The anticipated Jersey City Board of Education discussion about Schools Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps was scrapped from last week’s school board agenda at the eleventh hour.
But in the days leading up to the June 16 meeting, parents who’d like to see the superintendent replaced circulated e-mails to build a strong showing at the meeting – a showing that didn’t materialize once the matter was postponed.
Still, Epps’ supporters showed up en masse and pressured the school board trustees to bring him back in September.
The parental divide on Epps puts unique pressure on school board trustees.
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What next for Epps?
Epps has been a controversial figure for much of his 11 years as superintendent. He was appointed as Jersey City schools superintendent in 2000, 11 years after the state took over the school district due to low test scores and other problems.
His tenure and his salary – currently $204,125 – have been controversial ever since.
Last year, the local school board gave him a new three-year contract after a majority of board members decided against doing a national search to replace him. The decision angered some parents and activists because just a year before, in 2009, 26 of the district’s 37 schools failed to make “adequate yearly progress,” according to U.S. Department of Education guidelines. The district has also failed to meet other federal benchmarks for the past decade.
Among parents, opinions on Epps seem to split along racial and geographic lines, with the city’s African American parents supportive of Epps (who is African American himself) and his leadership of the district. White parents, particularly those who live downtown and along the waterfront, seem more interested in seeing him replaced.
In April, the makeup of the school board changed following elections for three of the nine seats. Now a majority of the members are allied with downtown’s Ward E City Councilman Steven Fulop, who is gearing up for a 2013 run for mayor.
Five Fulop-allied trustees have vowed to conduct a national candidate search for a new schools superintendent. But some parents said at Thursday’s meeting that this promise puts the 2013 mayoral election ahead of their children’s education.
Fulop-backed board Sterling Waterman and Carol Lester – now board president and vice-president, respectively – were elected last year. After this year’s school board elections they were joined by allies Sue Mack, Carol Harrison-Arnold, and Marvin Adames.
Supporters speak out
“I have attended all the meetings here,” said one mother whose children attend PS 5. “And I want to commend Dr. Charlie Epps for the way he treats the students and parents who have issues. There’s a great job going on inside our schools, which nobody knows about. I keep hearing really negative stuff outside. We have really great programs, with great teachers. This negative stuff is basically just political. It’s all geared towards the 2013 mayoral election. What I’m seeing is not children-centered.”
Later, she called the Fulop-allied trustees “puppets on a string.”
She wasn’t alone in this opinion. Another mother at last Thursday’s meeting said, “When you go home over the summer, think about what you’re going to do in September and stop using this board to get what you want. Half of you don’t have kids up in the school, and half of your kids aren’t in Ward F. I’ve never seen a board put down so many different agendas.”
The controversy over Epps, his contract, and the future direction of the Jersey City public school district, said two speakers, is what led to the problems and dysfunction that led to the state take-over.
“I think back to 1987 and 1989,” said Deputy Mayor Kabili Tayari, himself a former trustee on the board. “There was no unity. There was division. There was no focus or plan for education and we fell for Santa Claus lies and Easter Bunny politics. My suggestion, Mr. Waterman, is to bring the [district] together and develop a plan for education, a policy for how we’re going to stop the drop-out rate. It is then the responsibility of the superintendent and staff to implement it…Do we need math teachers, or do we need gym teachers? Can our children learn algebra by the sixth grade? In three years, can 85 percent of our children graduate? Do we need to revamp the curriculum? There needs to be a policy on what we do with failing teachers. You have a responsibility to assess that.”
Whatever the Board of Education decides to do with Epps’ contract, one mother suggested Thursday that the trustees come to a resolution sooner rather than later.
“I want to know that this board is actively working to ensure the future of our school district, however that pans out,” she said.
Addressing Epps, who was at the meeting, she asked, “Is something definitely going to be decided with your contract? Is it definitely going to be approved? Denied? I want to make sure that someone is running this district next year. I want to remind the new board members that that was actually one of your main platform pieces. So please don’t forget that, because people are expecting something to happen.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.