Kelli Ann Cudney-Leon (1967-2022): Hoboken Teacher and Lifelong Resident

Kelli Ann Cudney-Leon (nee Jacobson), 55, of Hoboken, unexpectedly passed at home on October 26th, 2022. Kelli was born on June 30th, 1967. The daughter of Peter and Phyllis (nee Giordano) Jacobson (deceased).

She was a graduate of Hoboken High School and Saint Peter’s University and taught in the Hoboken School System.

Kelli is survived by her devoted father, Peter Jacobson, cherished children Danielle Cudney and Peter Leon, her adored grandsons Dylan and Tyler, along with many aunts, uncles, and cousins.Kelli was a beloved daughter, mother and grandmother, an educator and friend and will be deeply missed by all who loved her.

A mass to celebrate Kelli’s life will be on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, at Saint Ann’s RC Church in Hoboken at 11AM. Visitation will be held at Failla-Mcknight Memorial Home, Tuesday, November 1st, 2022. Beginning at 4pm and concluding at 7pm. Entombment will follow at Holy Cross Chapel Mausoleum in North Arlington, NJ.

Those who wish to remember Kelli in a special way may make a donation in her name to their favorite charity.

Arrangements by Failla-McKnight Memorial Home, 533 Willow Avenue, Hoboken.

Various Charts and Data on Enrollment and Capacity Issues in the Hoboken Public Schools

Percent Capacity - Hoboken Public School Buildings 2021-22 

2020 Hoboken Audit Report 

PreK Data (last 3 years) and K-12 Data (last 4 years)- trend line flat/downward, certainly not "explosive" or "rocketing"...

 

STUDENT CAPACITY AND THE HOBOKEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

 STUDENT CAPACITY AND THE HOBOKEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Between 2000 and 2001 student capacity in the Hoboken Public Schools went through a sudden and significant drop. HHS went from a student capatity of 1484 to 838; Wallace from 1257 to 591. Square footage remained unchanged. District wide capacity went from 5,214 to 3278 overnight.

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*The issue of enrollment that is "bursting at the seams" must first be addressed by asserting what is the ACTUAL student capacity of the buildings. What the Board advertises is not necessarily the actual capacity. See the attachment and the sudden DROP in capacity that occurred between 2000 and 2001. This was the same era when Hoboken Charter and Elysian were founded and were looking for classroom space. I argue that the 2000 Audit is the ACTUAL student capacity of these buildings. The result? Room for 1,936 additional students. Sunset the CHOICE program and the number surpasses room for 2000 additional students.

Pre-pandemic Anemic Algebra I Scores for Hoboken School District : 2015 and 2020

Algebra I scores in the Hoboken School District in 2015 the first year Superintendent Johnson came to Hoboken and the 6th year of super majority control of the Hoboken Schools by the group led by Jennifer Evans, Irene Korman Sobolov, and Theresa Minutillo . At right, the most recent prepandemic Algebra I scores in the district 7 years later (!) No growth. No advancement. No accountability. Easy to claim things are "going well"-- but the state accountability assessments tells a much different story.  

2015 Algebra I Scores NJDOE

Most Recent Pre-Pandemic Scores
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

DATA: NJDOE and US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

Letter from Tiffanie Fisher Hoboken City Council, 2nd Ward on Hoboken Board of Education Election Tactics

October 20th, 2022

 

Friends and neighbors,

 

I was so disappointed to see the partisan, slanderous attack mailer sent by the Leaders That Listen ("LTL") BOE slate that many Democrat's across Hoboken received yesterday.  It was reminiscent of the partisan flyers sent out by Team Bhalla in the 2017 non-partisan mayoral race that divided our community in a way and level that it had never been before.  As I said in my newsletter last week, one of the main criteria I am personally looking for in BOE candidates are those who are less divisive.  I met with the LTL candidates Leslie Norwood, Antonio Grana and incumbent Alex De La Torre just after and discussed how important this was to me.  We need uniters, not the dividers which, contrary to what they told me, it seems these three have become. 

If you didn't see it, LTL's attack mailer attempts to paint the competing Kids First candidates as book banning extremists by using dishonest and misleading statements.  Basically a partisan bullying piece. If you actually met Pavel, Cindy and Donna, you would know that nothing could be further from the truth.

