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Totally disagree with you. It is the job of board members to hire and fire the Superintendent of School. The public does not hire the superintendent.

I was co chair of Sudhan's campaign. He ran on the union slate. But he never expressed a desire to get rid of Dr. Lyles, or impede Dr. Lyles's work.

Dr. Lyles is superintendent until the year 2020. The elected candidates all recognize that their job is not to administer the district but to make sure that the superintendent and her staff properly administer the district.

Any candidate or board member who had the platform of "I support Dr. Lyles" or "I oppose Dr. Lyles" is/was not doing their job.

So the slates were split, two got in from the teacher backed slate, and one from the reform slate. How does that leave the balance on the board of Ed? Does Lyles have enough support?

JERSEY CITY Board of Ed Three-year term (3):
Angel L. Valentin -- 16,308
Sudhan Thomas -- 16,033
Luis Felipe Fernandez -- 13,534
Gina Verdibello -- 12,815
Matthew Schapiro -- 12,615
Asmaa Abdalla -- 11,252
Mussab Ali -- 6,290
Natalia Ioffe -- 5,389
Mark Rowan -- 4,231
Kimberly Goycochea -- 3,736

Robin.

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It had nothing to do with real estate developers. Her husband is an associate at a firm that often represents developers seeking abatements. But they had no funding to her campaign and it was a misogynistic smear to tar her with her husband's line of work (and having met him, he is a good guy as well).

Gina got the union's endorsement because JCEA President Ronnie Greco faced a barrage of hate mail from teachers who were upset that the union never endorsed her even though she spoke up for them. Fulop decided to endorse the JCEA's candidates because he wanted to ally with the teachers.

I have not always agreed with Gina but she has always been subjected to a condescending attitude from other parents, mostly downtown, who know a hell of a lot less about the education system than she does.

disappointing to see that two candidates - and fringe ones at that who should be working hard for every vote - wouldn't reply

I tend to support Mayor Fulop, but with Gina Verdibello I feel that he's gotten it wrong. She seems to be funded, at least in part, by real estate developers who lobby the city for lucrative deals and tax abatements. She also works as a realtor herself. And she's run for this position so many times before without success, and without Mayor Fulop's support. I'm not certain as to what has changed here, but there must be better choices available who will advocate fairly on behalf of our children.

Arts Education Questions for 2016 JCBOE Candidates:
Questions Presented by:
Nimbus Dance Works, Art House Productions, Jersey City Theater Center,
Rising Tide Capital, & Independent Jersey City artists

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Question 1:

NJ State Student Learning Standards in the Arts require that every student receive education and programming in the arts pertaining to the creative process, history of the arts and culture, performing and aesthetic response and critical methodologies. Many Jersey City schools are out of compliance with these standards, and cutting arts program or not offering the required education and programming at all to meet minimum state standards. What are strategies/best practices for the JCBOE to ensure that Jersey City students have access to arts education as directed by the NJ State Learning Standards?

Responses to Question 1:

Mark Rowan: As a potential Board member, the only person I could officially question would be the Superintendent. I believe in accountability and if the District is out of compliance, I want to know why and what is being done to address this short coming. I am an advocate for the Arts and want to see programs expanded. As a former staff member at Lincoln High School, I know the importance of the Arts and how it positively impacts our students.

Natalia Ioffe: The greatest obstacle I encountered when trying to collectively (parent council, principal & teachers) infuse more arts and music into the school curriculum is general lack of available student time. The school program is centered around testing and quantifiable student progress and leaves very little room for creative learning and/or movement. Thus it becomes a prerogative of the school?s principal and teachers to find that balance and allocate the time for extracurricular creativity in between the scheduled lessons. Even the art and music (voice, instrumental, drama) teachers on school staff have difficulty completing a comprehensive arts curriculum in a course of a single school year, because they have to work around the ever-evolving academic rigor.
My hope for change in this area stems from an Act that was passed by the Senate in July of 2015: http://www.nafme.org/senate-passes-ev ... as-core-subjects-in-tact/ (Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization proposal, the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177))
This Act establishes Art & Music as core subjects, which was not the case before. I hope that our School Board can rely on this proposal to continue promoting the importance of the arts in our schools, both by empowering school teachers and by facilitating more extracurricular arts programs in every school.

Jersey City United: Mathew Schapiro, Luis Felipe Fernandez, and Asmaa Abdalla: It is crucial that the JCBOE makes arts education a priority. As board members, it is our job to make sure we do that. Two members of Jersey City United, Luis Fernandez and Matthew Schapiro, are musicians. And Matthew Schapiro has participated in over thirty productions off and off-off Broadway as a writer and actor.
We recommend a school-by-school audit, examining the arts programs made available during the school day as well as the availability of extracurricular arts programs. That way we can ensure that students in each school are receiving ? at least - the mandated arts programs. But that?s not good enough.
Curriculum requirements are fairly rigid in terms of how much time is allocated to each subject. The Board does, however, have leeway in the programs we invite into our schools on behalf of students. We need to make sure the students are getting the best with the time they have: during and after school.

