Dear Editor:
Because I am a mom of a Wallace School first-grader and because I am a taxpayer whose first quarter 2009 Valentine from City Hall made me rethink whether I can afford this town anymore, I will be voting for Kids First 2009 ticket: Maureen Sullivan, Ruth McAllister and Theresa Minutillo. Not only that, I am throwing my entire being into helping them sweep on Tuesday, April 21st, because it’s more than just another BoE election.
This election is a referendum on whether this town wants to stick with the ‘old political machine’ or hand the keys to three challengers who have ‘skin in the game’—challengers whose school-aged children attend Hoboken public schools. No one on the Kids First team has the deep pockets of their opponents, like the man who said to a large crowd at a recent Board of Education meeting, “I make more money than any of you!.”
Ultimately, what qualifies Sullivan, McAllister and Minutillo for BoE membership are their plans: to end excessive, redundant and wasteful expenditures and to ensure academic excellence for all of Hoboken’s public school children, not just support programs for the chosen few.
This willingness of Frank Raia on the current board as well as other BoE candidates to spend taxpayer money on HoLa!, a boutique program that would only benefit a tiny percentage of the overall school population while not addressing gaping inadequacies our kids face in the middle and upper grades, was misguided, to say the least. The old political machine has had it chance, and now it’s time for a new, more inclusive, more transparent way of doing business at the BoE.
Vote for fiscal responsibility. Vote for great schools. Vote for Kids First 2009. And if you can, please visit www.kidsfirst2009.com to see what you can do to help. Election day is April 21st and polls are open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Sincerely,
N. Pincus
Hoboken