A letter to the Jersey Journal editor from Laura DePinto
Laura DePinto is a frequent contributor & supporter of the Bayonne Public Advocate. On June 22nd she wrote here on the Advocate that she was unable to get her initiative to have an elected school board on the ballot. In true Jersey Journal fashion, they picked up on the story a month later, and promptly got it wrong. Neither did they credit the Bayonne Public Advocate, which is on permanent ban from ever being mentioned on nj.com.
However, here is Laura’s letter to the editor in response to the Jersey Journal story:
The article in The Jersey Journal was very doom and gloom, insinuating that I’ve entirely rolled over on the elected Board of Education (BOE) petition. It’s just going to take more help. I cannot get it done alone. Since I don’t have a lot of contacts and resources to enlist in this objective, I’m delayed but still determined to push for change!
Bayonne has the highest property tax rate in Hudson County. More than 50 percent of property taxes go to Bayonne’s BOE.
Truly, the goal is to improve the academic standing in Bayonne. The goal is to balance the exorbitant property tax rate with academic/financial excellence. Aside from the obvious benefits of better preparing our youth, having a supercharged school district will be a draw for our city, which is seeing a sad exodus of home-owning taxpayers. Secondly, an elected board will help to keep things honest and keep patronage from what it’s become - expensive to the taxpayers, inequitable, and quite frankly a “let them eat cake” condescension among the privileged Bayonne political oligarchy.
Can these things be done without an elected board? Yes. But, Bayonne must step up to the plate to actively define and regulate “substantial conflicts of interest” among the BOE, administration and board members. Board members and administrators who head and vote on million-dollar projects like the solar panels and who coincidentally have financial interests in companies called Solar Science. Families that have more than a quarter of a million dollars in BOE incomes and who have some unknown inability to vote (presumably due to family or financial conflict) in the highly lucrative lunch program supply company, or board members who have spouses that don’t hold the full credentials for their positions but are paid as if they do. Administrators so powerful that teachers are afraid to come forward on many issues for fear of retribution. These issues need investigation, clarification and mostly remediation. These situations are highly questionable.
Until Bayonne holds school administrators accountable for continuous improvement performance through annual merit increases directly tied to district performance improvements, we’ll keep getting mediocre education while paying dearly through our taxes.
Getting BOE information is mired in unnecessary dissuading bureaucracy, seemingly designed to avoid transparency to the public. To get BOE public resolutions, one has to put forth formal Open Public Record Act requests when in most towns these are published on either the BOE web site or in local newspapers. Not so in Bayonne. Why?
It’s time for a change in Bayonne. With so much potential, we as citizens cannot afford to NOT be involved.
Newark, NJ
August 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Laura,
Maybe it is just me, but I don’t see the “doom and gloom” in the JJ article. Maybe the first line about giving up your quest. Are your quotes accurate?
Regards,
Jude