Board of Education – Civic Parent

PS #5 Advocacy Campaign -Jersey City’s school funding crisis is NOT resolved. City Council — #FundOurSchools!!

June 24, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Sharing...from the Dr. Michael Conti School PS #5 PTA Advocacy Team Jersey City's school funding crisis is NOT resolved. City Council -- #FundOurSchools!! Keep the pressure on City Hall. Demand that Mayor Fulop & City Council: FUND OUR SCHOOLS!! Jersey City's school funding crisis is NOT yet resolved. There are still...

June 26th: Tell the Jersey City City Council to #FundOurSchools

June 7, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Jersey City Public Schools are $100 million underfunded and the stories we’ve heard about how this underfunding is impacting students are real. Join us as we press the City Council to put $16 million towards the schools budget. This will help prevent unnecessary layoffs, stop the sale of Central Office, and help the JC...

City Council Can Allocate Surplus Funds to the Public Schools.

June 3, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

The education team of Jersey City Together has been researching to understand, in concrete terms, the process by which City Council can allocate funds to JCPS. I’m a member of that team so wanted to share: 1) NJ law NJSA 40:48-17-1 allows the municipality to allocate surplus funds to the public schools. Sharing that...

Civic Questions for the Board of Education Upon Passing of their 2019/20 Budget

May 31, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

I wanted to share some civic questions that can be asked on the record or included in an email to the BOE. Why did five of Board of Education trustees approve a budget that included an incorrect tax base number? I wrote about this error in detail here, but to quickly recap: the Jersey...

PS #5 Advocacy Campaign: Not Good Enough – Better Leadership Needed.

May 30, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Tell Jersey City's elected: we need you to provide better leadership. Fund Our Schools. How you can help. Keep the pressure on the City and Board of Education. We elect members of our community to govern on our behalf. It is our civic responsibility to communicate our concerns & express our priorities. Please help...

PS #5 PTA School Funding Advocacy Action: Keep the pressure on the BOE & City Leadership: No Pink Slips!

May 16, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Jersey City is not properly funding its public schools. Hundreds of JCPS employees have received layoff notices aka "pink slips" due to systemic underfunding. The time to act is NOW. How you can help. Contact your Board of Education & City representatives. We elect members of our community to govern on our behalf. It...

JC BOE Used Incorrect Tax Base Value in Its 2019/20 Budget: Explaining the Tax Math

May 15, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

The Jersey City Board of Education used an incorrect tax base value in its budget presentation. It then based its estimated per-homeowner school tax increase estimates on that error. This NJ.com report gives the initial report of the error: “The 2019-20 budget will increase the school tax levy by 10 percent to $136.5 million. The...

Accountability Checkpoint: Parent FAQs for May 13th BOE Meeting to Finalize the Budget

May 13, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

I’ve been getting some questions in advance of the Board of Education meeting tonight, and thought I’d share via a post, so everyone has access. This is all public data, and we can endeavor to understand it in community. If you have a question, please email me at Brigid@CivicParent.org. When was the BOE given...

The Jersey City BOE’s “10% Tax Levy Hike” Isn’t Enough & Doesn’t Value Our Kids or JCPS

May 8, 2019August 16, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes

Jersey City’s Board of Education is emphasizing a “10%” school tax levy increase as if that’s a big jump. Except 10% isn’t a big dollar-for-dollar jump, when you look at the entire picture. In actuality, 10% is way too small, given the fiscal hole we’re in as a district. A simple example can illustrate...

Jersey City: Approximately $40 Million of School Tax is Locked Up in Abatement Contracts

May 7, 2019June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City City Budget, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Tax Abatements

This is part of a series about the 2019/20 proposed municipal and schools budgets in Jersey City. Jersey City’s proposed 2019/20 municipal budget shows that over $120 million in PILOT fees are expected to be collected in in the coming year. What is notable about PILOT fees is that they don’t contribute to the...

2019/20 Proposed Advertised Appropriations (JCPS Spending for 2019/20 School Year)

April 28, 2019May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Check out prior visualizations here that I'm sharing as part of the 2019/20 budget cycle. This visualization shows multiple lenses into the proposed 2019/20 "advertised appropriations" within Jersey City's public schools, as reported by the Jersey City Board of Education here. This budget has been prepared by the district administration and a finalized version,...

