LETTER: Hoboken needs to vote for BOE trustees who can plan for the future

15

In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Pavel Sokolov explains why the local voters needs to elect board of education trustees who can plan for the future.

Dear Editor,

Jersey City recently underwent one of the harshest property tax increases in recent memory due to, as Mayor Fulop pointed out, the Jersey City Board of Education.

The roughly 20% increase stems from a bloated budget on top of a lack of foresight regarding how to budget for planned cuts in state aid.

While I feel for the residents of Jersey City who know must bear thousands more in annual property taxes, especially those who are on a fixed income or living paycheck to paycheck,

I want to warn the other municipalities in Hudson County that the very same could happen to them if their Board of Educations are not held accountable.

In Hoboken this past January, the board of education tried to levy a $240 million bond during a time of rampant inflation and economic uncertainty.

Like Jersey City, Hoboken is primed to lose a significant portion of its state aid, yet no plan to plug the gap has been presented, even worse this year’s budget was only reined in due to COVID-19 grants that are soon expiring.

We need to vote in board of education members who are able to plan for the future and who have an understanding of the economic reality the average resident of our towns is facing.

Gone are the days of frivolous spending and patronage jobs, now we must make sure that every dollar spent is going towards improving the quality of education of our schools.

Pavel Sokolov
Hoboken resident


Warning: A non-numeric value encountered in /home/hcvcp/public_html/wp-content/themes/Hudson County View/includes/wp_booster/td_block.php on line 353

15 COMMENTS

  1. Fiscal responsibility and “caring about” our kids need not be mutually exclusive goals. Kids do not need “palaces” – they need modern equipment and a forward thinking curriculum. Good call out on looking ahead, the Covid relief money will be drying up at some point and the state cannot pay our bills forever. It is good that the $241m wish list got shot down, and I hope the next version is more practical – and takes a cue from Jersey City’s experience.

  2. The current one-party BOE is not providing the proper oversight of the school administration. None of the numbers and assumptions of the school administration have ever been challenged by any of the nine school board members. If it comes out of Dr. Johnson’s mouth, it is automatically true. The BOE might be officially non-partisan, but all its members are part of Team Bhalla and/or Team Angley/Cademartori. They show up to Ravi Bhalla fundraisers, cross endorse Team Bhalla, and were all united in favor of the failed $330 million proposed high school. Everything is a 9-0 vote. We need diversity of thought and oversight on the school board, not Team Bhalla/Angley/Cademartori lackies.

    • Watch out for what you wish for.

      Apparently anti-Roe, Trumpers with zero historical memory of the anti-corruption, pro-education Reform wing represented by current BoE majority.

      • Aren’t all the reformers gone? Leon Rose Maureen Irene? Are you just yelling conspiracy theory’s? Maybe talk to the vote no people?

  3. The current BOE members have proven that they can not be trusted to act in the best interest of all of Hoboken residents.

    They need to be replaced with representatives who will.

  4. They got thrashed on election day! This time, Pavel and his Red Elephants will claim the election was “rigged” and storm City Hall!

  5. School Board elections are “Non-Partisan”. Stop trying to turn the elections, including the Municipal elections, into partisan races. Move both the School Board and Municipal elections back to April and May. Hoboken can then once again vote on the School Budget and we can get rid of politicians posturing for votes in November with virtue signals to gain support from State and Federal officials. Stop posing and start doing right by Hoboken.

  6. A very thoughtful post! We need to take back the BOE and the 5th Ward. Hoboken residents can’t afford the Bhalla train to run rampant with all these tax increases.

  7. If taxes on the those who actually pay them continue to escalate they will push the middle class out of Hoboken.
    Dr Johnson her BOE rubber stamps and the Bhalla’s administration big lie of omission was exposed and the $300,000,000 boondoggle sports club masquerading as a high rise high school plan was overwhelmingly defeated by Hoboken voters who now know they should not trust them ever again.

  8. Great point on partisanship, and when a local administration raises the conversation to a state or national level, all the local boxes need to be checked first. That is certainly not the case in Hoboken; taxes, school board plan, cannabis plan, monarch/observer plan, muni plan, Yada, Yada.

LEAVE A REPLY