Quote:

Quote:

HEAD OF THE CLA$$
Hoboken's per-pupil spending is tops again

Saturday, February 16, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The state Department of Education released its annual School Report Card online this week - an array of statistics from the 2006-2007 school year, including spending per student and average teacher and administrator salaries.

As in previous years, Hoboken public schools led the county in per pupil spending - $19,363. That's 25 percent more than the next highest, Union City, which spends $15,497 on each student.

Jack Raslowsky, superintendent for the Hoboken schools, said the high cost reflects the seniority of the district's faculty members, who are the most experienced in the county. The median tenure for a Hoboken public school teacher is 15 years, compared to 11 years countywide, according to the report.

"Many people are at the top of the scale, and at the top of the longevity equation as well," Raslowsky added. "There are benefits to having a veteran, experienced faculty, and I certainly would argue that the benefits outweigh the costs."

Hoboken's teachers received a median salary of $81,682, one of the four highest in the state.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Hoboken school funding coming from local property taxes went up 6 percent, the largest increase in Hudson County, but Raslowsky said that is due to the city's expanding tax base, not a tax rate hike.

In Jersey City, classroom spending per pupil went down 8 percent, to $14,744, but administrative costs per student increased 9 percent, to $1,480.

"The district has been working hard to be much more fiscally responsible," said Gerard Crisonino, spokesman for the Jersey City school district, adding it was too soon to comment on the report in general because school officials are still reviewing the data.

Next week, The Jersey Journal will examine the School Report Card's finding on test scores.

Jersey City Public Schools has an accelerated program (Acceleration & Enrichment Program) for 6-8 grade at 2 sites (Academy I & MS 4). Applications are now available at all public schools or by contacting the AEP Supervisor, Elizabeth Iannetelli @ eiannetelli@jcboe.org, or 201-369-3720. See ad in today's JJ for more details. Applications are due 2/23 and students must also take an entrance test on March 8.

Quote:

...neither place would make a list of America's cleanest-run cities

You're confusing issues - if you read my post was was not about Epps' abilities, it was about his salary and the fact that he's been part-time (also being the state legislature) for most of the time.

Quote:

But, honestly, and now I'm going to make people who don't already hate me hate me, I think from going to various parent meetings that it's really rare to hear anyone who hates Epps give concrete reasons why, aside from his salary.

The main reasons, apparently, are that he gets to the office late, that he's replaced some principals with his people, and that, oddly enough, a bunch of low-income childrenwho've grown up eating the most chemical-laden food in the United States and breathing some of the worst air continue have mediocre test scores. (Not necessarily terrible scores, mind you, just mediocre.)

My guess is that Epps probably is a bone head, but I think, to some extent, people are just projecting their anxiety about downward mobility onto Epps, not thinking about specific awful things he's done.

I now have direct experience with the pre-K program, and the program is terrific and well-equipped. Whoever is allocating the money that goes into that program seems to be doing an excellent, efficient job.

As far as I can tell, the biggest problem people have with the public schools is rotten young boys harassing people and beating people up outside the schools. I think that's really a policing and community services problem, not an Epps problem. If the police could figure out a strategy for getting young boys into penny arcades or the like in the afternoon, I think that alone would lead to a big improvement in the reputation of the local schools.

I'm not sure Hoboken is a model for us to follow -- it seems to be having it's own problems as of late:

=============================
$ might be missing from school workers union treasury

Jersey Journal
Thursday, February 14, 2008

HOBOKEN - The union that represents school cooks, maintenance workers and building engineers are meeting with members tomorrow over concerns that money may have gone missing from the organization's coffers, school officials confirmed yesterday.

The Hoboken School Employees Association is scheduled to meet with auditors today and then with the union membership tomorrow to discuss "what they have learned," said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, to which the HSEA is affiliated.

The Jersey Journal began looking into the matter after an outraged union member called the newspaper concerned there might be a cover-up.[en]

Specific allegations could not be confirmed, but sources within the school district said the meeting with the auditor relates to money missing from the union's treasury.

CHARLES HACK

Quote:

my point being, Epps' salary demonstrates that the culture of the JC School system is not exactly about getting money to the students.

Plus, Healy is addicted to end-running the schools via PILOTS and wants to hold on to the "Distressed City" status, so the state will continue to bail him out.

I'm surprised you're surprised we come up short at the student level.

I am no fan of Epps!

But I am just stunned that Hoboken spends almost $5,000 more per student than Jersey City does!

Quote:

Quote:

I do know that Jersey City spends $233,000.00 per superintendent...

(and that was for someone who until recently held another state job, so was only doing it part time - what would we spend for a full-time one, $466,000.00?)

I wonder how Hoboken (or any other city that's less of a joke then ours) measures up against that.

Interesting that Hoboken spends $19,363 per pupil while Jersey City spends only $14,744 per pupil

Here is the link to price per pupil

Keep in mind that the regular Jersey City schools have a ton of poor kids who, in some cases, might need extra help to catch up with kids who've had every advantage known to parentdom.

Learning Community is a wonderful school and has higher passing scores, but the scores are higher partly because it has far fewer poor kids than most of the other schools on the list, and my understanding is that it's fairly aggressive about kicking kids out.

One way to scale this is that I know from talking to parents that P.S. 16, which has passing rates of 76%/72%/84%, is fine. Parents like the school and have no serious problems with keeping their kids there all the way through eighth grade.

So, it seems possible that a lot of the schools on the list with passing rates over 70%, or even maybe over 60%, are doing a respectable job.

Anyone know how to reconcile CREATE Charter's 53.1% passing rate (graduation rate?) on this page

http://www.nj.com/news/reportcard/ind ... ysis/../rankings/rank.asp

and this from their website

"We are particularly pleased that every one of our 2005 graduates (100%) have been accepted by institutions of higher learning."

http://createcharterhs.org/Default.htm

just curious

Thanks for posting this - very useful information. Wow - great scores for Learning Community Center. Too bad you need incredibly good luck to get in.

http://www.nj.com/news/reportcard/ind ... ementary.asp?frmcounty=17

Provides a good overview of public school performance within New Jersey. The above link reviews language art, math, and science scores in Hudson County schools.

Check out the scores of Jersey City schools.