Jersey City parents rally to protest reappointment of school monitor
JERSEY CITY – Parents and members of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC) rallied outside the Jersey City Board of Education office Tuesday morning to protest the recent re-appointment of Cathy Coyle as a school monitor.
The state took control of the Jersey City school system in 1989 after years of low test scores throughout the district. Since 2008, however, the state has been gradually returning governance of the district back to local control. The locally elected Board of Education sets the annual school budget, which is then voted on by Jersey City residents.
Last year, the school board majority successfully negotiated the departure of longtime School Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps, who oversaw the district during the years of state control. Since last fall, members of the school board have vowed that Epps’ replacement would be selected by school trustees – not by a state monitor.
That promise now seems in jeopardy with the reappointment of Coyle as a school district monitor, a decision leaked by the New Jersey Department of Education Friday.
According to a release from SEOC, “Parents and the community think that [the] state takeover will interfere with the superintendent search] process and the future of our children. In Jersey City, the school budget is $636 million. We are the second largest school district in the state. This state control is over the budget, not the success of our children.”
See this weekend’s Jersey City Reporter for more on that story.
Websites urge people to come party in Hoboken, even with parade cancelation
HOBOKEN – After the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade Committee announced on its website on Friday that they were canceling this year’s parade, saying they refused to have it on a dark weekday night and wanted to keep it on Saturday, several people have started Facebook pages and a website urging people to come party on the first Saturday of March anyway.
Someone has set up an event called “Hoboken Lepre-Con,” saying people should wear leprechaun outfits and come party on the first Saturday.
St. Patrick’s Day falls this year on the third Saturday of the month, so that may also be a partying day in the mile-square city.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer wanted the parade to be held on a weekday this year because the past few years, the Saturday parades have brought throngs of young partiers to the mile-square city. Last year, there were alleged sexual assaults and other mayhem. But the parade committee refused to move the parade to a weekday.
Zimmer has said that the city will hold its own St. Patrick’s Day observance.
Several Facebook pages have sprung up besides the Lepre-con site. One page that is actually older, “Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day 2012,” was started last summer to make sure people would still come party on the first Saturday even if the parade was moved. That page already has 1,876 people who said they’re coming and another 1,667 invited.
Sacco’s ‘Caylee’s Law’ signed
A bill that will make the failure to report the disappearance of a child a felony was signed into law Monday, Jan. 9. Sponsored by State Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco, along with Linda R. Greenstein, “Caylee’s Law” makes the failure to report the disappearance of a child or a death within 24 hours punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 18 months and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
The legislation, which was also introduced in at least 15 other states, is named after 2-year-old Caylee Anthony of Orlando, who was found dead in a wooded area on Dec. 11, 2008, nearly five months after she was finally reported missing. Her mother, Casey Anthony, was accused of her death, but ultimately was convicted on a lesser charge.
National competitions for deaf and hard-of-hearing students
The Rochester Institute of Technology is holding two creative competitions for cash prices for deaf and hard-of-hearing High School students.
The first contest, the RIT Digital Arts, Film, and Animation Competition, encourages students in ninth through 12th grades to submit up to two entries (one per category). The categories are web design, graphic media, film, 3-D animation, interactive media, and photo illustration. To qualify, students must submit the following by postal mail: an entry form, a 150 to 300-word descriptive essay about their work, and the artwork itself on CD or DVD.
Winners will receive cash prizes at an awards ceremony in the spring and have their winning work featured in the Dyer Arts Center on the RIT campus. For more information, visit www.rit.edu/NTID/ArtsNR. The deadline to register is today, Jan. 15.
The second competition is RIT’s SpiRIT Writing Contest for deaf or hard-of-hearing students in 10th, 11th, or 12th grades. Students can win their choice of a scholarship and travel expenses to the Explore Your Future program at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, or a $500 cash prize.
Explore Your Future is a six-day summer career exploration program for deaf and hard-of-hearing students that gives them the opportunity to sample different careers as well as college life. Complete contest guidelines and entry information are available at www.rit.edu/NTID/WritingContestNR. The deadline to enter is March 15, 2012.
For more information about either competition, call (585) 475-7695 (voice/TTY) or (585) 286-4555 (videophone).