At a meeting last Tuesday, the Van Vorst Park Association heard from candidates running for the city’s Board of Education.
The candidates represented three slates: Education Matters, Change for Children, and Voice for Progress. Below are highlights of their conversation, which focused on creating what they described as a more equitable, affordable, and innovative community for the 2022–2023 school year.
Noemi Vasquez
Noemi Velasquez, who is running under the Education Matters banner, kicked off the meeting. A resident of Jersey City for 50 years and a veteran teacher, Valasquez has served on the Jersey City Board of Ed as an at-large member since 2019.
“I hope the work that I have done on the board, I know it has not always been pleasant for those who are not in the trenches,” she said. “But everything I have done in the board has been at the interest of the students and keeping them in mind.”
Velazquez said that city funds should be directed toward increasing faculty and improving building infrastructure for students.
She noted that she was “against” the City Council’s May 2022 property tax increase (although she did not say how else the district could have met its budgetary needs). If re-elected, Velazquez said she would advocate for better wages for teachers and against “high-priced” curricula.
Christopher Tisdale
Christopher Tisadle, who is also running as part of the Education Matters, has taught in both Englewood, New Jersey and, since 2001, in Jersey City’s charter schools.
Tisdale told the Van Vorst residents about his own arc as a teacher and how his initiation into the profession shaped his teaching philosophy.
“It took me around three months to fully understand how students worked in a classroom setting. I realized it was just a matter of what you did with the students and how you made them feel in the classroom that would determine the outcome.”
Tisdale said he is running for a board seat because “there is a lack of real direction coming from the administrative office.” He characterized the city as unaccountable and opaque in its use of funds, calling their performance in the area “totally unacceptable.“ Tisdale refers to his platform as TEACH: transparency, equity, accountability, community and honesty.
Afaf Muhammed
Afaf Muhammad, another Education Matters candidate, was born and raised in Jersey City and has four daughters who graduated from the city’s public schools. Muhammad is a mental health first-aid instructor and has served as vice president of the parent council of Mahatma K. Gandhi School, P.S. 23. She said that, among other things, her campaign would focus on aiding students who suffer from mental health problems.
“I want students to know they are not alone in their struggles,” she said.
Muhammad also said that, if reelected, she would lobby for increased investment in social and art programs “to help integrate students in the classroom setting” and advocate for more “innovative spaces” in the school district.
“Our children are learning differently than we did … I want to help students reach their full potential,” she said.
Doris Toni Ervin
Attendees also heard from the three representatives of Change for Children: Doris Toni Ervin, Alexander Hamilton, and Kenny Reyes.
Ervin, a Jersey City native and former classroom teacher, said she would like to see more “checks and balances” put in place to protect wayward board spending.
She also lamented the inequities amongst the city’s schools that are partly responsible for Jersey City’s placing in the bottom 50 percent of school districts in the state according toPublicSchoolsReview.com.
“We are all under one district. Instead of falling behind, we should be advancing,” Ervin said.
While working as a teacher, Ervin also led professional education workshops. At Hudson County Community College, she taught child development, an experience she said gave her insight into the needs of students preparing to go to college.
Alexander Hamilton is running for reelection to the board and said one of his foremost concerns is fiscal transparency and accountability.
Alexander Hamilton
“I just don’t see the results we are supposed to be getting with this,” he said of the nearly $300 million increase in the district’s budget in the span of three years.
Hamilton told listeners he’d voted against the budget for the past three years although believes Jersey City needs to pay its teachers more if they are to retain them.
He called for the hiring of a “public budget officer,” someone to watch over and rein in spending.
The father of a son with special needs, Hamilton said he would prioritize setting up programs to help inner city minority kids attend college at no cost.
“I think the most important thing you can do is donate your time to something like this,” Hamilton said, referring to improving the city’s schools.
Kenny Reyes
Kenny Reyes was the third Change for Children candidate at the forum. A father of two special-needs children, he said:
“When I look at all the money the district has at their disposal and I pair that to the quality of education that my kids are receiving, there is a massive disconnect there. … If elected I will address these issues.”
Reyes said Change for Children would seek federal funding for more programs in STEM and so the district could offer entrepreneurship courses for students. Also a priority, Reyes said he would spend federal dollars on improving special education as the need “personally hits home as I always think of my two sons.”
The final candidate to speak was Isnel Sanon, who is running on the Voice for Progress ticket. CEO of the eponymously named Sanon Global accounting firm, Sanon said he understood the need for the city’s recent property tax increase but believes the board needs to exercise more oversight on spending. He also said the board doesn’t learn from its mistakes.
Isnel Sanon
“We know how to create policies but never go back to these same policies and make changes to the things that don’t work. I want to go back and review some of these policies that block us from getting the results we need,” he said.
On curriculum, Sanon said, “Connecting students to private sector jobs and investing in school infrastructure is the key to moving the school district forward.”
Sanon said he has twice served under the vice president of the NAACP.
Thursday night’s meeting of the Jersey City School Board was dominated by three issues: the state’s continued closure of the Astor Place Community Garden, whether or not the city’s schools should offer ice hockey as an intramural sport, and retention of teachers in a competitive environment.
The Astor Garden closure dispute has gone on for over a year now. In 2021, the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, a state agency, closed the garden despite the fact that Jersey City residents had been occupying the space for almost 10 years. In 2012, the Black Interest Team Enterprise, BITE, cleaned up the land and started the community garden and simultaneously provided pantry and hygiene items.
