 |
| Pants on Fire |
GA obtained copies of the June 3, 2015 letter brief to the NJ Department of Education filed by HoLa attorneys in opposition of the BoE's Motion to Stay. Attached to the brief was a certification by HoLa's Executive Director, Jennifer Sargent.
My hair caught fire a few times as I read Sargent's sworn statement.
The main argument seems to be that the Hoboken District Junior/Senior High School is an unpalatable choice for HoLa 7th and 8th graders. Sargent claims repeatedly it has "among the highest rates of violence and vandalism in the state."
No, it doesn't.
Full reports for violence/vandalism in NJ schools (1999-2014) are online at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/schools/vandv/ See below Appendix D for 2013-2014, district totals of incidents by County.
Okay?
Are we clear that Hoboken district is NOT one of the "most violent" in New Jersey?
Are we clear that the Hoboken district does NOT have "the highest rates of vandalism" in New Jersey?
Are we clear that lies perpetuated about the Hoboken district are... lies?
And ones that do great damage to the morale of teachers and district students.
Yes, our kids hear adults repeat this crap, and it affects their self-esteem. It is awful.
Then of course the lies spread like a contagion, and a whole community feels their only recourse is to flee to the burbs.
What a lying sack of shit.
ReplyDeleteWhat are her academic credentials to be an executive director of a public school? What salary does she draw? She wore a tight, short see-through dress when she came to snipe at the BoE a year back. I didn't know who she was. Does she teach a pole dancing enrichment class at Hola?
Her linkedin profile lists a Master Degree from Hunter, but doesn't say in what discipline. Probably because it's not in education.
DeleteIt is very sad and shameful to see a school steeped in hatred and lies.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with these people? All they do is spew hate and lies and perpetually attack the district schools.
ReplyDeleteWhat an ignorant comment made under oath by founder and director, Jen Sargent!
ReplyDeleteThe city is a mile square! If this was a true statement or anywhere's near true, individuals of all types, singles, families etc..., wouldn't be flocking here and property values wouldn't be soaring.
Jen Sargent clearly is of ill moral character. How could a founder of a school make a false statement under oath just to gain an advantage. Totally unscrupulous!
How dare she make those outrageous false statements! I pray the Boe takes this to the highest level and this LIAR's school expansion is stopped. Hola has never been above board from the get go.
This is truly one of the funniest blogs in town. When you're not doubling as a self help group for people who've been wronged by Beth Mason, you're hating on charter school parents. No wonder people laugh when one mentions what they "heard" on the blogs. Carry on twerps.
ReplyDeleteThen more yuks are coming your way. Maybe this quote will give you a belly laugh: from the above noted certification, about the district's administration of laptops: "... efforts to block pornography and gaming sites... failed."
DeleteDid you laugh?
This site does not hate on charter parents. That's ANOTHER lie.
DeleteJust curious, who do you think wrote that statement for Jen Sargent? Was it CuriousGal or Probus?
ReplyDeleteY'all come back now. Y'a hear. And tell your friends.
ReplyDeleteDoes the DOE even read these sworn statements? It's easy for them to find out that the 21 6th graders are not "predominantly" African American or Hispanic.
ReplyDeleteHere's how it goes. Probably ONE of the 6th graders is African American and TWO of the 6th graders are Hispanic; one of the Hispanic children is of Puerto Rican heritage and the other has a Chilean mom and an Italian-American dad. In their view, at almost 20% of the 6th grade class, they have a HUGE ratio of minority children which in their narcissist reasoning capacity translates into "predominantly" African American or Hispanic instead of outright lying. Truly grotesque, isn't it?
DeleteI thought this school had very few African Americans and Hispanic students and even fewer "needy" students. Is Ms Sargent saying that this particular class is mostly African American or Hispanic AND "needy? Needy as below the poverty line and not having the advantages money can offer? I thought that their first year included the children of Ms. Sargent, Ms. Martinez, Carmelo and Ruben. Hispanic yes. "Needy"?
ReplyDeleteInteresting too that the parent's of "needy" children raised $150,000 during an annual fundraising auction.
