From u/mymindisgoo Wait didn't you get shot in Weehawken hundreds of years ago?!?!?!

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated :)

from u/jazzplate I was wondering if you could explain last year's budget (that caused a fairly large property tax increase) and why you voted against it. Some insiders called the budget bloated and unnecessary, but I've also read that it had to be done because state funding is receding. What is actually going on?

In short both of the reasons you are hearing are correct. The state has cut about $235 million dollars in aid since 2018 and we have both a bloated budget and wasteful spending. Please keep in mind that while we were losing state funding, the district was actually increasing the budget every year. In 2020 Jersey City had a school budget of $774 million, in 2021 $827 million and in 2022 the budget is now set for $973 million! That’s a $200 million dollar increase in just 3 years. So yes, Jersey City is receiving less money from the state now to offset these total amounts but that combined with a bloated budget has gotten us to where we are today. I voted no to these increases because I felt it was irresponsible of this district to ask the taxpayers to pay more, first when the pandemic started and now again when we are on the verge of a recession with inflation at an all time high. Too much burden on our residents for what we are getting.

from u/aramova LeFrak contributes significant funds to you and your Change cohorts, after getting hundreds of millions in tax abatements which went into their pockets leaving the citizens of Jersey City with the out of control tax situation in our BOE how are we supposed to believe you've got our kid's interests at heart?

Is the Change for Children you stand for just the change that goes into LeFrak's pockets?

Please keep two things in mind regarding this question:
1) The Education Matters slate is funded with far more $$$ by the NJEA Union PAC then Change for Children.
2) I have a special needs child in the 6th grade currently attending public school in our district. Do you really think that I am going to put anything ahead of his or any other childs needs?

Your anger about the tax abatements is justified, however, and they are one of the reasons why we are where we are currently. But I am here to do a job (a non-paying job BTW) because I believe that I can help make a difference. I can not change your opinion of LeFrak, nor do I wish to but if you’ve watched me over the last 3 years while I served on this board you would know that I always spoke/voted my mind and was never influenced by outside forces of any kind. At the end of the day we are all one taxpayer group in Jersey City. If you are a big landlord, a single family owner or a renter, it would still be better for all of us to have better schools in our district that were budgeted properly.
Another point I’d like to bring up is the fact that I am the only non NJEA Union endorsed member on the current school board. If the NJEA Union backed candidates win this election then all 9 seats on this board will be Union endorsed members. Is that really appropriate or fair? Especially when it comes to things like negotiating teacher contracts? And you all know that 2023 is when the current teacher contract expires, right?

from u/Automatic_Forever_43 It's said that we spend approximately $30,000+ annually on each student in the JC School system. If correct, it strikes me that there's a big disconnect between what we spend and the quality of the education the students receive, despite the efforts of very capable teachers and administrators. Outside of the educational product, the infrastructure within the schools is old, antiquated and in disrepair. When this issue is raised, there's typically a deflection to the standouts, the Blue Ribbon schools, in our JC system. Looking at the school system on the whole, not the outliers, how do we ensure that the revenue brought in to the school system is spent on the in class room experience getting our kids ready for college or trade schools? Where are the funds going today, what's the distribution of capital allocation, and would it be better to have the school budget as part of the city budget, instead of a stand alone? Thanks.

The $30,000+ price tag per student is quite alarming. Even Newark (a district comparable in student enrollment to Jersey City) is spending approx $26,000 per student. I do not fault our very capable teachers for this. The schools themselves are old and much is in disrepair at several locations. This contributes to an environment that is not conducive to learning for our students and poor work conditions for our teachers and staff. I also want to stress that Jersey City has an education equity problem. The schools in Jersey City are far from being equal. The district needs to do a much better job of making sure that ALL children in Jersey City can get the same education. Specifically for the schools in the more impoverished areas of the city. These neighborhoods have suffered through much neglect as far as the attention that these schools receive.

The question that you ask is very relevant and I think the best way to ensure that the money makes its way to our students is to hire a Budget Officer for the administration. It is the only way to guarantee transparency regarding where the $973 million dollars is going. Then we could better see how this budget is helping our students prepare for college and what is being done to help raise our students' scores in Math and Science for example. I don’t, however, believe that the school budget should be mixed in with the city budget. I worry that would actually cause more problems as far as transparency is concerned.

from u/jcskunk Parents rave about Jersey City public charter schools their children attend, but have almost never heard the same for regular public schools with a couple of exceptions. What can we do to encourage charter schools and/or make the public schools operate to a similar standard?

While Jersey City public charter schools are funded from the district's budget, they operate independently. I think one of the reasons that you hear great things from parents about charter schools is that they are innately tied closer to the community that they operate in. Since they can micro-manage their students, faculty and staff, it is often easier for charter schools to make quick changes and react faster to concerns. There are other factors to consider though such as higher teacher turnover rates, lower student diversity and the possibility of closure.

