Dear Editor:
As a resident of Hoboken since 1992, I have seen profound changes occur in our great city. When I arrived, Hoboken was all about young people and nightlife. Now as the strollers on the street and the growth in our school population suggests, Hoboken has become a city that attracts and retains families.
In our increasingly family-oriented city, our schools needed to change for the better. When my children were little, many people believed that Hoboken schools were mismanaged and that their children wouldn’t thrive in them. I, like many others, chose to place my children in an independent school. However, that in no way lessened my desire to see Hoboken have great public schools that were accessible to all. With that in mind, I volunteered for Kids First a few years ago, and was amazed at “what a few moms could do.” The women and men working on that campaign were devoted to their children and devoted to making Hoboken a wonderful place for everyone’s kids.
The bedrock of community is its schools, and, over the last two years, Kids First has consistently kept their promise to deliver better schools through such accomplishments as reducing administrative costs and putting money back into the classroom; auditing all agreements and collecting over $1 million owed to district; expanding the schools’ laptop programs as well gifted and talented and AP academic programs; and implementing new tools to analyze test scores and raise the bar for all students. This is by no means an exhaustive list. During this time they also hired a new superintendent who will help bring our district even greater success.
As a trustee of my children’s school, I understand what it is like to be accountable to many different constituencies. We work everyday for the school’s students, parents, employees and mission. The people we elect to the Board of Education are accountable to an even greater constituency: the entire Hoboken community. If they fail, they fail all of us. We all want success!
Please support the Kids First team of Jean Marie Mitchell, Cliff Godfrey and Steve Feinstein to continue the great work that their colleagues have begun for Hoboken.
Yours truly,
Jan Abernathy