TRANSCRIPT:
Citizen: Where does Hoboken Public School District Stack Up in a state that is the 6th most segregated school system in the country and the 4th most segregated amongst students with disabilities:
1.) The racial achievement gap is three times wider than the state average
2.) Connors Elementary school is the Jim Crow School and the Middle and High School uses classroom segregation and racial tracking.
3.) The District has failed every stress test in equity, student progress, and college and career readiness according to the NJ Department of Education and all third party assessments
4.) The District is cooking the books on high school graduation rates by abusing credit recovery and summer school to pass kids along from grade to grade without making up at least 2 years or more that were lost as result the district abandoning the Middle School for 7 years.
5.) The District is disproportionately classifying and using discipline punitively against low income black and Latino students by labeling them behaviorally impaired to get additional monies from the state and federal government. Students with special needs
can receive up to $60k in additional funding for services but instead the district places many of these students on home instruction for months at a time while the balance of the additional dollars allocated are redistributed to kids that aren’t entitled to it.
6.) Dr. Johnson stated in budget presentations that she would use ESEA grant money intended to support needy students, to fund afters chool programs at Brandt which didn’t have a single Black student in the incoming Kindergarten, has a 75%+ white student population, and a low income student population that is less than 5%.
Over the last two years:
Dr. Johnson lied to me about her support for a diversity inclusion committee at two NAACP meetings, several personal text messages, in person meetings, and emails. This was evident in her lack of follow through over a two year span, her lack of preparedness at in person meetings, her to decision marginalize my daughter’s experience, her half baked effort at creating a equity report that didn’t present an honest and thorough assessment of racial disparity data and her insistence on blaming the victim by claiming, on the public record, that race and class are the reasons for why Black and Brown children are failing and not the district.
She also blamed the State of NJ for not accommodating a hyper segregated district by assigning different District Factor Groups to racially and socioeconomically different schools. In addition, Dr. Johnson lied about racial tracking. She has yet to answer the questions about the effectiveness of the home instruction program or how the district mitigates racial bias in classifying low income black and brown students. Dr. Johnson did not follow through on her recommendations in the equity report. In fact, it the Equity Report is not longer available on the website. Dr. Johnson is simply sending a message to all Black and Latino families that she doesn’t care about your child’s future.
Under Dr. Johnson the high school dropped another 40 spots on to the bottom 10% in performance state wide. The District failed again QSAC for the 8 the straight year in teacher instruction and programming And an overwhelming majority of low income Black and Latino students are still not reading, writing, and doing math grade level, let alone prepared for college or a career.
The Board (of Education) rewarded Dr. Johnson’s atrocious record by giving her a 5 year extension after her first 2 years. This BOE continues to not be reflective of the entire student body. To this end, this BOE allowed members like John Madigan to make racist statements without accountability for referring to the black community as “The Coloreds” a derogatory racist term that hasn’t been used to describe the black community since the Civil Rights Era. You said nothing when the Teacher’s Union President Gary Enrico is allowed to use dog whistle racism to describe Black parents for demanding equity and a high quality education as “ Same Clowns different time”. You used a Black mother with an alleged open DYFS case to mock Black representation on the Board and use as a publicity stunt for your so called commitment to diversity and inclusion. Under the pressure, this Black mother lost her children and has allegedly been in jail since mid summer trying to fight for kids.
This BOE is intentionally destroying a vast majority of Black and Latino children’s lives by using them to get additional aid and grant money, discard them like trash, and then blame them for not persevering enough through systems of injustice. You are sadly mistaken if you think we are alone in wanting change and justice for the kids you refuse to represent.
Board President: Thank you——any comments in response?…..no— If there is no other business before the Board, is there a motion to adjoin?
Board Trustee: Wait one second… I find it highly disgusting to get up to criticize and make lies about the superintendent up…and that…its not suppose to be that way. If you have facts about issues I would like—everyone would like to see them. But to get up and say stuff about the superintendent that just to say that is someone doesn’t like the superintendent, and had a bad experience and then just paints over the makes up lies and its suppose to be ok for us not to say anything. I’m a big boy, I can take anything coming. I was born and raised here before Hoboken was fashionable. I was here during riots, I was here when it was tough, I was here when they were burnt down- so, I don’t have to stick up for myself. But I’ll be dammed if I can going to sit here when the superintendent is being called all these lies and facts and its a disgusting thing - thats the end of the statement
Gavel
voice from audience
Board President: No, the public comment section is over, thank you — motion to adjoin?
Motion to ajoin
Meeting ends
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