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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
 
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And it's convenient to put a pre-k school in most inaccessible corner of downtown JC, underneath it's busiest roadway, within the blast radius of Spectra's pipeline and near possible toxic emissions from Spectra's nearby metering station? Can't think of a worse location for a pre-k school. It would make a lot more sense to put one in a central downtown location, near the expected influx of parents living in abated properties - where they can take advantage of their free pre-k without contributing their fair share of BOE costs. Think I should have used the word "entitled" somewhere in my "demagoguery". PS: Just saw Matt's post on location - at 9th and Marin. That location makes more sense...but the point I'm angling, is that developers when they're building new condo blocks or cashing-in by converting high-rise apartments to condo use, need to be held accountable for providing pre-k space.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 5:17
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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"Fulop was referring to the BOE?s $1-a-year lease of the old Golden Door Charter School building at 9th Street and Marin Boulevard, a facility the BOE uses for four classes of pre-K students. Fulop contends the BOE wants the building ?for free? even though the city pays $725,000 annually in interest on the facility, owned by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency and originally intended to be a community center."
This is large three floor building with outdoor space, a playground and gymnasium. Four classrooms of Pre-K is using a small fraction of available space. It is the best and only available option downtown. Fulop knows that and is trying to hold it for ransom. Last years $1 contract was made under the prior administration. If the annex is not renewed, all pre-K kids will be bussed to ???
Posted on: 2014/3/2 4:58
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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Currently, there are ZERO state chartered pre-k centers in Downtown. The whole city is deemed an Abbott district not just the areas outside of downtown. If you have an issue with that you should take it up with your state legislators, until then downtown deserves to have the same local pre-k options as other areas of Jersey City. It's total BS that parents have to bus their kids to other areas of the city if they don't get selected for the few coveted seats in the public schools downtown. First the Reval suspension, now this. I like Fulop but sometimes his decisions are questionable.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 3:59
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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Its not just "affluent" parents in the downtown area. There are plenty of middle class families, just trying to keep things going, that are trying to find decent school options for their kids here. I would probably be one of those people that, on first sight, you would label as an "affluent parent". The reality is that I am a full time working mom that wants a safe and reasonable school option for her toddler. I don't like the idea of my 3 or 4 year old child being bused all over the City every day, particularly when we have schools within a couple of blocks but the City won't allocate resources to assure sufficient capacity. As a final note, many of us "affluent parents" prefer to walk to school, rather than having to take a car across the city (or utilize city buses) to access a school that is totally geographically inconvenient.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 3:33
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Just can't stay away
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dtjcview wrote: Affluent or not, parents do not want their 3yr olds (or 4yr olds or 5yr olds, etc.) to have to get on a bus to attend school in another neighborhood when there is a perfectly good school within a few blocks. That is the issue here. The above demagoguery is out of place and nonsensical.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 3:13
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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According to parents who attend Board of Ed meetings, there are empty classrooms. But teachers and parents are complaining there is no money for books. These classrooms will charge the board of ed rent.
Posted on: 2014/3/1 14:59
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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The prospect of affluent downtown helicopter parents taking advantage of free pre-k, clogging local back streets to drop off and pick up their kids, is much less appealing than say, building affordable housing at 9th and Brunswick. I'm with Fulop on this one.
Posted on: 2014/3/1 13:53
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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As far as I know (and I only hear stuff second hand), the board wants the space in downtown but the Mayor is trying to horse trade and make them take a space on the Westside they say they don't need in exchange for getting the needed space downtown. The board says they don't have the money to pay for space where they will need to bus in the students because the demand isn't there.
Fulop is framing it as the school board just wanting stuff for downtown and ignoring the rest of the city. The board says that's where they are short space and projected to grow the most. I don't know enough of the details to k ow who is being more accurate but I certainly have my suspicions.
Posted on: 2014/3/1 13:02
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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There's also the proposed development on 9th and Brunswick. The BOE definitely DOES need Pre-K space there. What is the board's position on that one?
Posted on: 2014/3/1 12:46
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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This, "Building more pre-K centers is a signature initiative of the Fulop administration, which is offering developers longer tax breaks if they commit to building them. The district doesn?t have enough public space for the 4,500 pre-K students enrolled now, and that number is expected to grow dramatically as development in Jersey City expands."
Is slight of hand. Sure the developer gets tax breaks and sure the city is short of the seats they need. But the city isn't short of the seats they need in the area Fulop and the developer want to build. He is asking the board to use these seats and bus kids across town instead of building where needed.
Posted on: 2014/2/28 19:23
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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My understanding is that Fulop wants the board to lease a builder developed new space by the West Side, but the board has told him they already have extra seats in the area so they don't need/want it and the associated costs.
Basically Fulop put in place a deal with a developer without asking if it was something we actually needed and is pissed off because the board is telling him they won't pay for something they did not ask for or need.
Posted on: 2014/2/28 19:20
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Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Home away from home
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Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
By Terrence T. McDonald The Jersey Journal ...sources say Fulop?s recent bashing of the board has less if anything to do with the BOE?s new restrictions on public comment, which the mayor says he opposes, and more to do with the board?s refusal to support a city plan for the school district to lease space for pre-K centers in two proposed residential developments, one Downtown and one on the West Side. Board members have told him they don?t have the funds to lease the space, while Fulop accuses them of only wanting to subsidize pre-K programs in the tony sections of the Downtown. The impasse has turned the normally agreeable relations between Fulop and the BOE into something frosty and strained. Fulop took the argument public last night during his State of the City address when, with Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles sitting in the second row, he chastised the district, saying it ?must do a better job of budgeting.? READ MORE
Posted on: 2014/2/28 18:45
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