Party / Candidate
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| New Art in Hoboken - Michelle Hoogveld & Team |
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/10/brandt-elementary-school-most.html
2) Most recent pre-pandemic state administered test scores indicate only 4 out of 10 high school students are reading at grade level and less than 1 out of 10 high school students are doing mathematics at grade level. Moreover, 9% are doing geometry at grade level and 3% are doing Algebra at grade level.
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/10/latest-njdoe-data-4-out-of-10-students.html
3) The Hoboken School District received $5,806,503 in American Rescue Plan Emergency Relief Funds. Has there been a public accounting of how these funds were utilized? How these funds were used to make up for the loss of learning during the pandemic? Is there data on the success/failure of these funds?
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/08/hoboken-school-district-american-rescue.html
4) Based on district self reported data, in 2021-22 Hoboken High School resident enrollment was only 344 students.
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/05/2021-22-hoboken-high-school-resident.html
5) Estimated cost per student based on 2022-23 Hoboken District Preliminary Budget:
Charters: $14,910
Preschool: $20,670
K-12 Hoboken traditional Public Schools: $27,275
Backup https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/03/per-pupil-cost-estimates-for-hoboken.html
6) Total Hoboken District enrollment between October 15, 2020 and October 15, 2021 was down 2.3%
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2022/03/skyrocketing-enrollment-in-hoboken.html
7) In 2019 the Hoboken Board of Education’s current super majority opposed Elysian’s expansion of a couple of dozen students to the NJDOE. Less than 12 months later, the same Board and Superintendent talk about “explosive enrollment gains”
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2021/12/test-elysian.html
8) In the most recent contract of the superintendent (2021) there are listed 3 “quantitative” and 2 “qualitative” areas for merit increases. Each quantitative area is worth up to 3.33% and each “qualitative” area is worth 2.5% for a total of potentially 15% of the entire salary. However, there is no articulation or details as to what these merit criteria or areas are.
9) The Hoboken Board of Education severely misprojected the 2021-22 enrollment by 1500% costing taxpayers over $3.7 million dollars as part of a 10% local tax levy hike during the heart of the recession and pandemic.
Backup: https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2021/05/hoboken-board-of-education-grossly.html
https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2020/05/hoboken-board-of-education-unanimously.html
10) In 2012 the Hoboken Board of Education voted to accept the offer on the NJDOE to not have a public election on the Board of Education budget if the next years budget was to be a 2% increase of less.
The result has been the taxpayers and citizens of Hoboken have not voted on a school budget in over a decade.
The result has been an incentive by the Hoboken Board of Education to keep the budget at a 2% increase or less resulting in over a decade of needed money for maintenance of schools resulting in appealing to the pubic for the poor state of the school buildings.
https://hobokencurriculumproject.blogspot.com/2016/05/school-budgets-approved-in-most-nj.html
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"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error." ~ Thomas Paine
The chart below is taken from New Jersey Department of Education data on the Algebra I assessment given for the last pre-pandemic school year of 2018-2019. Most important is that this data is disaggregated across a number of state mandated subgroups. One can easily match up the subgroup in Chart 1 with the Level of Performance in Chart 2 to access how that particular subgroup did in Algebra I for the last full school year before the pandemic.
When data is not presented in such a disaggregated manner, it is easy for the performance of under-represented subgroups to be inadvertently or intentionally hidden from view of the community. This is why the NJDOE reports the data in such a manner.
The data is clear, Chart 1 indicates that not a single subgroup research NJDOE Level 3 (Met Expectations) for Algebra I during the last full academic year before the pandemic in the Hoboken Public School District.
650-699: Level 1 Did Not Yet Meet Expectations
700-724: Level 2 Partially Met Expectations
725-749: Level 3Approached Expectations
750-785: Level 4 Met Expectations
786-850: Level 5 Exceeded Expectations
Robert "Bob" Moses, the late civil rights leader from the 1960's and later a 1982 MacArthur Award winner, explained in detail that Algebra obtainment was a civil rights issue as much as anything he fought for in the 1960's.