I would like to see our district discuss/observe educational systems and methods that may be working in the charter schools and mimic the programs that are successful. For that matter, I am a fan of even going out of district and finding out what is working for students all of the state of NJ. If there is something successful in another district, it does not mean that it can not work here in Jersey City as well.

from u/mooseLimbsCatLicks Do the members of the school board have any regrets on how long the schools were closed to in person learning? Do you think in hindsight it was incorrectly handled?

This is a very difficult question. As the father of a 6th grader in the district it was very hard to have him home for so long during virtual learning. All in all, I think the district did a pretty good job preparing for virtual learning. While it did have a lasting effect (negative) on students, teachers and parents, I would have liked to see schools reopen a bit sooner than they did. Again, I think the district did the right thing in the beginning with so many unknowns but as we began to get a clearer picture of the pandemic I think we could have had our children back in school sooner. Hindsight is 20/20 though and there were many students, teachers and parents who were afraid to go back too early.

from u/kokoromelodyCan you go into any more detail what your plans would be for higher transparency/ accountability, especially when it comes to how the current and potential future budget proposals are allocated? As a property owner, I'm not blindly against any and all tax increases, but it's frustrating to see that JC has one of the highest expenditures per student that don't seem to translate into student performance or the overall school quality.

This is a very important question. One of the things I would like to do is make sure we are following exactly where the money is going in this budget. I, too, am not against all tax increases, as long as they are justified and can show some results.

One of the ways I think that real change can happen in this district is with real transparency and accountability. So how does the district accomplish this? I strongly believe that this administration needs a Budget Officer. Why? Well, think of the administration as a corporation. The Superintendent is the CEO and the Business Administrator serves as the COO and the CFO. In order for a corporation to run effectively, it would NEVER have one person for two massively important positions. Think about it, our administration has the same person making all of the operational decisions as well as the financial decisions. This hierarchy has led to wasteful spending, bad contract negotiations, nepotism and a bloated budget in our district. As I said earlier, I am not against all tax increases but when the administration submits a $970 million dollar budget and does not disclose what they plan on doing with the money, I think that is wrong. Let’s work together with the administration (and Budget Officer) to create a plan, present it to the public, agree on that plan and then ask taxpayers to “buy in”. This is the proper order of how budgeting and planning should work together.

from u/FloatingWeight Virtual learning has set kids back, how are the jersey city schools attempting to tackle this?

The harsh reality of virtual learning was that it had an adverse effect on the education and socialization of our students. I know that the district has worked hard to improve course curriculums to help students accelerate learning and at the same time provide more social workers/programs for the students to talk to and participate in. One of the things I’d like to see is more of an emphasis placed on after school programs. We lost about a year of in-person learning due to COVID. We have to look at where and when we can implement more instructional learning for our students. I think there may be a way that our schools can use the after school time to help.

from u/keepseeing444 In Hudson County, Secaucus and Weehawken school districts’ annual school budgets are voted on by its citizens and not by the school board. Do you think JC should follow suit given carte blanche mentality of union backed board members and their unwillingness to work with the city government on implementing spending controls?

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I think this is a very interesting option to explore and I am open to it. This is especially important if the administration continues to increase the budget year after year and the students' results do not change. It is important for the public to have a say as it is the tax payers money we are spending.

from u/novelteal Could you be specific about which votes and actions taken by other BoE members and state/local governments you disagree with and you feel are interfering with having better public schools in Jersey City? And as a follow up, if you were hypothetically able to snap your fingers and get the BoE and local governments to change anything you wanted about our current process, what realistic solutions would you implement?

I think this board blindly approved budgets without question during the COVID pandemic and again now when we are entering a recession with high inflation. While the 2022-2023 budget barely passed with a 5-4 vote, I still think it was irresponsible to raise the budget to $973 million after losing so much state aid. I also think that there has not been enough sense of urgency concerning our crumbling infrastructure. As a district we were allowed to use much of the federal COVID dollars to fix several issues with our schools. Yet there is still currently $105 million in federal funds sitting and waiting to be used for such projects. But the answer was raising taxes again? Even with this money sitting dormant? Also, we just received another $89 million dollars from the state. Once the state accepted $2.5 billion in federal COVID relief money, the state agreed to comply with a provision called the Maintenance of Equity. This provision prohibits states from cutting state aid in high-need districts in 2021 and 2022 and barred the state from reducing aid to high-poverty districts below 2019 levels. Again, we knew this money was coming but it was more important to raise taxes on our residents? The total of both of these cash windfalls is $194 million dollars! Enough said.

