Jersey City BOE candidate Gina Verdibello striving for better quality education

Gina Verdibello, a candidate for a three-year term on the Jersey City Board of Education (JCBOE), says she is focused on better quality education for students, and is also pushing for facility improvements.

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Verdibello, who ran in 2013, as well as in 2014 – under the Children First Team slate with JCBOE members Lorenzo Richardson and Gerald Lyons – is motivated to continue her work advocating for Jersey City public schools.

Since her campaign last year, she has been advocating for several facility improvements, the main reason why Verdibello first started attending the JCBOE meetings. She has successfully pushed for a trailer report evaluation.

“The oldest trailer in our district is 30 years old, we have a 20-year limit on trailers. We are over the time that these trailers should be here.”

Outside of attending Jersey City BOE meetings, Verdibello remains active in the community. She is a member of Healthy Schools Now! Coalition in Trenton, was a principal for a day at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, as well as the Parents’ Council Vice President and a Girls Scout Troop Leader.

Despite her unsuccessful campaign last year, Verdibello continues to focus on getting a better educational experience for the children. “There has to be a solution and I am trying to find that.”

Additionally, the mother of three children, who all attend Jersey City public schools, has testified at the state against Common Core and PARCC testing.

For Verdibello, joining the current board members means a call for change.

“I really just want to incorporate everything (I’ve learned), just get in there and make changes, good changes.”

She also told Hudson County View that she questions whether or not the board members are really listening to the public’s concerns.

“What’s the follow up? Are you going to answer these people? Are you going to give them an answer? Are you just going ignore them and pretend that it goes away?”

She also criticized the board for not visiting the schools in the district.

“As a parent, I don’t always see a lot of these board members at my school. If I were a board member I would make it a point to try to go to every school.”

Verdibello is one of four candidates seeking the three seats available on the Jersey City Board of Education, which will be decided by the November 3 elections.