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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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If the debt burden for the 9th and Marin building costs the City $750k/year, that works out a $12.5k/year per student, given 60 students. Doesn't the BOE already get $20k+/year/student? So we taxpayers will be paying $30k+/year for pre-K? Hmmm.
Posted on: 2014/3/22 0:59
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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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If you look at the "Jersey City Mayor Fulop" sidebar, it really doesn't look very good for him...
Posted on: 2014/3/22 0:44
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Newbie
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Posted on: 2014/3/21 23:58
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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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And how soon we forget, just a few years ago former Superintedent Epps shut down P.S. 9, on the ground that there was excess capacity that could be handled by 3 and 5! The real issue I think is that the lack of high school space citywide is even more acute than the lack or Pre K spaces downtown. I believe Ferris HS needs all that space now. Because otherwise we would have another obvious solution!
Posted on: 2014/3/13 15:57
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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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Honorable Mayor Fulop...
Posted on: 2014/3/13 15:36
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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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Good article... what I don't follow, and I am pretty naive about this topic as my daughter isn't ready for pre-K, is what the BOE plans to do should they be able to set up a fund and work with existing buildings? Is their plan to add more classrooms to downtown schools? More floors? etc.
The BOE President said, "One of the quickest ways to fix these schools would be to create a Buildings Improvement Fund. Developers could contribute to this fund and the city could disburse it to upgrade existing schools...." In other words, I get that the schools are poorly maintained, old, etc. but if the root problem is lack of space downtown, does "upgrading" the schools include ADDING space? That could be clearer.
Posted on: 2014/3/12 14:46
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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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Posted on: 2014/3/12 13:31
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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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Below is my open letter to all the council members for the Council Vote tomorrow. The agenda can be found here: http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/uploa ... nda%20Document%285%29.pdf
Tomorrow, you will be voting on approving a 20-year tax exemption for a market rate mixed-use rental project to be constructed by 360 Ninth Street Urban Renewal, LLC. The reason for allowing 20 year abatement was cited as building an Early Childhood Center which will be rented out to JCBOE for PreK 3 Space. As you might know already, last week on March 5th, JCBOE presented a proposal for two spaces to Mayor Fulop's office for lease proposals for both Pennrose and former Golden Door School space owned by the city. In the proposal, JCBOE walked away from 9th and Brunswick, 360 Ninth Street Urban Renewal, LLC, space sighting financial limitations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzPMO ... YNzdSSGs/edit?usp=sharing I am asking you to vote NO on 20-year tax abatement based on following facts: ? Freight trains frequently pass adjacent to the 9th and Brunswick lot and Enos Jones Park, making noise levels up to over 115 decibels. Even if the property is built to be soundproofed lowering the indoor noise level, we all know school will have outdoor activities and there is no way to project their young ears when outside. ? It's right over elevated NJ Turnpike roadway making it dusty and filled with exhaust fumes. ? This proposed location is adjacent to the Spectra, just a stone throw away. ? The city does not have planned lease from JCBOE to justify or even qualify and grant the 20-year abatement. JOBOE rightfully walked away citing too high of the rent and opted to ask to lease already built and used school facility on former Golden Door School now being used by Cordero Annex right around the Hamilton Park area. So why should you vote to approve 20 year tax exemption, not normal 10 year exemption? There is absolutely no reason why you should approve this. Please vote no. Thank you. Best, Yoo Lee
Posted on: 2014/3/11 15:27
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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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Re-read the posts. The side banter had nothing to do with making light of the issue. Pre-k is an important issue, but it doesn't mean we need to lose our sense of perspective and sense of humor. Chill prez.