Education Matters: Sudhan Thomas, Angel Valentin, Gina Verdibello: Fostering creativity and a love of learning through the arts should be a vital component of every student?s education. The cost of implementing mandated programs for the arts in the Jersey City Public Schools shouldn?t be viewed as a line item on a budget sheet, but rather an investment in the future of our city. A city that is rich in culture and programs in the arts must educate students who can contribute and appreciate the arts to sustain that culture. Although members of the current administration have denied any cuts in arts programming and access to the arts to our students we have spoken to parents, students and teachers and understand the cuts that have been made. It is the responsibility of every board member to hold the district accountable for not only the requirements of the NJ State Learning Standards, but also to figure out ways to go above and beyond to develop every child to their full capabilities. For example, the citywide drama production was eliminated from this year?s budget. While this may not be a priority to the administration since it doesn?t pertain directly to test scores, the experience of building a production from the ground up and the lessons learned from being a part of something that is bigger than yourself cannot me measured on a pie chart or data sheet. It is a complete disservice to our students and staff.

Kimberly Goycochea: No Response

Mussab Ali: No Response

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Question 2:

From experience, the JCBOE, an organization with over $600 million annual budget, appears not to have a dedicated grantwriter to seek available grant funds from government or foundation sources. As a longtime non-profit vendor and partner to the JC public schools, Nimbus Dance Works has been told by the district to find individual schools to write/apply for grantfunding - but the principals and staff have too much on the their plate and aren't able to take this on. As a result, grant funding goes to other districts and Jersey City students miss out ? to say nothing of local non-profits whose sustainability could be buttressed by funding to pay for partnerships. How will you ensure that the JC Public Schools support partnerships and have centralized administrative capacity to take advantage of outside funding and partnership opportunities?

Responses to Question 2:

Education Matters: Sudhan Thomas, Angel Valentin, Gina Verdibello: One of the main issues that the members of the Education Matters team has proposed from the start of this campaign is the need for the JCBOE to have a full time dedicated grant writer. In a district with so many students and so much talent it is incomprehensible that there is not currently a grant writer on staff. Many of our teachers have received dollars to fund individual projects through small grants and they accomplish this on their own time, with no help from the district. If it?s possible to be successful on a small scale, with limited time and resources, imagine what we could accomplish and, in turn the programs we could implement, if the proper time and resources were dedicated to this task. The grant writer, or ultimately grant writing department, would seek sources of outside funding to supplement existing programs as well as offer assistance to teachers, PTAs and students who were seeking guidance writing their own grant applications.

Jersey City United: Mathew Schapiro, Luis Felipe Fernandez, and Asmaa Abdalla:We must hire a grant writer; it?s crazy that we don?t have one already. An effective grant writer pays for his or herself many times over, so it wouldn?t even require removing monies from other priorities.

Natalia Ioffe: I would recommend creating a Committee on the Arts which would work with JCPS Division Directors (who in turn work with Principals of different schools) to cover several areas:
? Research & Grant writing / Fundraising for Arts projects
? Building Bridges & partnerships with local arts groups
? Finding a unique optimal formula for every school to help balance the students time to include a healthy portion of the arts, both in-house and extra-curricular.

Mark Rowan:
a) I want to see a District grant writer.
b) For years I have co-chaired the JCHS Art Expo at the Loew's. As a member of the Jersey City Kiwanis Club who co-sponsors this expo yearly, I was able to get in funding through partnerships with Provident Bank and/or the Liberty Savings Federal Credit Union.
c) Partnerships are key. You need someone who is motivated and creative to secure partnerships. This can be on a District or individual school level with cooperation from administration. This will be a priority of mine.

Kimberly Goycochea: No Response

Mussab Ali: No Response

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Question 3:

Currently JCBOE contracts for arts education appear to be evaluated on a "lowest bidder" basis. Purchasing for arts education is done in the same way that it's done for purchasing light bulbs or toilet paper. How can there be thorough evaluation built into the bidding process so that the purchasing department is doing analysis of quality, relevance, etc.?

Responses to Question 3:

Jersey City United: Mathew Schapiro, Luis Felipe Fernandez, and Asmaa Abdalla: Arts programs are different from toilet paper or cans of soup (unless they?re made by Andy Warhol). The questions we?d like to ask are, how much of the quantitative evaluative stipulations on bids are required by statute? It mustn?t be the case that arts programs are unable to be evaluated qualitatively. So as board members, we need to discover where the disconnect is, and remedy it; make sure students are getting access to the most-stimulating arts programs, not the cheapest arts programs.

