There was an 800-pound-gorilla in the chambers of the Hudson County Freeholders on Thursday, May 13, but no one dared mention him by name.
“The problem with county schools sports lies with one person, one mayor of one city who has had the ability to recommend that all the mayors of Hudson County sign a letter to you, the freeholders, to encourage the elimination of sports,” parent Lynn Russo complained at the meeting.
Recently, all of the mayors of the towns in Hudson County publicly agreed to eliminate sports at the two countywide public high schools, which are magnet schools for students who would rather go there than their own local public school. The mayors said cutting sports at the county schools would save money, saying that the same programs are offered at the individual towns’ schools, and that the county coaches have been unfairly recruiting away talent from the towns’ schools.
“Sports are the glue that binds our school together.” – Joanne Northgrave
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They did not mention the name of State Sen. Nicholas Sacco, mayor North Bergen, Thursday night, but some parents said he was responsible for lobbying mayors around the county to approve the cuts.
All of the mayors signed off on the cuts, some taking a very enthusiastic stance that this was the right thing to do. However, the mood may be changing due to parental pressure.
Advanced Placement faces the ax, too
More than 50 parents and students lined up at the podium Thursday night to express their outrage at the Freeholder Board, saying that politics should play no role in cutting programs that include sports and Advanced Placement classes, which will hamper promising students from being accepted into quality colleges.
The Schools of Technology Board has proposed the cuts in order to reduce its $45 million school budget, but parents claim the amount is a tiny fraction of the school costs that they would be willing to raise if the programs can be restored.
The budget will be voted on next month.
Parents said the areas proposed to be cut by the Hudson County Schools of Technology Board are exactly those areas where colleges want to see activity, and that students who fail to participate in sports, AP courses, and extracurricular activities will not be competitive with other schools.
However, some area leaders believe those students can go back to their home schools rather than the more-competitive county magnet schools, to which they must apply for admission.
Politics?
Parents asked if the move was political rather than financial. They said local mayors who may have approved the cuts may be doing this because of pressure from school districts who see talented sports students leave for the county high schools.
Other parents said that while the most talented county sports students may find a place in local programs, many of the more than 480 students currently in the county sports programs won’t.
“Sports are the glue that binds our school together,” said Joanne Northgrave. “We are a family. and these kids are having their day taken away from them.”
Northgrave mentioned that a goalie for the county hockey team is from Bayonne, and probably won’t find a place on the Bayonne team because the local high school already has a goalie.
Nicky Russo, a sophomore at High Tech High School in North Bergen, said she didn’t feel like she belonged when in Union City schools, but that this changed when she got to the county high school.
“We will do whatever it takes to raise the money for our sports and AP classes,” she said. “But you have to help us keep the dream alive.”
Find other waste
While some parents said the county seems to worry more about taxpayers and kids, others said there is waste in the school budget. A parent noted that the schools have no swimming program, but have set aside $600,000 to rebuild the school pool, when in a few years, the county will relocate county schools to Secaucus anyway.
“That’s more than enough to save the sports program,” one parent said, tossing down a dollar on the podium to pay his share to restore the programs.
Freeholder: We were lied to
Freeholder Bill O’Dea happens to agree with the parents. He has proposed $150,000 in line items in the county budget to help restore some of the programs, and said county school officials lied to the freeholders earlier this year about the potential cuts.
“We were never told they were going to make these cuts,” said Hoboken Freeholder Frank Romano.
O’Dea, who reviewed a list of personnel, said the county school board has planned to cut teachers while keeping high-paid administrators, pointing to the salary of the secretary to the school board who he said earns $201,000, nearly enough to restore the sports and other programs.
O’Dea said, “This has to got to be the greatest secretary in the world.”
But O’Dea and Freeholder Jose Munoz disagreed over how much power the Freeholder Board has in regards to the school budget.
“We vote for their budget as a whole,” Munoz said. “We don’t make cuts.”
Munoz said he doesn’t want to add to county taxes. He said the county already proposed a tax increase of 4.9 percent which he wants to reduce to 3 percent, and this won’t happen by adding items to the county budget.
Munoz said the parents should bring their protest to the county school board, something some of the parents said they already did.
The parents said that the freeholders can refuse to vote on the school board budget and should send the budget back. Other parents said the freeholders appointed the board members, and that the freeholders – as elected officials – should be held accountable for their actions.
“Tell the board members to resign,” one parent suggested.
O’Dea said the county could also cut contracts to Janus Solutions and Winning Strategies, the latter of which is a lobbying firm. He said that this cut would more than make up for the cost of restoring the programs.
“We pay Winning Strategies to lobby our own legislators,” he said. “I’ve always thought that was a waste of money.”
Freeholder Chairman Eliu Rivera said the district did not think of the students when it cut sports. The school budget is part of the overall county budget which was introduced, but will not be voted on, until June 21.
The Hudson County Schools of Technology include High Tech High School, with a campus in North Bergen, and County Prep, whose campus is in Jersey City.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.