Letter to the Editor: Board Members Shouldn't Bully Citizens, Should Set Example For Kids- Time for New Leadership

Hoboken BOE Members 
L-R: Kluepfel, Cademartori, McGuirk

The following is a letter to the editor of Hoboken Patch. Please click here for the original post. In the post, accusations are made that Hoboken Board of Education Vice President Malani Cademartori criticized a citizen before a recent Board meeting. Moreover, this criticism was evidently not cordial and exhibited what might be considered unprofessional. The dressing down of a citizen by a public official was apparently so severe, it prompted two other concerned citizens to write a letter to the editor. 

HBOE member Tom Kluepfel is no stranger to bulling like tactics, he once called the police because an African American mother went over her 5 minutes during the public portion of a Board meeting. Nothing like using the power of the Board presidency to keep the BOE meetings moving along smoothly. 

Dear Editor, 

We cannot have executive members of the Hoboken Board of Education bullying citizens who attend meetings or participate in public discourse. 

At the July 12, 2022, HBOE meeting Vice-President Malani Cademartori walked off the stage and into the audience and approached Kevin Davis, a resident sitting in the crowd, about his letter to the Editor. The meeting was minutes from starting, and this member still felt the need to come off the stage to criticize Mr. Davis. Then the President of the HBOE came off stage to remind this member that the meeting was about to start. 

The conversation was far from cordial. It was filled with demands and accusations. Mr. Davis was told he was spreading "misinformation." Ironically the alleged "misinformation" was a direct quote from a BoE member. The Vice-President stated that if he wanted to write a letter, he must go through her to get what they perceived as "the correct information." 

He was calm, listened, and stated facts that the member had zero interest in hearing. After a few minutes, I (Paul) stepped in and said, "You are attacking him, you have no right, and it's the wrong place for this. He is a citizen, and he is entitled to his opinion." This exchange was not professional from a person in a leadership position. 

No citizen should be dressed down at a public meeting by an elected official. This kind of behavior from elected officials is never warranted and represents the worst of what we have seen from elected officials over the past few years. 

While the HBOE will remind you that they are elected volunteers, they must adhere to what they preach. This interaction is just another in their long line of disregard for what residents think, as exemplified by their unanimous support of the 2-1 failed bond referendum. 

Every HBOE YouTube video begins with these ideals: Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, Courtesy, Citizenship, and Integrity. Does the board believe in them? The Board of Education members set the tone at the top of our school district. 

Is this the kind of behavior we want our kids to learn and emulate? 

This culture of exclusion has no place in Hoboken and must end. It's time for a change. It's time for inclusion and unity. We need new leadership.

Paul Presinzano & Pavel Sokolov

Hoboken, NJ

2021-22 Hoboken Public School District's Highest-Paid School Administrators

Patch has recently published the top salaries of school executives throughout New Jersey. School-executive pay has long been a controversial subject in both local school district budgeting and state budgeting. 

Here are Hoboken’s highest-paid (not including incentives, bonuses, and benefits) school administrators, along with their school, their district, their years of service and their salaries. To be clear, These are not the only people making 6 figures in the district, these are simply the highest paid school administrators according to the NJ Dept of Education and published by Patch.  

CHRISTINE JOHNSON, District Office, Hoboken Public School District, 6, $193,778

SANDRA RODRIGUEZ, District Office, Hoboken Public School District, 17, $185,674

JOYCE GOODE, District Office, Hoboken Public School District, 26, $179,336

ROBIN PICCAPIETRA, Hoboken High School, Hoboken Public School District, 18, $172,704

ANNA MARRA, Hoboken Middle School, Hoboken Public School District, 18, $158,485

CHARLES BARTLETT, Joseph F Brandt Elementary School, Hoboken Public School District, 17, $155,308

One would think for this type of top rated salary that the district would have top rated educational achievement. However, recent data shows that only 8% of 6th through 12th graders are proficient in mathematics and over half of the same students are not reading at grade level. 

Comparing the 2021 and 2022 US News and World Report analysis of Grades 6 to 12 in the Hoboken Public Schools. 

Click to Enlarge 

 

General Scorecard (0 to 100 scale): down 7.3 points; 

National Ranking: down 1289 places; 

State Ranking: down 35 places; 

NY Metro Area Schools: down 55 places; 

Less students taking at least one AP exam; 

Less students passing at least one AP exam; 

57% students reading below grade level; 

92% of students doing mathematics below grade level. 

99% of students doing science below grade level.