As far as a snap-of-the-fingers solution I don’t think there is one. I will say that we really need to come up with a long term solution or we will be right back here next year. The state, county, city and the district need to communicate regularly for REAL budgetary solutions and not kick the can down the road. Our kids deserve better and the only way to accomplish this is to work together.

from u/Downtown-Prompt-6499 You have been serving on the school board for 3 years - what have you done to ensure the Payroll Tax is being collected for the benefit of the Jersey City Public Schools? The SuperPac that is funding your campaign is suing the City over the Payroll Tax. This seems to be a huge conflict of interest. The Payroll Tax would have helped alleviate the tax burden on individual property owners

The Payroll Tax is the law of the land and should be obeyed. The SuperPAC that is funding the Change for Children slate has nothing to do with the fact that the law must be followed. I want to remind everyone that according to the state of New Jersey, it is the city of Jersey City that has to enforce this law and collect the proper funds. The School Board has no role in collecting the actual tax dollars generated by the Payroll Tax. That being said, I have personally sat down with the Mayor and requested that the city do a stronger job to enforce the Payroll Tax to help ensure that the maximum amount is collected for the school district.

from u/ImInTheRoc What are your thoughts on Aaron Burr?

Not a fan ;)

from u/RebeccaLoneBrook29 How often is the water quality of the schools tested?

The district is in the process of replacing the water supply at several of our schools. This will be an ongoing project that will take a little longer to complete for all of our buildings. When you ask “How often is the water quality of the schools tested” I am assuming you are referring to the schools with the new water systems installed. The other schools that have not been updated do not have potable water and are relying on bottled water. I do not have an exact answer on the testing frequency of the new water systems but I will find out and get back to you.

from u/R_At1antis I'm sympathetic to your drive for district accountability, but feel held hostage by the fact that the district's first response to budget shortfalls is to lay off teachers, as they did as recently as 2019. How will you ensure that the budget discipline you propose will not impact my child's Pre-K classroom?

Teacher layoffs are not the first place, as you mentioned, we should be looking at as far as our budget is concerned. We need to find wasteful spending and mismanagement. I do not classify teachers as either.

from u/jcskunk Jersey City Public Schools regularly test poorly on math and science. The scores are consistently substantially worse than on reading. What can we do to improve student performance on critical subjects to prepare students for the jobs of the future?

One of the biggest setbacks for our students are the conditions of our buildings. These are not environments that are conducive to learning. With leaking roofs, old/dirty bathrooms that don’t work, unreliable heat and no air conditioning in many schools, it is amazing that our students can even concentrate on their work at all. If as adults we were asked to work a job in these locations, the condition of the building would likely affect our desire to stay. The same could be said for our teachers; it is not proper for them to work under these conditions either. If the district provided a better learning environment for the students I know it would improve scores. Think about it, how can you excel at a subject like science if you don’t have proper lab space or equipment?

Now I don’t think that is the only thing that can be done but with the current improvements to our curriculum and grades/scores actually starting to improve, I think we also have to give it some time. The pandemic and virtual learning did not help but I do think that we are pointed in the right direction.

from u/glasssa251 What do you think needs to be done in order to retain and hire quality teachers?

The teacher shortage is a huge nationwide problem and Jersey City is certainly experiencing this issue as well. There are a couple of things we can do as a district to help alleviate this problem:

1) Teachers need to know that they will be valued by our district. Our entry level salary of $61,000 is far less than other competing districts (other districts are also providing signing bonuses) and probably the biggest reason that we lose out on new teacher talent to other districts.

2) The current step system (when teachers get raises) takes far too long for a teachers salary to actually increase to a meaningful amount. This is another reason why teachers leave our district early. It also accounts for a big reason why the union contract with our teachers is very top heavy as far as salaries go.

3) When we renegotiate the teachers contract next year we must even out the pay scale so that teachers can start with a higher salary and receive better raises as they remain in the district. Then we will be able to hire new teachers and retain their talent within our district and there is nothing more important than our teachers.

Is there any truth to the idea that some of the poor performance of the schools is due to the social situation of the families and communities of the children attending school? if the community is broken, how can the student in school perform well?

What’s your estimate for an ideal 2023 budget? Would it be an overall increase, stay the same, or decrease?

Are charter schools bad? Can you tell us why if they are?

Hamilton sounds the most convincing about not raising taxes further and actually creating solutions to budgeting and keeping taxes lower. The current change for education board (neomi velasquez, chris tisdale) sound very vague about how funds are used and are even implying they would be happy to raise taxes further if they needed to!??
EVERYONE PLEASE VOTE THIS NOV 8TH!!

You have my vote!!!!

You're backed by the Lefrak organizations superPAC FairerNJ.
How do you square your commitment to education while being funded by a company that took Jersey City to court in order to avoid paying the 1% payroll tax that was supposed to cover the loss in state funding?
Do you agree with Fulop that the companies that have not paid the tax should be exempt from interest on their debt, as opposed to homeowners unable to meet these increases?

Please confirm the $974M budget has a charter schools pass through of ≈$130M so the district with an actual budget of $844M

What's your stance on duels? I hope better than the last time

You write that you voted against past tax increases. The State insists on their funding formula. How would you have funded the budget without tax increases?