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Jersey City Times Staff

Pleas for Murphy Administration to Show greater Urgency over Pandemic’s Toll on Learning

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Before joint legislative session, education chief hears of need for special effort to get public education back on track

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration have walked a political tightrope concerning how much guidance to provide New Jersey’s schools to operate.

On one hand, Murphy and his staff have required districts to submit a multitude of plans and details for whatever learning model they are following, be it remote, hybrid, in-person or all of the above.

On the other, even those guidelines have left much of the ultimate decision-making to local districts and communities, with Murphy openly referring to the power of home rule.

Now that highwire act is starting up anew for the state’s education commissioner, just three months on the job, as COVID-19 numbers improve across the state and more schools are moving back to in-person instruction.

Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan got an earful Tuesday from some of the state’s biggest education leaders and stakeholders when she spoke before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Public Schools.

More a general forum than a hearing on specific legislation, the hour-long meeting was called ostensibly to talk about the damage wrought by the pandemic on schools and students, and what to do this spring and going into the next school year.

It’s not a small topic, and a follow-up meeting is scheduled for March 9.

‘Moon shot’ is needed

But this first meeting got very specific, too, with both tutorials on effective practices from local districts and charter schools. There were also pointed pleas for the state to take a more active role and bring some urgency to an understanding of the scope of the problem.

“Please, let this be a ‘moon shot’ for us,” said Mount Olive Superintendent Robert Zywicki, proposing a 24-month strategic plan that included funding for afterschool programs, expanded counseling and a menu of other help.

“Let’s talk about it, like other states are doing,” he said. “That conversation is absent right now in the state of New Jersey.”

Allen-McMillan, a former Essex County teacher and administrator who was appointed commissioner in October, said the state was looking to take a more proactive role in the coming days and weeks.

As did subsequent speakers, she focused especially on the pandemic’s toll on student learning, particularly in already disadvantaged communities, saying that a wholesale strategy will be needed.

Allen-McMillan listed a host of federal and other funding chutes — amounting to more than $1.5 billion — that schools should be able to tap. And she listed programs like added extended-year programs, professional development for teachers, and “high dosage, one-on-one tutoring.”

“We are finalizing these plans as I speak, and anticipate releasing additional information shortly,” Allen-McMillan said.

Focus on student testing

Allen-McMillan was questioned closely about the Murphy administration’s plans to move forward on spring student testing under the state’s Student Learning Assessments.

A chorus of statewide groups led by the New Jersey Education Association and others has called for the state to seek a federal waiver from the testing for the second year, citing the disruption the testing would likely cause and its limited value during a pandemic.

But the commissioner again cited the federal requirements for annual testing and the Biden administration’s apparent intent to stick to them, not even accepting waiver requests so far.

Allen-McMillan also said some reliable assessment is vital, especially now. “It is impossible to accelerate learning if you cannot measure it, either with statewide assessment data or with local information on student performance,” she said.

The commissioner did open up the possibility that the testing could take at least some different forms. She pointed to more ongoing or so-called formative assessments that are taking place with the state’s optional “Start Strong” tests that a handful of districts used in the fall.

“We are exploring how to norm formative assessment this year and ways to expand formative assessment options next school year,” she said.

Mixed messages from Trenton

The commissioner took a few questions from members of the committee, which comprises both Senate and Assembly members.

Sen. Ralph Caputo (D-Essex) asked about any state guidance on keeping back or promoting students, something that he said was a big issue for families after such a tumultuous year. The commissioner indicated it would be forthcoming.

Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) said the Murphy administration had provided mixed messages to districts over the last several months. “We know schools can open safely, but that has not been the message,” he said.

The commissioner has said it has been difficult with the public-health conditions ever changing, and at least so far, federal guidance to schools having stayed relatively steady. But that could soon change with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expected to release new guidance for education this week.

 

Header:  Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

The Latest Plans by Your School District for Remote, In-Person or Hybrid Learning

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

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Colleen O’Dea

 

Header:  Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

Debate Starts Over COVID-19 Vaccine for Children in NJ

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Leading state legislator to propose that, once approved, vaccination should be required for schoolchildren

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Schools have been the front line in universal childhood vaccination in the United States since nearly the beginning of childhood vaccines, from the debates in the late 1800s and early 1900s over whether all Massachusetts students get a smallpox vaccine to more widespread mandates for measles and other shots in the 1970s.