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| Chart 1: NJSLA Algebra Scores 2018-19 Hoboken School District Click to Enlarge |
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| Official Publication of the NJDOE Click to Enlarge |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcstrk58io |
All Hoboken Voters,
If "Leadership That Listens" wins, Hoboken school board remains a 9-0, unanimous majority.
If "Kids First" wins, the Hoboken school board is turned into a 6-3 majority with the majority aligned with Team Bhalla and those who support Leadership That Listens.
Still having the majority, BOE Votes will be decided exactly the same way, the ONLY difference is what will be revealed to the public.
Even if you believe the insane (and dirty) things (lies mostly) being said about Kids First: it won't matter because they'll be just three voices on a nine member board.
In the first case, things remain the status quo. Plans are made behind closed doors and expect another middle of the winter, designed to stifle turnout, referendum.
Remember: Hoboken BOE is permitted to bring back ANOTHER referendum 12 months after our January 25th, 2022 failed referendum.
In the second case, where Kids First wins, everything is revealed to the public.
This is the opponent's and the Board of Education's fear, I can only imagine what they are afraid will be revealed if Kids First wins.
You, me and all of us are able to actually be involved in the decision making process because doors are no longer closed.
Polls are open at city hall through Sunday for early voting.
Regular polling stations are open their normal hours on Tuesday, November 8th.
Please vote 6 (Pavel), 7 (Cindy) and 8 (Donna) - the best decision for all of Hoboken.
CLICK HERE to view video clip....
Dear Editor,
Shortly after I was elected to City Council in 2016, a Board of Education Trustee who is now associated with the “Leaders That Listen” campaign texted a disparaging homophobic remark about me on a group text with other BOE officials. As a gay man, and the first LGBTQ+ elected in Hoboken, that comment hurt deeply.
Six years later, the current BOE majority: a group of electeds that has gone unchallenged for years seemingly hasn’t learned that name calling and bullying is divisive and destructive.
Over the last two weeks Hoboken voters received two hate-filled mailers from the “Leadership That Listens’ team that has falsely characterized their “Kids First” opposition with QAnon and the far right. Now, it’s possible to disagree with opponents, even call them out, but to use false character assassinations is everything thats wrong with politics today.
I know what that feels like.
I ran for mayor in 2017 and three days before polls opened, a racist flier was illegally distributed using my name, attacking the current mayor.
I was called a bigot, my family received hate calls and the story was published in national and international press disparaging my reputation. I lost that election by 400 votes.
Like clockwork, it happened again in 2019 when I ran for reelection and a pro-development super PAC sent out a series of mailers absurdly associating me, a liberal Democrat, with Donald Trump.
Simultaneously, a blogger mocked me for being gay, an action denounced by The Victory Fund – a national LGBTQ+ organization.
By the start of the pandemic politics had become such a toxic force in my life that I needed to take time away to concentrate on my career and family.
This is why it is personally frustrating for me to see the same unnecessary attacks being leveled on three three young candidates on the “Kids First” slate – two mothers and the former student body president at Rutgers University.
These upstart candidates may not be perfect, but in a non-partisan race, they don’t deserve these deeply personal and misleading attacks.
Negative campaigning intended to assassinate an opponent’s character, name, and family is now the norm in Hoboken and voters must demand a change.
Elections should be about ideas and bringing people together through consensus, not false attacks and fear mongering.
Supporting “Leadership that Listens” only serves to normalize divisive campaign tactics and encourages future candidates to do the same.
If we don’t stand up against the toxicity taking over our elections, we will stop seeing young people – those with new energy and new ideas, from throwing their hat into the political ring out of fear of attack and ridicule.
Let’s use this election to stand up against the political negativity sweeping the country: it doesn’t belong in Hoboken.
Mike DeFusco
Councilperson
City of Hoboken
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| Percent Capacity - Hoboken Public School Buildings 2021-22 |
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| 2020 Hoboken Audit Report |
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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| Click to Enlarge |
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.
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| 2015 Algebra I Scores NJDOE |
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| Most Recent Pre-Pandemic Scores US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT |
DATA: NJDOE and US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT
