Dear Editor:
On April 14, Hoboken BoE voted to continue to continue to fight the state approval of HoLa and to spend money to continue the lawsuit. In fact this was approved by board members spending their own money to pay for the legal fees. School funding is complex, but one small school and the student population of this school is not the reason for the success or failure of the entire public school system, a school that has one of the largest budgets in the state of New Jersey and was struggling well before HoLa was in existence.
To the Hoboken Board of Education: Many of us voted in the school board election, we voted for you! We voted to bring our schools, parents and children together. Hola is a great educational choice for families who are passionate about a bilingual education which is not widely available in our country. This is not something to be attacked but something that we can leverage in our community, a differentiator, an advantage, something unique. Many of us continue to hope that our children can attend Hoboken High School but what holds us back are the lawsuits and anti-HoLa efforts. Attacks that feel quite personal when if you claim funding as the issue than why not fight ‘charter schools’ you are fighting against just one. One that is highly desired due to its innovation in bilingual education.
We would stand with you and work with you today to partner and collaborate; we would give our time to be part of a community-wide school committees bridging all charter and public school leaders, to share expertise and help build an amazing high school, a school that takes advantage of the uniqueness and special expertise of each local school.
But rather than partner with us, you alienate us and our future support and because of that the trends will continue, parents will continue to select private or move out of town. Most of us want to stay and most of us want a public high school we can support. Please consider the future success of our educational system and put aside these law suits and use your positions on the board to bring the community at large together, collaborate and innovate instead of using your valuable time and energy to shut down HoLa, we have great work we can do, and we could do it together!
Jen Branco
HoLa parent, Hoboken resident