And in recent years, of course, they have also proven the new battleground in the heated debates and protests about requiring vaccines at all.

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.

It’s still early in the discussion, given there is no childhood vaccination yet in place. But a leading state legislator this week said he plans to propose that the COVID-19 vaccination be among those required of schoolchildren once its use is approved for children.

“It should be included [among the required vaccines] unless there is a medical reason otherwise,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Senate’s health committee.

But Vitale is the first to acknowledge it gets tricky after that, as the battles over any vaccination requirements in New Jersey — and much of the country, for that matter — have proved fiery, to say the least.

Rethinking vaccine requirements

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Vitale was the primary sponsor of a bill that would have removed many of the nonmedical exemptions for vaccine requirements. But amid heated protests that took over the State House, the measure fell short of the necessary votes for approval.

Now Vitale said he believes the COVID-19 pandemic provides a new opening and brings the matter home to legislative colleagues who have been reluctant to approve his changes so far.

“I would hope that it helps [the bill’s chances],” Vitale said. “It is evidence to how critical these vaccines are. Now it’s real life.”

Here’s where it becomes a matter of wait-and-see, however. While the first vaccines are on the verge of approval for widespread distribution in the United States, none have yet gone through clinical trials with children, putting them in the relative slow-lane for now.

Even Gov. Phil Murphy, arguably the state’s strongest advocate for measures to fight the coronavirus, this week was noncommittal when asked whether he would support Vitale’s proposal to require them for children. And, while the Murphy administration has announced it would set up a statewide registry for vaccinations, it has stopped short of saying it would require them.

“I would like folks to be convinced that this is safe, efficacious, and it works, and that they come to it of their own free will,” Murphy said Wednesday. “That’s my personal bias.”

Vaccines for teachers and staff?

Child vaccinations are just part of the equation for schools. There is also the question of whether teachers and staff would also be required to be vaccinated.

Nationally, leading education associations — including the teachers unions — have pressed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to list teachers and other school staff among the top priorities in the early distribution of the vaccines. Under the guidelines so far, they would be among the essential workers given priority, coming in a large group after health care workers.

“Everybody is holding their breath to what this means,” said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, representing the state’s school superintendents.

“Educators are listed as a priority, but that’s a pretty big group and we’re not sure how they prioritize within that,” he said.

And he asked a tough question: “What happens if a member of the staff doesn’t want to get the vaccine?”

‘A legal question’

“It’s really as much a legal question as a what-if question,” Bozza said. “We just don’t know yet. . . But while I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know how we could say you must get vaccinated.”

The state’s dominant teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, has so far stayed out of the public vaccines discussion. “We are in the process of reviewing our policies before weighing in on that,” said Steve Baker, the NJEA’s communications director.

“Generally speaking, the more we get vaccinated, the better for everybody, members and students alike,” he said Thursday. “We understand it’s a fraught issue for many people, but it is important we get the vaccine out there in wide use.”

But requiring it of teachers? “That’s what we are looking at right now,” Baker said. “It’s a contentious issue, and we want to be sure it is balanced correctly.”

Vitale, the state senator, said he had yet to consider whether vaccinations be required for educators, as well. Knowing full well there will be some who would resist, he was hesitant to take on another foe in the debate.

“It is something to consider,” he said. “I would think most [teachers] would get it, but we’d need to see.”

 

Header: Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

Gauging the toll remote instruction has taken on NJ students

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There’s little disagreement that the state needs to determine how much ‘learning loss’ has occurred. The argument is about the best way to collect data

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and with more New Jersey schools being forced to go to remote instruction, worries about so-called learning loss among students have become commonplace.

Most agree it’s a concern: Will students suffer academically — and irreparably — during this extraordinary year?

But how to define that loss and, just as importantly, how to address whatever damage is done are proving far harder to agree upon.

That was evident Monday in a lively hearing of the state Senate Education Committee, where lawmakers heard testimony on a bill requiring the state to determine and examine what damage the pandemic has inflicted on student learning.