How does Jersey City Spend Its Money? A Data Visualization of Budgets from 2015-2018

April 25, 2019June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City City Budget, NJ UFB-In Context

As we look towards the coming weeks and months, two local governing bodies are undergoing a public budgeting process: The Board of Education will be determining the 2019/20 schools budget. The city of Jersey City will be determining the 2019 municipal budget. A key question is: how can taxpayers engage? How can we peel...

PS #5 PTA School Funding Advocacy Action!

April 22, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Jersey City is not properly funding its public schools. Our public schools are $100+ million underfunded and it's about to grow much worse. The time to act is NOW. How you can help. Contact your city representatives. We elect members of our community to govern on our behalf. It is our civic responsibility to...

2018/19 Advertised Appropriations (What JCPS Spends Money On)

April 15, 2019May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

This "tree map" shows the 2018/19 appropriations (i.e. expenses) for Jersey City Public Schools. I downloaded the data from the NJ Department of Education website, created a subset of "Appropriations" showing total spending, and then removed subtotals and totals so that only detailed lined items are visualized. Jersey City will lose $27 million in...

Jersey City’s 2017 School Based Budgets: Learn what’s being funded in your school

April 15, 2019May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Public Schools

This bubble chart shows 2017 actual spending within Jersey City's public schools, as reported by the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report ("CAFR"); 2017 is the most recent year available for this report. The CAFR is an annual report detailing both qualitative and quantitative information about the district. It is prepared by the district, approved...

Jersey City Facing $27 Million State Aid Cut for 2019/20 School Year

March 7, 2019August 24, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Governor Murphy released his proposed fiscal year (FY) 2019/20 budget for NJ and this week, and it included a re-allocation of state education aid. The impact to Jersey City was both expected and gut-wrenchingly sobering: a $27 million cut in “Adjustment Aid”, a type of excess state aid that Jersey City has been receiving...

NJ School Funding Basics: “Adequacy” Budget, School Tax Levy, & the Impact of Inflation (A Case Study of Jersey City)

March 7, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This article is about Jersey City’s public schools funding crisis. If you’re unfamiliar with this issue, you can read more about it here. I’ve been attempting to de-puzzle some of the tax math that is vexing Jersey City with respect to its public school funding crisis, and have found three factors that deserve public...

NJ School Funding Basics: The Tax Base

January 13, 2019May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Tax Rates, Public Schools

This is part of series about school funding, property tax, and community in Jersey City. I'm learning about Jersey City's tax base, tax levies, and property tax profile so that I can better understand our school funding paradigm. I'm sharing with the community, through this platform, as I learn. To read see the full...

NJ School Funding Basics: NJ Department of Education Data & Reports

January 4, 2019May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

This is a quick initial post to point taxpayers to an excellent resource for rich, official public data about our public schools here in NJ. The NJ Department of Education (NJ DOE) has, for at least the past 10 years, published a host of different datasets on its “DOE Data & Reports” page. The...

JCPS Funding Crisis: An Overview

January 4, 2019July 15, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools Funding Crisis Based on the state funding formula, Jersey City Public Schools are currently $100 million under-funded. Jersey City students, parents, teachers, and staff experience this under-funding everyday. This is a structural deficit and a threat to our school system, our city, and our community. Get the facts, connect in...

“Jersey City Public Schools are Structurally Underfunded”…What does this mean?

December 1, 2018July 15, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

This started out as a Facebook post on my CivicParent Facebook page. I’ve turned it into a quick post, for posterity & to help explain some of the financial mechanics of Jersey City’s under-funding crisis. “Jersey City’s public schools under-funding is a structural problem” – what does this mean, exactly? Here’s one way to...

Jersey City & NJ: Student Group Data from NJ School Performance Reports (A Focus on ELL, At-Risk, and Special Education Students)

October 6, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

The NJ Department of Education publishes annual data relating to certain “student groups”, per school. The table below focuses on three groups that, per state funding law, are entitled to more funding based on the level of need. These groups are: At-risk students, defined as lower income students who qualify for free or reduced...

