Jersey City municipal and school board officials saw their clash again hit a fever pitch last night in the midst of Superintendent of Schools Dr. Norma Fernandez’s contract getting extended for five years at last night’s special board of education (BOE) meeting.
Screenshot via Facebook Live.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The encounter was prompted by Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little, who took to the podium during public comment Fernandez’s contract which expires next year, which was eventually approved 6-2 despite several calls to hold off on the vote.
“I want to thank everyone who is here tonight to participate in the democratic process, whether we disagree or agree on this issue. This is what community engagement looks like. And I want to be clear, I fully support the teachers who are here tonight. They deserve a fair contract,” the downtown councilwoman said.
“But that is a separate question from the question at hand. A vote to extend the superintendent’s contract for five years, more than the previous renewal of three years, is a commitment to the same direction for the Jersey City public schools from now until 2031. It is a vote of confidence.”
Little also thanked Fernandez for her decades of service, but added a “rushed five-year commitment” was not warranted amid ongoing “significant issues” in the district, echoing several of the reasons Mayor James Solomon objected to an extension or renewal, as HCV first reported.
Little continued by pointing to metrics that she felt didn’t warrant confidence in Fernandez.
“Less than one third of our students are proficient in math, only forty one percent are proficient in English language arts, and our high school graduation rate is only seventy eight percent,” Little said.
“And the latest part of the special education audit, that was delayed for seven years, was so bad it was sent straight to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. Further, the Jersey City Board of Education has increased their tax levy by over two hundred million dollars in just the last two years.”
In addition, Little took swipes at Fernandez’s salary, which was increase to around $1.5 million cumulatively over those five years, as the highest paid in the state at nearly $400,000 per year – although members of the board vocally disagreed.
Board Vice President Dejon Morris then responded, and by extension Solomon, and – as expected at this point – he didn’t pull any of his punches.
First, he chided Little for supporting the initially proposed 20 percent tax increase – then 15 percent increase – without first seeing the budget, then voted alongside the rest of the council (9-0) to introduce the $886.5 million budget with a 15.5 percent tax increase.
“I find it absurd that people come in here, Madam Councilwoman, and criticize our governmental process on renewing our superintendent’s contract when you voted in favor of the $200,000 contracts for the deputy mayor of education who does absolutely nothing compared to education,” Morris exclaimed, although the council did not vote on deputy mayor appointments.
“In addition to that, you talk about seven years of failure that we have, well, how about you’re supporting an initiative for a mayor that’s trying to do a 20 percent tax increase, and now 15 percent, to the council. And then you have the audacity to come up here and try to tell us what we’re supposed to be doing when you admitted on the record that you would vote for 20 percent. So you have the audacity to do that?”
Shortly after Morris’s remarks, an unidentified shouting man was escorted out of the room by police before the officers reentered the meeting without much explanation, with the attendee out of sight of the camera.
Board President Noemi Velazquez continued that it is not the norm for the BOE to rebut public comment, but decided to let Morris opine because Little and company “did not have the decency” to stay to hear her response after their remarks at the previous board meeting they attended and spoke at.
This isn’t the first time the two have exchanged words as back in May, Velazquez responded angrily to requests from Little that she made in response to the arrest of Pecot.
Trustee Natalia Ioffe, who spoke at Wednesday’s council meeting as a resident, pointed out that the school district’s over $1 billion budget is actually nearly equal to the city’s roughly $886 million budget if you remove the nearly $210 million in charter school funding.
“The fun fact that I shared with the council, and I think it merits also sharing today with our educators, so the city, the mayor announced their budget at 886 million dollars total,” Ioffe said.
“Everybody knows that our budget is 1,960,000 dollars. However, if you take away the charter school payout of 210 million dollars, we end up with the same 886 million dollars. So currently, the board of ed and City Council matches in their budgets.”
According to Ioffe, there was a lot of misinformation circulating online prior to the meeting, specifically regarding Fernandez’s new $1.5 million salary over the five years once her new contract starts.
During public comment, parents had referenced that the salaries of five recent top hires in the Solomon administration that were recently made public amount to nearly $1.4 million.
Ioffe took issue with the fact that those numbers were made public through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request in comparison the BOE who has all of their “laundry out there” to allow the public to criticize them.
“That is part of the democratic process, whether there’s a raise or a contract, everything is out there for all the world to see and examine,” Ioffe said.
“Thankfully, the folks who OPRA’d the city salaries, I noticed that if you add up the entire municipal council budget, which encompasses the city council members and their staff, is approximately 1.4 million dollars.”
Ioffe continued that the total City Council budget, including council members and staff, also totals nearly $1.4 million, meanwhile the BOE has no staff nor salary.
“We get a tray of sandwiches and a takeout for our monthly meetings, which is fantastic. We also get compensated for training – and sodas – for training conferences, which is what keeps us knowledgeable about our job,” Ioffe said.
“. .. And so having said that, one could also argue that by not getting paid, this governing body saves taxpayers one point four million dollars a year. Surely we can afford a million and a half over five years for our one employee?”
Ioffe concluded by noting that Fernandez presented budgets in her first two years as superintendent without tax increases before hikes were incorporated in the last two years, adding she inherited a mess in the Business Department that she has sought to clean up.
Velazquez later responded to Little when voting, stating that Bryant – who she said Solomon has been eyeing as superintendent – and even former beloved Superintendents Dr. Charles Epps Jr. and Franklin Walker pale in comparison to Fernandez.
“I have to speak with our mayor about the beautiful yet disgusting letter, which we’ve never had from any other mayor. We’ve had disagreements with mayors. We have had mayors who want to come and make the district to their image,” the board president said.
“But we’ve never had a mayor put such a disgusting letter publicly against the board of education, a district that is educating their kids. Never. And I think that was lower than low. Can’t go any further.”
Velazquez said that, although former First Lady Michelle Obama famously encouraged Americans that “When they go low, we go high,” she was “going to hell” with her comments on Solomon regarding Fernandez and insinuated she had received death threats.
“If you look at her credentials and put them together, Mr. Mayor, with the person that you want to put in her place, no matter how many papers the other resume has, it does not compete at all,” Velazquez said.
She later directed her venom directly at Solomon, while doubling down on her support for Fernandez.
“I am rejecting, rejecting everything that is in that disgusting letter sent to all the city, the entire city, by a mayor who should be fixing the City Hall and stop hiring people that aren’t even from here, don’t know us, know nothing about actual pedagogy, and can only open charter schools,” Velazquez said.
“Yes, they’re public schools, but they take away from the public district, take away from those same teachers that they went to: ‘Vote for me.’ Or maybe in Spanish: ’Si, se puede.’ No, no se puede. We ain’t going nowhere.”