DeleteCurious, what does the truly "needy" district school such as Wallace raise at their auction? $30,000 sounds about right, no?
Huge difference in funding ratio's. This in itself is proof of huge inequalities in the school makeups.
What is the percentage of Spanish instruction in grade 6, 7 or 8? Is it 20% or less? If so, then when is it no longer considered a "full" dual language classroom? Except for wanting a "private" school, is another English based middle school even necessary?
ReplyDeleteIt's 60/40 in 5th and 6th.
DeleteMayor Zimmer, Dave Mello and others straddle the fence when it comes to charters. Which is to say they endorse the part of reform that is broadly anti-old guard and anti-malfeasance. But they ignore the readily available facts and figures concerning charters and look instead at how they believe charters will poll with certain demographics.
ReplyDeleteBut they need to start seeing this pro-HOLA group for what it is. This is no different whatsoever from the darkest days of the Bajardi/Klaussen-411/Mason cabal.
To wit, in the service of achieving a near-term objective, foment ethnic, racial and class conflict to create an Us vs Them mindset that is intended to keep the public from thinking rationally until the objective is reached and it is too late to do anything about it.
Zimmer and team must see that these tactics entail destroying the moral fabric of the city as a whole.
Just as Mason and team didn't care if they closed the hospital and bankrupted the city because it was politically expedient, team HOLA doesn't care how badly they damage the city or its people so long as they get their next grade.
Are Zimmer and team going to stand by while someone swears under oath that Hoboken has the highest rates of violence and vandalism in New Jersey?
Does Zimmer and team think that statement is merely a reflection on the job quality of the BOE? Or do they recognize the subtly racist and classist rhetoric for what it is?
It's not about the BOE. It's stating that YOUR city is unlivable, populated by a teeming underclass of social undesirables. It is stating that the only way to live in YOUR city is to scuttle back and forth from one gated haven to another, avoiding your great unwashed.
They are not even arguing the merits of the charter school as defined. This is a social argument against YOUR city. They are saying we need this separate (but equal) accommodation because of what Hoboken has become.
Cultivate friendships with this deceitful, scheming bunch if you choose to. But recognize what they are doing and how they are doing it. I defy you to face the kids that you have allowed to be defined by this rhetoric. Are they really the worst in the state? HOLA says so. That's not on the BOE or Kids First or Christie.
That's on you - Mayor.
That's the problem with a marriage of convenience. The convenience never lasts, but you're stuck with the marriage.
This is a great post but, sadly, I don't think the Zimmer administration could or would see the parallel that can be drawn between the hospital and the public school district. You see, the focus of the threat to closing the hospital was targeted to the property owners city-wide, it really had nothing to do with the services provided to poor and low-income residents. To the administration, the charter schools serve that same demographic whose tax bill was at risk were the hospital to close. Putting support behind charters is as politically expedient for Zimmer, Mello, etc. as closing the hospital was to the dark side. They neither expect to get nor believe they need the support from many parents of the public school district and they know that the ones that do support them would never straddle the fence and cast their lot with the dark side because the public/charter debate is only one issue and their supporters (when push comes to shove) are not generally one-issue voters and will always pull the level against corruption and the old ways. It's pretty clever but terribly disappointing.
DeleteI see that lying POS Petro wrote another article about Hola without acknowledging that he is on their board. What an ahole. That's a guy that coulda been a contender. Instead of a bum who puts his education and training to the service of writing misleading faux-intellectual diatribes to support the OGs.
ReplyDeleteSo vile and mean spririted. So gratuitious. They know Hepse is in the bag for them. Did they think they needed to paint this 1970's "The Warriors" cartoon version of Hoboken so the suburban judges would sympathize with them?
ReplyDeleteTo fib on paper is one thing on paper but what about on the stand. I hope these divisive statements can be cleared up in oral statements to the judges. Are residents allowed to comment?
Shame. Is it not enough to take the money from the district students , they have to insult and demoralize the kids while doing it.
