes allocated to the public schools) $64 million, bringing the levy to $201 million.

Facing a midnight deadline to send an approval of the $736 million budget to Interim Executive County Superintendent Melissa Pearce, the board gathered at its Claremont Avenue headquarters to discuss the proposed budget. Eight of the nine board members supported the budget, but several members voiced concern that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and with schools closed until further notice, an increased tax levy would burden homeowners at a time when many people are losing or getting laid off from their jobs. Superintendent Walker acknowledged these are tough times, but said children must come first.

Superintendent Franklin Walker, photo by Sally Deering

“I’m asking the board to invest in our children from the highest achiever to the most vulnerable,” Superintendent Walker said. “We are navigating difficult times, but our children are worth the sacrifice. If you think the cost to educate children of today is expensive, the cost not to educate them is much higher and has much greater consequence.”

Trustee Alexander Hamilton said he would like to postpone the vote during these uncertain times.

“I understand we want to pass this budget,” Trustee Hamilton said, “but I need to know what’s going on in the world, what’s going on in the city. I’m asking for this to be pushed back 30–60 days. I don’t care about the county. I care that the process is done right, and we make the proper assessment to get this done.”

Hamilton made a motion to postpone the vote, but no one seconded it.

Superintendent Walker’s budget includes the continuation of all existing programs and services, funding for ESL, a STEAM Academy, additional social workers and high school counselors, a mental health specialist and psychologist. The budget also calls for no teacher or staff layoffs or dismissals. Many of these concerns were brought up by parents in previous board meetings, and it seems Superintendent Walker listened.

Brigid D’Souza, a leader with Jersey City Together and a mother of two students at P.S. 3, said in response to the proposed school budget: “The initial budget from Superintendent Walker is both courageous and reasonable. It takes seriously the needs of Jersey City’s students and particularly its students who have the most needs. We hope the board does the right thing tonight and passes it, so they can begin more detailed discussions over the next two months.”

The school budget includes a $64 million school levy increase, which represents a 47% increase over last year’s school tax levy, but should not be mistaken for a 47% increase in property tax, which is made up of municipal, county and school taxes. The 2019-2020 school levy was $137 million. The 47% increase of $64 million will bring the school levy up to $201 million.

But the 2020-2021school budget still has a shortfall, Trustee Mussab Ali said.

Trustee Mussab Ali, photo by Sally Deering

“I think we need to recognize this is not a fully-funded budget,” Trustee Ali said. “Our schools last year were underfunded by $155 million. This year, despite the tax increase that we have, we would still be underfunded by $80 million based on the state formula of what is adequacy. That means last year we were underfunded by $5,000 per pupil. A student in our district was getting $5,000 less than what the state thinks is a thorough and efficient education. Even after our budget today, a student in our district will be getting $2,600 less than what the state thinks is a thorough and efficient education.”

Trustee Mussab Ali also wanted to clarify that the meeting that night was for the adoption of the budget, not a vote on the final budget.

“It doesn’t mean that today is the last day of the budget process,” Trustee Ali said. “It doesn’t mean this is the final version of the budget. We still will be getting public input and will be working on the budget over the course of the next six weeks. After that, we will vote to adopt a final budget.”

Parents called in during the public comments section of the meeting to voice their opinions. Scott Welfel, the father of a first-grade student said: “When we saw Superintendent Walker’s proposal,  we were thrilled. This is the type of leadership we need. We saw the mayor’s response. We think (it) was alarmist in an unsubstantiated way.”

Werfel was talking about Mayor Steven Fulop’s dismissal of the $736 million budget as “really irresponsible” as reported on NJ.com. The Mayor’s school budget plan had proposed $45 million in cuts and a $25 million yearly increase to the school tax levy over the next three years. The school board did not adopt any of those measures in its proposed budget.

“They’re going to destroy the taxpayers,” Mayor Fulop said. “They’re going to destroy residents, both renters and homeowners. People are struggling, and it’s not going to get easier for a couple of months.”