81% of HoLa 8th graders in Hoboken pass Spanish AP exam, 1st in the state to do so

81 percent of 8th graders at the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School passed the Spanish AP exam, making them the first class in the state to take the test while in middle school.

“I’m thrilled that our students have had the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in this way,” HoLA Executive Director Jen Sargent said in a statement.

“This is what’s possible when children enter an immersion environment in kindergarten, and are supported in developing literacy and content knowledge in both Spanish and English simultaneously.”

The AP Spanish Language and Culture exam measures students’ Spanish reading, writing, speaking and listening, at an advanced college level.

The College Board has approved the 7th & 8th grade internally-developed Spanish Language Arts curriculum as a college level AP course – providing HoLa Middle School students with exposure to a rigorous curriculum before high school.

Some of HoLa's AP Students

Additionally, HoLa’s newly approved AP Middle School curriculum was entirely developed by HoLa’s faculty and instructional leadership.

“Our 8th grade students are able to manipulate college-level content primarily because they have been exposed to rigorous academic instruction in Spanish since elementary school,” added HoLa Middle School Principal Adina Medina.

“Exposure to such rich academic language in all of their classes, including Social Studies, Science, Math and Language Arts, exposes our students to a wealth of background knowledge and vocabulary that has, in turn, prepared them for the rigor of High School and beyond.”

In addition to being the first class in the state to have this recognition, all HoLa 8th grade students will graduate with an AP designation on their transcript.

See more on this story by clicking HERE 

 

LETTER: Hoboken High School should expand community hours for their pool

Hoboken High School- Pool 

In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Kevin Davis explains why he feels the local high school should expand their community hours for their pool. -Hudson County View 

Dear Editor,

Did you know that the Hoboken High School pool is open this summer to the community?

If you didn’t know this, I can’t blame you as the pool is only open when most people are at work (Monday and Wednesday from 12PM to 4:30 PM & Tuesday and Thursday from 12PM to 1PM and 3PM to 4:30 PM).

The Hoboken School District tried to make waves with this announcement, but instead only made ripples. To best utilize the Hoboken High School pool, it should be open on weekends and evenings as well.

During the failed January 2022 school bond referendum campaign, the school board argued that the new community amenities in the proposed high school would be open to the public. They even enlisted their allies in Hoboken city government to argue these points.

Here are some of their quotes from the referendum campaign:

“A brand-new high school will be a transformative project for Hoboken, paving the way for an improved educational experience for our children and improving the quality of life of our residents with a much-needed pool and upgraded facilities,” Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

“In Hoboken, we bemoan the lack of a pool, the lack of recreation space, the lack of arts facilities – in one fell swoop many of those needs can be filled. While cynics may say we’ll never get access to the new pool, gym, theater, or rink – I for one take the Board of Ed at their word,” Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero.

“The neighborhood will undoubtedly be able to benefit from the new public amenities associated with the project,” Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle.

Knowing that community access to school facilities is important to our Hoboken City elected officials, I didn’t expect that the Hoboken city government was responsible for the lack of optimal school pool hours.

That was until I came across School Board Trustee Sheillah Dallara’s comments in the Hoboken Parents Facebook group.

Ms. Dallara stated:

“During the summer, we give full access to Hoboken High School’s indoor pool to the City of Hoboken’s Recreation Department to offer whatever programs or open swim times that they wish to provide to the residents. The City is responsible for providing life guards, tending to the pool, and notifying the public regarding their swim times,” she wrote.

“It is important to know that the Hoboken Public School District does not have any oversight of the City’s swim times during the summer or when it starts. This year, we received a letter from the Recreation Department requesting dates and times and we approved all.”

There is much that the city could have done to have more staffing at the high school pool.

They could increase lifeguard pay to attract more talent, advertise lifeguard job listings in the early spring to have more time to recruit and train lifeguards, and they could even poach lifeguards from the private sector with better salaries.

Instead, the city failed to make community access to the high school pool a priority.

Even though the city government is largely to blame for this, the School Board isn’t powerless in expanding community hours to the pool.

During the 2021 Hoboken Municipal Elections, Trustees Ailene McGuirk, Chatali Khanna, Malani Cademartori, and Tom Kluepfel publicly endorsed Team Bhalla.

Any of those members could contact our city elected officials to lobby them for expanded pool hours. If Ravi Bhalla and his allies want to continue to get political support from school board trustees, then they need to support more staffing for the pool in the summer.

School board members have a choice, they can use their political capital to push for expanded community access to school facilities in the summer, or they can be silent.

The city and the school district must do more to expand Hoboken High School’s pool hours during the summer.

Kevin Davis
Hoboken resident