Insult and demoralize is right. Did Sargent really say district kids can look at porno and gaming sites on their school computers? Wtf? I know for a fact the schools use a Watch Guard firewall system. She has no idea what she's talking about. Irresponsible and very nasty.
DeleteDid you read this article? It says that kids were able to get around the firewall and that's one of the reasons they did away with the laptop program at HHS.
DeleteSorry here's the article! http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-hoboken-throwing-away-all-its-student-laptops/
DeleteGreat way to over simplify the story Anon @4:30.
DeleteMaybe I've been working with computers too long, but anyone that relies wholly on a program to protect from questionable sites or viruses, is a going to fail. At home parents need to be aware of what their kids are doing.
Schools with computers in them should have a intranet set up, with proxy servers that let folks out to internet, and the proxy servers can block sites. There should be ways to prevent access to the wifi network by folks outside of the school.
I don't have access to the IT guy's resume, but I wonder how much experience he has.
And why trash them? Use a flash drive DOD level hard drive wipe to erase the data and donate them. The company I worked for leased it computers and when reached the end of the lease period we had to wipe all the drives. It is easy peasy with a flash drive. Lease is better than buy, also.
Anon @ 8:41 The laptops were not thrown away, they are being used along with newer equipment including tablets. yes, the schools use a proxy that requires a log-in to access the Internet.
DeleteWhat is truly disturbing is this woman is in charge of educating people. Great example she is setting for the kids - NOT!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, do we expect any different from people who engage in the level of self dealing HoLa has been involved in? We have founders that get jobs w/ the school or free tuition at their new private school. We have rent payments going to the B&G club that just so happens to employ at least one politically connected person. Not only that but at least one person is getting a salary from both the B&G club and HoLa - and in my view that person is double dipping at taxpayer expense. Not only that but you have board members that personify the whole reason reformers wanted to clean up the BOE. It is absolutely disgusting and incredibly disturbing how this program is run. Perhaps it was past time the state came in, investigated the place and hopefully cleaned house.
Do you have the whole brief available to post? My read of that certification is that she's referring to stats on HHS specifically, not the entire district.
ReplyDeleteThat wouldn't surprise me if she is just referring to HHS. One of the reasons HoLa exists is those parents don't want to send their kids to public school with the free lunch crowd.
DeleteThe NJDOE publishes violence/vandalism stats for each DISTRICT, not each school. If Sargent is referring to only the HHS then she is extrapolating from the available data for the district. In either case, untrue and destructive to our entire community.
DeleteOne of the ironies in this whole debate is that Hola initially tried to launch as a district program, was denied, and then took the charter route. Of course one would expect tensions to exist after the charter launched and drew more funds away from the district than the internal program would have cost. Segregation from the 'free lunch crowd' would not seem to be a credible accusation, given the historical context.
Delete@GA - Agreed.. the NJDOE data in that report does not support such a claim.
DeleteCaptJkd. the historical context is that when Jim Farina cast the deciding "no" vote, Hola became a charter, affording it safety from any budget cuts felt by the BOE district. Hola applied for k-5th and later expanded to 6th. There was never any tention during those years. The tention started only recently when Hola applied for expansion to 7th and 8th at great expense to the district schools. Considering Hola veterns (Petro, martinez and Sargent) know full well the budget impacts of their expansion on the local district, never reached out to discuss. Combining the expansion to the renewal seemed more a political expediante choice like the choice to spread demoralizing misinformation about the high school. Sad considering there was no tension in the years prior.
DeleteCaptainJ, that is true. In 2008-2009 Frank Raia embraced "the HoLa girls" (his words) and was pushing for it to be a district program. That is when I became involved in local politics, through the BoE during that debate. There were a number of reasons the program was incompatible with the district, including shared resources and student attrition, so becoming a charter was the correct route. I always thought that is what they should have done from the get-go. The problem is not HoLa, no one wants it to close, it is the expansion.
Delete"that means if the nearly 100 families don't want to attend the public schools, they're stuck."
ReplyDeleteThat statement speaks volumns.
Odd thing about that statement is it is coming from a school filled with wealthy parents.
Stuck?