Superintendent Franklin Walker doesn’t think the mayor sees the big picture. He said the budget that’s being presented is part of the district’s strategic plan that prepares students for college and for jobs that have not even been created yet. Walker said that it’s the board’s responsibility to ensure students are academically competitive now and in the future. It’s called “future proofing,” he said.

“The strategic plan drives our budget,” Superintendent Walker said. “We’ve seen a significant decrease in the funding of millions of dollars over the last few years. This year, we have an increased allocation for our charter schools of $13 million. The cost of operating continues to increase. Last year, we had to lay off 400 teachers to submit a balanced budget. Our students deserve the best qualified teachers. In order to make Jersey City more desirable and continue to expand, we need all of our students and all of our schools to be successful.”

Making the midnight deadline, the board approved the school budget 8-1 with Trustee Alexander Hamilton the sole dissenter. School Business Administrator Regina Robinson said it would proceed to the county for approval if it covers all the guidelines. Assuming Hudson County approves it, the board would then have between April 24 and May 7 to adopt the budget before it went to the state for approval. During that window of time, there would be a public hearing for Jersey City residents and additional discussions by the board.

School Board President Lorenzo Richardson presided over the meeting with Trustees Mussab Ali, Alexander Hamilton, Gerald Lyons, Lekendrick Shaw and Noemi Velazquez in attendance, and Marilyn Roman, Gina Verdibello and Joan Terrell-Paige on speakerphone.

 

The School Board Caucus Meeting is scheduled for Mon, March 23 at 6 pm. It will not be open to the public, but may be viewed live on Facebook.com.

Header: Jersey City Board of Education special meeting on March 20, photo by Sally Deering

 

 

JC School Board Holds Public Meeting on 2020-2021 Budget

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Parents and Educators Implore the Board to Put Children First

Hillary Clinton wrote, “It Takes a Village” to raise a child. In the case of Jersey City’s public-school children, it takes a budget that will address their needs, from counseling to a decent breakfast.

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. They were there to give the nine-member board their input as it prepares the 2020-2021 school budget. The first draft goes to the county’s superintendent of schools on March 20, and the budget must be passed by May 14.

The Thursday night meeting in the Dr. Emery Konick, Jr. Conference Center took place two days after Mayor Seven Fulop and Ward D Councilman Michael Yun held a press conference outlining a $250 million school-funding plan to fill the BOEs $120 million budget gap. Fulop and Yun proposed a three-year commitment to transfer $40 million over from tax abatements to the BOE.  Their plan would also include spending cuts on firefighter and police recruitment, a pay freeze for select staff, limits on overtime pay and a school tax levy. School taxes are part of a homeowner’s property tax.

Board President Lorenzo Richardson spoke briefly about the mayor’s press conference, saying that he sent the mayor an email the morning of the press conference “providing directives as to what the needs of the schools are in terms of funding from the city.” In the email, President Richardson requested that the city fulfill its commitment to cover the state’s funding cut, which is projected to be $72 million (previously believed to be less than $55 million).

“At this time, we are dealing with funding issues related to state cuts,” President Lorenzo said at the start of the public forum.

Parent Nancy Pokler address the School Board.  Photo by Sally Deering

The board president then opened the public meeting to the small group of parents and educators who came to talk. Jersey City resident and P.S. 5 parent Nancy Pokler talked about the loss of 200 public school positions including 160 teachers, 25 assistants and aides, 20 janitorial, security and food service staff, and 15 administrator and supervisor positions. She spoke of the state’s SFRA (School Funding Reform Act) formula of 2008, used to determine how much each school district receives in funding.

“The SFRA shows that Jersey City can and should be funding its own schools,” Pokler said. “Jersey City has the largest tax base in the entire state and shockingly one of the lowest school tax rates, ranking 532 out of the 565 municipalities.”

