At the first Board of Education meeting after the Nov. 4 board election, in which a slate of teachers’ union-supported candidates was elected, it was apparent very little has changed. Teachers and Jersey City Education Association (JCEA) officials showed up and delivered a barrage of complaints then walked out, and in turn, school administrators and some board members accused the union of spreading misinformation.
The newly-elected members of the board will not be sworn in until after Jan. 1, so none of the personalities and issues on both sides of the firing line have changed. At the meeting on Nov. 19, many of the current board members continued to be the target of teachers’ vitriol on a number of issues, especially the still-to-be negotiated teachers’ contract.
Teachers and union officials complained about physical conditions in the schools and the issue of safety.
The biggest issue for the board was a teachers’ protest that took place on the recent “report card night.”
The teachers and their representatives left the meeting before the administration could respond to their complaints.
“This is the second meeting in a row that they walked out before we could respond,” said Board President Sangeeta Ranade.
“It’s going to get real in January – very real.” – Lorenzo Richardson
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Matt Shapiro, a parent, community activist, and a supporter of Parents 4 Excellence – the group behind many of the current board members – criticized the teachers for turning what should have been an educational forum into a political drama.
“I’m alarmed by what happened,” he said. “How can employees of an organization decide to go against what their employer tells them to do? There are rules in life that we all have to follow. I’m appalled by the trash that is being distributed. This hostility is dangerous. I see signs that ask to end the war on teachers. I haven’t seen a war on teachers.”
JCEA President Ronald Greco said the protest on report card night was over the start time, which he claimed Superintendent Dr. Marcia V. Lyles had moved up from 6:30 to 6 p.m. without consulting the union first. This expanded the time teachers were required to attend the event, but also gave parents more time – according to Lyles – to interact with teachers.
“If anyone had asked ahead of time, the teachers would have complied,” Greco said. He said the teachers had filed a grievance over the issue when it was done last year, a matter still unresolved by the district’s human resources department.
Underlining the report card night protest is the ongoing tension over contract negotiations.
Most board members, including Board President Ranade, found the protest inappropriate.
“We are not going to negotiate the contract in public,” Ranade said. “We came to an impasse in August, and we had our first meeting with the mediator this week.”
Board member Carol Harrison-Arnold acknowledged the need to relieve tensions in the community. But she said there has to be a dialogue, a chance to talk about the issues so that both sides could come to a resolution.
By this time, the teachers and their union representatives were long gone.
No restriction on video of board meetings
Ranade announced the board would again begin to videotape the public portion of the meeting, a practice she ended last January in order to reduce the hostility at public meetings.
“I wanted the conversation to be more about what goes on in the classroom,” she said, claiming that many people had come to be heard and to be on TV. “I wanted to take some of the heat out of the room, something that apparently did not happen.”
This reversal of policy came after the national American Civil Liberties Union issued an opinion that claimed the restriction was illegal.
“The last election tore our community apart,” she said. “I want us to start working together again.”
Wahid Riaz, during the public portion, blasted Ranade’s decision to do away with cameras as well as the board committees, and to create a caucus meeting instead, where less information is available.
“You change the rules as you want,” he said.
Ranade defended the changes she made when first appointed president last January. She said the changes were part of an effort to streamline board meetings, which can begin well after their scheduled start time and feature lengthy, often raucous public comment sessions with, according to Ranade, comments from the public that are sometimes “out of bounds.”
The changes were designed to front load public comment so that residents could have their opinions heard before the board took care of routine business.
Critics had blasted the board for not video recording public comments – which were in the past aired on public access TV – as a way to silence criticism of the board. Even Mayor Steven Fulop, who had backed the election of a number of the current board members, opposed the ban.
Other changes that will remain in place include notifying the board one day in advance if a person wants to make comments on agenda items. Previously, the public only had to get on a list of speakers for general comments. Speakers are only allowed to speak once per meeting.
Lorenzo Richardson who was elected to the board with teacher support, however, disputed Ranade on the election, and said the election brought the community together, and did not tear it apart.
“It felt like a movement,” he said, and recalled the movements he’d heard about from the 1960s. Richardson promised changes when he and the other newly-elected board members are sworn in. “It’s going to get real in January,” he said, “very real.”
Gerald Lyons, who was also elected as a new member, said the election brought out 34,000 voters.
“It united us like never before,” he said.
Philip Fientuch, attorney for the teachers’ union, accused Lyles of being “heavy handed” in changing some long established practices between the administration and the teachers.
The school district has retained a number of powerful attorneys, spending as much as $1.5 million, to oppose the teachers’ contract demands. Fientuch said even teachers with petty complaints are kept from teaching, something Lyles refuted, saying that any complaint against a teacher must be resolved before a teacher is allowed back into a classroom
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.