In the author's minds; it's okay that the other 1800 kids attending the public schools are "stuck" but their possible 100 wealthier families should not be stuck?
Reality check.
The reason why so many believe district schools are not a viable option is because of lies repeated ad nauseum about the district.
DeleteWhy does the author assume families in the district are "stuck". Many choose the district schools (including the high school) as a great choice for their family. To assume otherwise is really insulting and false.
DeleteWell anon it would certainly seem that bashing of the schools does serve a purpose.
DeleteI wonder how many parents who believe the schools to be "bad" attended open houses in one of those schools to view the programming for themselves. Based on the rhetoric and propaganda cited above, I probably would be hesitant to visit. Such a sad situation and a lost opportunity for the community.
Unfortunately, it seems divisiveness is the norm of charter school expansion, not surprisingly as the entire point of a charter school is to divide the town into separate districts. Each requiring money from the same pot.
Dividing the community allows the state to under fund all schools and as charter school boards are not publicly elected this division erodes local control, local oversight and local support for their community public schools.
Following that loss of local control and community representation, sadly, charter schools are not protected and can be opened, expanded and closed at the whim of one person. Given the history of NJ, we all know what that kind of power brings to the person in charge of such decisions and we can hazard a guess as to the weak position small charters will find themselves in moving forward as corporate funded charters seek to expand in NJ.
Such a sad and divisive situation for the community.
Here's a reality check for the, what is it, six of you? Hoboken has had a reputation for being a great town that everybody loves but no one wanted to stay and raise a family in because the school options sucked. Now there are three charter schools, a few privates, and a high school that is finally moving ion the right direction. People are now staying and property values are soaring. Take your snarky heads out of the sand and learn to get along with your neighbors. You're a hate filled bunch but thankfully most people in town pay no attention to you.
ReplyDeleteWith the highest rates of vandalism an violence in the state perpetrated by an apparently vicious and uncontrolled underclass, Hoboken couldn't possibly be "a great town" and property values couldn't possibly be "soaring."
DeleteThere is definitely a "hate-filled bunch" around here somewhere. Look a little harder.
Thanks for the revisionist history lesson. Now pay attention.
DeleteStevens Cooperative school was founded in 1949, The Hudson School was founded in 1978, Elysian Charter was founded in 1995, Hoboken Charter was founded in 1997.
All of these "options" could not keep families in Hoboken. No, families were leaving in droves in spite of these "options" and leaving after the real estate boom in the 2000's. (I have been here since 1996.)
The bleeding turned around in 2009 when Kids First took over the school board and parents decided to send their kids to the district AND larger 'family friendly' units were being built in accordance with the 2004 Master Plan.
Those who call our district "the most violent in NJ" are in your words, a "hate-filled bunch." It is a lie, hurts district children, demoralizes teachers and staff, and makes parents believe the HHS is not a viable option. Whatever your agenda is, mine is to tell the truth about the district and debunk the hurtful lies.
Hate to break the news but GA has more than 6 readers.
GA if they thought it was only 6 people they wouldn't be all bent out of shape about it and their proxies wouldn't have bothered to sue you.
Delete"Take your snarky heads out of the sand and learn to get along with your neighbors. You're a hate filled bunch but thankfully most people in town pay no attention to you."
DeleteNow, that is the definition of Snarky and hate filled.
oh my yes! Thank goodness you showed up. All those dumb hippes back in the day had it all wrong. Spending their time volunteering with their penny anty guilds, associations, committees and coallitions trying to make it fair and equal and better for everyone. Rubes. No success in that. You moved here a few years ago and nailed it. Start a school for "people like us" and it attracts more "people like us". Scores rise and the money flows in as everyone wants to be associaited with your success. People are now staying because of your successful school for "people like us". Well done. You should be really proud for saving Hoboken for those who can afford the soaring property values.
DeleteTrue. Don't know why some in the Hola is so hateful and divisive. Jimmy Farina's shocking "no" vote led to them becoming a charter school shortly after therefore saving Hola from the massive budget cuts that saw many BOE teacher firing months after. They were never impacted by any of the BOE cuts as their funding is always guarenteed. Had Jimmy voted to make them a BOE program, they would have shared in the pain.