Jyl Josephson, parent of a P.S. 26 fifth grader, said that she didn’t want to talk about the numbers. Instead she wanted to talk about Jersey City’s schoolchildren. Josephson told the board that in the past she attended many public-school board meetings where parents made demands about what they wanted without ever mentioning their children’s needs. Josephson said she hoped the board would focus on the children above all else.

“As you begin to make the many difficult and important decisions that you’ll be making over the next few months, I want you to start right now by thinking about children, children that are your primary constituents,” Josephson said. “Our schools have the task of identifying and finding our children’s talents, seeing their beauty and potential, helping them correct their mistakes and do better next time so they can become adults who live together and take care of each other in this beautiful and vibrant democracy. I hope that throughout this process, you will take a moment and imagine the kids and put those kids first.”

School Nurse at P.S. 6 in Jersey City for 18 years, Jackie Matthews asked the board to hire mental health counselors for children who are suffering from extreme anxiety and parental neglect. She said many of the children who are general education students come to school tired, hungry, and filled with anxiety. These children need counseling, she said.

“The children with IEPs get counseling from the social worker, from the school psychologist,  that’s part of their IEP,” Matthews said. “I’m talking about the general ed students who come to school tired, who come to school in the same clothes, who come to school unable to learn because they’re hungry. They’re anxious children who are empty vessels who I fill up one day and who come back the next day empty again.”

Prof. Jyl Josephson

After all the speakers addressed the board, Superintendent Walker thanked them for expressing their concerns about the students. He said the board will focus on restoring “appropriate staff and services to meet the educational needs of the students.”

President Richardson then closed the meeting with a promise to address the issues brought up by the parents and educators. He said, “We will be keeping all your comments in mind and make sure we do everything we can to make sure this budget respects every student in this district.”

President Richardson also said there will be more public meetings scheduled before the March 20 deadline.

Board members in attendance: Superintendent Franklin Walker, President Lorenzo Richardson, Vice President Gina Verdibello, Alexander Hamilton, Gerald Lyons, Marilyn Roman, Lekendrick Shaw, Joan Terrell-Paige, Noemi Velazquez, and School Business Administrator/Board Secretary Regina Robinson.

 

Next Regular Meeting of the School Board
Thurs, Feb. 27, 6 p.m.
P.S. 41 (Fred W. Martin Center for the Arts)
59 Wilkinson Ave, Jersey City
For more info: jcboe.org

 

Header: School board holds special meeting for input on 2020-2021 budget.  Photo by Sally Deering

 

 

20191012_125039

Officials Promise an End to School Water Fountain Saga

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15 Jersey City public schools and facilities were set to have their water fountains lead free and operating by November, but they remain shut off. Now these fountains—plus those in 25 of the district’s other schools that had been inactivated due to threats from lead—are scheduled to be back on by March 1.

“This past November, the district had a press release saying that the fountains will be opened in 30 days, but I went back to McNair in December over break, and there was no progress being made,” said Harshal Rajesh Agrawal, a recent McNair high school graduate and local activist on the issue.

Agrawal questions why the repairs took so long.

“Given common sense and my limited technical understanding of the situation, I would think the fountains at McNair should’ve been opened a few months ago. The filters were installed and tested and the results came back clean.”

It turns out that Agrawal’s assessment was correct.

“The water pipes coming into McNair were all resolved a while ago, and there was no work required by the JCMUA,” said Hudson County Freeholder Joel Torres in an email.

“The reason for the delay was that there were fountains in other schools that still needed to be reviewed to make sure they were fully remediated. The superintendent didn’t want to do a piecemeal type of process and wanted to turn on the fountains in every school at the same time. Therefore, they’re finalizing this review to turn them on this month,” Torres added.

The city has spent $1,800,000 on bottled water since lead was first detected in the schools in 2006, and the board has not said how much more these remaining repairs and related purchases will wind up costing.

“It could be as low as $4-$5 million. It could be as high as $15 million,” said former Board President Sudhan Thomas in November 2019.

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