Education Matters: Sudhan Thomas, Angel Valentin, Gina Verdibello: While fiscal responsibility should always be a factor, quality arts programs are not something that should be awarded to the lowest bidder simply because it will cost the district the least amount of money. The level of expertise from the facilitators, the organic experience the students receive from the program and the overall life-lessons learned from having the opportunity to work alongside artists who are passionate and professionals in their field is truly invaluable. A rubric needs to be created that factors in cost to a logical extent, but also gives heavy credit to programs that will be most beneficial to our arts programs. A big box store mentality serves no purpose and at some point common sense must play a major role in decisions that serve the needs of educating the whole child.

Mark Rowan: I would expect the Supervisor of Art working with the Art teachers to be aware of this issue and expect them to make recommendations to administration.

Natalia Ioffe: Currently there is a purchasing system in place which requires various levels of supervisor approval on a purchase requisition. Requisition orders are made within the limited lists of approved vendors which sell products to schools at marked-up/mainstream prices, but do not allow any flexibility for discounted options. This becomes a time-consuming and costly process. Funds from the $673 million budget are bleeding out through the unnecessarily marked up items.
I hope that JCBOE can open up new purchasing avenues, using free market resources. At the same time I understand that the present cumbersome process was created to ensure accountability and prevent embezzlement. To help keep the process honest and save schools money at the same time, diligent oversight and regular forensic audits would be vital.

Kimberly Goycochea: No Response

Mussab Ali: No Response
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Question 4:

To what extent can/should the JCBOE give priority to local arts organizations for arts education contracts? Significant sums go to orgs outside Jersey City (NJPAC, Newark Museum, etc.) -- another important structural factor in keeping local arts groups small and boosting other groups outside JC.
Responses to Question 4:

Natalia Ioffe: Knowing exactly how rich Jersey City is in local creative resources, I would make it a priority to concentrate on the arts groups close to home. It costs thousands of dollars on school buses alone to organize a student trip to the Met or NYC Philarmonic. While it is important to broaden our students? horizons and take them to venues beyond JC, we can save a great deal of time and money by building bridges with our local arts groups who have so much to offer. Partnerships with local groups create much greater and plausible opportunities for our students, because if they chose to continue learning via the local groups they can do so close to home.
In the school where I head the parent council group we have made it a priority to invest (raise funds specifically for) a local partnership with Nimbus Dance Works. The ?Dance-to-Learn? workshop developed by the Geraldine Dodge Foundation provides a perfect balance of academic and physical. Kids are invited to incorporate their academic studies into interpretive dance, transforming precise knowledge into creative expression. As children attempt to translate an intellectual concept, such as ?electricity? or ?cultural diversity?, into physical movement it simultaneously deepens their understanding of the topic, supplies a welcome physical exercise and builds their confidence in self-expression.
In addition to that, the after school classes taught by local dance instructors at our school serve as great springboards for students. The after school class lights a spark of interest or uncovers a hidden potential, which can then be deepened and nurtured further by attending the local dance studio.

Mark Rowan: I feel that we should utilize local art organizations. I am aware of successful programs that have occurred in the schools and would like to see them expanded. Early experiences in the arts can lead to creative expression,motivation, positive self image and fuller lives. Funding will always be an issue but can be solved with effort.

Education Matters: Sudhan Thomas, Angel Valentin, Gina Verdibello: What better place to seek out effective and successful arts programs than our own backyard? Priority should be given to existing arts programs that are located within Jersey City. Obviously, a screening process should be put in place to make sure every program meets safety standards in terms of their hiring processes and the quality of their offerings, but beyond that we should be encouraging the local arts community, not looking beyond it. Our students make connections with local artists and can aspire to contribute to those programs, either as an artist or as a patron. By making local art programs a priority and supporting those programs that chose to invest in Jersey City we are only making the Jersey City arts and culture community that much more vibrant.

Jersey City United: Mathew Schapiro, Luis Felipe Fernandez, and Asmaa Abdalla: Nimbus is an internationally recognized dance program. But other local orgs need not be world-renowned in order to participate in the Jersey City Public Schools. So we would refer back to the qualitative analyses discussed in Question #3 but make certain there is an effective system in place to make sure all arts orgs in Jersey City are aware of the potential education programs to be solicited. Many arts orgs don?t have access to information on school programs or their requirements and that needs to change.

Kimberly Goycochea: No Response

Mussab Ali: No Response

Polls are open from 6am to 8pm

What time do the polls open?

Make sure you vote tomorrow for the JC board of education.

Don't just vote for the group that spent the most money on campaign flyers. Vote for the best candidate.

Ask yourself what is their professional background, how can they actually help the school system. Do we want someone on the board of ed with zero education experience?