Few at the online hearing disagreed with the good intentions, but what was a bit unexpected was how the proposal met resistance from some expected allies about how to attain that goal.

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the influential chair of the committee, has pressed for the accounting and has called for the state Department of Education to complete a report that determines the level of potential loss in the past eight months. Her bill would require the department to report back to the Legislature within the next 30 days.

Ruiz said it shouldn’t even require legislation.

“The (state Department of Education) should be doing this on their own accord,” she said. “But when the administration is not doing this, the Legislature needs to step in.”

But while in accord about the end, the state’s main education groups representing teachers, administrators and school boards were far less in agreement about the means and the bill’s short timeline.

One after another, representatives of the various groups raised concerns about how student performance — or the lack of performance — would be measured in the middle of a pandemic when even basic school operations have become a test.

“We need to balance this with the current reality on our schools,” said Debra Bradley, lobbyist for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. “Our members tell us the top concerns right now is keeping our students safe.”

A representative of New Jersey Education Association, the state’s dominant teachers union, said it supported the idea but also didn’t want “students and staff burdened” with additional tasks and assessments.

“We also worry about the term ‘learning loss,’ because it sounds like kids learned something and then lost it,” said Francine Pfeffer, an NJEA lobbyist. “Unfinished learning or learning delay is a much better term for this.”

But that touched a nerve with Ruiz, who has been most critical of the Murphy administration in addressing gaps in education during the pandemic. That includes technology access; 30,000-plus students are still without tools and internet access.

“Learning loss is extraordinarily real thing, and I will not move away from that,” she responded to Pfeffer. “It does happen and it has happened.”

Ruiz pressed on, saying the data on student performance is critical right now in gauging the impact of the pandemic, She noted that while other state departments have been collecting information, the education department has provided little.

“This should have started months ago,” Ruiz said.

“We need to have that data, and as we know there will be only certain amount of money, how do we have a blueprint to bring every child up to speed?” she said.

“Let’s have a reckoning with truth so it helps policy for every child,” Ruiz said. “Not about punishment or withholding funds, but programs like summer extension. How do you have that discussion without collecting data.”

 

Header:  Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

education apple
Jersey City Times Staff

Stay Open, Go Remote or in Between? Murphy Argues for In-Person Instruction

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For now, he’s left it to locals to make the call. And more are saying ‘stay home’

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Schools may prove Gov. Phil Murphy’s trickiest balancing act of the pandemic.

While the governor has been a forceful voice for restrictions on businesses and other activities, Murphy has pressed hard for schools to reopen as much as possible.

But in a strategy that some have contested, Murphy has left it to local districts to decide, and that has drawn a very mixed response from the state’s education leaders.

On Wednesday, Murphy announced the latest numbers, and in data released by his administration, districts are clearly leaning toward more remote instruction — no matter what Murphy says.

The state Department of Education’s breakdown showed an additional 82 districts and other public school systems have moved to all-remote in the past month. The number of districts staying with all in-person dropped slightly to just one in 10, and the number of districts using a hybrid model comprising both remote and in-person instruction fell by more than 70.

Now, nearly a third of the more than 800 districts, charter schools and special-needs schools surveyed are all-remote — including many of the state’s largest districts — and more than half are hybrid, the department said.

Find your district or county here.

Here’s the latest breakdown statewide:

  • 89 districts and charter schools are teaching an all in-person model, down from 97 in early November;
  • 438 are using a hybrid model, including both in-person and remote learning, down from 513;
  • 246 are using all-remote instruction, up from 164;
  • 38 are using a combination of remote in some schools and in-person in others.

Murphy at his press briefing Wednesday continued to push for in-person instruction and flipped the argument to point out that more than half of the districts are still providing at least some. He announced an additional four outbreaks in schools for a total of 70 statewide, affecting 285 students, a relatively small total considering the coronavirus spread in the thousands statewide.

“The fact that there are positive cases impacting our school communities is not news,” he said. “We knew as we entered the school year that students, faculty, or staff would contract coronavirus. And that has happened — but mostly through out-of-school activities.

“Overall, we have confidence that the protocols that are in place to protect against in-school transmissions are working as designed and as intended.”

