Dear Editor:
I was one of Kids First’s biggest supporters in the school board campaign last year. But I lost confidence in them as it became clear they had no intention of keeping many of their campaign promises—from tax cuts to transparency to winning fair contracts. The final straw was the bungled, six-month search for a superintendent that left the district empty-handed and having to start all over again. That’s when I decided to run for the board on the Real Results ticket.
Kids First hasn’t stepped up and made the tough decisions that equal reform. They missed good opportunities to hold the line on spending throughout the past year; they failed to move quickly against highly paid but inept administrators who they knew were double-dipping; and they teamed up with the board’s old guard to ram through the appointment of a new superintendent without giving the public notice.
One of their candidates supported big raises for the teachers’ union last year because she did not want to “stress” them out. Never mind that Hoboken’s teachers are close to the highest-paid in the state and have perhaps the most gold-plated benefits—and we were in the middle of a financial crisis that was seeing residents laid off left and right.
One of the biggest jobs of the new board this year is to negotiate a new teachers’ contract, to take effect July 1 of next year. Kids First concluded one union contract in the past year and the result was alarming. The custodians got a 10.9 per cent salary boost over three years and even an extra day off to add to their stash of vacation days, sick days, bereavement days, holidays and personal days. What’s most shocking is something called longevity pay. The custodians—who are granted tenure just as the teachers are—get extra pay of roughly $1,000 to $2,000 a year on top of their regular pay increase, just for staying on the job for 10, 15, or 20 or so years; these bonuses were hiked up to the next round number.
The past year has been plagued by poor management, hit-or-miss planning and a lack of willpower to make not only tough decisions but also some of the easier ones when it came to cutting the budget and strengthening our educational programs. A well-run board would free and support the teachers to do what they do best. They often have the best insight and motivation on how to help and teach our children, and yet they are often thwarted by poor management.
I’ve been attending board meetings since 1995. My daughter will attend Hoboken High in September. I think I can help fix a lot that’s wrong with the schools. On Tuesday, April 20, please vote for me on line 10A and for my Real Results running mates—Kathleen Tucker on 5A, Perry Lin on 7A and John Forsman on 2B.
Liz Markevitch