At the onset of the pandemic, the garden became a sanctuary for volunteers and a food source for those in need but SDA started investigating it’s usage in late 2020, eventually closing it because “the land was being used for unauthorized purposes,” as per NJSDA spokeswoman Edye Maier in an email to NJ.com. The original agreement for the use of the property included usage for only parking and recreation use and only by the district.
At the monthly Board of Education meeting, a myriad of public comments were presented in favor of the garden, and having it reopened to the community
Rosa Roney, a former crossing guard whose own family has attended PS-12, next to the Community Garden, spoke first about the importance of this space. Pointing to her great-granddaughters, she said “I have a before and after here.” The oldest of the two children had been at PS-12 as the garden came up, while the youngest is still at the school.
“She is about to walk through when it’s about to be another chaos,” said Roney pointing at the youngest of the two girls. “There’s balloons and signs hanging up where this kid got killed or that kid got killed.”
As she said this, her granddaughter held up a poster with images of the garden.
Astor Place Community Garden
“It’s really pitiful when children are trying to go to school to get a good education and they have to walk through the stuff that’s going on.”
Maggie Branch, who works for a non-profit, recommended Astor Garden to her clients during the pandemic when food was in short supply.
“Astor garden has been very helpful with helping people from the community to receive resources, food, and whatever else they had to offer,” she said.
Bishop Tina Bland, founder and president of BITE, was the last to speak before the closed session, and reiterated the feelings of others in the meetings. “We feed almost 3000 per week. That should be a sense of urgency for all. But as I watch you on your phones, not even looking at the speakers, it’s not urgent to you.”
Highlighting the urgency of this space, Bishop Bland pointed out that many people arrived to the current pantry space hours before it opened.
“They’re there at 6 o’clock in the morning for a pantry that opens at twelve noon,” said Bland. “That is not something a mother, a father, or family does unless they are desperate.”
She ended by asking the board to find a way to reopen the garden, because she feels that the attorney’s aren’t as committed to the garden the way the community members are.
“I’m hoping that we as individuals can find a way to make the impossible possible”
President Gerald Lyons made it clear that while he was also in support of the garden, the board was limited in their power to restore it.
“It’s not our property but it still is our problem,” said Lyons.
After a closed session, board members returned with comments on the garden as well as other issues brought forward by public commentators.
“Does the Governor’s office know about what’s going on?“ asked Trustee Alexander Hamilton, suggesting the Board could bring his attention to the garden through a letter or evidence of what the garden looked like before and after the closure.
“This is literally tearing the community apart.”
Alternatively, Vice-President Gina Verdibello recommended that PS-12 become a community school, since the school already houses BITE. Community schools are often open to the public, providing pantry items, food, and activities. This would allow BITE to become an official part of the school, and allow the district to reapply for the space.
“[BITE] can come back in, doing what they were doing.”
Parents also brought to the Board their request for the potential addition of ice hockey as a school sponsored sport, like the Bayonne district has.
Although acknowledgements were made that Bayonne has a private rink and that the cost of ice hockey can be quite high for many students, Trustee Lekendrick Shaw pointed out the opportunities ice hockey could bring to Jersey City students.
“When I think of ice hockey,” he said, “I think of it in the same nature I think of lacrosse where there’s not that much participation across our demographics, but it’s also a niche market where you can get scholarships.”
In personnel news, the board discussed how to meet the competitive rates for teachers that other districts are offering, and how to have those teachers stay with the district long term.
Trustee Shaw spoke to previous plans the board had to fill in the teacher gap, by bringing in more retired teachers and substitute teachers, but acknowledged that this was difficult because many retirees did not want to return and substitute teachers required more pay than currently provided to them.
One of the proposed incentives is more time off. President Lyons said his conversation with a lawyer reinforced his belief this is a good strategy, “as long as the union and the district were ok with it.”
He does not believe that simply offering higher salaries will be a good long-term strategy.
“Newark just upped themselves. They raised themselves to 61 [thousand], so like a poker game, we raised ourselves to 61 [thousand]. Newark just raised themselves to 62 [thousand]. So is this what we’re going to have to look for? Cause if we do, we’re all going to lose,” he said, “We’re all going to lose. If everyone just keeps outbidding each other, we’re going to be at the point where we can’t afford to keep that up.”
Though no final solution was formalized, the board reminded attendees of the upcoming school job fair on October 1, encouraging former and aspiring teachers as well as substitutes to attend and become part of the solution to meet teacher demand.
For the balance of 2022 — and likely longer — New Jersey City University has said it will not lay off any faculty despite its $20 million budget shortfall.
The university did say that it would cut some administrative staff. It is also seeking an investor to take over ground leases for those parts of its West Side campus now labeled “non-core assets.” Those locations include University Place, the University Academy Charter School, and the business development incubator building at 275 West Side Ave.
This past weekend, 83 percent of NJCU’s faculty and administrative staff (represented by Local 1839, American Federation of Teachers) voted to accept a memorandum of understanding with the university, a summary of which was obtained by the Jersey City Times.
According to AFT sources, 124 faculty members voted in favor of the MOA, 26 voted against it, and two abstained.
Union negotiators recommended that members accept what they characterized as “unpaid furlough days and other cost-saving measures … to protect as many jobs as possible by avoiding mass layoffs….”
