"Absent again."

Perhaps Carmelo Garcia should consider resigning from the BOE and focus on his
very well taxpayer paid position with the Hoboken Housing Authority.

You don't now and never will have a "humble" opinion. You speak at all times in contempt for your "audience". That's why you repeat the same garbage over and over from one location to the next. Pied or someone else will come on here and debunk it line by line. You'll skulk away and go post it some place else together with more quotes and sourcing from disgruntled ex-employee Petrosino.

You have in fact and extremely high opinion of yourself and are incapable of speaking without condescension. I don't think you could turn if off if your life depended on it. The only thing that might save you is if the welfare of your own child was as important as attacking perceived political enemies. So far it hasn't been. What school will you be putting him in?

Sorry, TMW,- this is the same person who said Nov. elections only come once every four years. As always, CG provides lies and spin.

Indeed. Leon Gold was particularly divisive accusing charter schools of being racist. McCallister echoed his sentiments. Markle seemed bored as she usually does when there's any debate and knows she has the votes to get her way.

And you actually believed those fools and their statistics - when they were cooking the books and the statistics like a contestant on Top Chef?

You don't lie?

"63% of the school districts in the state of New Jersey have no plans of moving their April elections. They want you to believe moving the elections is VERY popular. It isn't. Not even half the districts are doing so. But, the lies and smears continue."

http://hoboken.patch.com/articles/hoboken-school-board-proposed-to-move-election-date#comment_2441917

Over 400 of 538 districts with budget elections switched. I'd say it was "VERY popular." But you're right about one thing. "The lies and smears continue." From you.

I will stop ignoring anything from +4 years ago, when you stop ignoring my request for odd enrollment numbers, especially those for the 11th grade.

People are watching and trying to spin....here are the facts...
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/05/01/nj-graduation-rates-lower-due-to-change-in-computing-formula/

So aside from your group hiding the 11th graders and not testing a huge majority of them for HSPA, in what your supts referred to as students in 10r, until you were caught in 2008, you'd like this population to believe your people had a 100% graduation rate- not one child didnt graduate? not one? Even suburban districts have one child.

Here is what the article from above says, but feel free to continue to bash the schools- you should join up with sullivan.

"The statewide graduation rate under the old formula last year would have been 95 percent. Under the new one, it’s 83 percent.

Education officials, though, caution that the rates should not be compared because different methods are used to get them."

pied piper, the facts remains even under the new formula HHS is 3rd lowest in the Hudson County and slightly below the state average of 83%

The new method of calculations are more sophisticated and correct for students beginning 9th grade but who do not graduate four years later. This method is more consistent with federal calculations for high school graduation rates. The previous method would take enrollment at the start of senior year and compare it to the end of senior year. The new calculation gives us a better sense of the probabilities of an incoming freshman's chances of graduating with a high school diploma 4 years later.

HHS is 3rd lowest in the Hudson County under the new formulation and slightly below the state average of 83%

Why don't you tell us where to make the cuts Maureen? Maureen Sullivan keeps telling us how easy it is to make the cuts, she just won't tell us how.

Her years long secret is coming to an end. Guess we will be hearing her scream about the "vast wasteland" of Hoboken's schools until she is booted off the BoE.

If it's so easy to cut $1.1 million present the resolution doing so Maureen.

Frank, where do you think the charter school gets all the money to pay their rent, their business administrators, their other non-teaching staff & all the other completely duplicative expenses that they must spend to run a separate school parallel to the already in place schools? I get that you are incapable of understanding the concept of underabsorption of fixed costs or economies of scale, but that is exactly what Toback is talking about.

And no Frank, having kids in charter schools doesn't save Hoboken any money. The variable cost of putting a charter school kid in the public school system is far less than the per pupil cost of the charter schools. It only takes hiring more teachers & buying some extra basic supplies to roll those charter school kids into the pre-existing infrastructure over at the BOE. But to set up a new charter school, you need to waste a ton of money on a completely separate infrastructure just so you can run a school separate from the BOE. All that money used to run that infrastructure over at the charter school is a waste of money. Now I get that you like the idea of wasting money but please stop pretending that wasting more money is saving the taxpayers of this town a dime.

24k is caused by entitlement funding for special needs and at risk population and the ratio thereof. It is cheaper to educate students who are not granted entitlement funding for disabilities and poverty. less entitlement funding less budget, more entitlement funding higher budget. Overall, the pp cost in abbot districts avg 23k per pupil and non abbot districts avg 18k pp.

