Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla has endorsed the “Leadership that Listens” team in the non-partisan November 8th board of education race, stating they will make “evidence-based decisions” for the betterment of students and the district.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“I know for many, the high school referendum is a topic that is important to many residents. Voters made it clear that the proposal put on the ballot would have benefitted from even deeper community input and was too much, too soon,” Bhalla said on his website.
“When I met with Leslie [Norwood], Antonio [Grana] and Alex [De La Torre], they made it clear that they’ve listened to and taken this feedback to heart, learned from the mistakes made during the process, and will push for much greater community engagement on any school-related capital improvement projects going forward.”
Bhalla’s endorsement isn’t a huge surprise, given that two of his allies on the city council, 5th Ward representative Phil Cohen and at-Large representative Joe Quintero have already backed LTL and the mayor also came out in favor of the referendum in January.
He describes the BOE team as “longtime residents, dedicated community activists with children in the school district, and have a history of supporting our schools.”
Furthermore, Bhalla said they will “make evidence-based decisions, free from politics, with the sole goal of improving our education system.”
“I know that Leslie, Antonio and Alex trust our educators to make the decisions on which books to teach our children, believe in diversity and inclusion training, and come to decisions and opinions based on sound science and data,” he continued.
“The choice for me, especially in comparison to previous public comments made by other candidates in the race, is abundantly clear – Leadership that Listens has my vote,” referencing Facebook comments opposing mask mandates for children from “Kids First” candidate Donna Magen.
For the time being, Hoboken electeds are mostly sitting this one out, though former 5th Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham endorsed Kids First, while 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco attended a fundraiser for the trio.
In an email blast this afternoon, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, who has not endorsed in the race but has criticized LTL for an attack ad that painted Kids First as Republican extremists last week, said Bhalla taking aim at Magen was a cheap shot.
“Candidates who like maybe you and your neighbors someday, who just wanted to get more involved in your community and have not hurt him or anyone in Hoboken, are now under attack by the mayor just to score another political win,” she wrote.
“Let that sink in. That is the culture he and his team have created in our town and in our elections and one that we critically need to be changed.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.