HoLa Elementary Walks Away with Accolades and Honors

I am happy to announce that HoLa Elementary secured 2nd place for the written exam and 3rd place for the oral presentation at the eSTEM competition—competing against 30 teams!

Showcasing the incredible hard work and dedication they’ve put into their project. They walked the judges through their design process and the steps they took to achieve their goals.

One of the judges even complimented our team’s understanding of the engineering design process—what an amazing accomplishment!

I couldn’t be more proud of the teachers and students and their outstanding efforts.

Huge congratulations to the amazing HoLa team for their outstanding performance at the Middle School Science Olympiad State Finals!

Here’s how the talented students placed out of the entire state:

3rd place in CodeBusters: Vincent Deaton, Evani Pareek, and Ian Lee

4th place in CrimeBusters: Eva Gacek-Huang and Cassandra Campione

4th place in Tower: Nevan Dave and Natalia Artigas

4th place in Write It Do It: Eva Fernandez and Iria Viota Garcia

5th place in Meteorology: Eva Fernandez and Ian Lee

6th place in Entomology: Ian Lee and Lucas Zenga

As a team, they finished 16th place out of 28 teams across the entire state! I couldn’t be prouder of their hard work, dedication, and teamwork. Way to go, HoLa!

Note: Dr. Petrosino served on the HoLa Board for a decade, from its founding to its 10th year anniversary.

2025-26 Hoboken School Budget & Tax Increase—A Fair Balance?

The Hoboken Board of Education recently approved a tax levy increase to $73.9 million, up from $67.5 million last year. That’s a 9.4% jump in the school portion of our property taxes, even though K-12 enrollment has only increased by 4.07% (according to the November 2024 ASSA Report). This follows last year’s historic 14.99% budget increase.

I fully support investing in quality education for our students, but I also think it’s reasonable to ask: Are these tax increases aligned with meaningful improvements in our schools? Are we seeing better educational outcomes, enhanced resources for students and teachers, and real progress in our public education system?

Hoboken is a growing community, and strong schools are essential—but so is fiscal responsibility and transparency. I’d love to hear from others: Do you feel the increases are justified? Are we seeing the benefits in our classrooms? Let’s have a productive conversation.