Nevertheless, Murphy acknowledged that schools are sure to be relying on at least some remote instruction, and he cited dropping numbers of districts still faced by a shortage of technology. He said about 33,000 students are without the necessary devices or connectivity, a big drop from even the start of the school year.

“This has been real progress,” he said. “And those districts that still have unfulfilled needs cite mostly supply-chain or delivery delays as the reasons for their students not having everything they need … We continue to work diligently to close the remaining gap.”

 

Header: Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

See Which Wide of the ‘Digital Divide’ Your School District is on

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Searchable graphic allows you to check whether your school district has the necessary computer devices and connectivity for remote learning

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Colleen O’Dea and John Mooney

When Gov. Phil Murphy last week said that 40,000 New Jersey students still are without the necessary computer devices and connectivity for remote learning, it was meant as progress. After all, that number was nearly 10 times higher last spring.

But the digital divide remains stark in scores of districts, many of them low-income, according to the latest survey released by the state Department of Education this week.

And the gaps appear widest in communities that are relying the most on remote learning.

In East Orange, for instance, more than 6,000 students don’t have the necessary tools. Jersey City and Camden are each 2,000 students short. And even in upscale Montclair or Summit, the gap is nearly 1,000 students each.

NJ Spotlight News distilled the latest information into the following graphics that let you see how your district is doing.

Header:  Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

Despite COVID-19 Rise, NJ Sticks with Plan to Allow Schools to Decide Instruction Plans Locally

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Not all educators agree with the state’s approach

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Lilo H. Stainton

With COVID-19 rates rising nationwide, school officials in a number of large cities — including Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. — are opting for online education to try to preempt the surge of coronavirus cases that experts predict for the weeks to come.

But in New Jersey, where nearly 10,500 new cases have been diagnosed this week, state leaders said Thursday that they will stick to the current plan that allows district and local health officials to decide what is best for the community’s schools. Currently, roughly one in five districts is providing remote lessons only, they said, and relatively few outbreaks have been tied directly to schools.

“The general community reality is obviously taken into account” when determining school plans, Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday. “But there is a clear disconnect between the reality of what is going on in our school buildings and the communities that surround them. There’s just no question about that.”

Not all educators are on the same page with the governor’s plan, however. Leaders of some of the state’s most prominent school groups are expected to meet Friday with Murphy staff to talk about the worsening numbers in communities and how they impact schools. And to at least one of them, it is difficult to separate what is happening in schools from their cities and towns, something he called a “false dichotomy.”

“There is a lot of frustration among our superintendents,” said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators and himself a former superintendent. “There is a real sense that the disconnect of schools and their communities is not a real one, and not every case is being reported … How do you not connect schools to the communities they are in?”

‘These numbers are lower than anticipated’

Murphy said that local public health officials have traced 192 cases of COVID-19 to 51 school-related outbreaks since classes resumed in September. “These numbers are lower than I believe anyone could have anticipated,” he added, noting that there are more than 3,000 school buildings statewide.

The virus is spreading increasingly quickly in New Jersey, however, state data show. More than 3,500 additional diagnoses were reported Thursday and nearly 267,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported since March, including almost 16,500 likely fatalities. Close to 39,000 people have been hospitalized as a result of the virus.

Earlier this week, Murphy announced new restrictions on bars and restaurants — requiring indoor dining to end by 10 p.m. — and on Thursday, he said counties and municipalities could impose earlier closing times on nonessential businesses, if needed. He also took steps to ban interstate youth sports, which public health officials said have been connected — sometimes indirectly — to a growing number of outbreaks. The governor reiterated his pleas to wear a mask, maintain social distance and take other measures to reduce community spread of the virus.

“This is a wake-up call. We need your help,” state health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Thursday, pointing to the escalating daily case count. “If we are lax, if we continue on this trajectory, our state will return to the situation we were in last spring.”

When the coronavirus initially peaked in New Jersey, in April, daily case counts occasionally topped 4,000 new diagnoses, and hospitals were nearly overwhelmed. All schools were operating under remote learning and all but essential businesses were allowed to open.

Murphy: ‘All options remain on the table’

Now case counts are rising quickly, and hospitals are beginning to fill up again, with some being forced to divert emergency patients temporarily as a result of staff or space shortages. Businesses are operating under severe restrictions. All but 162 school districts are hosting students and teachers in the classroom at least a few days a week, according to new state figures, which appear to have changed little since last week. (Some 97 districts are now operating entirely in person, Murphy said, with the rest using a hybrid model or a mix of in-person and online education, depending on the school.)