ReplyDeleteYet the hate continues to flow. There have always been other schools in Hoboken, yet the level of lies and misinformation aimed at the district and especailly the high school is unpresidented. They could make their case without lying and choosing to insult their neighbors and friends who choose to attend the district schools. Why do they choose hate and divisiveness? Seems over the top and personal to me. Which I don't understand since Farina's vote actually put them in a much better position.
And they have a blog dedicated to bashing the Hoboken district, written by HoLa Trustee and Advisor Anthony Petrosino. Petrosino, to my knowledge, has never disclosed his position on the HoLa board in any of his pseudo-academic political smears on the district and Kids First leadership.
DeleteHas he ever disclosed that he was a contractor to the BOE and they bounced his sorry ass to the curb? Doubtful.
DeleteThe man is bitter, pure and simple. Bitterness is something most of that crew has in common. Well that and their insatiable desire to "get what's theirs".
Hola's trustee was fired from the district basically for stealing from the tax payers correct?
DeleteWhat a bunch of thieves and liars at Hola. I wouldn't want my child near that low life school. Not to mention that Hola's scores are atrocious!
The unintended consequence of calling ANY school's scores "atrocious"- district, charter or private- is that it will fall on small ears.
DeletePeeps on every side of the discussion, please be mindful our issues are with adults, not children.
I agree GA. Disgraceful post.
DeleteHappy to see that these type of harmful posts are considered disgraceful. I hope that some of the vocal Hola Admin and parents can see how destructive they have been to the children in the local schools.
DeleteAbsolutely, Anon @11:26.
DeleteALL children deserve encouragement, to be taught what is possible if they study and work hard, in ALL of the schools: district, charter and private... NOT hear adults swap mean-spirited insults about their schools- "violence, vandalism, pornography, etc." District kids have been subjected to this kind of nasty, hurtful rhetoric for YEARS, and sadly, some BELIEVE it. District parents are VERY pissed off at their children being 'put down by the lies they read and hear- said and written by ADULTS. And rightfully so. But two wrongs do not make a right, Hopefully, adults can resolve differences without disparaging schools and the children who attend them.
Petrosino is a disgrace.
It is difficult to ignore 31 instances of violence. It seems more than likely that most are from the high school.
ReplyDeleteThe transition has left some parents with reservations/concerns about sending 12 and 13 year old kids to school with 17 and 18 year old students.
I was under the impression that the laptop program was not successful and that in some cases kids were going to sites that were not appropriate (like pornography).
Why would anyone that thinks 12 and 13 year olds (in the Jr. high wing of the district school) being in a building with 17 and 18 year olds is not ok, but finds it ok to have 5 and 6 year olds in a school with 13 and 14 year olds? Weird.
DeleteLook primadonna, kids get into fights ("violence") everywhere in every school all over NJ, the Hoboken district is no exception. The # of Hoboken incidents are in line with other districts throughout the state. The self-reported 31 for a district of 1,970- averages 3 'fights' per month in a district with 5 schools.
DeleteSo, K-8 can share a building (5-14 yr olds) but 7-12 can't? Utter nonsense. It is working really well- my kid is in 7grade. He loves it. The 7/8 grades are in their own wing separated by a partition. They are seperated all day, and exit separate doors. Kids who are advanced get to participate in special programs and have opportunities the charters don't have. I hear that's one reason the mayor's kid will go to HHS next year.
The laptop program worked well for the first years but was too expensive to maintain. The laptops all had Net Nanny software installed to block "pornography" etc. NO ONE said the kids used their laptops for porn- that is ANOTHER VICIOUS LIE. The quote was that any site can be hacked.
People like you who keep putting the children of the district down should be ashamed of yourselves. "It is difficult to ignore" your stupidity.
"It seems more than likely that most are from the high school."
DeleteThese "facts" are based on what you thought "seemed more likely"?
"The transition has left some parents with reservations/concerns about sending 12 and 13 year old kids to school with 17 and 18 year old students"
Is that why the high school kids were no longer allowed to use the Boys and Girls club after school?