The MOA summary notes that, “in exchange for accepting unpaid furlough days, there will be no layoff notices of furloughed employees prior to Dec. 14, 2022, for faculty and Nov. 29, 2022, for professional staff.”
A union source noted that, because AFT faculty are contractually entitled to 195 days’ notice in the event of a layoff — essentially the length of an academic year — that this would push any prospective layoffs to 2023–2024. Clarification from an NJCU spokesman is being awaited.
Beyond those dates, however, there are fears that NJCU may phase in layoffs much like William Patterson University did in 2020 when it faced a $30 million deficit.
The MOA summary does say that, after the agreement expires on June 30, 2023, there will be a moratorium on the hiring of non-tenure-track teaching professionals until the cap is at or below the negotiated 25% cap.
NJCU hasn’t said how much it expects to save by taking the measures outlined in the MOA, but it does anticipate paring its payroll by about $1 million (with vacation and severance payments factored in) by eliminating 10 administrative jobs.
Two of those positions fall under the office of the newly-departed university president Susan Henderson, who left June 30 six months before the end of her contract with a full year’s pay of $360,000 plus a generous severance, housing allowance, and the car NJCU was leasing for her.
Those jobs — program/project director and chief of staff — paid $95,000 and $188,000, respectively.
The other positions being vacated and those salaries are: director of center of the arts, $133,294; interim dean of professional studies, $185,400; manager of operations and innovation, $87,329; director of university advancement, $117,579; associate director of public safety, $89,191; director of business services, $102,000; senior director of global initiatives, $97,920; and director of student media, $78,049.
Here’s how the MOA terms prescribe how unpaid furlough days are apportioned among faculty and professional staff, keyed to annual base salary ranges:
At least 18 days or more at management’s discretion for faculty earning above $177,000; 15 days for those making $150,000 and above; 12 for those collecting $120,000 to $149,999; 10 for those paid $100,000 to $119,999; and five for those drawing salaries of $80,000 to $99,999.
Faculty must take at least 10 unpaid furlough days before Jan. 17, 2023; the rest must be taken before June 1, 2023. Unpaid furlough days “may not be scheduled during a period of assigned instruction.”
Professional staff must take at least five unpaid furlough days before Oct. 31, 2022, and another five by Feb. 17, 2023. The balance of time must be taken before June 1, 2023.
Among other “cost savings items” listed in the MOA summary are: voluntary conversions of professional staff jobs from 12 months to 10- or 11-month appointments; granting faculty requests for “overload” assignments (work above and beyond the normal 12 hours-per-week of class time); “targeted suspension” of coordinator stipends; suspending pay range adjustments, promotions, and sabbaticals from July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
Gov. Phil Murphy has asked the state comptroller to undertake an investigation of NJCU’s finances, a probe that NJCU Board of Trustees Chairman Joseph Scott has said the university would “welcome … as we work collaboratively with our partners in government, labor and our student, faculty and staff community to move our institution onto solid ground and set it on a path to future sustainability.”
“NJCU provides educational and economic opportunities to a vulnerable population that would not be likely to receive them anywhere else, and for that reason we all must recognize how essential it is for the university to continue on as a beacon of hope and progress for our state.”
NJCU continues to await the results of the state analysis of its fiscal condition. State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) said this week that, as yet, there has been no movement on his bill to provide $10 million in state aid to the university.
As a means of promoting that mission, NJCU is undertaking a campus infrastructure project called “Reimagining the Library: the NJCU Commons for Learning and Academic Engagement,” a project the board of trustees authorized Sept. 1.
It calls for the “modernization and renovation of the first and fourth floors of the Guarini Library for a student success and faculty excellence project via a one-stop/learning commons model. This includes the Career Success Lab, Student Learning Center, Center for Online Learning, Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Research, Grants and Sponsored Programs.”
The board hopes to finance the work through the state’s Higher Education Facilities Trust Fund Act but acknowledges that the university will be obliged to contribute to the cost of the project, estimated at $16.5 million, and specifically to pay for its operation and maintenance.
NJCU is also promoting two student-centered initiatives.
One is a “theater orchestra ensemble,” led by Broadway and international conductor/pianist Amy Duran, who is the accompanist and conductor for NJCU’s Department of Music, Dance and Theater, which will give participating students the chance to immerse themselves in the music of the Broadway stage in consultation with professional guest artists, sound engineers, instrumentalists, and composers and collaborating in performances with singers and dancers.
The other is a partnership between the university and the Grow with Google HSI (Hispanic Serving Institutions) geared to help roughly 200,000 Latino students “prepare for the workforce through digital skills training and career workshops” by 2025. Forty-five percent of NJCU’s students are Hispanic. Melissa Faulkner, the new director of NJCU’s Career Success Lab, said, “We believe this program will enrich the lives of students and propel them to land satisfying careers.”
The New Jersey State Board of Education voted yesterday to return full local control to the Jersey City Board of Education, ending more than 30 years of state control of district operations prompted by corruption and mismanagement. But the milestone takes place amidst the district’s continuing challenges.
“This is certainly a historic day for Jersey City, and one that I’m glad to see come to fruition,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “After 33 years, I’m proud to see that full decision-making authority has been restored to the local board of education in Jersey City. Moreover, I’m confident the community will continue to rally around their students to ensure that every child in Jersey City has access to a world-class education.”
In 1989, the state took over Jersey City schools because of ”deep-rooted and endemic” problems, including poor educational quality, political patronage and fiscal mismanagement. Jersey City’s mayor at the time, Gerald McCann, supported the takeover.