While schools may not be the nexus of spread, youth sports do appear to be exacerbating the virus’ transmission, according to figures Persichilli shared Thursday. At least 14 outbreaks, leading to 70 cases, were connected to youth hockey events in seven counties, she said, and one-third of the cases that could be tracked back to an incident during October were linked to sports teams.

Given these dynamics, Murphy said shifting to online learning preemptively was not necessary at this time. But he said Thursday, “all options remain on the table.”

Suspending in-person instruction

Bozza of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, who has been outspoken before about the ambiguity in the Murphy administration’s school guidance, said he thinks a statewide move to suspend in-person instruction should be considered. “Schools are losing more staff still,” he said. “The anxiety is growing, and if the governor sent that message [to close schools through December], I think it would be welcomed, quite frankly.”

But the governor’s strategy made sense to Chuck Sampson, superintendent of the Freehold Regional High School district, which includes roughly 10,600 students. While there have been close to 60 cases diagnosed among pupils, teachers and staff since September, Sampson said none of these have been traced back to in-school infections.

“I agree with him 100%,” Sampson said of Murphy’s approach. “I truly think my schools are the safest place to be,” he said, citing the strict protocols in place for masking and social-distancing and the modern air-circulation systems in the district’s facilities.

“It would be heartbreaking to me to have to close our schools on a larger (statewide) order because I think it would be at the expense of the children who are school-dependent,” including students with limited English skills or learning challenges, Sampson said.

— John Mooney contributed to this story.

 

Header:  Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Jersey City Times Staff

State Reports Big Drop in All-Remote Learning for NJ Public Schools

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Department of Education data shows continuing trend toward at least some in-person instruction

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

As a second surge of COVID-19 cases hits the state, New Jersey’s public schools are nevertheless continuing to shift toward at least some in-person instruction, according to the latest breakdown from the state.

The state Department of Education is reporting a significant drop in the last month of districts and other public schools going all-remote, with nearly a third moving instead to a hybrid model that includes both remote and in-person schooling.

Now, more than 500 of the 800 surveyed districts, charter schools and special needs schools are following the hybrid model, the department said.

Find your district or county here.

Here’s the latest breakdown:

  • 97 districts and charter schools are teaching with an all in-person model, up from 87 in mid-October;
  • 513 are using a hybrid model, including both in-person and remote learning, up from 437;
  • 164 are using all-remote instruction, down from 245;
  • 37 are using a combination of remote in some schools and in-person in others.

“We’ve certainly seen the number of hybrid plans increase and the number of remote plans decrease,” said Mike Yaple, the department’s spokesman.

“This is admirable progress toward the return to safe in-person instruction,” he said. “School districts and educators have shown great flexibility and ingenuity in switching from one learning model to another, depending on local circumstances and need. That is at the heart of New Jersey’s approach to reopening, and we expect that dynamic to continue.”

Yaple did not directly address the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations outside of schools, but said that the state would continue to track the data in providing guidance to schools.

“As with dining, retail and other matters that require in-person interaction, any move toward in-person instruction in schools will be driven by the data,” he said.

 

Header:  Photo by Maximilian Scheffler on Unsplash

 

Daniel Levin

Looming Budget Deficit and Reopening Dominate BOE Meeting

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A looming budget deficit and the postponement of a reopening of schools took center stage during Thursday night’s monthly meeting of the Jersey City School Board.

Superintendent Franklin Walker presented his Superintendent’s Report, which dealt mainly with Covid-19’s impact on the district’s current $670 million budget. Walker forecast a $5-$10 million budget surplus due primarily to pandemic-related savings on overtime, on extra compensation and on goods. He said the district remains underfunded compared to New Jersey law, which calls for a $900 million budget for the 2021–22 school year. Instead he said next year the budget will be approximately $750 million and that he expects the district to have a $300 million deficit.

Walker attributed the anticipated $300 million shortfall to several factors including a $30 million cut in state aid. Revenues from the city’s payroll tax will offset some of the deficit. Walker alluded to unspecified cost-saving measures the district could take so as to not have to cut staff. Further information on the budget will be presented at the November school board meeting.