You were under the impression that kids viewed pornography?
You have no facts again, just thoughts? Your thoughts insinuate that students your children do go to school with watch pornography?
Do you hear what you sound like?
Petrosino wrote another post recently about the "efficiency" of Hola based on his "analysis" of the cost per pupil. However, he never mentions in these posts that the local public schools accept and provide services for a large variety of students that his school can't or won't. Nor does he mention that services to many of those students can cost over $100,000 per student.
ReplyDeleteHe advocates for closing the Hoboken public schools and turning Hoboken into an all charter city. I would be really curious to hear how he would provide services to the many children with special needs on $12,000 per student. He always seems to leave them out of the equation.
Where would those children go in Petrosino's dream charter city?
Does anyone take anything "probus" Petrosino says seriously ?
DeleteToday, many parents who are considering a charter school are looking at Hoboken Charter School as their 1st choice followed by Elysian. Many discussions about Hola is that if they get in they will continue to enter the lottery for the other charters and leave once they get in. If they don't get in they will move rather then stay at Hola. When the topic of Hola comes up it's usually followed by distorted facial expressions and eye rolls.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suppose would happen if charter expansion pulled money from the existing charter schools instead of the district?
DeleteIs there potential for this?
DeleteThere is potential for anything. Once a community is divided it is weakened, Right now the Governor and many elected officials are pushing charter schools, tomorrow who knows.
DeleteOne person decides the fate of such schools and legislator's votes decide the regulations. A NJ Governor can write any line item he likes for budgeting toward any initiative he chooses. In a few years there will be a different governor and legislators.
Education is a Very unstable situation, which is why educational policies should be thought through thoroughly and from every angle.
How would such funding affect such group? how would said group react? what would said group support the expansion on the basis that it negatively impacted them?
The funding structure hurts one district over another and clearly creates divisive communities. Its food for thought and such perspective is the reality of the true issues faced by communities who have multiple districts within their town.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all the charter schools select students with a blind lottery? Wouldn't the racial makeup of the classes reflect the current town population (as much as it could?) I guess I don't understand why any of the talk about white kids vs. black or hispanic has to do with anything. Were the Charters, or HOLA specifically, created to do otherwise?
ReplyDeleteOne big problem with the so called "blind" lottery is that there is sibling preference. So, if someone applies for a charter lottery that has an older sibling, they move to the top of the list. They are basically guaranteed admission into the charter school. This is one reason for the segregative effect. and those who attend like it this way. A "true" public school would treat all applicants equally.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that no one addresses is the fact that while the charters are "free", it is difficult for a family who is in a lower income bracket. There is a lot of fundraising and pressure to contribute and for some families, this is not feasible. Also, a lot of the trips these schools take come with a cost to the students.
I'm sure no one does it on purpose, but there are ways to level the unintended consequesnces, which Hola declined. The law is not just the segragative impact regarding race but just as important is about economics and children with special needs. It is also not compared to the overall town population but the school age population (5-18). Hoboken has an unusally large white, above average income population overall. I don't know the racial makeup of Hola but it seems they do not educate any children with spec needs and only 11% children living in poverty. The local school educate all Hoboken's children with spec needs and a much larger percentage of children living in poverty. Do you believe that is fair?
ReplyDeleteWhat do Elysan and the other Charters do "to level the unintended consequences" that Hola does not?
DeleteAccording to Ms. Martinez, press director for Uncommon Schools, Hola wanted to change the lottery process, they should be the experts on what others are doing,no?
DeleteMaybe "they" are but "they" didn't make the comment I was asking after, as far as I can tell.
Delete"Anonymous June 22, 2015 at 1:56 PM" says "there are ways to level the unintended consequesnces", I was curious if the ways they are thinking of are being used by Elysian and the other Hoboken Charter schools.
If the answer is no that's fine. If the answer is Hola is taking steps to mitigate perceived issued that's also fine. It's a reasonable question and I'm sure has a reasonable answer.
If they are so interested in changing the lottery process. Then let them do it already. What's stopping them? Unless it's all just talk as usual.