A judge found that ”political interference, nepotism, and patronage” had occurred in the system under both Mr. McCann and his predecessor, Anthony Cucci. The school board was ”hopelessly divided among warring factions and self-interested cliques.”
The New Jersey Department of Education supported and assessed the district’s progress in meeting key benchmarks over the years in order to transition back to local control.
During the multi-year transition period, the NJDOE enlisted the services of an independent entity – the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University – to create a Comprehensive Accountability Office and employed professionals to support implementation of the transition plan and evaluate the district’s progress in areas such as instruction and programming, governance, and fiscal management.
Yesterday the State Board of Education received the final reports from the CAO and the Highly Skilled Professionals, Dr. Stephen Cowan and Dr. Alexis Colander. In light of their reports confirming the district has successfully met the necessary benchmarks to return to local control, the State Board of Education approved a resolution to return control of the district to the Jersey City Board of Education.
Today, Jersey City schools compare favorably to other similar districts. The website schooldigger.com ranks Jersey City 372nd out of 590 districts statewide, handily beating other districts with high concentrations of poverty like Elizabeth, Paterson and Newark.
However, the relatively strong overall ranking obscures the academic achievement chasm between the district’s lower performing schools such as Lincoln and Snyder High Schools and standouts like McNair Academic and Infinity Institute.
The system continues to struggle with low graduation rates. In 2019, Jersey City graduated just 75 percent of its high school seniors, slightly fewer than Newark or Paterson, both of which have higher rates of poverty than Jersey City.
Overcrowding and insufficient facilities are also a problem. Administrators hope to use $89 million in newfound federal funds to replace portable classrooms for K-8 students with permanent ones, renovate older buildings, and render all district buildings ADA compliant. However, it is generally accepted that the funds will not fully address the district’s infrastructure needs.
In spite of the these challenges, Jersey City school administrators appear to be thrilled with the districts newfound independence. “This is truly a historic day for Jersey City. We are grateful for the work of so many stakeholders to make this day a reality. The process was long, and the pandemic extended the last phase. However, the years of support and the delay allowed us to extend our learning and reflect on developing efficient systems in governance, instruction and programs, fiscal management, and operations. Thus, allowing us to make ethical decisions to meet the needs of our community,” said Dr. Norma Fernandez, Superintendent of Jersey City Public Schools.
Said former Jersey City Board of Education President Mussab Ali, “Jersey City’s return to local return ends a 33 year long saga in which the district has made significant progress for our children due to generous financial support by the State of New Jersey. Unfortunately, uniquely for our district, it seems the toll of returning to local control included quadrupling our local tax levy. Nonetheless I am proud of all the leaders who have brought us to the finish line.”
Last night, the Jersey City School Board held a special meeting to discuss what they would do with the $89 million in federal funds they received for the 2022-2023 school year. These funds were allocated to them as part of the Maintenance of Equity provision of the American Rescue plan that New Jersey agreed to, which prevents the state from reducing aid to historically underserved districts below 2019 levels.
Superintendent Norma Fernandez and Mayor Steven Fulop have said the school board should put the funding toward infrastructure upgrades.
Superintendent Fernandez suggested the funds could make the biggest difference if allocated to three specific infrastructure needs: replacing portable classrooms for K-8 students with permanent ones, renovating older buildings, and rendering all district buildings ADA compliant.
Replacing the portables would require the board to look at where the city needs early childhood classrooms the most, adding a new pre-school, and possibly refurbishing the P.S. 3 on Bright Street, said Fernandez.
The larger undertaking would be renovating older buildings — and continuing the district’s longtime effort to eliminate lead in schools’ drinking water, according to the superintendent. She said over ten categories of infrastructure need repairing, upgrading, or replacing including windows, roofing, heating, cooling, bathrooms, and electric.
“The reality is that one roof is about $2 million; the money is not enough,” she said.
Community members agreed with many of the goals of the board but championed specific changes.
Monique K. Andrews, an alumnus of Henry Snyder High School, spoke about her desire to see some of the $89 million go toward fixing up Snyder’s auditorium, a project that has been started but not finished.
“All they did was take out the chairs and left us stranded,” she said.
In addition, she recommended installing new French drains in the cafeteria, window shades in all classrooms, and new landscaping; restoring the old fallout shelter; upgrading the school’s electrical panel; and expanding the school’s parking lot for HSHS.
Dr. Jyl Josephson, representing Jersey City Together, advocated for renewable energy sources that she said could help the district air condition school buildings.
In response, Board President Gerard Lyons noted, “We’ve seen stacks of air conditioners in storage areas. They just can’t put them in because there’s no electricity to run the AC.”
Vice President Gina Verdibello agreed that the money should be spent to air condition the schools. “Also I would like to see our kitchens finished and get rid of the pre-plated meals,” she added.
Trustee Alexander Hamilton reminded the board that the senior citizens from the C.H.O.I.C.E program said improved bathrooms was their priority, “Being able to use a clean, up-to-date bathroom should be a human right,” Hamilton declared.
Board members Lekendrick Shaw and Younass Mohamed Barkouch spoke about new athletic facilities, which they said could potentially double as community rec centers and thereby bring in money for the schools.
From a young age, bullies attacked Christina Huang about her Chinese culture, questioned her food, and mocked her parents’ accents. At her elementary school in West Milford, she said teachers brushed it off as harmless kid behavior.
