From the very outset, the most remarkable thing about the three slates running for the Hoboken Board of Education on Tuesday is who they are trying not to be.
The “Kids First” political group, which presently controls six out of the nine seats on the board, did not put forth a slate for the first time this year, and gave little explanation as to why.
This fall’s campaigns have made at least one possible answer clear. On two of Kids First’s most controversial actions of the past three years – ending annual referendums on the school budget and challenging the expansion of a local charter school in court – no candidate has been willing to speak publically in favor.
Even one candidate who consistently voted with Kids First against expanding a local charter school is now publicly changing her tune. And Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who supported Kids First in the past, has been against the group’s criticism of charter schools (Zimmer’s children attended charter schools).
Of the three slates, Parents for Progress has emerged as the clear favorite of the current Kids First majority. The slate includes incumbent Monica Stromwall, who was selected by the Kids First majority to fill an empty trustee seat last January.
“I do not wish to close Hola or limit their expansion.”—Monica Stromwall
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Charter school chasm
Earlier this year, the board majority took legal action to block the Hoboken Dual Language charter school – one of three charter schools in Hoboken – from expanding to seventh and eighth grade. Some Kids First board members said the charter schools take too many resources from the other public school kids and cause segregation in the district.
No candidate in the race has expressed support for continuing the lawsuit, although two members of the aforementioned “Parents for Progress” slate declined to give a stance.
The Parents for Change slate of Lynn Danzker, Brian Murray, and Patricia Waiters has come out strongly against the lawsuit. In reference to the segregation claims, Danzker said the proper response would be to contact the U.S. Department of Justice and request an investigation. Danzker has a fourth grader in HoLa and has organized fundraisers for the school in the past.
The Education for all Children slate of two incumbents has also been clear in its opposition to the legal challenge to HoLa’s expansion. Its candidates, Peter Biancamano and Frances Rhodes-Kearns, voted against the funding for Eric Harrison, the school board’s attorney in the case, both times it came before the board.
Parents for Progress candidate Monica Stromwall voted twice in favor of funding Harrison’s contract since being appointed to the board. When contacted by the Reporter on Wednesday, she said she did “not wish to close Hola or limit their expansion” and will not support further money for the lawsuit.
“The decisions I have made have been extremely difficult and have been very challenging and have not been made to hurt any particular school or student, but I have to keep in mind the students I represent and the needs of them,” said Stromwall when asked why she had voted for the lawsuit. “That being said, I can no longer support any more money to be allocated to the lawsuit when the district is facing a very difficult budget for the next two to three years and we will need every dollar and more for the district.”
Both of Stromwall’s running mates, Antonio Gray and Sharyn Angley, who have not been on the board before, refused to say whether or not they would have voted for the HoLa lawsuit, stating that they had not been on the board at the time and did not have all the information that was available to board members.
Angley would only say she supports “fair and equitable treatment per student.”
Fixing the funding formula
One key point of unity in the HoLa debate is the belief that charter schools should be funded directly by the state rather than through each district’s tax levy. Under the New Jersey Charter School Program Act of 1995, school districts are required to pay charter schools 90 percent of the funding due to each district student educated by the charter schools.
At least one candidate from each slate has come out in favor of changing this system. Stromwall wrote in an email that she wants “the state to fix the funding formula (and fund each school properly) so that all schools could operate and be able to educate their students without wondering what programs and services have to be cut…”
Rhodes-Kearns promised to petition the state government to change the way charter schools are funded if re-elected. Rhodes-Kearns currently serves as the district’s legislative delegate in Trenton, and she said she has “formed an ongoing relationship with our Governmental Relations Representatives.”
Danzker also supports changing the charter school funding system, and said in an interview that she was working with state Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia, a backer of the Parents for Change ticket, to fix the system.
Garcia told the Reporter two weeks ago that he has met with New Jersey’s acting education commissioner David Hespe, and Hespe was considering altering the charter funding situation. Garcia said reforming the system could potentially be an administrative rather than a legislative change.
Who’s backing these slates politically (and financially?)
Parents for Progress has been applauded by Kids First members. Kids First member Irene Sobolov wrote a letter to the editor of the Reporter last Sunday in support of the slate, and former school board president and current Kids First member Leon Gold told the Reporter he thought they were the three best candidates. Sobolov and Gold have been the two Kids First members most vocal in their support of the HoLa lawsuit.
The Parents for Progress slate has said they are running independently and not as part of Kids First.
In a letter to the editor published in the Reporter today, Mayor Dawn Zimmer broached the HoLa issue. She said she had spoken with each of the Parents for Progress candidates and was “pleased to learn that the candidates’ views reflect a spectrum of opinion with regard to” the expansion of HoLa.
“I believe that this diversity of opinion would be a real asset to the school board going forward,” she added.
Before the charter school issue, Zimmer was a prominent political supporter of Kids First. But her children attended charter schools, and she came out earlier this year in favor of HoLa’s expansion.
The other slates have some political ties to controversial political figures in Hoboken.
The Parents for Change slate is backed by Carmelo Garcia, who was the executive director of the Hoboken Housing Authority until he was terminated in August (see earlier stories at hudsonreporter.com). He was on the school board until he resigned last year to run for Assembly, a race he won in November.
The Education for all Children slate is backed by Frank Raia, who gave the campaign a $5,000 donation, according to public records. Raia is a developer in town, has served on the school board in the past, and ran for City Council last year on Tim Occhipinti’s mayoral ticket. He is also a Trustee on the board of HoLa.
Opponents of the Education for All Children and Parents for Change have charged that they are too beholden to their political masters, rather than being backed by the “reform” groups in town.
To read more detailed stories about the candidates and their stances, see past stories in the Hoboken section of hudsonreporter.com.
Budget back to the people?
Another key issue in the school board race has been whether to bring back yearly city-wide votes on the school budget. Due to changes made by the school board majority in February 2012, the annual school budget only has to be approved by referendum if the tax levy increases by more than 2 percent. The decision was strongly opposed by some members of the community at the time.
Though they have divergent ideas about how to actually manage and trim the school budget, each slate has spoken in favor of bringing back the yearly referendums.
Sharyn Angley of the Parents for Progress ticket said school budget referendums were the norm in places she had lived previously and expressed hope that it would increase public interest in the budget.
“I’m a taxpayer,” said Angley. “I have two kids enrolled in the schools. I don’t want anyone’s taxes to go up but…I want the schools to be the best that they can be.”
Education for All Children candidate Peter Biancamano said he voted against the last two school budgets precisely because they increased taxes without going to a public referendum. “Who am I to tell others what we should do with their money,” he asked, “especially when before the last three years, they had a right to vote on what to do with their money?”
Get out and vote
The polls will be open in Hoboken this coming Tuesday, Nov. 4 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Registered voters can find their designated local polling place by plugging in their address on the State Division of Elections website at https://voter.njsvrs.com/elections/polling-lookup.html.
Registered voters who still want to vote by mail but have not yet applied must apply in person to the Hudson County Clerk’s Office Division of Elections on the 4th Floor of the Hudson County Plaza at 257 Cornelison Ave. in Jersey City before 3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3. The application is available at http://www.hudsoncountyclerk.org/elections/vote-mail-ballot2012.pdf.
Mail-in ballots must be received by the County Board of Elections by the time polls close on Tuesday.
The results of the election will be posted online at http://www.hudsoncountyclerk.org/elections/default.htm.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.