JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – Parents and members of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC) are planning a rally outside the Jersey City Board of Education office Tuesday to protest the recent re-appointment of Cathy Coyle as a school monitor.
The rally will begin at 9 a.m. outside the Board of Education office at 346 Claremont Ave.
The state took control of the Jersey City school system in 1989 after years of low test scores throughout the district. Since 2008, however, the state has been gradually returning governance of the district back to local control. The locally elected Board of Education sets the annual school budget, which is then voted on by Jersey City residents.
Last year, the school board majority successfully negotiated the departure of longtime School Superintendent Dr. Charles Epps, who oversaw the district during the years of state control. Since last fall, members of the school board have vowed that Epps’ replacement would be selected by school trustees – not by a state monitor.
That promise now seems in jeopardy with the reappointment of Coyle as a school district monitor, a decision leaked by the New Jersey Department of Education Friday.
Angry parents are now planning a rally outside the Board of Education office to demonstrate the move by the state. According to a release from SEOC, “Parents and the community think that [the] state takeover will interfere with the superintendent search] process and the future of our children. In Jersey City, the school budget is $636 million. We are the second largest school district in the state. This state control is over the budget, not the success of our children.”