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No problem. And I cannot stand when a man does that with the eye contact and exclusive man-shakes.

Women...voting since 1920.

Friends and Neighbors,

This Tuesday, we?ll have the privilege to elect three new members of Jersey City Board of Education.

In years past, I worked with Parents for Progress to elect new membership to the Board and bring in a new, highly-effective Superintendent of Schools after decades of stagnancy in our public schools. While we?ve always had pockets of excellence, too many students ? particularly in the south side of the city ? were not expected to learn to the fullest extent of their capabilities.

Under Superintendent Lyles over the last four years, there have been gains throughout the district that many previously thought impossible.

This year, community groups from around the city came together to form a new organization, Jersey City United. I am proud to join this organization and run for the Board of Education together with two outstanding candidates, Luis Felipe Fernandez, and Asmaa Abdalla.

We have a comprehensive platform to guide us after our election Tuesday which along with our biographies can be found at jerseycityunited.com.

Friends, please come out in support of Jersey City United and vote for Luis Felipe Fernandez (5J), Asmaa Abdalla (8J) and me, Matthew Schapiro (10J) this Tuesday.

For more information or to get directly involved, check these links:
Facebook:?https://www.facebook.com/Jersey.City.Board.of.Education/?fref=ts
YouTube:?https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC62T-TZzgnN9TZsbf86Xzdg
Website:?http://www.jerseycityunited.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7kTpIUUOg0

We?ve come too far to go back. Please join with us on Tuesday, November 8th and vote for three Board of Education who will always put our students, families, and communities first.

My mistake. When I spoke to her I thought she said she graduated last year. So I figured she was 19. Thanks for the clarification.

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I'm not involved in this race - but to Asma Abdalla's defense - she's 23 and a university student. She's well beyond being "a teenager."

I'm extremely interested in understanding these candidates' motivations and voting for the best people. Would love to hear other peoples' take as I'm still undecided. However, here are a few thoughts I have so far:

I met Luis Felipe Fernandez and have a few concerns about him and his team (Jersey City United): 1. Fernandez made a terrible first impression by choosing to speak exclusively to my husband during our conversation. Even though I was trying to ask him questions, he directed all his answers toward my husband and shook his hand twice but didn't shake mine. 2. He is a Christian pastor. How do we know he's not going to inject his religion into the school system. 3. Asma Abdalla, while she seems like a very bright and ambitious young lady, is still a teenager. Not sure what kind of experience or organizational abilities she brings to the table, besides a first-hand account of what it's like to go through the Jersey City school system.

Does anyone know why Tepper and associates are pouring money into this race?

I have been following Gina Verdibello on her facebook page and she seems very informed and engaged and geared up to make change. But I don't know anything about the rest of her slate, other than that they have the backing of Fulop (which goes a long way in my book).

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Several venues that hosted all the candidates in the race did full recording of our answers. If you have the time to watch through some of these it can provide a pretty good overview on each of the 10 candidates:

Talking Politics with Mia Scanga:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQB88Ff-2jU
Heights Votes BOE Forum:
https://www.facebook.com/brian.rans/videos/10157690110215077/
HPNA BOE Candidate Forum:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/186042404

Best of luck in your decision!

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It's Tepper vs NJEA. Fulop's backing the NJEA on this one. Or they're backing him.

My take - your kids will get the education you ask for. You have a bunch of clueless idiots running a multi-mullion dollar enterprise. I wouldn't trust ANY of them.

But they're your kids. Go for it.

Has Fulup backed any of the candidates so far?

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Don't make this about politics. This is education.

You want to put in charge some people just because your political opponent doesn't like them, or because they decorated their leaflets with "we're with her" Hillary slogan, -- not even caring how devoid of any useful ideas they are, and how all they offer are just empty slogans?

Either you don't have kids of school age, or you're well off enough to send them to a private school.

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You have to get over me, I already have a husband.

Here's an easy way to settle this - who is Yvonne voting for? Vote the opposite. Easy.

Quote: Well, based on this article, -- and I have nothing else to go on -- those "Matt Schapiro, Luis Felipe Fernandez and Asmaa Abdalla" guys are all about buzz words. Let's see - "We believe that by bringing people together, by bringing the community into the schools, the schools into the community, the families and school board connect, that we be able to see more success for everyone in the Jersey City public schools" - what does this word salad mean? They forgot to mention "we will fight for you" and "locally grown and humanly harvested".

Other that the Jersey Journal articles, there is -

http://hudsoncountyview.com/l/jersey-city/

and this blog by a local writer has some coverage -

https://urdoingitright.com/category/school-board-elections/

Does anyone know of any non-partisan resources outlining the various positions of the various school board candidates?

As someone without children and with no plans to change that, I still think it's worth educating myself, but could use some assistance.

did anybody else get the ridiculously loaded robo-call BOE vote survey?