JERSEY CITY — In what local officials are calling a historic moment, the New Jersey Board of Education voted unanimously on Oct. 7 to restore additional control over the Jersey City school district to local authorities.
“We could not be more excited about this opportunity,” said Dr. Marcia Lyles, Superintendent of Jersey City Public Schools, “This is an affirmation of everything we’ve been working towards for the past several years. We’re looking forward to regaining full control.”
The state assumed management of the Jersey City school system in 1989, citing a 75-page report that claimed the district of “academic bankruptcy.”
At the time, the New York Times reported that Jersey City Schools were “crippled by political patronage and nepotism, weak administration and management, fiscal irregularities, [and] indifference.”
Mayor Steven Fulop and Superintendent Marcia Lyles joined New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education, David Hespe in Trenton for a vote that returned two components of the Jersey City school system back to local control.
State restores most school control to Jersey City
