What’s Really Going On With the Hoboken Board of Education?
This new survey is supposed to help the Board decide if Hoboken needs new school buildings or improvements to the ones we already have. That might sound like a good idea, but there’s a big problem: this Board has a history of making major decisions behind closed doors, without being honest or clear with the public. It’s hard to believe they will use this survey in a fair and honest way, especially since they wrote and are running it themselves without any outside experts. It even collects personal information, and they haven’t explained how it will be used or protected.
Let’s not forget that this is the same Board that tried to spend $300 million on a brand-new high school without asking for enough community input. They supported a superintendent who pretended to have a doctorate for nearly ten years. And now they’re trying to raise taxes by 24% in one year and another 15% the next—even though they promised long ago to keep tax increases small. For over ten years, the public hasn’t been allowed to vote on the school budget. That’s not right.
The Board has also made unfair decisions when it comes to charter schools. They spent two years and a lot of money trying to stop the HoLa Dual Language School from adding 7th and 8th grades. They also tried to block Elysian Charter School from enrolling just a few more kids. But at the same time, the Board brings in over 150 students from outside Hoboken every year through a special state program—then claims the schools are overcrowded. They can’t have it both ways.
Another serious issue is that the district has not done a good job helping all students succeed, especially Black and Hispanic students and those from families with lower incomes. These students continue to fall behind, even though the Board keeps saying things are improving. The truth doesn’t match the words.
Now the Board says it is creating a new 5-Year Plan to guide the future of the schools. That might sound promising, but one of the big goals in that plan is, once again, to focus on building projects—something the community has already rejected. The language they’re using sounds nice, but it hides a lot of the same old problems.
In the end, we need to be very careful. The Hoboken Board of Education has not shown that it can be trusted to act openly, honestly, or fairly. Until real change happens and they start listening to the people they serve, the community must stay alert, ask hard questions, and think twice before believing what the Board says—especially when it comes to surveys, plans, or big new projects.
Photo: May Day parade, Hoboken, NJ 1935
