Two sharply different factions now split the Jersey City Board of Education, and at the Jan. 6 reorganization meeting – as three new members were sworn in – the talk of peace and cooperation was often through gritted teeth.
“The Nov. 4 election is over and now it’s time to act,” said Lorenzo Richardson, who along with fellow new members Gerald Lyons and Joel Torres took his seat on the nine-member board.
The board members unanimously replaced former president Sangeeta Ranade with Vidya Gangadin. But in a sign of the division splitting the board and possibly of things to come, Marilyn Roman was elected vice president 5 votes to 4.
For the past year, Roman has been often been the sole opponent of a very aggressive agenda being pushed by Schools Superintendent Dr. Marcia Lyles, an approach the former school board largely supported.
Roman often sided with a frustrated public and teachers’ union who also questioned some of Lyles’ changes to the district.
Richardson, Lyons and Torres were elected with strong support from the teachers’ union. The change in board leadership leaves Gangadin as the swing vote between two political factions of four votes each. Although Gangadin was seen as a compromise choice for president, in her first official vote she sided with those who supported Roman.
Dissension dead ahead
Even among the pleasantries and stated hopes for good relations typical of reorganization meetings, bad feelings festered.
Board member Micheline Amy, who voted against Roman by telephone, outraged many in the mostly pro-Roman audience who attended the meeting when she tried to explain her vote against Roman.
“We have to keep our eye on the prize which is our students’ education.” – Dr. Marcia Lyles
____________
Roman responded that it was her job as a board member to ask questions. She said her aim is to make sure students in the district get the education they need in order to get jobs in the future.
Lyons defended Roman, calling her “one of the most professional women” he’s ever worked with, and said after losing to her in his previous attempt to get elected to the board in late 2013, she invited him into her home.
“She mentored me week after week until I learned to do the job,” he said.
Ranade, who ran for the board with Roman last year before they had a parting of ways, also voted against Roman as did Jessica Daye and Ellen Simon.
Lyons, Richardson, Torres, Roman and Gangadin voted for Roman as vice president.
“As president I’m glad to work with her as vice president,” Gangadin said. “We will work hand in hand.”
While there were a number of teachers present, the large demonstrations of past BOE meetings did not take place, as the members endorsed by the teacher’s union took their place on the board.
Cold shoulder for Lyles
Lyles, who is likely to face increasing criticism over the next year, struck on conciliatory tone by congratulating new and old members of the newly constituted board.
“We have to keep our eye on the prize, which is our students’ education,” she said, but received only sparse applause from the audience.
Gangadin briefly laid out a road map for the future on some critical issues.
“We need to go back to committee structure,” she said. The previous president had abandoned committees in favor of caucus meeting discussions, something that Lyons said did not provide board or the public with enough information about critical issues.
Gangadin also said the in the past the video taping of public meetings was done as the discretion of the board president. She said she wants a firm policy for the future. The former president did away with taping of the public portion claiming, that it had become too hostile.
But Gangadin seemed to encourage support for Lyles when it came to a policy for district wide testing of students.
“We all have different personalities, and we will agree and disagree,” Gangadin said. “But I ask you to do so respectfully, this includes board members, the superintendent, senior staff and the community.”
Kids must come first
In a move he believes might bring unity to the board, Lyons encouraged the board to seek state certification as a board. He said members can get certified individually or as a board. If done as a board, the members would get instructed in how to work as a unit.
“We can do this within a year,” he said.
One area that he wants to see changed in the upcoming year is in communication between board members and the school district.
“I want a policy of no surprises,” he said. “In the past, some board members knew things and others didn’t. I think all nine of us should be informed about things.”
Lyons said one goal for the new board should be to address poverty in the district and make sure that students living and attending schools in the poorer sections of the city get the same opportunities and resources as those in the wealthier portions.
“If students don’t have access to technology at home it’s not their fault,” he said. “We need to develop a policy that is in front of technology.”
There is a ban on use of cellular phones in some schools, and he said the district should reconsider this since many students have cellular phones and these are potential tools to make up for lack of other technology.
“A cell phone is a tool just like a pen and we need to embrace that,” he said.
Richardson said he looked forward to working with the board over the next year, and believed Gangadin and Roman would provide leadership.
“We’re going to make a real concerted effort like has never been seen before,” he predicted. “We’re going to work together. But we must move in the direction that is right for all our children.”
Among those he credited for raising issues that brought the board to this point, Richardson praised the reporting of former Jersey City reporters Riccardo Kaulessar and E. Assata Wright.
“They fought hard to get the message out, and I don’t know how we can thank them,” he said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.