Jersey City's school funding crisis is NOT resolved.
City Council -- #FundOurSchools!!

You can use the automated email below from the PTA Advocacy Team at Dr. Michael Conti School PS #5. The form below will send the note (which you are free to customize) to Mayor Fulop, all the council representatives, and the respective Council aides. The Board of Education trustees will be copied. If you don't want to send to all of those individuals at once, simply copy/paste the note below into your email and send to a subset of representatives. If you don't know your city ward and/or representative - use the map below to find out!

All the city officials' and BOE trustees' contact information is provided at the bottom of this page for your reference.

Advocate in the manner you feel most comfortable.

Jersey City's school funding crisis is NOT resolved. City Council -- #FundOurSchools!!
Read or Edit the Petition

To the Elected Officials and leaders of the city of Jersey City - the Mayor, City Council, and Board of Education, Many parents, children, residents, and voters have reached out to the city council and the Jersey City Board of Education over the last several weeks and months to demand local funding for our schools, and we will continue to do so until our schools are the fully-functioning educational institutions our children deserve. When the Jersey City Board of Education closed its budget in May, our schools were already $100 million underfunded, reflected in part by ballooning class sizes across the district. Then the BOE failed to properly fund our schools and retain all of our teachers and staff. There are still over 100 pink slips that have not been rescinded. These are teachers, aides, principals, vice principals, custodians, security guards, office staff, nurses and counselors. Therefore the funding crisis is NOT yet resolved. The plan announced by Mayor Fulop and Interim Superintendent Walker did not do enough, and they can not claim a “huge progress” when our schools are still losing teachers and staff. Justifying any cuts now by calling them “efficiencies” is basically rubbing salt in the wound. At a recent BOE meeting, Interim Superintendent Walker stated that there is a good chance the district will have to go through this next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. If that is the case, who will be left? Efficiencies can not support and build up an already underfunded and struggling school district- we need to fund our schools. Now, this council can take immediate action to fund our schools by allocating monies for the Jersey City Board of Education via a remedy available in your proposed 2019 budget located on sheet 28: “8. General Appropriations” line item “(N) Transferred to Board of Education for Use of Local Schools (N.J.S.A 40:48-17.1 &17.3).” That line item permits this council to amend the municipal budget to add direct funding to the schools. Therefore, as this council prepares its budget, we demand that you utilize this line item to prioritize the schools within the citywide budget. You must utilize this permitted remedy to allocate a minimum of $16 million to cover: $6 million to avoid the sale of the BOE’s central office (it is not fiscally responsible to sell real property assets for a one time funding purpose), $7 million to avoid depleting the district’s reserve (a move which could be catastrophic when facing final state aid cuts for this year, and when looking ahead at the next several years of $25 million hits of State Adjustment Aid cuts), and $3 million of the payroll tax that is expected to be allocated to charter schools. The city can responsibly cover this amount by allocating from the city’s current surplus of over $35 million (which it earned on the backs of our schools), from excess PILOT profits (which pilfered our tax base), from one time settlements (windfall monies to the city), by cutting costs (perhaps efficiencies), or any combination thereof. It is clear that this council can take serious action now, as is permitted by N.J.S.A 40:48-17.1 &17.3, AND then continue to make local fulsome school funding a serious priority. Please understand that doing so is not a handout to the schools. It is a long overdue responsibility to the public schools of Jersey City. It is time to stop leaving our public schools behind. Show us the leadership that our kids deserve, and show us that Jersey City public schools are your priority. Regards,
You can add formatting using markdown syntax - read more

Keep me in the loop on parent-driven schools advocacy in Jersey City

BCC yourself

Share this with your friends:

If you check the "opt-in" box above, you'll be kept in the loop on advocacy updates. Otherwise, your email will not be used.

Share135

Sharing...from the Dr. Michael Conti School PS #5 PTA Advocacy Team