Posted on: 2014/3/11 1:13
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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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JCBOE made the offer for two facilities to Mayor Fulop on March 5th to house PreK 3: Pennrose (Westside) and JCRA (Currently housed by Cordero Annex on 9th st. and Marin). https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzPMO ... YNzdSSGs/edit?usp=sharing
Amount of the lease comes to about $75,000 per year for each spaces costing about 10% of the per pupil allocation of $12,842 per student for 2014-15 school year. This seems very reasonable for the usage of 4 classrooms. After all, JCRA space was built as a community center and paid for tax payers money which otherwise would sit empty on 9th St if it wasn?t leased out to JCBOE. Mayor Fulop cannot have any objection to JCBOE?s proposal if he is considering following facts: ?The proposals submitted by JCBOE not only is for rental in DTJC where there is a great need of space by growing population but it also consists of lease proposal for Pennrose space which is on Westside. JCBOE did turn down 9th and Brunswick space. Not only was the cost of the Brunswick space high, renting both spaces in DTJC directly refutes Mayor Fulop?s own argument that focus cannot be just in DTJC. ?At the end of the day, we are talking about 3 year olds. If Mayor Fulop keeps strong-arming the JCBOE and would rather have JCRA sit empty by closing school that is already open there by insisting on market rate, only option we will have is to bus the 3 year olds. Bussing 3 year olds should be an absolute last resort. There are very few parents that would be comfortable with bussing their 3 year olds versus walking to school. It?s also worth noting that bussing kids cost about $1100 per year from the school budget. I hope that Mayor Fulop will at the end practice some empathy and common sense and not close the school on 9th and Marin, former Golden Door School and understand us parents? dilemma. Going from rent of $1 to $75,000 a year seems very reasonable indeed. Also. Cordero school district is the largest in DTJC and it also covers 3 low-income housings in downtown and about 70% students still quality for free lunch in DTJC public schools. A quick resolution is absolutely necessary here.
Posted on: 2014/3/10 23:38
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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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I appreciate your position and feel the same. The only thing is that all private options are not full by any means. There are plenty of private pre-k options, they just cost what a year of college education will cost you. The idea that someone would actually leave because they can't get free Abbott district pre-k is really a non-starter. Where are you going to go where you will get free pre-k? It would have to be another Abbott district. Not many and definitely not as desirable as DT. Downtown JC is in a unique position in that fact.
Clearly the people joking on this topic do not have kids, probably don't own their residence and make no money, but we can thank them for our status as an Abbott district. Thank you ass clowns! Quote:
Posted on: 2014/3/4 4:30
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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 the developers. The problem is that the Fulop administration is brokering this deal, negotiating to the benefit of the developer's properties and tying it up with long term tax abatements. The administration will not renew the Cordero Annex unless the BOE enters into this overpriced contract to the developer on the west side. I have it confirmed that the annex is not available unless the BOE subsidizes something else in the city. St Bridget is gone next year and the annex is in limbo. Your confidence that this agreement will work itself out is based on what? As the president of the HPNA I find it troubling that you find this thread a place to pass jokes and shrug off the importance of this issue. Friends I know are debating moving out of the area because there are no options. Pre-k may be gone and all private options iare completely full. Yet you joke... I don't get it.
Posted on: 2014/3/4 3:56
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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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Im still here :) The lawn is very cold btw lol
Posted on: 2014/3/3 21:48
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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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What I want to know, is Loko still on your lawn?
Posted on: 2014/3/3 20:41
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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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I think despite the media attention to this issue, there is a lot more agreement between the administration and the school board than is apparent.
This is not a zero sum game and I am fully confident they will come to an agreement which takes into full account the needs of the city, the BOE, students in all neighborhoods, and the tax-payers. It can and will be done.
Posted on: 2014/3/3 19:45
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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 development at 9th and Brunswick had its abatement extended from ten years to twenty because they agreed to build pre-k space. On top of that Fulop expects taxpayers to pay above market rate for the use of space. What a great deal for the developers. Meanwhile the city owned facility at 9th and Marin could end up vacant next year if Fulop doesn't renew the lease because he wants the BOE to first agree to this deal to lease space from the developers. Or to use Fulop's own words, "pony up".
Posted on: 2014/3/3 19:22
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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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Quote:
by LoKo498 on 2014/3/2 22:29:48 "Now GET OFF MY LAWN!!! I'm busy in the house, you know, with my sciences! Damn internet, messing with my night. I'll tell you...I'll really tell you..."
Posted on: 2014/3/3 4:07
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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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I do not believe anyone has had to be bussed for Kindergarten. That is not to say it can't happen, but I don't know what the numbers are or will be. Remember that Pre-K has to have a ratio of no more than 15:1, Kindergarten classes are larger. So the capacity issues are particularly acute in Pre-K.
Posted on: 2014/3/3 4:02
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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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Pre-k is just an excuse to dump your kids off.
I went to kindergarden when I was at that age & now they starting school 2 years sooner for what...to get your kids ready to be on their own. Its the governments way to get the kids prepared to be away from the parents at a early age. And also to get the unecessary shots, they are full of poison to get the body prepared for the worst to happen & contain that RDIF chip that they implant without us knowing or our concent.
Posted on: 2014/3/3 3:29
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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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If your daughter is 3-4 years old and you move out of the Abbott district you will have to pay for pre-K anyway. Paying 15-20K to put our son in a decent school in downtown is always an option. While we are not low-income I wouldn't call us affluent by any means 15-20K is steep for anyone.