Addressing Walker’s presentation, Trustee Mussab Ali said, “Right now I don’t think it makes sense for us to make a promise like saying there will be no layoffs.” Trustee Marilyn Roman commented that she did not “know how they could possibly run the school district with any fewer people than we currently have in the classrooms” and that the city should be looking to Trenton for help with this area in particular.

Walker also discussed the district’s Covid-19 reopening plan. Given a recent statewide uptick in Covid-19 hospital admissions, given that four Jersey City teachers recently tested positive for the virus, and given difficulty securing enough teachers willing to teach in person for the immediate future, he recommended that all classes remain remote until at least the end of the second marketing period on February 2, 2020. The structure of those classes would not change before then.

There were 16 speakers for the public speaking session.

One parent of a student at PS 3, who opined that the pandemic will take months and months to abate, suggested Jersey City schools adopt a hybrid model. He said private schools have reopened with positive feedback from students and staff. Parent Catalina Perez agreed and brought up the difficulties that remote learning pose for single parents. Perez recommended a hybrid model to help working single parents whose friends and relatives may be able to babysit but don’t have WiFI. Calling upon the board to open the schools as soon as possible, she said the trustees had already had months to prepare. Crystal Thomas also spoke on behalf of parents who need to return to work.

Other parents lobbied for the alternative.

“Nancy,” a parent with students in first and fourth grades, asked the board to continue remote learning as long as necessary. Parent Brigid D’Souza echoed Nancy’s sentiments.  D’Souza also discussed budget matters. She described years of structural deficits, “systematically” underfunded schools and city real estate tax abatement policy that, she said, siphons money away from the schools.

Kristin Hopkins-Clegg, who has two children at PS 5 one with an IEP (individualized education plan), wanted to share positive experiences and provided examples.

Board president Lorenzo Richardson acknowledged the plight of single parents during the pandemic help and assured the public that he will address the matter with Mayor Fulop soon. He said that when the schools open, all students will not be able to return at once.

School Business Administrator Regina Robinson reported that the district received about $8.1 million from the federal CARES Act.

Melissa dos Santos and Elizabeth Iannitelli, who are Social Studies Supervisors in the Curriculum Department, made a presentation on the Armistad Mandate, a 2002 state law “to promote a wider implementation of educational awareness programs regarding the African slave trade, slavery in America, and the many contributions Africans have made to American society,” according to the Armistad Commission’s website. Dos Santos and Iannitelli said the city’s schools are indeed aligned with the mandate.

All of the agenda items to be voted on during the meeting including Walker’s recommendation that district classes remain remote were approved.

The next virtual Jersey City School Board meeting will be held Thursday, November 19, at 6 p.m.

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

 

 

 

 

 

Aaron Morrill

November 3rd Board of Education Rematch

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With national politics taking center stage, it would be easy to overlook an important school board election on the November 3 ballot. Two slates, Education Matters and Change for Children, faced off in 2019.  They will vie for three three-year term board seats. There are no independent candidates running this year.

Education Matters Candidate Gina Verdibello

Change For Children, which in 2019 received the backing of the Lefrak organization and managed to win two of five board seats is fielding three candidates: Asheenia Johnson, a former aide to Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson and to Assemblywoman Angela McKnight; Sonia Cintron, who ran as an independent in last year’s race; and newcomer Karen Poliski. Education Matters — which has been endorsed by the Jersey City Education Association and by numerous local pols — is running current board members President Lorenzo Richardson, Vice President Gina Verdibello and Lekendrick Shaw.

The 2019 election was according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) the most expensive in state history. Lefrak-led PAC Fairer NJ spent over $530 thousand in support of Change for Children. New Jersey Education Association PAC Garden State Forward spent a relatively paltry $48,000.

