Recently Approved Contract for Jersey City Superintendent Dr. Norma Fernandez

The following is the recent contract for the Superintendent of Schools for Jersey City, NJ, Dr. Norma Fernandez. Here is a link to the story on Hudson County View which is worth a read: https://hudsoncountyview.com/jersey-city-boe-approves-3-year-superintendents-contract-that-tops-out-at-341k/#google_vignette

Fernandez BOE Contract 8-26-24 by Tony Petrosino on Scribd

Possible Deception and Certain Confusion: Emblem for Lighthouse blue ribbon Award Strikenly Similar to US Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Award

The similarity between the emblem for the blue ribbon"Lighthouse" Award (left) and the US Department of Education emblem for being a "blue ribbon" school (right) is both deceptive and obvious. This speaks VERY poorly for the organization that is behind this award and of course the Hoboken School District using the bogus emblem with its HIGH similarity to the US Dept. of Education's emblem for the award. 

A district does not need to provide any funds to the US Department of Education when they are recognized as being a Blue Ribbon school whereas schools and districts do pay to be assessed by the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence which is a non-profit 501c organization.  

This public relations effort by the Hoboken School District has been in the making since January of 2024 as reported by PATCH. 

Hoboken School District Awarded Recognition by the BRSE Organization- Parsing Blue Ribbon Recognition

There has been a fair amount of information recently about the Hoboken public school district being the only district in New Jersey to have received a special distinction, determined that all five of the schools have "met the criteria to receive the 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Lighthouse Award,” which is recognition awarded by the BRSE organization. This achievement makes the Hoboken Public School District the first in New Jersey to have each school recognized as National Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Schools and to be named a 2024 Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Lighthouse District.

Just to clarify-this is not the same thing as the US Deptment of Education’s Blue Ribbon designation of the top 10% of schools. It’s an independent organization. This is an assessment schools pay for through a survey of who the school designates to include and an accompanying conference administrators can pay to go to ( you get to go for free depending on your assessment results) and then can be included in the company’s recognition. The name definitely causes some confusion-the founders captured the name during the brief time the Dept of Education took a hiatus from their invitation only program.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Basically, this is a paid assessment done through a survey of self-selected respondents and the administrator gets to go to Disney https://blueribbonschools.com/ vs. https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov which is the United States Department of Education’s invitation only award program honoring high-performing schools. It could be misleading, given BRSE took that name. A close observation shows that BRSE's  own website states “*Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, Inc., claims no affiliation, nor endorsement, by the United States Department of Education – Blue Ribbon Schools Program”.

Bart Teal, the 80-something founder of BRSE, used to run a training camp via Nova Southeastern University for school districts that wanted to up their chances of getting the original US Dept of Education Blue Ribbon designation. When the DoE dropped the BR program for a short while in the early 2000s, Teal picked it up and began using a version of the Blue Ribbon name. On its website, the DoE currently gives this warning: "Please be aware that the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools program is not associated with the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Program, which is sponsored by a non-profit organization in South Carolina. Schools may be contacted by the South Carolina organization to participate in conferences and may be confused by the similar name."

On the DoE site, there are lists of current and previous holders of the Blue Ribbon title. The lists include all sorts of information about the winning schools. The BRSE, on the other hand, merely lists names of schools, like John F. Kennedy Elementary and West Elementary, not even the towns where they are located. Their "about us" is just a list of names, nothing clickable.

The similarity between the emblem for the "Lighthouse" Award (left) and the
US Department of Education emblem for being a "blue ribbon" school (right)
 is both deceptive and obvious

For $7900 you can participate in their school improvement and recognition program, where they will you survey your students (over 3rd grade reading), parents (they usually get 30%), admin and teachers & staff (the ones you CHOOSE!) via an online assessment. 

What possessed the Hoboken Board of Education and the superintendent to send tax money to this group???

City of Hoboken Proposes Innovative Effort to Invest in Public School Districts Within the City - Council Vote Soon

The administration of the City of Hoboken recently announced the city's intent to invest over $500,000 annually into the City’s four public school districts: Hoboken Public School District, Hoboken Charter School, Elysian Charter School, and Hoboken Dual Language Charter School.

Pending Hoboken City Council approval, the City will establish four trusts to allocate a portion of the funding made available through payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements with the developers of 770 House and the Hoboken Connect project to support the city’s public education system (See "The Truth About PILOTs and Public Schools" published by Hoboken's three charter school districts). 

The new School Improvements Trusts will mark the first of their kind in the State, serving as an innovative financing solution to support public schools and their need for improved facilities.

The funding will increase each year by 2 percent over the lifetime of the PILOT agreements and can be used by each district to improve physical facilities, offset debt service, purchase equipment, make lease payments, conduct routine maintenance, and acquire additional properties, among other necessities.

“As a councilman in 2016, I was proud to vote for an idea that charted a course for the City to further support its public school system, and now as Mayor I am even more proud to turn this concept into real dollars,” said Mayor Bhalla. “I am thankful to the leadership at the Hoboken Public School District, Hoboken Charter School, HoLa, and Elysian Charter School for collaborating with my administration on this innovative funding solution. This is particularly important today to help close the gap of stagnant State Aid funding, especially when neighboring municipalities of similar sizes are realizing hundreds of millions of dollars more than Hoboken. I look forward to the Hoboken City Council’s impending adoption, so we can put the money to good use in support of our schools.” 

In the past, the public schools and charter schools have sometimes squabbled over funding and over the possible expansion of the charters, which could draw students away from the regular distirct. The public school district has filed lawsuits over the expansions of at least two of the charter schools in the past. 

There was also a dispute four years ago over who was supposed to get PILOT funds. READ MORE: Hoboken Says Its Charter Schools Won't Get PILOT Money

The Hoboken City Council is scheduled to vote on the first reading ordinance to create the four trust funds for each school district during its regular meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. at Hoboken City Hall, 94 Washington St.

Comment: Definitely a step in a good direction. Do we know yet how the funds in the trust will be divided among the 4 school districts? By number of students? By number of buildings? Equally? Some formula? By need? By proposal?

Photo Credit: Gary Hershorn Photography

Hoboken Board of Education and Superintendent Close to Agreement on Contract Extension

Some may see that congratulations are in order to the Hoboken School District on extending the superintendent’s million-dollar plus multi-year contract. Clearly, the community and the Hoboken Board of Education were able to look beyond the superintendent's: 

1) years of deception concerning an unearned doctorate, 

2) the delay in communicating a proposed $241 million high school that was placed on a failed special referendum ballot only two months later, 

3) an historic one-year budget increase of 14.99% for school year 2024-25, and 

4) after many hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the school district since becoming superintendent in 2015— the very low recent ranking of Hoboken within the NJDOE's “FG” District Factor Group (42nd of 44 among similar socio-economically grouped school districts). 

Wishing the superintendent, the Board of Education, and most importantly the families and the children enrolled in the Hoboken Public Schools all the best going forward.

 https://www.nj.com/hudson/2024/07/hoboken-superintendent-getting-new-contract-to-extend-stay-to-2029.html

Picture credit: Gary Hershorn Photography