ReplyDeleteWho is stopping them? Last news was that Hola submitted a request to the State the day before Christmas or something to add a "weight" to the lottery, when their lottery was the next week. The change would have added on extra ping pong ball to low income applicant.
ReplyDeleteSo after sibling preference, there are maybe 10 open spots? I think they say they get 250 applicants for those 10 open spots? How many would be from low income applicants? My generous guess is 10 low income applicants. With the "weight" that is 20 vs 240 upper income applicants. All for the same 10 open spots.
I don't know if it's just talk. Haven't heard any news of this weighted lottery since Dec/Jan when they sent out press releases blaming the BOE. Did they want the weighted lottery or the press?
If after sibling preference there are only 10 spots then one "pingpong ball" represents between a 9% to 10% reservation of open slots for low income students.
DeleteHow many ping pong balls does Elysian set aside for low income students?
Reserved? That is a curious way to define a lottery.
DeleteThe additional balls are thrown in with the other 240 balls and 10 names are drawn for the 10 open spots (if there are even 10 after siblings) So a low income family would then have a 2 in 240 chance instead of a 1 in 240 chance. That is no where near "10%" and not "reserved" in any way.
How does Elysian and Hoboken Charter do it? Is their way better?
DeleteI don't think weighting a random lottery to low-income applicants is the answer, for such a small number of open spots. To 'enforce' a representative cross-section of applicants would require some type of delicate allocation process a-la affirmative-action, combined with an entirely random and open lottery drawing. Paraphrasing State law from an NJ charters website, admissions policies of New Jersey charter schools must, to the maximum extent practicable, seek enrollment of a cross section of the community’s school age population, including racial and academic factors. To me, fairness means assuring that the lottery process is open to everyone, communicated to everyone, and completely random.
DeleteSibling preference could go either way. In NYC, it's the law. In NJ, it's optional. It is a nice accommodation to families, especially in a town without school bus transportation.
Curious CaptJack, what do you think of the common app that was proposed by the BOE. One application for all public districts in town.
DeleteHola Board trustee Petrozino seems to be against it, refering it to as "Newark" thing (whatever that is meant to imply) yet he seems to want Hoboken to consider an all charter district like New Orleans who uses the OneApp.
Seems it would help with the communication and widening the pool. Curious what you think.
Why wait for Hola to have a common application? This is something Hoboken Charter and Elysian can do today. Once they do it Hola would have little choice but to join the common application.
DeleteI wonder why Hoboken Charter and Elysian haven't acted.
Would the Hoboken district schools distribute the charter application forms along with their own? That would be the best way to reach all kids.
Delete@Anon 11:48 - the concept of a common application is interesting in that it sounds like it would aid the information/communication process. How does it work in practice? Parents should be encouraged to learn about their school options, minimally by attending open houses, prior to applying. I can picture a mailer that contains basic info about all public districts--similar to what Hoboken Family Alliance does online--which includes info on open house schedules, etc.
DeleteSounds like what was described by the BOE yet Hola dismissed it and went with fabricating the 'BOE voted against our Christmas day weighted lottery" strategy instead. Their Board trustee Petrocino calls it a "Newark" thing, whatever the hell THAT means? Curious.
DeleteNewark is doing that 'common app' thing, so that might be it. Why would the BOE want to promote charter schools via a common application? Who would pay for it?
DeleteGoogled Newark common app & this came up:
Deletehttp://www.matcheducation.org/puzzled/2013/11/21/newark-charters-common-app
I notice a James Cryan commented, I didn't know he was involved in Newark schools (if it is the same one).
I think it would be pretty easy to hand out 3 extra pieces of paper. But that would only work if everyone agreed that the goal is to make the application process more accessible to all kids. There are only a few spaces available in the charter schools, so what does the district have to lose? The charter schools couldn't be accused of cherrypicking if the application is easily available to everyone.
CaptJcked. I am more curious why the charters declined. Maybe the BOE wants to make the process less confusing?
DeleteWho is James Cryan?
Considering they never went further after their 5 year approval....
ReplyDelete