The “Kids First” Hoboken Board of Education slate is the best choice for school board next month, explains former 5th Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham.
Dear friends and neighbors,
As we ready ourselves for the upcoming elections across the country, I am pleased to see that we can expect strong civic engagement from the national level to the local level.
While national politics is important, I strongly believe that local government and selecting our local officials/leadership should be guided by local issues.
I think it’s great (and that we are lucky) for us to have Hudson County local elections be non-partisan. It is not like that statewide among all other counties in NJ and most of the country.
As I normally like to do, I’ll focus on the upcoming school board elections, since at the local level, it’s all we have in Hoboken this year that’s non-partisan!
It is important to remind Hoboken residents that when on the City Council, I fought the fight for good government which was rooted in transparency, integrity, practicality, and fairness.
While I have enjoyed my time away from local government, I have watched and witnessed with disbelief what transpired with the school board’s referendum earlier this year (with certain city council members as an accomplice), and I am truly disappointed.
It’s outrageous that a council member would go on record to support suppressing this project and not engage community involvement – particularly before city wide council and BOE elections.
These are tactics of Hoboken’s dark past to be arrogant, and secretly deliberate.
Fortunately, the broad Hoboken community overwhelmingly rejected this project.
Let’s harness that energy to bring change with healthy debate and transparency back to the BOE for all residents and children of Hoboken.
To help make that happen, I am supporting Pavel Sokolov (6), Cindy Wiegand (7) and Donna Magen (8), the Kids First slate. This team was instrumental in galvanizing the community in stopping the 330mil BOE referendum.
They fought for voter enfranchisement, ethical government, and ensuring that our entire community could make an informed decision, hallmarks of good Democratic principles. Many residents in Hoboken were threatened with displacement, loss of life savings, and instability in their lives due to the BOE’s attempt to railroad a middle of the winter vote with no debate or discussion.
This was a vanity project that tried to brush the real academic challenges under the rug and disregarded the needs and concerns of Hoboken’s students that needed the most support.
The Kids First team has a vision of partnership with the residents of Hoboken, and moreover the State.
They understand the practical and respectful financial realities that our residents are facing and will ensure we are always looking for ways to improve educational excellence by putting Kids First.
Here’s a link to their website with their visions and bios. I encourage you to learn more about them, as well as all other candidates too, to make a more informed decision.
As always, share with your neighbors and friends, and let me know if you have any additional questions.
Thanks,
Peter Cunningham
Hoboken resident and former 5th Ward councilman