We’re in the money

State announces allocation of federal funds for school jobs; Jersey City gets over $13 million

The state’s acting Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks announced on Monday that from the $268 million in federal funds New Jersey has received to create and/or save education jobs in school districts across the state, Jersey City will get $13.8 million, the second highest total in the state behind Newark’s $23.7 million.
The funds come from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Job Funds program.
The money will help Jersey City, because it received $27 million less than last year in state school aid, due to budget cuts. Over 370 jobs were cut at the end of the school year that finished in June.
Hendricks sent out a letter last week to school districts across the state stating that the U.S. Department of Education requires the funds be spent by September 2012 because it is one-time only funding. She also called on districts to try to put as much as possible of their funds in reserve for “austere days to come,” a reference to future budget cuts by Gov. Christopher Christie.

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“I hope the money goes directly to the classroom.” – Carol Lester
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The 13 school districts in Hudson County are to get a combined total of $28.5 million in funds, as other districts received the following: Bayonne $1,770,866, Union City $5,146,363, West New York $2,649,678, North Bergen $1,859,551, Weehawken $104,529, Hoboken $311,513, Secaucus $54,621, Hudson County Vocational $706,451, Guttenberg $157,842, East Newark $109,183, Harrison $665,897 and Kearny $1,018,085.
Jersey City school board member Carol Lester said on Wednesday that she found out about the funding after being told about it by a reporter. Lester said she hopes the money will go to the right place.
“I hope the money goes directly to the classroom,” Lester said. “We need more teachers’ aides to help educate our students.”
As far as when those funds will be available to the Jersey City school district, a state Department of Education referred all inquiries to its website, where information about the funds is posted.

A $13 million fix?

As part of receiving the funds, a school district such as Jersey City’s may use Education Jobs funds to restore reductions in salaries and benefits and to implement salary increases for the 2010-2011 school year. However, the catch is that a school district may not use Education Jobs funds to compensate employees for any period prior to August 10, the day the federal government’s Education Jobs Act was enacted.
The employees supported with program funds may include other staff, from principals to cafeteria workers, along with teachers.
But the 27,000-student Jersey City school district does not know at the present time how it will utilize the monies received. District spokesperson Paula Christen commented last week that “no final plans have been set as to how the monies will be spent” and is still being worked out.
School board member Lester hinted last week where that money could go. She mentioned that contracts of administrative staff, such as those people who work in the Board of Education’s central office on Claremont Avenue, were to be renewed by the district by the end of last week. Administrative staff earn salaries as low as $86,000 and as high as $268,200 for Dr. Charles Epps, school superintendent.
However, Tom Favia, president of the Jersey City Education Association, the union that represents the teaching staff in the district, said many of the people who were fired at the end of the previous school year should be rehired.
“I hope the superintendent brings back all the people he laid off and restore programs such as our athletics,” said Favia, a former Jersey City teacher and high school basketball coach.
Favia pointed out that the many people laid off were non-tenured and had less than three years experience in the district. The average salaries for those employees are a little over $50,000.
School board member Sean Connors also would like to see former employees rehired but thinks the district should be cautious in doing so.
“My biggest fear is we bring people back and then get our state aid reduced again,” Connors said. “We have to fire them again, which I don’t think is fair.”
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

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