 

I do not know for a fact, but if history serves me correctly from the 2017 mayoral race, those of you who are not affiliated with any political party or those who are registered as Republicans would not have received this mailer.  It's the science of a Hoboken local election / law of numbers that I have spoken to you about before - there are more Democrats than Republicans in Hoboken so in a race with a plurality, sacrificing Republican voters could translate to getting more votes and winning.  Let that sink in.  This was the exact strategy the Bhalla campaign followed in 2017 and why Hoboken voted overwhelmingly to reinstate runoffs as a way to stave off this exact type of divisive politics.  Again, if history repeats itself, my guess is there will be at least two more fear-mongering attack mailers like these delivered just days before Election Day.

 

Before you continue, let me first ask you - how many of you reading this had children in school during the pandemic?  How did you feel about your children wearing masks on day one?  How about in year two?  And by year 3 leading into this school year?  If you at any time felt you didn’t want your children to wear masks, then LTL basically is saying you were wrong.

 

I spoke to Donna Magen yesterday, one of the three Kids First candidates, and she was in tears after seeing the bullying LTL attack mailer.  She is married, a mother of two children, one a 5 year old at Brandt, not affiliated with any political party, and never ran for office before.  She put her hand up to run for the BOE to get more involved in her children’s schools.  Certainly not to be attacked by partisan political bullies.  LTL’s attack mailer says she asked for endorsements from QAnon sponsored groups which is a lie.  Do you know what extremism she is actually guilty of?  Struggling in year 2 of the pandemic with her then 3 year old having to wear a mask to school and discussing it on a facebook group with others similarly struggling.  I reviewed ALL of her activity in that group which was only about masks.  Donna has had nothing to do with and doesn’t support QAnon or the NJ Project and she never asked for any endorsement from any group.  And just as an FYI, NJ Project is a predatory Super PAC giving out endorsements to candidates who did not want them like Kids First.  Donna is now concerned about the damage to her reputation based upon the lies that LTL made up in their attack mailer.    

 

With Cindy Wiegand, another Kids First candidate, the LTL bullying mailer was more subtle, using facts in a way that distorts the truth - which in politics is called "paltering" (the link is worth a read).  You have heard me talk about this before.  LTL's attack mailer misleads you to believe that Cindy actively petitioned to remove all safety protocols from her children’s school during the height of COVID.  But that is not the case at all.  Three months ago, about a week before the CDC dropped most protocols for schools, her husband solicited other parents for their support for asking Hoboken Charter, where their three children attend, to loosen COVID restrictions like they were starting to see everywhere.  And the petition actually included research references and referred to the progress that had been made due to masking and vaccines.  Why wouldn't LTL just use the real facts instead of misleading ones?    

 

Pavel Sokolov, is the third Kids First candidate on the mailer.  He is a registered Republican and has not hid this.  Pavel has been very clear on what his position is regarding education, his support for Superintendent Dr. Johnson and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.  IMHO, he is socially progressive and fiscally conservative.  You can agree with him, or not.  You can vote for or against him because he is a Republican, or not.   But LTL’s attack mailer wants you to believe that by supporting Republican candidates at the federal level, a BOE candidate is not allowed to have his/her own views in his own community that may differ from the party platform.  And the hypocrisy?  The same LTL candidates champion other current BOE leaders and commissioners who are/were also Republicans who have voted for Republican candidates at the federal level.   

Do you have an issue with this like I do?  In what is our awful two- party system, don't we only have 2 real choices – Red or Blue – in partisan races?  And don't we vote for candidates who are the nominees for the parties who most align with our beliefs?  For me, this has always been the Democratic party.  But do my views align 100% with the party platform?  Example... I am the product of public education and pro-public education.  But when and where our public schools fail, I support alternative forms of education – like charter schools, magnet schools and educational partnership organizations.  This is often contrary to the core Democratic platform.  I point to the City of Rochester, where I grew up in a neighboring suburb.  Rochester has the worst public schools in the state of NY with at least one high school that had a 33% graduation rate just a few years ago.  33%!  In the case of this high school, which is in the most economically depraved area of the city, the public schools were clearly not working on any measure.  The University of Rochester stepped in 7 years ago to create an EPO and has dramatically transformed the school’s culture and outcomes for the school’s students.  Graduation rates last year were up to 85%. So, I can be a Democrat, but can have views on education that don’t perfectly align with my party.

 

Why am I writing this today?  Because the bullying, dishonest and divisive partisan rhetoric and character assassination in our local, non-partisan elections has to stop.  And right now, the only messages out there is that this behavior is somehow ok.  And it isn’t.  And I know you agree with me.  

Maybe you can, but I cannot support any candidates who think dishonest political bullying is acceptable.  Especially those who are running to set the culture for our schools. 

