Dear Editor:
Ms. Paula Ohaus has held the position of Coordinator of Theatre Arts in Hoboken’s school district since 2001 and began working as a part-time Director at Hoboken High School in 1995. This outstanding program has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions and even received the attention of the New York Times last year in an article by Tammy La Gorce titled, “At Home on The Stage.” Readers of this newspaper have seen my praises for the program in the Letters to the Editor section throughout the years, the most recent being in January of this year.
On the Hoboken Public Schools web site Interim Superintendent of Schools Peter E. Carter posted his Superintendent’s Letter to Citizens and Parents in which wrote regarding the new 2010-20111 school budget, “we plan to maintain the drama program for the next school year.” He added that that the program would be maintained,”…albeit with increased fiscal responsibility and care in our budgeting” making it clear to me the direction that he aims the program to take. The Hoboken Reporter indicates in an article dated April 4th that 14 non-faculty positions were eliminated and included that that the board indeed cut the IB Program. I later learned, upon inquiry, that Ms. Ohaus’ position as Coordinator of Theater Arts might be eliminated and that she has been told to teach instead.
Why would you take someone who has been so successful running a theater program that affects over 200 students in our school district and put her in a classroom? There is no way Mrs. Ohaus can have the same impact on the students of Hoboken and our community from a classroom. As a parent, I know the long hours she spends on the productions, competitions, and programs. This is more than a school program. This is a program that has had far reaching affects on our community. The program provides hundreds of our teenagers with a safe learning environment during afternoons, evenings and weekends. Look at the material the students have been working on all year from Fires in the Mirror, which incidentally has just been nominated as Best Drama in the State by the Theater Night’s Awards in Montclair State University, to the recent production of Aida. And that is but a fraction of the work she has done and the programs she supervises both after school and during the school day.
Most importantly, I am confident that information regarding the elimination of this program is being divisively withheld from our attention for political reasons as that the School Board elections will be on April 20th.
Let the board know that we will not accept the compromising of Paula Ohaus’ position in our schools and the gifts of her service to our children and community. The next meeting is April 13..
Caroline Schott