State Board of Ed analyzes Jersey City's progress after visit to district

KEN THORBOURNE -- JERSEY JOURNAL -- JAN 29

In what some are calling a historic event, the commissioners of the state Board of Education met in Jersey City earlier this month.

The 12 state board members, including state Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, spent from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. meeting with students, principals, parents and local school board members on Jan. 17.

It was the first time since Jersey City became the state's first takeover district in 1989 that the state board members have met in one of the three state-run districts, officials said.

"We wanted to meet with the Jersey City district to learn more about the many great things the district is doing," said state Board Vice President Arcelio Aponte, who is also associate vice president for facilities and construction management at New Jersey City University.

"It was a historical event," Aponte added. "It enforced for me that Jersey City is making a lot of strides."

In his formal comments to the state board members, Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. noted the "upward trend" of test scores, the district's 93 percent attendance rate, and the district being named a 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education winner for closing the achievement gap.

Two days after this meeting, the district turned another potentially historic corner. On Jan. 19, state-empowered education experts began pouring over district documents - the start of a process that could eventually return the state-run district to local control.

The process, known as Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC), will take several months and include school visits and interviews with teachers and principals, officials said.

The QSAC experts will analyze the district's performance in five areas - instruction and program, personnel, operations, governance, and fiscal, officials said. At the end of the process, Commissioner Davy could decide to keep the district state run or intervene only in the areas the district needs help, said Nicholas Duva, the district's associate superintendent for planning and development.

The soonest the district could return to local control is July 2008, since QSAC builds in a mandatory one year transition period, Duva said.