So many families with young children are staying in Jersey City and Hoboken nowadays that in the last 15 years, the number of kids under 5 in Hoboken has nearly tripled, and in Jersey City, a 2013 report estimated that the public school system would be 7,000 desks short by 2018.
As young families find that revitalized cities are more in tune with their needs than they used to be, school districts must suddenly adjust to the influx of toddlers, while 20 years ago, they were selling off old buildings to fill budget gaps.
In 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1,515 children under 5 lived in Hoboken. By 2000, the numbers had dropped slightly to 1,232. But by 2010, they had nearly tripled from 10 years earlier, to 3,388.
Estimates in following years projected a steady increase from 2010 to 2014. The Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program expected Hoboken’s under-5 population to be approximately 3,535 in 2014. (The population of Hoboken is growing itself, from 38,700 in 2000 to approximately 53,000 now.)
In Jersey City, the numbers were not as dramatic. However, in the last few years, a development boom has lured families to burgeoning areas of the city such as downtown and the Heights.
While the increasing demand for preschool has been the most urgent issue in recent years, kindergartens and even middle schools also may be short on space. Some pre-K students have already been learning in temporary trailer classrooms set up outside public schools in Jersey City, and most of the trailers are used at 20 percent over-capacity.
In spring of 2015 and 2016, families camped outside Concordia Learning Center in the Heights section for nearly two days, seeking a coveted spot in Jersey City’s most popular private pre-K program that accepts students on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Facing the future
Former Jersey City mayor and state education commissioner Bret Schundler, who is now the principal of the charter school consulting firm School Partners, said there are about four applicants per available kindergarten seat in the Jersey City charter schools.
“A tidal wave of young children is about to hit kindergarten in Jersey City,” he said.
“A tidal wave of young children is about to hit kindergarten.” –Bret Schundler, BelovED Community Charter School
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In a February 2014, a follow-up forecast report also commissioned by the district estimated they will be short nearly 4,400 desks for kindergarten through eighth grade by the 2017-2018 school year.
The 2014 study concluded that “major capacity deficits are expected at the elementary and middle school grade levels,” according to Schundler in an email. “Based on the existing capacity, it is projected that in the 2017-18 school year, there will be inadequate classroom space for 4,384 out of the 23,833 students in grades Pre-K 3 through 8, with enrollment exceeding capacity by 25.4 percent.”
The need for additional seats in schools will become greater in the years to follow. Upcoming residential developments are expected to increase Jersey City’s 257,342 population by another 64,250 people in the coming decade, Schundler said. The forecast report said that public school and charter school enrollment projections showed a districtwide increase by 22 percent from the 2012-13 school year to 2017-18.
The 2013 Perkins Eastman report examined the impact of housing development from then to 2018, and estimated that Jersey City will see an enrollment increase from 27,947 to about 34,580 students in the public schools.
Private and charter
According to Schundler, public pre-K providers can receive public funding in Jersey City but private K-12 providers cannot, so they may not expand like the public schools can.
“I don’t think they [private schools] will be able to keep pace with the demand growth for primary grade level public school seats,” he said. “But I do believe they should try their best to keep pace.”
Schundler said he knows of charter schools that are expanding. Charter schools are a different kind of public school. They are usually founded by educators and parents, as allowed by legislation passed in New Jersey in 1995. They receive most, but not all, of the same funding regular public schools do, yet are not bound by the teachers’ union or certain government guidelines. Hoboken has three charter schools and Jersey City has 15.
BelovED and its partner school Empowerment Academy are both adding grade levels, according to Schundler. BelovED is currently a K-5 institution but plans to add one grade level each year. This September, Empowerment Academy currently will serve grades K through 2.
Schundler said he anticipates that public high schools in Jersey City will add middle school grade levels and become junior-senior high schools in the future. Empowerment is doing the same.
Free pre-K lures many
In Jersey City and Hoboken, the public schools’ all-day pre-K 3 and 4 programs are especially popular because they are free as a result of special “Abbott” district funding. In the 1985 Abbott v. Burke ruling, the state Supreme Court decided in favor of New Jersey’s Education Law Center, which argued that kids in the poorer districts should receive a comparable education to the kids in the wealthy districts where high property taxes fueled the school budget. A series of court decisions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in the state passing laws to give 31 urban districts enough funding to provide a “thorough and efficient” education.
Maryann Dickar, the chief of staff at the Jersey City Board of Education, said the district “is always looking for more preschool classrooms,” especially in areas where the demand is growing.
Both Jersey City and Hoboken contract with private providers, such as HOPES Head Start, to run some of the classes. The private preschools are required to use the district’s curriculum.
“We offer a high quality program for free, Dickar said. “And a lot of towns don’t have that.”
There’s already a waitlist for next year in Hoboken for the pre-K programs, according to a letter to parents on the school district website.
