In a letter to the editor, a volunteer for the Parents United Hoboken Board of Education team says that change on the board is long overdue. 
Dear editor,
The character assassinations that is Hoboken politics as usual needs to end. The slandering of candidates and implications of alleged guilt by association are beneath those making these accusations and the voting public.
On November 8, our nation faces the serious question of who will be President but Hoboken will also be asked the serious question of whether the current Board of Education majority has done its job or if new blood is needed to make the public schools better.
Neither election should involve bullying nor attempts at delegitimization; Hoboken deserves a factually based debate of ideas.
The tortured connections partisans of Forward Together (the status quo board majority slate) have drawn between Parents United (the fresh faced slate of reformers) and past political actors are a sad parlor trick designed to distract the public from actual issues facing the Hoboken public schools.
On the board majorities watch, and by their doing, taxes have gone up and scores have gone down.
Forward Together candidates and extremist partisans may impugn the Parents United team for having an executive with a special needs child, a real-estate agent with twins, and a dedicated public school teacher with a family of his own; but despite Parents United being unable to jump through the ever changing hoops Forward Together seemingly requires for the right to have an opinion, the fact is the board majority has failed.
Even in the pro-status quo camp there is dissent. Though Mayor Zimmer is backing them, she has publicly stated she is against the contemptuous lawsuit supported by Forward Together against the HoLa dual language school.
The lawsuit by the board majority against one of Hoboken’s public charter schools is demonstrable evidence of a derisive and divisive attitude towards involved parents for making a choice Forward Together apparently disagrees with.
It is another distraction focused tactic designed to pit fellow members of the community against each other and ensure a mobilized base of voters that are fed the line that if not for charter schools the board majority would be doing a better job at improving education.
The time for excuse making, childish and immature name calling, and the Forward Together school board majority is over.
It is time for the new blood that is Parents United so that the students of Hoboken’s district schools have a better opportunity at a bright future. Vote 3-6-5.
Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein
I do not trust the motivation of members of the Parents United ticket and even more so the people behind the scenes who put it together.
I will be voting for Jen Evans, Sheilliah Dallara and Irene Sobolov (Forward Together 1-2-4)
I tend to agree with you on Jen Evans, but I have to disagree with you about Sobolov. She has been part of the problem since she joined the board. She causes nothing but dissension and division. Can’t and won’t vote for her. So far I’m voting for Benway and Evans. I’m up in the air on the third.
Agreed. Met her once – totally negative and divisive.
While I agree with some points made by the author, I have to respectfully disagree on the choice made by Parents United to include Ms. Nelson on their ticket.
Recently, in local print publication, Ms. Nelson stated that “We will never be Brooklyn until our schools improve”. Pardon me if it’s not an exact quote, but you get the idea.
Yes, Ms. Nelson is a realtor and it appears from her comment that ultimately, her concern is raising school standards so that real estate values will increase. I don’t need to point out that if real estate values increase, so do realtor commissions. I found her comments to be repugnant. Inserting property values into the discussion is simply wrong. Inserting real estate values into the discussion when you stand to profit by what may be perceived as improvement is disgusting.
I’m still studying the candidates and their positions before I make my final choices, but one thing is certain, Ms. Nelson does not belong on a board that will influence policy. I urge all who care about our children to look at all of the candidates carefully,regardless of which “ticket” they may be tied to and vote for anyone but Ms. Nelson,
While I do plan on voting 1-2-4 for the board of ed slate, it’s comments like these that make me rethink if that’s the best choice. I’m a Hoboken property tax payer without kids, and I am concerned with the amount of taxes I (and others) pay with such a poor school system to show for it. I agree with Ms. Nelson and think she’s correct – we won’t catch up with Brooklyn if we don’t fix our public schools. Why is saying something so factual a problem? The biggest chunk of our property taxes goes to the school system and to expect that these tax dollars are spent wisely and in a way that benefits our community and property values is pretty logical to me. I hope others take this approach and would be curious to hear what 1-2-4 has to say on this point. The largest source of revenue for the Hoboken school system is Hoboken property tax payers and I’d like to start hearing how we are going to improve schools which will in turn improve the real estate values of those paying such high taxes.
Oy vey, thanks for tipping your hand at the other team’s strategy. We already knew they were bullet-voting Benway. Now we know they’re targeting Sobolov as the one to pick off. Well, good luck with that.
Unequivocally, Irene Sobolov does NOT cause “dissension and division” on the board. Irene is the ultimate team player, and no one has been a more dedicated community volunteer than her. 7 years ago I took one of her volunteer tours of the HHS, for as many years I have been receiving her email bulletins of events at the public schools, including theater and sports- all on her own time, to benefit our community. Sobolov was also co-Founder of the Hoboken Family Alliance. What the hell has Chipper Benway done for Hoboken District Schools for as many years? He couldn’t even drag himself to a single board meeting. Really, shame on you and Parents United for smearing Irene. What else would we expect from the team that pointed a flashlight into Sobolov’s eyes at the debate.
Please VOTE 1-2-4 on November 8.
You’re ridiculous.
Agreed. Time for this divisiveness to stop. Also time to rid ourself of the fiscal and performance problems. One way the staid “teams” try to prove competence is to point to the boards that the serve (which were appointed by Zimmer) or the nonprofits which were created as a means of shoring up a database list for running for office. I know my email was stolen for their campaign purposes which is illegal.