It wasn’t until she moved to Ridgewood for middle school that she had her first Asian teacher, who discussed weekends celebrating Asian holidays and discussed current events in Asia.
“I remember her talking about things that are really meaningful to me. I felt represented in that way, and that’s not just important for me but also for non-Asian kids so they can get exposed to another world they don’t generally talk about,” Huang said.
During her 13 years in New Jersey public schools, Huang only had about eight teachers of color, a common story for the state’s nonwhite students. Like those in West Milford and Ridgewood, teachers in schools statewide are overwhelmingly white, with five times as many white teachers as educators of color, according to state data.
At the same time, the student body has grown increasingly diverse in the past decade — more than 60% are students of color, a trend in pace with New Jersey’s growing diversity.
State data shows how the racial gap has widened between teachers and students in the past decade:
Last school year, 83% of teachers were white, compared to 40% of the state’s 1.4 million students.
Thirty-two percent of students and 8% of teachers were Hispanic.
Black students represented 15% of the student population and 6% of teachers, while 10% of students were Asian, compared to 2% of teachers.
Ten years ago, 87% of teachers were white, while 8% were Black; 4%, Hispanic; and 1%, Asian. Fifty-one percent of students were white, while 23% were Hispanic; 16%, Black; and 9%, Asian.
Even in Jersey City, one of the state’s most diverse cities, the racial gap is stark: More than half the teachers there are white, compared to just 15% of students.
The diversity gap comes as schools, nationally and in New Jersey, are struggling with a long-brewing teacher shortage many call catastrophic.
“I’m sure the governor is not focusing on diversity right now, because a lot of schools are opening now with so many vacancies they don’t have enough teachers to put into these classrooms,” said state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), vice-chair of the Senate’s education committee.
U.S. classrooms have at least 600,000 fewer teachers now than they did before the pandemic. In New Jersey, there’s no official estimate on teacher vacancies statewide — although Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law in January requiring the state to gather that data.
Education advocates agree the shortage is a crisis that keeps teacher diversity an elusive goal, hurting all students.
Research shows teachers of color are linked to social-emotional and academic gains for students of all races — but especially students of color, because teachers of color help close achievement gaps, serve as role models, take a restorative rather than punitive approach to discipline, and increase graduation and college enrollment rates.
“We have to be able to truly understand each other and find a way to navigate our differences, so hiring is only the first part — and it’s the easy part. Finding a way to work well to support our students of all color, that’s the tough part,” said Cecilia Birge, assistant principal at Princeton High School.
School officials say one of the causes of the lack of diversity among New Jersey teachers is the state’s long-standing teacher shortage problem. (Edwin J. Torres/Governor’s Office)
What’s the problem?
As head of a union that represents 200,000 New Jersey teachers and school staff, Sean Spiller has plenty of ideas about what has fueled the teacher shortage — and deepened the reluctance among some people of color to join the profession.
“We have the challenge now of people looking at the profession and not liking what they’re seeing,” said Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association.
First, he said, is a “perception problem.”
Inequities between districts, with those in communities of color getting fewer “bells and whistles” than other communities, can sour students of color on an education career, he said.
There’s also been a recent “demonizing” of the profession, with a conservative but loud minority of parents and advocates clamoring to restrict what schools teach on things like slavery and racism, Spiller added.
“If you’re a college student of color, and you saw what an under-resourced teaching experience was like for your teachers, are you going to go into that profession?” Spiller said. “Or are you going to go into something else that is more lucrative financially, where you’re not dealing with the political pressures of what you can and can’t teach and you don’t have to worry about somebody telling you that your history is not real history?”
New Jersey policymakers have aggravated the shortage and diversity efforts, others said.
Beginning around 2013, officials adopted several policies that were intended to improve teacher quality — but instead created barriers that barred some from the profession altogether, disproportionately impacting people of color, said J. Kenyon Kummings, superintendent of Wildwood Public Schools.
They raised the grade point average students need, to 3.0, both to get into and to graduate from a college teacher education program. They also expanded how many standardized tests would-be teachers must pass to prove proficiency.
One such performance assessment, called the edPTA, has only been required since 2017. But it has become such a burden for many teacher candidates that Turner and other legislators introduced a bill earlier this year to abolish it.
“It’s a test that costs a lot of money that’s not needed,” Spiller agreed.
The bill passed in the Legislature and has widespread support from teachers’ unions, the New Jersey School Boards Association, and other advocacy groups. Delaware, Georgia, and the state of Washington also recently dropped edTPA from teacher licensure requirements, and New York lawmakers are considering eliminating it too. But the bill remains unsigned on the governor’s desk.
That frustrates Turner, who fears the teacher shortage and diversity gap will only accelerate without action. She said she wrote to Murphy about a month ago urging him to sign the bill, but hasn’t gotten any response.
Two Republican lawmakers from Cape May — Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen — joined that call Thursday. A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment.
Turner warned that many students will continue opting for other careers, rather than try to overcome the many hurdles they encounter in trying to become teachers.
“We can’t just eliminate or reduce all the requirements, but it’s all about supply and demand,” Turner said. “When you have a greater demand than supply, you’ve got to find a way to increase the supply.”
The hurdles have had a measurable impact on the number of teacher candidates coming out of college in New Jersey, which fell below 3,000 in the 2018-19 school year, the lowest in two decades, according to a June report by New Jersey Policy Perspective. Garden State colleges and universities also produce fewer teachers than the rest of the country, the report found.
