Councilwoman: School District Should Invest Funds in Classrooms, Not Lawsuit

A city councilwoman on Monday called for the Board of Education to drop its lawsuit against Hoboken's Dual Language Charter School.

Beth Mason said the school district should focus on conserving resources and investing funds into classrooms.

“It is very unfortunate that the Hoboken Board of Education is wasting precious resources on a politically charged lawsuit, instead of using this money in classrooms to improve the learning environment for our students and teachers," Mason said in a statement.

"Our children should not be forced to stand in two lines with one versus the other, public school student versus charter school student, but rather in one circle where each student is given the opportunity to pursue his or her dreams. The Board of Education should drop this lawsuit immediately. Two Board Trustees, Peter Biancamano and Frances Rhodes-Kearns, objected to the lawsuit, but their concerns were ignored by Board of Education President Leon Gold."

The district filed a lawsuit on April 14 against the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) and the state Department of Education, calling the state's approval of the school's charter and expansion "not valid," according to NJ.com.

Hoboken claims the approval should be reversed because the state's Department of Education chief innovation officer made the decision and not the department's commissioner, according to the report.

Mason criticized Gold for stating HoLa is creating a "white flight" and causing "segregation" to occur in Hoboken.

"Leon Gold’s statements are disappointing and disturbing,” Mason said. “Even worse these statements trivialize the struggle that occurred to integrate schools and classrooms, during a time period when a person’s skin color determined which water fountain he or she could drink from.

"The idea of accusing parents who send their children to a dual language school, which was founded on the premise of educating students in a multicultural environment, of being proponents of segregation is absolutely absurd. Mr. Gold should apologize for these insensitive remarks immediately."

The councilwoman also questioned why the district would spend money on the lawsuit when its budget poses a 4 percent tax increase and calls for 54 layoffs, according to Mason's statement.

"Why would the BOE waste precious resources on needless litigation, instead of using the money to raise educational standards and create an overall better district for Hoboken students,” Mason said.