Downtown Jersey City resident Shelley Skinner and her civic group want Jersey City’s public schools to improve so they can enroll their kids.
Skinner is the founder of JC Families for Better Schools (JCFBS), which was formed in April to pursue the goal of improving the Jersey City school system. The group has about 150 members.
Skinner is married with a 4-year-old daughter and a 7-month-old son.
In a May 17 letter to state officials, which she titled “Demand Reform of Jersey City Schools,” Skinner noted that test scores “remain some of the lowest in the state and only three Jersey City schools have been rated as ‘highly successful schools’ as definied by state standards.”
She asked what will happen when Jersey City’s schools return to local control, and recommended that current Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps only be given a one-year contract with a requirement of annual progress reports next year, rather than a three-year contract. The city schools were taken over by the state in 1989.
The district has six high schools, including one for academically talented students.
Skinner said the letter was e-mailed to the state’s Education Commissioner Lucille Davy and Deputy Commissioner Gordon MacInnes, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, and members of Jersey City’s City Council.
So far, she said, City Councilman Steven Fulop reached out to her, and last week, the Mayor’s Office reached out to her and scheduled a meeting for this week with her, Healy, and his staff.
“This is not a ‘shame on you’ exercise,” Skinner said. “We need to get a good sense of how our schools will be like under local control. I don’t see this as an unreasonable request as a parent and as a taxpayer.”Any responses?
A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Education said recently that Davy had no comment on Skinner’s letter and that her office is currently reviewing it.
Skinner said she received a phone call from the office of James McBee, director of Abbott (“special needs” district) services for the Department of Education, who offered to meet with her on Davy’s behalf.
“I sent a very nice letter to his office saying, ‘I respectfully decline,’ ” Skinner said. “My feeling was that any decisions on Dr. Epps’ contract stops with Lucille Davy.”
Dr. Epps, when reached on Thursday as he was leaving from the Board of Education meeting, said he had “no comment” on the letter and that he had not seen it.
Fulop explained why he responded to Skinner’s letter, and said that he also sent a letter to Davy’s office on behalf of Skinner and her group.
“I have been involved with the group since they formed and communicating with them since on a variety of educational issues,” Fulop said. “I feel this parents’ group has a thoughtful approach and they just want answers.”
Fulop continued, “I agree with them that if the city is ever is going to move forward, it has to start dealing with a school system in which 27 of 33 schools are failing to meet state standards. And what happens when the schools go back into local control?” Major concerns
Skinner started JCFBS with several like-minded parents who are concerned about the state of Jersey City schools but want to stay in the city instead of moving to an area with a better school system.
“Since we formed the group, we have made it our business to be as informed as possible about how the schools are run in this city,” Skinner said.
The group members communicate with each other via the Internet at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jcschools/#ans on a variety of topics.
Skinner discovered in her research on the public schools that a state audit of the city’s school system done earlier this year found millions of dollars wasted on salaries and outdated services.
Skinner said the money should have been used to improve a failing school system.
“The audit that was done, and what was discovered, was shocking to me as a parent and a taxpayer,” she said. “You have to wonder why state control and state funding has not equaled academic excellence even though we have a $635 million budget.”
Skinner and members of her group also discovered that since 2000, when Epps came into office, the amount of superintendents serving directly under him increased from nine to 35, and the average annual salary of the school administrators was $111,000.
Skinner took pains to say that her questions on Epps’ contract were not a “personal attack” but a demand for accountability and new leadership.
Epps has been criticized in the past for running for office while serving in his position, and for making an expensive business trip to London on the taxpayers’ dime.
“We need an independent-minded reformer with a strong educational background, someone who isn’t an Epps underling, who isn’t tied to the teachers’ union,” Skinner said.
Skinner said that ultimately, her group would like to see a public meeting of officials and residents by the end of the year to discuss the future of the school system. Addressing the board
Skinner spoke about the challenges the public schools face at the Jersey City Board of Education’s monthly meeting at Public School 11 Thursday night.
She recounted a conversation with an unnamed elected official about the possibility of the school system going back to local control. She said the official told her, “It’s just like Vietnam; nobody knows what’s going to happen.”
Then Skinner asked the school board, “What is the vision for the next few years of this district?”
She mentioned the influx of new families moving into the city and possible changes in the schools’ state funding.
Board Chairman William DeRosa responded, “[The school board] asks those questions every day, and we are waiting for answers.”
DeRosa also said that the Jersey City school district is going through a monitoring process known as Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC). This involves the state investigating the school district for signs of progress in five areas: instruction and program, personnel, operations management, school governance, and fiscal management.
If the QSAC officers determine that adequate progress has been made in any of these areas, the state can return control of them to local officials.
DeRosa said a team of QSAC monitors visited the district earlier this year and the board is still awaiting the QSAC report.
New board member and former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann told Skinner that a task force was set up in 2000 to explore returning schools to local control, but that most elected officials “do not want local control.” Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com