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Andrea Crowley-Hughes

Board of Ed, City Council Huddle on Budget Crisis 

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Jersey City Board of Education trustees and city council members who met for a joint session on Wednesday are in agreement: to solve the public schools’ funding crisis, they must work together. City council members did not promise any specific amounts of funding at the session, but the two governing bodies planned to form subcommittees and reconvene for another meeting in May. 

Conversation among the officials who met at the Hank Gallo Community Center in Lincoln Park was congenial, although due to WiFi problems that made the livestream unwatchable, members of the public could not view the meeting in real time. 

The school board has passed a preliminary budget for the 2021-22 school year that includes an $85 million increase in the tax levy. The preliminary budget would raise school taxes on the average Jersey City home assessed at $461,925 by an additional $993 per year – or $83 per month – in school taxes, according to the district.

Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker has said the budget will repair years of underfunding for the district of 30,000 students. School Board President Mussab Ali, who is a graduate of McNair Academic High School, put that in concrete terms at the session. “The students who are graduating this year, the class of 2021, from kindergarten to 12th grade, have never had fully funded Jersey City public schools,” Ali said. 

Ali said the state of New Jersey has been cutting aid to the district based to some degree on Jersey City’s growth in ratables, which he said have risen from $20 billion to more than $40 billion. He also pointed out that the only 27% of the city’s revenue goes to the schools, while the state average is 53%. 

“Jersey City, as a city, can afford to put more money in, but the question is how are we going to do it sustainably and in a way that doesn’t hurt homeowners,” said Ali. 

The school board’s 2021-22 budget includes $86 million in payroll taxes from the city, even though the city has only certified $65 million of this owed amount. 

Ward E Councilman James Solomon spoke about working together to come up with “additional revenue raisers,” such as cigarette taxes. “We don’t know what the future of the commercial waterfront is going to be that was supposed to fund a good portion of the payroll tax,” Solomon said. 

In agreement Solomon’s ideas for local revenue sources was Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh.

“We as a council should be looking at recreational cannabis and passing that as soon as possible, sort of creating the framework for how we’re going to tax it,” he said. 

Saleh, along with others on the board and council, said pressure needs to be put on state officials. 

“This is an election year, so that is front and center in mind. You can’t come get votes from our area and then meanwhile hurt a district of majority Black and brown students,” said Saleh. 

Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro said there are only two ways to alleviate the taxpayer burden and adequately fund schools: “by either substantially reducing the city’s levy, so as to offset the increases on the school side, and/or having the city contribute revenues to the Jersey City Public Schools.”

Lavarro had proposed a meeting between the city council and school board during public comments at a recent Board of Education meeting. He is being mentioned as a potential challenger to Mayor Steven Fulop in this fall’s citywide elections.

Council President Joyce Watterman and Ali said the next step after the session is to form subcommittees, which will focus on legislative outreach, finances and operations. Watterman said “we can come back to the public as a unified body once the subcommittees know what they have to do.” 

“If we all live here, I think we should all get along and put everything on the table,” Waterman said. 

The preliminary 2021-22 school budget is currently awaiting approval from the county superintendent. The district’s budget calendar lists April 22 as a tentative date for a board meeting on budget adoption and April 24 as the earliest date for the next public budget hearing.

 

Sally Deering

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

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

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

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

Superintendent Franklin Walker, photo by Sally Deering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trustee Mussab Ali, photo by Sally Deering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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