Charter school per pupil expendiure has been rasied this year. The state lowered it's contribution because it lowered the 90% factor for state aid, thereby lowering the amount the state pays and raising the amount the local taxpayers pay. Since the change of the factor once again placed the state in unconstitional situation, the DOE then created a new aid-adjustment aid- to plug the hole it created by lowering the original factor. Thus,charter schools are not getting what they are supposed to be getting from the state. However, their rate remains the same because the difference is picked up by the local resident taxpayers. It is, in essence, the defunding of education by the state.
Most charters spend equal to or more than the (avg dfg group) district school via fundraising. Ask any charter school parent, the amount of work that goes into keeping the school afloat, ask about turnover ratios of staff. The more charters the less resources for each. The state approved double digit charter schools, last year, then simultaneously cut it's aid to charter schools, pushing the state costs onto the city.

Oh, right and btw, the district does not spend 24k pp- that was the 09 number- it is around 22k, this year. Check the budget on the hboe website. Must s(*& for you that the district is below the state avg, huh?

Back to the drawing board, you go.

For reference, which district school does your child attend?

That's too bad- sorry you got such a bad impression from what you saw in town.
You guys should take an open house tour of the schools one day or talk to a few of the parents of kids in the district- Most parents are very friendly and i am sure would like to tell you about their experiences, if you asked.
I think you'd be pleasantly surprised :).

phew- good thing- cause you havent a clue as to what you are talking about.

once again- in the 2009/2010 budget year, the avg spending per pupil for non abbot districts was about 13k. Charters in Hoboken (which have similar population of a non abbot district) averaged 15k and 17.8k. So again, you are being disingenuious. No fault of their own, high overhead and small population causes inefficiencies in all small districts.

Now, consider that charter schools on avg have 15% free and reduced lunch population and district schools have 70% free and reduced lunch. Entitlement funding accompanies at risk/special needs students. the more at risk/special needs students in the district the higher the budget, the less the lower the budget.
Districts also carry costs associated with extrordinary special education (out of district) costs. Those costs are part of the district's budget but the student remains on the charter roll. Districts pay for all required transportation costs. Charters do not have the full aforemention costs built into their budget.
Duplicated costs cause inefficiencies to taxpayers. Consider that we have four districts, each with its own admin costs; around-1.1mm,1.6mm,1.2mm 1.4mm. Costs are almost identical yet, the ratios are vast- 278,289, 178, 1800. In general ,a typical 5mm charter school budget will have about 2-3million in duplicated admins and support services costs- doesnt seem like much for one charter school- but there are 4 districts.

Oops! You also forgot to note that full time charter school employees also receive a pension and many are unionized.
a few more things...
Just like any school, Charters dont "save 12k per child", they cost money per child- no school can subtract money per pupil, sounds like that Su (nevemind)...spin.
Also,
the addtion of 600 kids would only lower the cost per pupil and provide more efficiencies.
The district wouldn't need to build another school- it rents out one of it's buildings and utilizes the other for pre-k.

Thanks for your concren regarding my numbers and reasoning. I check with and utilize data from NJ statutes, NJDOE commissioners office, NJDOE office of Charter schools, NJDOE Business Aministrators offices, County Superintendents offices, and local superintendents offices. It's quite easy to do and most are very friendly and helpful.

We don't care what Secaucus residents think when it comes to running the schools here in Hoboken. Take your opinions to the Secaucus BOE meetings where they belong.

burnsie, no matter how you want to look at this- YOUR board had majority- they had control over the approval or denial of Hola. YOUR majority voted no. Understandable though; giving 150k to 2 ppl with no eduational credentials or classroom/admin experience ,relocating the entire first floor of Wallace students to different schools to make space for a special program of selected students, providing a duplicate office and admin and support staff while unfairly providing additional services and classroom teacher ratios, to one sect of a school population was not fiscally or educationally responsible. Had they asked for a new program that was equitable it would be one thing- that is not what they asked for.

Excuses for davinci? Hoboken has 3 charter schools, each with duplicated admin and support services costs. Each is struggling financially and otherwise. How many more charters do you think this community can handle? The charters will reperesent 40% of the public school population when Hola comes to completion. The taxpayers will continue to pay for more duplicated services, the district will become even more segregated (frl vs affluent) and charter schools will become even more financially strapped for donations and space.

As always, Your "people vote with their feet" theory is nonsense-

15- kindergarden classes in district 5- in charter schools
7 -5th grade classes in district 3 -5th grade classes in charters
7- 7th grade classes in district 3- 5th grade classes in charters
575 students in HHS 10 -(hobo)students in charter.

pied piper said "YOUR board had majority- they had control over the approval or denial of Hola. YOUR majority voted no." Let's check the verifiable facts:

At the February 2009 meeting the Board voted on the dual-language immersion program as follows (allowing Hola to be part of the Hoboken School District as a program AND this was AFTER Hola creators Jennifer Hindman Sargent and Camille Korschun Bustillo would act as unpaid facilitators for the program):
Carmello Garcia -- yes
Theresa Minutillo -- no
Rose Marie Markle - no
Carrie Gilliard - no "We cannot afford to do this - we're going to hurt our children that are here right now."
Frank Raia -- yes
Frances Rhodes-Kearns -- yes
Jimmy Farina -- no
Phil DeFalco was absent

http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2009/02/hola_1.html

As you read the URL above you'll also note that future Kids First Board members Ruth McAllister and Jean Marie Mitchell spoke against Hola at the February 2009 Board of Ed meeting.

