Tonight’s potentially controversial meeting of the Hoboken Board of Education will take place in the Wallace School gymnasium because a large crowd is expected, according to Board Secretary David Anthony. It will also start at 6 p.m. instead of 7, but the board will go into closed session at 6 p.m. Regular business will not start until 7.
According to Anthony, the board meeting location and time were supposed to be changed last week to the gymnasium at 6 p.m. However, Anthony said that the changes were not printed in the two area newspapers in time, so the board will meet for closed session at 6 and the meeting will begin at 7. Anthony said no action will be taken in closed session.
The board is expected to have a large crowd due to the ongoing situation with a dual-language program and a vote on the third iteration of a teacher’s union labor contract. The dual-language program, HoLa, is a language immersion program in which young children learn in Spanish and English. It has been controversial because of how it was voted on, and because some parents consider it a misallocation of dwindling school funds.
Superintendent Jack Raslowsky said recently that he has decided to re-evaluate the program, its management, and bidding procedure after consideration of legal advice from Joseph Morano, board counsel. (See the “briefs” in this weekend’s edition of the newspaper for more).
While the program is not coming up for a vote tonight, there may be discussion of it.
The board also is expected to vote on the teacher’s contract.
For letters and prior articles about these controversies, click “home” in the upper left, and go to “opinon” or “Hoboken news.”