“Education Matters Team Responds to Blatant Lies by Billionaire Trump Confiante Super PAC & Change for Children”   

In Response to a weekend Lit Drop By Change for Children which included outright & irresponsible lies, The Education Matters Team releases the following response citing key evidence of their proven effective track record in each of the following areas.

Restoring Vocational Classes – The members of the Education Matters team on the Board have long voiced and acted upon a pivot to pathways to careers. Earlier this year the Board announced the launch of a CTE (Career and Technology  Education) middle school on the south  side of the City in addition to restoring and funding various programs in support of CTE path ways. Gerald Lyons is the  Board Chair of the Careers / College committee while Board President, Thomas who serves on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey School  Board association was part of a state wide task force that brought out a comprehensive report on educational opportunities for the non-college bound learner for adoption by the 550 school districts in New Jersey.

https://www.njsba.org/news-information/research/projects/final-report-educational-opportunities-for-the-non-college-bound-learner/

Preserving Sports Programs – The “Education Matters” fully restored the middle school sports and high school athletics programs that were cut by the former district administration in 2018 and passed the 2019 budget that fully funded both middle school sports and high school athletics. A robust strategy to include private participation to fund the different elements of the program was launched earlier this year in addition to increasing the scope of the cost sharing partnership with the City and reducing employee extra compensation by 25% to allow for these sports programs remain untouched.

Removal of Lead Water lines – The Education Matters team has taken the lead on the remediation of the Lead situation in Jersey City schools which has gone on unchecked for the last decade. The remediation of the Jersey City schools are currently underway starting earlier this year with McNair and PS#15 schools as part of the pilot project that will declare these two schools Lead-free. The remediation which is underway in collaboration with the City, the MUA with guidance from the DOE estimates the complete remediation of all schools in the next 18 months at a proposed cost of $ 3.5 million which was ear marked in the 2019-2020 budget.  Board President Thomas, announced this initiative at a Jersey City Together event in March, 2019. Trustee Verdibello who is the Chair of the Facilities committee is the Board Liaison for this district wide initiative.

Solving School Budget Crisis: The Education Matters team has led from the front on the school funding matters with an all-encompassing approach including operations efficiency, identifying and reducing waste, legal challenges, legislative advocacy, staff rationalization and increase in revenues.  Board President Thomas has testified in every Senate & Assembly Finance committee hearing in support of full funding for Jersey City in addition to taking the lead on a comprehensive legal suit against the state for it’s over $ 750 million underfunding of the operational budget and $1 billion in underfunding of the capital expense (LRFP) budget, operations efficiency audit among others.  Trustee Shaw, the Chair of the Board Finance Committee is taking the lead on continuing the Board’s oversight towards ensuring full funding for JCBOE. The team came out in full support of the proposed 1% payroll tax legislation in April, 2018 which has helped offset some of the state aid cuts. The Change for Children team is funded by New York based billionaire developer and Donald Trump confidante Richard Lefrak who is bitterly opposed to the payroll tax and its expansion and is involved in a legal suit against the City of Jersey City to stop the payroll tax and the funding of JCBOE.

Lowering Teacher Health Care costs: In the 2017-2018 school year, the JCBOE spent $110 million on staff health care costs.  The Education Matters team lead from the front with transformative leadership in health care reform that was passed in July 2018 which, in part, withdrew the JCBOE from the bloated, out of control “state employee health benefits program” managed by the state to a self funded program managed directly by the JCBOE which helped save taxpayers approximately $25 million. This eliminated the district’s obligation to the Chapter 78 law which, in essence, had been lowering teacher salaries . Teachers are now seeing savings to their healthcare costs and increases in their take home pay, at no additional cost to the district. The JCBOE health insurance model is widely acclaimed as a success model. President Thomas was instrumental in conceptualizing this plan ably assisted  by the rest of the Education Matters team. These efforts also helped, in part, to negotiate 4 year contracts starting in 2019 with all 6 labor groups at the JCBOE assuaging stability and job assurance for the over 4,000 employees of JCBOE for the first time in recent history.

Conduct at Board Meetings : The Education Matters team has ushered in  an era of transparency and accountability through the live telecast of all Board meetings since January, 2018. In addition, Board meetings are now rotated through different parts of  the city to allow for greater participation of the citizens. Earlier restricts on public comment have been eliminated to encourage and motivate public comment. Trustee Verdibello, who is the Chair of the Community & Parents committee, holds monthly meetings typically with over 70 parents in attendance.    

The Education Matters team is confident that Jersey City voters will focus on facts & progress  rather than an irresponsible and unethical smear campaign and we send our gratitude to the hundreds of Jersey City residents who were angered by this fabrication and contacted us in response to it.