That “pipeline problem” can impact diversity all the way up the chain, Kummings said. Superintendents tend not to be a very diverse bunch, because they often rise up through the ranks, from teachers to school administrators to superintendents, he said. A lack of diversity among classroom teachers means fewer candidates of color for a district’s most powerful positions, he added.
“It’s all hinged upon what’s happening within the teacher pipeline,” Kummings said.
New Jersey has 1.4 million students in public school. Forty percent of them are white, 32% are Hispanic, 15% are Black, and 10% are Asian. (Edwin J. Torres/Governor’s Office)
Spitballing solutions
Education advocates say there are plenty of things policymakers could be doing to ensure teacher diversity.
Recruitment is key — and recruiting from historically Black colleges and universities should be something districts already do, Turner said.
“Students of color have so many more options that are open to them that were never there before,” she said.
That’s why policymakers also should prioritize boosting teacher salaries, she said.
College costs, the fees required of standardized tests like the edTPA, and other financial stressors make teaching an increasingly impractical career choice, she added.
That’s especially true for people of color, who already grapple with an entrenched wealth gap, said Jennifer Robinson, executive director of the Center of Pedagogy at Montclair State University.
Teachers union officials say boosting pay for first-time teachers would help. Starting salaries for teachers with bachelor’s degrees range from $54,000 in Hopewell to $58,000 in Montclair to $61,000 in Jersey City. The average starting salary for most New Jersey teachers is about $56,400, according to the New Jersey Education Association.
The union has a “$60K the first day” campaign that aims to lift starting pay statewide to $60,000 a year, but only 77 of the state’s 600 districts have met that target. (Another 35 have approved contracts that would hit that mark in future years, a union spokesman said.)
Robinson said policymakers intent on getting more teachers of color into classrooms should focus on removing the profession’s financial barriers.
Teacher certification requires a semester or more of full-time student teaching — and that’s typically unpaid, she noted.
“How do you pay tuition, while apprenticing with an experienced teacher full-time and you’re not getting any compensation whatsoever?” Robinson said.
Cutting costly assessments like the edPTA would also help diversity efforts, because research shows standardized tests are a culturally biased, unreliable measure that can perpetuate a segregated workforce, Robinson, Kummings, and Turner agreed.
Eliminating or reducing the GPA required for incoming teacher candidates also would help, Kummings said.
“If you’re a college student of color, and you saw what an under-resourced teaching experience was like for your teachers, are you going to go into that profession? Or are you going to go into something else that is more lucrative financially, where you’re not dealing with the political pressures of what you can and can’t teach and you don’t have to worry about somebody telling you that your history is not real history?
– Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association
Birge said showing teachers that their background and experiences are valued attracts educators of color to their hiring pool. Princeton High School includes racial literacy curriculum, which encourages students to understand the impact of systemic racism and connect their own experiences to history.
“Just knowing that there’s a place that their experiences are discussed, their stories are listened to, and potentially a space to come in and share their experience with adults and students, that’s a major attraction for a lot of teachers,” she said.
Of 14 teachers hired for this academic year, five are educators of color, Birge said. State data shows Princeton High School’s teaching staff is 78% white, 10% Latino, 9% Asian, and 4% Black. The student body is 49% white, 26% Asian, 13% Hispanic, and 5% Black.
Colleges and community groups have also joined the crusade. Rowan University’s Project Impact aims to get more men of color into the teaching profession. In Newark, the nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper Network has a similar mission ongoing.
Legislators also have a few fixes in the works, including bills that would:
Establish a mentorship program for male teachers of color.Create a $6 million teacher recruitment program in high-poverty districts.Forgive up to $50,000 in college debt for new teachers who fill vacancies in districts where they went to school.
In Wildwood, administrators aren’t waiting on the state to act. The district has taken the “grow your own” approach that has become popular around the country, Kummings said.
Wildwood high schoolers can experience hands-on “career exploration” by volunteering in a preschool program, get mentors through a partnership with Stockton University’s teacher education program, and take a basic skills exam — on the district’s dime — that’s required for college-bound students who want to become teachers.
Kummings hopes such programs will diversify district educators, who are 96% white, 3% Hispanic, and 1% Black. The student population is 64% Hispanic and 10% Black.
“The idea was — maybe we instill or identify a passion for education with our population, which will help us get more teachers in the workforce — and our students are primarily of color, so that will help us get more teachers of color in the workforce,” Kummings said.
Huang wants to see schools become more welcoming rather than hostile, referencing school board meetings that grew tense over critical race theory and sex education. She added that some teachers can fall victim to microaggressions that cause them to flee a district.
“I remember a history teacher I had who talked about how at faculty meetings, people assume she’s in STEM,” she said, adding, “It’s very difficult to be around people who don’t understand your culture or understand you, so I think it’s a lot of making it a more accepting environment.”
An earlier version of this story should have said the starting salary for a Jersey City teacher is $61,000.
Featured photo: Second grade teacher Laura Foster high-fives one of her students on the first day of school at Watsessing Elementary School in Bloomfield. (Danielle P. Richards for New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.
A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope of a tiny galaxy called Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte will be revealed for the first time publicly in Liberty Science Center’s Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium this Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.
The image will be shown as part of LSC’s free, monthly “Space Talk” presentation, which this month will be hosted by Dr. Kristen McQuinn, professor of astronomy at Rutgers University and a pioneer in researching “dwarf” galaxies.
The largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, The Chalsty Planetarium is uniquely equipped to display high resolution images like the one being revealed on Thursday. While a standard computer monitor can display around two million pixels, The Chalsty Planetarium can display over 50 million!
LSC’s Space Talk presentations occur the first Thursday of every month. Each one is hosted by a guest astronomer who explores the “Biggest Unanswered Questions of the Universe in the Biggest Planetarium in America.”
This Thursday evening’s presentation will last roughly 30 minutes and will be followed by question-and-answer session.
Bank of America is partnering with Liberty Science Center starting this fall to offer students at James J. Ferris High School in Jersey City the opportunity to learn basic cybersecurity skills and immediately upon graduation take entry-level jobs at the bank in “emerging technologies.” Students at Memorial High School in West New York are being made the same offer.
Citing a recent series of massive cyberattacks and a “significant dearth of trained individuals to meet this urgency,” Bank of America New Jersey President Alberto Garofalo, said:
While a number of prestigious universities … have recently created baccalaureate, graduate, and professional education programs to fill the tremendous need, Liberty Science Center’s SciTech Scity in Jersey City and Bank of America are taking an innovative approach: They are reaching into the high school ranks. … Our goals … include addressing minority scholarship, professional training programs, and curriculum building to help ensure student success while also uplifting underserved communities through workforce development.”
Called “High Schools of the Future,” the joint program will be part of a pilot that has been in the works for 18 months. The pilot’s success will require site visits and ongoing support from LSC, so the architects of the project limited the search for participating schools to those within Hudson County, according to the program’s press materials. Ferris and Memorial were chosen because their leaders were particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity, a spokesperson said. Approximately two dozen 11th graders per school will be offered spots.
“According to the National Center for Education Statistics, young adults with bachelor’s or higher degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) tend to have more positive economic outcomes. However, the percentage of Hispanic, Pacific Island, and African American students with STEM degrees tends to be much lower than other races/ethnicities,” said Deneen Alford, principal of Ferris High School. “My student population … is very diverse. My goal is to create well-rounded citizens with a social conscience that enables them to serve the community and meet the challenges of an ever-changing world.”
Clara Brito Herrera, superintendent of West New York Schools, echoed these sentiments saying, “The West New York School District is committed to inspiring students and providing them with the skills necessary to fill the careers of the 21st century. This partnership is a great opportunity for our students pursuing careers in this emerging STEM job market.”
While the exact curriculum the students will be taught remains to be determined, in the first year of the two-year program, students will learn “soft skills” and digital tools; in year two they will cover technical skills and “the foundations of cybersecurity.” The Society for Human Resource Management defines soft skills as “behaviors, personality traits, and work habits, such as collaboration, critical thinking, perseverance, and communication, that help people prosper at work.”
Paul Hoffman, president and CEO of Liberty Science Center, summed up his institution’s interest in the program: “Since our inception more than 25 years ago, one of our primary goals has been to be a catalyst for improved student STEM learning in New Jersey’s most underserved communities. … The pilot program in cybersecurity is a natural first step in fulfilling this mission,”
But the idea behind High Schools of the Future doesn’t end with Hudson County, and it doesn’t end with cybersecurity. Says the program’s publicist, LSC and BoA are seeking other “high-employment companies” in New Jersey to develop “a STEM job-readiness program that can be scaled up to other high schools across New Jersey and even the rest of the country.” They are “focused on providing their students with the skills and training needed to prepare them for what have been termed ‘new collar’ jobs, those in emerging technology fields…. The initial focus will be on cybersecurity, and jobs in cybersecurity that don’t require extensive coding skills.” Down the road, the educators will add training in the financial services and energy industries, according to press materials.
If all of this sounds wonderfully idealistic, Hoffman explained that participating companies stand to save on both recruiting and training costs.
The program will be targeted to 11th grade students who intend to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation (with academic performance a consideration but not a barrier to participation). Neither Bank of America nor Liberty Science Center when asked provided a definition of “successful” program completion. Bank of America also declined to identify sample job titles and salary ranges of the jobs it is committing to offer.
Liberty Science Center offshoot SciTech Scity is a campus on which companies and researchers test — and residents and visitors experience — new high-tech products and services before they come to market.
The High Schools of the Future advisory panel includes members from the spheres of public school administration, for-profit consulting, public policy, and corporate human resources, among others.
Teachers from Ferris and Memorial High schools will be amongst those teaching (and later revising) the pilot curriculum.
Bank of America is not offering this program anywhere else.
Interested students or parents should contact Dr. Kara Mann at kmann@lsc.org.
Hudson Catholic Regional High School in Jersey City is partnering with New Jersey City University to offer a new program this fall that will allow its students to earn college credits in “media arts.”
The two-year program will allow HC to earn a media arts “certificate” and up to 18 credits in the field, equivalent to a minor at the university. According to NJCU’s website, this path is “for students interested in the creation, production, dissemination and use of digital media, film, cinema and media studies, and sound content.” Were one to major in media arts, which at NJCU would require another 33 credits in the department, students would have solid academic and practical preparation for a career as a production assistant, research assistant, script advisor, or post-production assistant, the website also says.
“These are exciting times for the school community of Hudson Catholic High School,” said Brother Christopher Hall, C.F.C., the Archdiocese of Newark’s newly-appointed Assistant Superintendent of High Schools. “Principal Terence Matthews, M.A., his leadership team, and the faculty are truly providing students with the opportunity to excel at learning through educational partnerships.”