In the article we read, "The children that we have to worry about are these children that are failing now." Hoboken resident Ruth McAllister asks the Board not to pass Hola at tonight's meeting. (see McAllister has been elected to the Board the percentage of students attending a school that failed to meet adequate yearly progress has gone from under 14% to over 90%...for 2 years in a row).

"Hoboken cannot afford a trendy new program where it is wanted but not needed," said Jean Marie Mitchell. (the lack of insight and educational innovation by Jean (Marie Mitchell is now costing the Hoboken Public Schools millions of dollars a year.)

Kids First made every excuse under the sun for not voting for Hola. Now Hola is a charter school with a substantial wait list and another example of the Board being unresponsive to the communities needs.

Trendy? Concentrate on student success? Let's not forget the educational benefits of a dual language program that many of the Board members choose to ignore (recall the benefits were articulated on many occasions to the Board and community). Dual language is a sound educational approach that leads to great student success: http://tinyurl.com/87jlhfv

Its unfortunate Kids First were either ignorant or incapable of understanding the needs of the community they serve.

And our board was right in not wasting money setting up yet another program that would require a whole new staff that speaks fluent Spanish, is trained in teaching in Spanish to run a program in Spanish that would be separate from the rest of the school system. We can't afford to be wasting all this money running a half dozen or so separate programs for a school system that is smaller than many public schools! It is just a waste of resources.

Mrs. Garcia and Raia did have a majority on the board, but one of their own broke with them and one was absent.

Mr. Farina is not a member of Kids First, and did not have a track record of siding with them. Mr. DeFalco was absent, also beyond the control of Kids First.

While I think knowing more than one language is great, this plan was dashed together behind closed doors (not very transparent) and would have cost money, much better used on the fundamentals.

What an inane arguement:
board majority: kearns, garcia, defalco, farina, raia

There's your 5 votes. If they wanted to vote for it- they could have- They didnt.

Fascinating.

My first glimpse of prosbus Bajardi was at a School Board meeting where he stood up and spoke eloquently in that buttery baritone AGAINST the HoLa Dual Language Immersion program in the public schools. That's when I met Maureen Sullivan, who was there vigorously opposing HoLa.

It looks like they've switched horses, and oh so conveniently forgotten them good old days. The Dark Side makes one forget.

BTW, did you see the death threat posted on Hoboken411? Against the MAYOR. prosbus' and Sullivan's friend. tsk tsk. Absolutely nuts.

http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2012/05/breaking-hoboken411-posts-death-threat.html

Giant Hostory Lesson: When the vote came up for HOLA there had previously been claims that HOLA had the funding under Raslosky. As history now shows the Funding with HOLA was never there. I was at the meeting when that was revealed. This is just histrionics from prosbus, the curious twinkie eater and the mistress from Secaucus. From the BOE perspective and the Pupie majority, this was largely a political stunt to divide while at least the motives of the parents behind HOLA were sincere. I give Pupie credit, he knows how to play people (and for those he can't persuade, buy heir vote).

HOLA never had the funding. I thank Jimmy Farina for voting this down.

And there is no bigger patronage mill than running a small BOE that has to by law have an administrative & support staff capable of running a school district and a half dozen or more separate charter schools that all must also have their own separate administrative & support staffs that duplicate the work being done over at the BOE. It is no wonder the people who like to waste money think this is a good idea.

NJ article on March 17th 2009, meeting-(meeting immediately after the Hola vote).

"The bad news, said Raslowsky, is there have been significant cuts in the budget across the board, and teacher layoffs are likely."

Here's some more info from the same meeting (posted March 18th)

The tax levy, or how much Hoboken taxpayers pay to the schools, is increasing as the budget goes up, from $35.8 this year to $36.7 million next year.

But this year, there's a 1.8% decrease in the actual school tax rate; basically, the money Hoboken taxpayers pay to the schools gets spread around to all the new development in town (or, rateables)."

And what would have become the program/department/etc that the money was reallocated from?

Resources aren't being reallocated when you create redundant support systems to run a separate organization that is run parallel to an already existing organization that provides the same functions. You are duplicating expenses. But you already knew that Kim.

