HOBOKEN – The Hoboken Dual Language Charter School, popularly known as HoLa, will add a seventh and eighth grade next September, said the president of the school’s board of trustees on Wednesday.
The school, which currently runs through sixth grade and is one of the only dual-language schools of its kind anywhere in the northeastern United States, faced an uphill battle to be granted the expansion after the majority of the Hoboken Board of Education advocated against its expansion application. The superintendent of schools, Mark Toback, also wrote a letter to send to the state, advocating against the expansion for various reasons.
Still, on Wednesday, the state Department of Education (DOE) granted the expansion.
“We are grateful that the DOE recognized our school’s hard work. We are also incredibly humbled by the enormous community and elected official support we received. Eleven of our elected representatives wrote letters of support for HoLa’s expansion to the Department of Education, joining the hundreds of parents who have called for HoLa’s expansion to the 8th grade,” said Board President Barbara Martinez. “We are proud to join Hoboken’s list of public K-8 schools and look forward to serving more of our community’s children in our public charter school.”
For a full story on HoLa’s expansion battle against the local school board, see http://bit.ly/MOq91U. – Dean DeChiaro
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