In addition to the new program at NJCU, Hudson Catholic offers three other “pre-college” programs: two at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City that also afford the opportunity to take St. Peter’s’ courses for credit and one at Steven’s Institute of Technology in Hoboken that, among other things, offers scholarships for certain non-credit classes designed to help students prepare for college.
The St. Peter’s courses are in liberal arts, criminal justice, and science — and Steven’s specializes in science, technology, engineering, and math.
“The expansion (to film) will provide students more individual choice in their studies,” said archdiocese spokeswoman Jessica Ryan.
Another advantage of the collaboration, according to Ryan — which holds true for all of Hudson Catholic’s pre-college offerings — is financial.
The NJCU program is free to enroll for eligible HC students. By comparison, for the upcoming school year, 18 undergraduate credits at NJCU will cost approximately $8000 for in-state students (and $14,000 for out-of-state students); $11,000 to $14,000 at St. Peter’s; and $22,000 to $36,000 at Steven’s.
Individuals interested in learning more Hudson Catholic can visit HudsonCatholic.org. One of 73 schools run by the Archdiocese of Newark in Hudson, Bergen, Essex, and Union Counties, the school itself recently received a large grant (with a matching grant challenge) from the William E. Simon Foundation for its pre-college program.
Tuition for the upcoming school year is $11,000, but according to Ryan, every year over 70 percent of its students receive approximately $1.2 million combined in financial aid.
Like many children in the 1950s, John Scully was fascinated by trains, in his case the Lackawanna Railroad that ran the length of New Jersey, where he grew up, and through Cranberry Lake in Byram Township, where his family had a summer home.
Unlike many children, his fascination never wavered, even throughout his adult life. Indeed, the business executive originally from Metuchen, NJ, spent many years building one of the world’s largest and most meticulously detailed model train sets, a 3,000-square-foot re-creation of that railroad line. Beyond its more than 425 feet of train track, the set is complete with models of New Jersey railway stations, the local coal mine industry, suburban homes, realistic bodies of water, 5,000 miniature native trees and shrubs, 400 little people, a drive-in movie theater, and multiple shops and stores including a grocery store fully stocked right down to individual sausage links.
After researching a new home for his treasure, Regina and John Scully decided to donate his model railroad to Liberty Science Center to share this slice of history with its thousands of daily visitors. LSC has designed and constructed a new exhibition centered around the railroad: The Great Train Set. Opening to LSC to the public on Saturday, August 6, the TheGreat Train Set will transport visitors back to the 1950s, the final decade of the Lackawanna Railroad. That line began in 1851 as a way to haul anthracite coal from mines near Scranton, Pennsylvania, and later expanded into a commuter rail. LSC guests will notice the historical accuracy and scrupulous attention to the smallest details, beginning at the Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken—one of five major rail-ferry terminals on the Jersey side of the Hudson, and the only one still in use today. The set reconstructs six of the Lackawanna’s stations.
Scully and his wife, Regina Scully, are longtime advocates of improving educational access for students in underserved communities. In 2007, they helped found the Making Waves Academy in northern California, a charter school that has graduated thousands of economically disadvantaged students and guided them through college and into new careers. The Scullys were also among the earliest trustees of Success Academy in New York. The donation of the model railroad is closely aligned with their dedication to supporting education everywhere.
“We are truly grateful to John and Regina for making Liberty Science Center the final stop for his iconic model train set,” said LSC President and CEO Paul Hoffman. “The exhibit artfully balances the old and the new, bringing modernized LED technology and interactive elements to Scully’s breathtaking tribute to the 1950s Lackawanna Railroad. Moreover, the train set is a marvel of science, technology, engineering and math – the very same disciplines at the heart of our Center’s mission.”
President and CEO of Liberty Science Center Paul Hoffman, Governor Phil Murphy, Tammy Murphy, John H. Scully and Regina Scully
In donating his set to the Center, Scully shared his vision, “You’re never too old to play with trains. This is a tribute to my childhood, and it’s quite meaningful for us to pass this project to today’s young learners and train-lovers of New Jersey. In fact, Liberty Science Center is the perfect permanent new home for TheGreat Train Set. We are thrilled that the public will soon be able to experience the model that has brought us so much joy.”
Growing up, Scully was fascinated by trains, and a special train ride on his eighth birthday at Cranberry Lake was a memory he carried with him over the years as his passion for trains grew. It would lead him to build one of the world’s largest model railroads.
A team of architects, artists, archivists, engineers, and electricians, spent nearly 15 years hand-crafting the model, transforming the basement of the Scully’s Hamptons estate into a replica of the Lackawanna Railroad with New Jersey’s Cranberry Lake at its core. Clips from the award-winning documentary about the display—aptly titled Still Plays with Trains—will also be part of the permanent exhibition at the Center. Other elements include animations, a model tugboat, expertly-crafted miniature chandeliers, populated dining cars, and interactive elements beyond the model such as train point-of-view cameras with real-time video projected onto the walls of the museum. Additionally, the ceiling will be illuminated with a star map of the July 1952 sky in Cranberry Lake—the very sky young Scully dreamed under.
LSC members will get an exclusive preview of The Great Train Set from July 29 through August 5. The exhibition will open to the public August 6 and is included with general admission. To learn more and to reserve tickets, visit LSC.org.
