Dear Editor:
Please support Theresa Minutillo, Ruth McAllister and Maureen Sullivan, the Kids First slate, for Board of Education. They will bring much needed fiscal responsibility and transparency to the BOE.
We as Hoboken residents and taxpayers should be appalled to see programs such as Hola being promoted by current members of the Board of Education and the Superintendent. Hola was voted down by Theresa. Other candidates running in this election, like Frank Raia, Barbara Martinez and Anthony Oland, supported that program, and some even wanted their own children to be beneficiaries of this exclusive dual-language program that would initially only serve Kindergarteners and 1st graders. We cannot allow a special interest group to compromise the education of all children by taking control of our school board.
Our district spends more per pupil – $25,000 – than any other in the state of New Jersey. Yet, even at this outrageous rate of spending, the board was ready to approve another costly program, by saying that it wouldn’t be costly at all. Saying it doesn’t make it so. Were it not for the community outcry against Hola and the passionate words of Maureen, Theresa and Ruth in support of all students at the last several board meetings, Hoboken taxpayers might have been looking at this as an additional expense with no added benefit for most students next year or in the future. Ruth said it best when she said that there are children in our district who need our help now.
Simply put, your tax dollars should not be funding pet projects like Hola. Your tax dollars should be supporting all the students and should be spent wisely. That is not happening in a school system that has been resistant to change and reluctant to be accountable to its students, parents and the taxpayers. Theresa, Ruth and Maureen will not give up this fight until they have put the Hoboken Board of Education on the right track towards fiscal responsibility and more transparency and accountability to the students as well as all of us, who are paying for their education. They need your support. They have mine.
Carrie Phillips