Dear Editor:
Six months ago, I was elected to the Hoboken Board of Education. In that short time, much has been accomplished. I had not realized how much goes into running a school system and I’m continually impressed by the number of people who work so diligently to benefit our students. The students in our schools have shown me that they possess a level of creativity and intelligence that far exceeds their reputation or the scores they have achieved on any standardized test so far.
Although we are a divided board, our new Superintendent, Dr. Mark Toback, has been instrumental in keeping us together in making decisions that are in the best interests of our school district. We have updated our website and improved our reporting to parents. Our costs have been reduced due to the high number of quality educators retiring and one of our challenges will continue to be finding replacements who live up to our community’s expectations.
With these accomplishments there are challenges. Last year, only 87 percent of our senior class graduated in June. There is work that needs to be done to improve the number of students who graduate on time and are accepted into quality four-year colleges. Our district’s performance on standardized tests is disturbing. Improvement can only be accomplished by the consistent, non-politicized focus on education that has been absent in recent years.
As the newest member to the Hoboken Board of Education and the youngest member ever elected, I hope that I offer fresh perspectives to the board. In being accessible to members of the Hoboken community, I have found that sometimes there are issues that people do not want to come before the board to speak about. That is why I will now begin to hold office hours on the Saturday before regularly scheduled board meetings. I will be available at M and P Biancamano Deli located at 1116 Washington St. from 1:30 – 3:30 on the second Saturday of each month. I look forward to talking with you.
Regards,
Peter Biancamano
Peter.biancamano@hoboken.k12.nj.us