When asked by the Jersey City Times whether they were backed again by Lefrak, Change for Children responded:

“We have contributors from throughout the city including developers, business owners, parents, and working families who believe in the vision of the Change for Children progressive platform and that the current board lacks the leadership, commitment, and know-how to make the changes needed. Unlike our opponents on the Education Matters ticket, we are completely open and transparent on our contributions and expenditures. Jersey City residents deserve that. Jersey City residents just received a mailer promoting the Education Matters slate paid for by a dark money PAC whose contributors are hidden and expenditures are disguised to cover up the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are spending to elect this slate. We call on the Education Matters candidates to come clean and disavow these dark money groups who are trying to influence this election.”

Apparently referring to twice-indicted former Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas, who ran and lost on the Education Matters ticket in 2019, the statement goes on:

“This is the same group that tried to elect the corrupt leadership of the Board of Education last year that was arrested for trading cash for contracts and stealing taxpayer money for his personal use. Because of this dark money PAC, Jersey City residents have no way of knowing if any of those who got those corrupt contracts contributed to the PAC.”

However, in an initial filing with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, Change For Children has disclosed that former Fulop Chief of Staff Muhammed Akil was authorized to “sign checks or otherwise make transactions” on the Change for Children bank account. While he no longer has such authority, he is still involved in the campaign. In 2018, Akil was caught on a profanity-ridden recording allegedly trying to rig a bid for a city contract. He was subsequently hired by Assemblywoman Angela McKnight.

Education Matters Candidate Lorenzo Richardson

The BOE has been beset by challenges. First, a 2018 change in the formula by which the state helps fund school districts hit Jersey City particularly hard. Jersey City was permitted under companion legislation to impose a 1% payroll tax to help fill the funding gap and did so in November of 2018. However, the payroll tax turned out to be only a partial solution. This year, facing a $120 million shortfall, the BOE adopted a $736 million budget. To do so, it hiked the school tax levy by 39% raising it from $136 million to $189 million. This had the effect of raising  the average homeowner’s tax bill over $550. St. Peter’s University professor and education advocate Brigid D’Souza, who had called the underfunding “unconscionable,” termed the ultimate budget “a welcome local step to address years of chronic underfunding.”

The budget remains a cause for concern however.  Because of Covid-19, collections from the payroll tax are down by 20%, putting receipt by the school district of the full $86 million it has expected in some doubt. One board member has said that property taxes will have to rise by another $50 million for each of the next four years.

Teaching during a pandemic has presented yet another challenge. On March 16, schools closed and learning shifted to the internet. Initially, Superintendent Franklin Walker planned to re-open schools in September, but pushback from the New Jersey Education Association and a spike in coronavirus cases where schools had reopened, caused him to postpone reopening until November at the earliest.

The Change For Children slate has staked out positions on a number of issues. Pointing to Thomas’ indictment and “ethics violations” by current board President Richardson, they propose a tightening of ethics rules including potential removal “from leadership posts, fines, and possible expulsion from the Board…a ban on contributions to Board candidates for at

Education Matters candidate LeKendrick Shaw

least two years from those with contracts with the Board and a mandate that members step down from leadership positions until serious and credible ethics violations have been cleared.” They propose a ” requirement that most (if not all) professional contracts must go out to public bid.”

As to finances, Change for Children argues that Education Matters has prioritized the interests of “administrators and union bosses” and promises a “budget plan [that] pegs all spending to  long-term strategic plans and gets rid of the waste, corruption, administrative costs, hidden tax hikes, and gimmicky budget tricks currently plaguing the School Board budget.” On school reopening, Change for Children takes the position that “schools should not reopen for in-person instruction until we have the ability to reliably, quickly, and affordably test our student, teacher, and employee populations.” The slate calls for “proper HVAC ventilation systems to prevent COVID-19 transmission, advanced cleaning protocols for the cleaning and disinfection of all school facilities, and stocking adequate PPE for teachers and children.”

Education Matters’ platform is succinct:  “Safe buildings to welcome back students when the time is right, supporting the mental health of students and families, bridging the digital divide to ensure that all students have what they need to be successful, and implementing community feedback in improving communication between all stakeholders in the Jersey City Public Schools.” It also touts its endorsements from the Jersey City Education Association, Freeholders Bill O’Dea and Joel Torres, and Councilman Daniel Rivera.

A request by Jersey City Times for more detailed policy proposals from Education Matters has gone unanswered.

Header photo:  Change for Children Candidates Asheenia Johnson, Sonia Cintron and Karen Poliski.

 

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