Holland Gardens is project housing, I would move to the middle of nowhere Iowa and shine horse saddles for a living before I would drop my son off for pre-K at a housing project in Jersey City! Lafayette is one of the most violent areas of the city, again not an option. I guess Downtown just gets the shaft because we are so "Affluent". All the anti-interloper crybabies can relish in the fact. Jersey should take a note from other states and develop universal pre-k statewide. Quote:
Posted on: 2014/3/3 3:07
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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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I play soccer there, so am with you praying that the Board of Ed taking over won't disrupt all the existing private activities using the gym. But two previous schools, Golden Door and METS, have managed to share the gym, so I don't see why there should be a problem.
A burst pipe during the recent cold spell flooded the gym and warped the wooden floor, so Saint Anthony have lost their basketball court until the floor can be relaid. Robin.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 23:45
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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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Are there other plans in store for the 9th and Marin building? Is it scheduled for development?
(selfish interest here. I take Kyudo lessons there).
Posted on: 2014/3/2 23:31
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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* Jersey City is short of pre-k spots downtown.
* There is a city owned, modern, purpose-built school building sitting empty at Ninth and Marin. Perhaps we should ask the pre-k students to come up with an answer. Robin.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 23:06
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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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Abbott funding was really intended to help out school boards with in communities with low-incomes. Building out pre-K facilities in downtown is one way of getting the attention of people who would like to see the program scrapped, or means-tested. No doubt there are low-income families downtown that need access to pre-K. I'd bet though most of the projected BOE growth is with affluent families.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 22:58
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Re: Jersey City school board, mayor at odds over boosting pre-K classrooms
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Do you know if bussing is only a possible solution for pre-K or also for kindergarten? We are only interested in part-day schooling until kindergarten so I'm wondering if the city has to allow you to go to our own zone for kindergarten.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 21:15
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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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I had similar concerns. I wasn't going to move under any circumstance but I might have explored other school options if I had to bus my kid when she was 3. Having said that, I know downtown parents whose kids were bussed to P.S. 22 in Lafayette. They said it was fine. The classes were actually very small and their kids got a lot of attention. And their kids are now in their local zone school. Kids adjust remarkably well. So yes, busing is not the optimal solution, but moving out of town because of the difficulties for what amounts to 1 or perhaps 2 years of Pre-K might be a bit of an overreaction. Remember, most suburbs don't have full day pre-K. So if you moved you wouldn't even get that.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 21:09
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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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We've lived here for almost 10 years; there's no other place we can imagine being.... unless we have to bus our kid to school when the time comes.
We've dealt with horrible flooding and, at times, lackluster city services for the many benefits that do exist in JC. But if we have to drive or bus our daughter to a school in a different part of town when her zoned school is a 5-min walk, we might as well be in the 'burbs. That's the nail in the coffin. I'm hoping the BOE and Fulop can align and figure this out.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 20:54
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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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I think there is a problem when 3 different teachers (I videotape 2) complain they do not have supplies but the city should go into contract for "classrooms."
Posted on: 2014/3/2 20:51
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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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It's a fair point. There is a lot of reluctance among some quarters to be seen as doing anything that favors downtown, because Fulop and the elected board members have been accused of focusing resources only for the downtown constituency. But it is clear that the downtown development has recently led to an increased demand for pre-K downtown. It makes sense to increase capacity down there. There is at least one Abbott Pre-K 3 facility in downtown, the International Learning Center on Columbus. I do not see St. Bridget's on the most recent brochure so maybe they aren't offering that. (There also is a head start in Holland Gardens, which is part of Ward E). If the board is reluctant to lease pre-K facilities in certain buildings and the city is so sure that a facility is appropriate, then perhaps the developer can agree to lease it to an Abbott provider. I would prefer to see the pre-K program expand in house, but if the administration and the board can't agree on arrangements, then an Abbott center is a possibility, especially if the demand is as overwhelming as the administration believes.
Posted on: 2014/3/2 20:02
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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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You would think that in todays day and age we would know what the ideal number of students per class is and what qualities are needed for a great school teacher!
I read that most educators at all levels of schooling in a Scandinavian country, have a Phd in education and are regarded even higher then a medical doctor in the community. Education shouldn't be about how many kids you can squeeze into a classroom to educate for your dollar. It appears we are using the prison system of seeing how many you can house in one cell to save on costs!
Posted on: 2014/3/2 6:32
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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