Why are you leaving Jimmy Farina off? He voted no. All you are trying to do is damage the Kids First. You have ZERO interest in good education. You are hoping to help Michele Russo, Beth Mason, Frank Raia, and Matt Calichio get control of the school board. People who have a long history of robbing the taxpayers, Russo, and being the least educated in town, Mason and Calichio

Bottom line- Raia majority (raia, kearns garcia, defalco and farina) had the votes to approve and they didnt.
One month after that vote it was discovered that Raslowski overspend the budget and the surplus was gone. Cuts had to made. So NO there was not enough money in the budget for Hola, as RG accurately stated. AND, state law mandates that all new programs be cut before others. This program was never going to come to fruition and they knew it- They just wanted to divide the community right before the election.
Re: Hola's costs- Hola wanted it's own seperate admin staff , seperate support staff , seperate office with seperate office staff, seperate library, seperate space within wallace (displacing current students) seperate after school enrichment program,1 teacher and 1 teaching asst. per room.and a full summer enrichment program. Check out their charter school- look at the admin and support personnel and costs. They were over 2mm in the first year.

Hoboken1653: If you look at my post on this thread posted at 2:59 am on Friday, May 18, 2012 you will see the former Board member was listed. I imagine CG left the gentleman off of her post since it was not relevant to the main point of her post, namely, the opposition of Kids First to the Hola/dual language program in 2009.

Mitchell and McAllister were not on the board at the time- but nice attempt to try to confuse people.

And your hubby Bajardi "spoke out against"... yep, my first glimpse of him was at the mike, as he spoke in that buttery, smooth baritone... against HoLA Dual Immersion in the public schools.

Do you remember that or was your head in the Twinkie barrel?

correction: sp-separate

pied piper- CG clearly listed who voted "no" and who "spoke out against" and a previous post of mine makes very clear that Mitchell and McAllister were public speakers at the meeting where Kids First members unanimously voted the Hola dual language program in feb 2009. No one is trying to confuse anyone. In fact, the more facts that come out, the better it is for all concerned.

Grafix Avenger: Hola applied for a charter only AFTER the program was rejected by Theresa Minutillo, Rose Marie Markle, Carrie Gilliard and Jim Farina (1 member was absent and the Board was short 1 person due to a resignation so only 4 votes were needed that evening). Nothing had to be "shared" with the district, Hola would have been a program within the Hoboken district and cost would have been integrated into the district budget (see explanation above).

GA claims there was "no opposition from the Hoboken School District"???-- here is a story from nj.com with the title "Hoboken Board of Education votes not to implement dual-language program" (http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2009/02/hola_1.html)

Only in GA's world is voting down Hola equal to "NO opposition"--

Clueless prosbus, I was there- YOU and Maureen Sullivan 'rejected' HoLa intergation into public schools. Maureen was quite vocal- I'll bet we can pull some video railing against HoLA. And of you, too.

Yes, of course "SHARING" resources for the program- our building for one- was inherently part of absorbing it into our district.

We all KNOW they applied for the Charter AFTER it was rejected by the Raia majority (Phil DeFalco stayed home on this critical vote- think about that, prosbus). T

Exhuming HoLa is dopey strategy. So, keep it up! prosbus is Hoboken's reverse-Midas; everyone he touches loses.

HoLa was not intended to be integrated with the PUBLIC schools, it was going to be a program WITHIN the PUBLIC schools. MItchell spoke out against Hola. McAllister spoke out against Hola. And Kids First voted unanimously against Hola as an integrated program in the Public Schools.

Now, the superintendent is trying to use some technicality (500 students? 25% of population?) as a reason against DiVinci and ALL the existing charter school and you tell us that there is SUPPORT? At least have the conviction to stand behind past statements and actions.

Seem like some editing has gone on with the May 7th meeting on Ch. 77, don't you agree?

Influence ebbs and wanes but truth remains

Grab a dictionary, CG. 'Integrated' with the public schools as in 'becoming part of a whole (district)'.

No editing on the Channel 77 broadcast of the May EIGHTH (not 7th) meeting- I have the dvds. It's ALL there.

In fact, perhaps the most compelling presentation of the night was by former B.A. Davis, who was on the ground floor of developing NJ charter schools in the Florio and Whitman administrations. His insight and objectivity (he is retired) is fascinating.

Read what Davis had to say about Charters in Hoboken and the proposed expansion to a 5th district.

http://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2012/05/elephant-in-room.html

As for CG, she is in campaign mode with circular 4-year old discussions of HoLa and the BoE. Oland had better have more to say than 4 year-old history, especially when some of Frank's current allies spoke against HoLa's attempt to join the public school district (Bajardi and maureen Sullivan).

Sad, cg and prosbus are so over in Hoboken.