  

 

People ask me why no one ran against Mayor Bhalla in 2021.  It is specifically because of this – the threat of being bullied and maligned publicly by a campaign team that is not afraid to use lies.  Most of us are happy to defend any truth thrown at us as candidates, but it is the well timed, comfortably dishonest mudslinging - like LTL's bulling mailer - that makes it harder to do.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to run for office if they thought they would be subjected to these dishonest attacks and bullying? Think about that - bullying results in uncontested races.  Where there is only one candidate, there are no debates.  Where there are no debates, there is no democracy.  Just one voice which is an autocracy. 

 

As always, please share this with everyone you know who may be interested and reach out any time on any issue important to you: 201-208-1764 or CouncilwomanFisher2@gmail.com.     

 

Tiffanie Fisher

Hoboken City Council, 2^nd Ward

 

Engage. Inform. Advocate.

“More Voices are Better”

 

www.Hoboken2ndWard.com

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

Concerned Citizen Speaks at October 19, 2022 City Council Meeting about the Upcoming Board of Education Election

Please click to see the 3 minute presentation of a concerned citizen about the tactics being employed as part of the run up to the 2022 Hoboken Board of Education election in early November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XKtVOeb7w&t=4646s

Hoboken City Council Meeting 
October 19, 2022

LETTER: Why is Hoboken supt. treated differently than BOE candidate over GOP ties?

 In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Kevin Davis questions why Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christine Johnson is treated different than board of education candidate Pavel Sokolov over their ties to the Republican party.

Dear editor,

As a lifelong active Democrat, I occasionally cross the aisle to support Republican elected and appointed officials. It includes our superintendent who was a registered Republican until right after the school board slates were announced.

Why didn’t they attack Hoboken Superintendent Christine Johnson?

Hoboken Superintendent Dr. Johnson has added educational programming and kept the schools open during the heat of the pandemic. Dr. Johnson is the rare educational leader that everyone likes. Dr. Johnson did all of this, while registered with the Republican party.

Donna Magen and Cindy Wiegand are two great Kids First candidates running for school board. Are Donna and Cindy not qualified because they are not registered with a political party? So, Pavel Sokolov is not qualified because he is?

In 2012, I ran for Croton-on-Hudson Village Trustee as a Democrat and won at the age of 23, becoming the youngest elected official in Westchester County history.

I consider myself to be a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, but in non-partisan elections, it’s important to vote for the best candidates.

For me, that is supporting Pavel Sokolov, Cindy Wiegand, and Donna Magen for the Hoboken School Board.

It is also continuing to support Dr. Johnson, even if she reregisters with the Republican Party.

Vote Kids First on November 8th.

Kevin Davis
Hoboken resident

Other letters by Kevin Davis.... CLICK HERE

Hoboken Board of Education and Hoboken Charter Schools: An Uncomfortable Relationship?

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In 2014 the Hoboken Board of Education super majority initiated a lawsuit against the Hola Dual Language charter school. The lawsuit claimed segregation effects and requested the Commissioner of the NJDOE to "reassess" Hola’s charter, essentially initiating an attempt to close the school. The Hoboken Board of Education lost the lawsuit initially and twice on appeal- finally ending the fiasco in 2017.


The current Board of Education super majority has also protested to the NJDOE Commissioner Elysian Charter School's modest request to add a few seats per grade and is currently disputing Hoboken charter schools fair share of PILOT funds from 770 Jackson Street.
Please consider voting on November 8th for a more inclusive and less litigious and vitriolic Board of Education.

Brandt Elementary School : Most Segregated School in the Hoboken School District

The "new" Brandt Elementary School is the whitest, least black, least Hispanic, and wealthiest school in the Hoboken School District. It is also the most economically, racially, and ethnically segregated school in the Hoboken School District. These differences are statistically significant leading some speculation as to whether this has been by design.

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In April of 2019, the Hoboken School District decided to close Calabro School despite protest from the community.

In 2015 the Hoboken School District sued the Hola Dual Language School for leading to "white flight" and segregation within the schools of Hoboken. The district lost their suit once and then twice on appeal. 

Latest NJDOE Data: 4 out of 10 students Reading at grade level; Less than 1 out of 10 Students Understand Mathematics at Grade Level; SAT scores below NJ Average

Latest data from the NJ Department of Education (PARCC, SAT, ASSA, etc...) concerning some important Hoboken School District test scores: 

1) Only 4 out of 10 students are reading at grade level; 

2) less than 1 out of 10 students are understanding mathematics at grade level;

3) the average SAT score is 65 points below the NJ state average.

No discussion or presentation at Board meetings. No public plan presented to parents or the community for improvement. No one being held responsible. Just "all good news, all the time" and tax supported public relations spin from the current Hoboken Board of Education trustees.