Agreeing that administrative expenses are too high and budget expenses should be concentrated on classroom instruction, the 10 candidates running for the Jersey City Board of Education participated in the first of two public forums Wednesday.
Voters will have the opportunity to select three board representatives on Wednesday, April 27 to replace Sue Mack and Frances O. Thompson, whose terms end next month, and Peter Donnelly, who retired in January.
Incumbents Mack and Thompson are running for reelection, as are eight other candidates, including Carol Harrison-Arnold, Marvin Adames, Hiral Patel, Vidya Gangadin, Jayson Burg, Amanda Khan, Aurym Nunez, and Nabil Youssef.
A second candidates’ forum will be held Wednesday, April 13 at Ferris High.
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Cut from the top
In what sometimes seemed more like a pep rally than a forum, the 10 people running for school board often highlighted their similarities more than their differences.
Calling himself a “frustrated parent,” Adames discussed his uphill battle to get information about pre-kindergarten programs from the school district.
“When I call, what they tell me is [all the information] is on the flier. But it’s not on the flier. And to this day I do not have the answers that I need that will serve my son in the near future,” he said.
The anecdote was illustrative of what other candidates agreed is a lack of transparency in the school district.
How best to allocate limited school resources was also a major discussion throughout the forum.
The candidates all agreed that cuts need to come from the administration, rather than classroom programs.
“There’s a lot of waste in equipment and supplies in the central office,” said Thompson. “And everyone there has a TV! I don’t know what they can be looking at.”
“We have to put the kids first. When you lay off teachers, and that becomes your solution, it affects the numbers of kids in the classroom and the teachers’ ability to teach those children,” commented Harrison-Arnold. “In a $630 million budget, there have to be other things that can be cut. It cannot continue to be teachers.”
Khan said there should be more shared services among the school district, municipality, and county to save money.
“What needs to be cut is from the top,” agreed Gangadin. “We need to take from the administration and put more toward the classroom.”
In response to a question from At-large City Councilwoman Kalimah Ahmad about what should be done to improve failing schools, Khan, Harrison-Arnold, and Patel all said the district must learn lessons from schools in the district that are not failing.
“What are they doing well? What are they doing right? That needs to be duplicated throughout the district,” said Harrison-Arnold, who is running on a slate with Mack and Adames.
A second candidates’ forum will be held Wednesday, April 13 at Ferris High School from 6 to 8 p.m. sponsored by the Jersey City Coalition of Parent Teacher Organizations. Ferris High School is located at 35 Colgate Street.
Race could be indicator for 2013 mayoral election
Political observers in the city will be watching the race to see how well the Mack-Harrison-Arnold-Adames ticket, which has been endorsed by City Councilman Steven Fulop, fares against the competition.
Should this slate win all three vacancies on the nine-member board, then board members backed by the downtown councilman will hold a majority. Fulop is expected to run for mayor in 2013.
In last year’s school board election, Fulop supported Angel Valentin, Sterling Waterman, and Carol Lester – who all won seats.
Fulop hasn’t been shy about his interest in getting what he calls “reformers” elected to the school board. When he announced his endorsement of Mack, Adames, and Harrison-Arnold in February, he said that if they win, he’d expect the board to conduct a national search for a new schools superintendent to replace longtime Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps.
Epps’ current contract expires in June, and some have said he earns too much money. Epps is also a former state assemblyman.
“I couldn’t be more excited about these three candidates,” said Fulop in February. “In addition to one incumbent, we are looking to encourage a new wave of young activists who are smart and capable and who care about making the schools meaningfully better. We are trying to get past the days when the Board of Education was used as a political patronage dumping ground.”
Voters to weigh in on budget
In addition to selecting three board trustees, voters will also have the opportunity on April 27 to approve or reject the portion of the proposed 2011-2012 school budget that is to be paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Last month the current board approved a $630 million budget that many critics say included expenditures that were concealed from both the public and school trustees.
The budget includes about $15 million for salary increases and utilities, and includes a $104.4 million tax levy that, if approved by voters, would translate to a $32 annual tax increase for the average property owner.
School activists and taxpayers were angered to discover that the school district did not post a copy of the proposed budget online prior to the March 22 public hearing, which was also not well publicized, they argued. People who attended the public hearing received a very brief summary budget. The full budget document is, however, more than 700 pages.
The board approved the budget by a vote of 5-2. Waterman and Lester voted to reject the budget. Trustee Pat Sebron didn’t attend the March 22 meeting and did not participate in the vote.
More recently it was revealed that there was a discrepancy between Epps’ current salary – $268,200 – and his approved salary for the 2011-2012 school year, which is $204,125. Even current board members said last week they were surprised by the discrepancy and were not aware of the apparent salary cut. However, even this lower wage of $204,125 is $93,200 more than the $175,000 salary cap Gov. Christopher Christie wants to levy on school superintendents in New Jersey.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.