“For the 2016-17 school year, with the addition of new classes, the N.J. Department of Education has graciously funded 840 seats, indicating that Hoboken’s preschool funding level is at 161 percent,” the letter said. “The program has received close to 1,000 applicants.”
The letter reads that Hoboken didn’t determine the number of available seats next year, and the state figures it out based on numbers from the previous year.
“It is determined by the following Department of Education Division of Early Childhood Education formula for obtaining our universe: the number of district first grade students multiplied by two,” states the note. “521 seats have been calculated as our universe for preschool placement. However, as you know, our stellar program draws many more than the NJDOE-DECE could ever expect.”
According to the letter, Early Childhood Education Director Sandra Rodriguez requested additional funding from the state to meet demands created by the population growth.
Superintendent of Schools Christine Johnson said there were only 639 students in Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 in 2012-13, much lower than the nearly 1,000 applicants already interested for next year.
The numbers are also increasing for higher grade levels. In 2012-2013, the school district had a total of 356 students in kindergarten and first grade, but for the coming school year, 534 are already enrolled, she said.
For next year, three first grade classrooms have been added to the toddler-heavy Brandt School on Ninth Street, said Board of Education Vice President Jennifer Evans, where last year, all three floors in the school were dedicated solely to pre-K 3, pre-K 4, and kindergarten. (The school was built back in 1920 for a much denser city with larger families. That year, Hoboken had a population of 68,166, and a 4-year-old boy named Frank Sinatra lived with his two siblings just a few streets away.)
“Our enrollment will only continue to grow,” said Superintendent Johnson. “As a district, we are working tirelessly to develop and implement new programs and enhance the overall educational experience for all of our students.”
Historically, Hoboken’s early childhood education program has been able to take children off the waitlist by October, according to the letter. Spaces open up if families move or choose other schools.
A Hoboken mom from the Huntington Condominiums who was playing with her son at Columbus Park on Thursday evening said the boy was on a waitlist to get into Pre-K 4.
“There’s still 20 people ahead of him on the list, but I’m really hoping he gets in soon,” she said. “It’s so frustrating.”
She said waitlisted students are chosen from a lottery system, and she does not know when her son is going to be placed. However, she said she is keeping faith in the school district.
“I lived in Westfield before I moved here a few years ago,” she said. “I feel like you can’t find programs like Hoboken’s anywhere else.”
A father who lives nearby on Ninth Street said his 3-year-old daughter had gotten into the Pre-K 3 program.
“Knowing how many of my friends don’t know when they’ll be placed, I am so grateful,” he said.
Neither parent wanted to use his or her name.
Families staying in the cities
In the 1970s, many young professionals had their first child while still living in the cities and New York boroughs where their parents and grandparents had raised them, but then moved to the suburbs when their children reached school age. Nowadays, young families are moving back to the cities, appreciating the safety, convenience, and new parks. The school districts, after years of seeing families shrink in size and losing students to the suburbs, are finding ways to accommodate them.
Johnson said part of her school district’s growth can be attributed to the extensive programs available to students.
“The 2016-2017 school year will reveal a brand new After School Program, a newly designed Middle School Program, an overhauled Gifted and Talented Program, Dual Enrollment Collegiate/High School courses, Project Lead the Way’s K-5 Launch STEM Program, and Project Lead the Way’s High School Programs in the areas of Biomedical Sciences, Computer Science, and Engineering,” Johnson said in an email.
“We are working extremely hard to deliver relevant educational experiences and forge strong relationships with families,” she added. “I believe that people are noticing change in the district and recognizing our efforts.”
Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who is raising two children in Hoboken, said the city is doing its best to keep up with the increase in families who are staying in town.
“A lot of new housing developments are incorporating larger two- and three-bedroom apartments so families can live here,” she said.
New development projects, like the Monroe Urban Renewal at Seventh and Jackson that was recently approved by the council, will also create jobs and more public amenities, said Zimmer.
She said that Hoboken is becoming more popular with families because parents are attracted to its small size (one mile square), proximity to New York, public transportation options, and “thriving community.” Her sons attended Elysian Charter School and now attend Hoboken High and High Tech High (the countywide public high school based in North Bergen).
“Now that I’m in the city government, I’m trying to make Hoboken a place with community benefits like more jobs and spaces for parks,” Zimmer said. “And I’m trying to do my part to make sure it works for families.”
Twenty years ago, it was common for families to leave Hoboken for Montclair and Summit when their children reached school age. A 1994 New York Times story about the population decline in the Hoboken schools referred to the trend as “Having it all, then leaving it.” That same year, the Board of Education debated closing two school buildings.
Evans, the Board of Education vice president, said that when she moved to the city 17 years ago, “Many families departed for the suburbs soon after their first child was born.” Now, she said, “More and more families are staying and also choosing to live here.”
Evans is among them. Her children, who attended the public pre-K program, will start first and fourth grades in the public schools this fall.