NJ Property Tax Dashboard | #OpenData #DataViz

September 27, 2018June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City City Budget, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This is a property tax dashboard for NJ residents who may be interested in learning about the property tax profile of their municipality, including: 1) Latest available (Tax Year 2017) property tax metrics available from NJ’s Property Tax portal. 2) Tax base growth chart from 1988 to 2017 – how has your town’s tax...

NJ Special Education Statistics | #DataViz #OpenData

September 22, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

In this post I’m sharing statewide special education data, with ability to drill into Jersey City special education data specifically, for both Jersey City Public Schools (the public school system) and charter schools attended by Jersey City students. I am sharing the statewide data because it’s informing to see the varying degrees of special...

Jersey City’s Taxpayer Funded Schools: Enrollment Overview with Focus on Income Diversity

September 15, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

The charts below show enrollment data for Jersey City Public Schools. The Jersey City Public Schools system is the 39-school district under the purview of the Jersey City Board of Education (BOE) and is funded through taxpayer dollars. Public charter schools also receive taxpayer dollars, but they are operated and overseen independently of the...

Jersey City Public Schools – A Public Good Requiring Public Funding

August 30, 2018July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools is the city’s largest public good, funded through a combination of state, local, and to a lesser degree, federal tax dollars. In 2018/19 the public schools budget was over $600 million; this is larger than the city’s entire budget. The schools are a public good because they educate the vast...

Jersey City: Who in City Council & the NJ State Legislature Represents Your School?

June 25, 2018June 7, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

To help parents and taxpayers understand (a) what schools are in their neighborhood and/or (b) which elected representatives are tied to which schools, I’ve mapped all 40 Jersey City Public Schools (along with accompanying basic profile information, as listed on the JCPS Website) against 2 map layers: Jersey City Ward (each ward is represented by...

Jersey City Funding Crisis: Banked Cap, Explained

April 27, 2018May 19, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools: CivicParent Funding FAQs I have been trying to understand how Jersey City Public Schools are funded and am sharing questions I’ve endeavored to answer. As I learn, I’m sharing with the community in the hopes others will also learn and advocate. Where applicable I’ve provided citations and resources so that...

JCPS Funding: How JCPS Spends Its Money…A High Level Primer

July 5, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

I detailed in my last post how the JCPS budget is funded by a mix of state, local, and federal tax dollars. But how is that money then spent? That is the main focus of this post. Governor Christie approved a budget this week that included $8.5 million in state aid cuts to Jersey City Public...

JCPS Funding: Why Possible State Aid Cuts = “Major Hardship”

June 29, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

I will be writing about this issue as it unfolds, it’s a big topic that taxpayers should understand. This is a quick primer on why the Sweeney-Prieto proposal to cut $8.5 million in state aid from Jersey City Public Schools would, to use Superintendent Dr. Lyles term, cause a “major hardship” for the...

Op-Ed Follow-Up: Get the Facts & Figures About Abatements & Public School Funding in Jersey City

May 30, 2017June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools, Tax Abatements

I teamed up with Ellen Simon to co-author an op-ed in The Jersey Journal about how Jersey City’s PILOT policy harms our public schools. The article is dense with facts, figures, and assertions. To ensure our assertions are as accessible as possible to the public, I’ve created a landing page to help readers sort through...

Jersey Journal Op-Ed Highlights PILOT vs. Public Schools Tension in Jersey City

May 15, 2017June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City City Budget, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools, Tax Abatements

I teamed up with Ellen Simon, a friend, fellow public school parent, and former board trustee of the Jersey City BOE, to co-author an op-ed in the Jersey Journal. The topic: how Jersey City’s PILOT policy “robs” funding from our public schools. The term “rob” is not ours…to find out who did coin the term, in...

Mapping Jersey City’s Abatements by Project Type and Ward

April 23, 2017June 12, 2021Brigid D'SouzaJersey City City Budget, Tax Abatements

If you are new to the topic of abatements, I recommend my tax abatement series here. I’ve updated my 2015 long-term abatement map to include 2016 data. The map is provided below, along with reports showing underlying data grouped by project type (affordable housing vs. market) and by ward. Source data was derived from the city’s user...