In a letter to the editor, Jersey City Board of Education candidate Brendan Doohan, of the “For Stronger Schools” slate, explains why he’s running.
Dear Editor,
As a parent of a Jersey City Public School student, I am continually disheartened at the ongoing mismanagement of the Jersey City Board of Education. There is a glaring need for more resources and better leadership.
This is urgent since, as federal and state funding sources decrease, the budget for the district will increasingly rely on the local school tax levy.
With this change in funding, the Board needs to operate more efficiently and responsibly while also vetting vendors more thoroughly. The time for change is now.
A bit about me. My ancestors immigrated to Jersey City from Ireland more than a century ago. I grew up in downtown Jersey City and currently live in the Heights with my wife and son.
Education has played a large role in my life: I graduated from Saint Peter’s Prep, earned a degree from Rutgers, and later completed a graduate degree in clinical therapy. Currently I work in technology.
Today, as the parent of a Jersey City Public School student, I see firsthand the urgent need for change in our schools.
Too many classrooms still lack basics—bathroom stall doors, maintained athletic fields, working HVAC systems—all this while the Board of Education had provided insufficient review of the budget.
Repeated audits have exposed the same financial failures year after year: “missing contracts and inaccurate payroll records to outdated asset inventories and unrecorded expenses.”
These are not isolated mistakes. They reveal a systemic lack of oversight that drains resources away from students.
My vision for the district is simple: every student should have access to the resources they need to succeed.
This includes strong STEM programs, trade school pathways, extracurriculars, and athletics. Achieving this requires a Board guided by four pillars:
Accountability – We must demand accountability in every contract and program. Trust – We must rebuild trust by making budgets transparent and understandable.
Communication – We need open communication so parents, students, and teachers are heard.
Success for all students – We must measure every decision by whether it helps students.
To combat this rampant oversight I will do three things:
1) Audit any contract over $50,000 to see how it is being used and if JCPS students are directly benefiting from it
2) Vote “No” on contracts where either the program is not meeting its goals or does not have a measurable goal; and,
3) Analyze current spending for any other opportunities for greater efficiencies and alternative funding sources.
These steps will ensure that the historic budget of the Board brings results for students and the JCPS staff. With state and federal funding declining, Jersey City will inevitably rely more on the local tax levy.
But that reliance must be gradual and responsible, not reckless. If we ask taxpayers to shoulder more, every dollar must be justified.
As a board member, I will push to cut waste and explore funding alternatives, redirecting funds into programs that directly serve the students and staff.
Having an independent Board that only answers to the students of Jersey City is essential for progress. With the right focus and discipline, we can build a school system that lives up to the promise our children deserve. That is why I’m running.
Last, I am not doing this alone. With Lorenzo Richardson and Aimee Sharrock, I am running on the “For Stronger Schools” slate.
If you also feel frustrated with the direction of the Board, please join us. You can get involved by:
● Finding us on Instagram at @forstrongerschools and on Facebook at https://facebook.com/forstrongerschools.
● Donating at Aimee Sharrock, Lorenzo Richardson, and Brendan Doohan — Donate via ActBlue (any amount helps)
● Most importantly, voting for all three (3) of the For Stronger Schools slate (myself 6F, Aimee Sharrock 7F and Lorenzo Richardson 5F) on November 4, 2025. Early voting starts on October 25 and runs until November 2nd.
Together we can bring the change the students deserve.
Brendan Doohan
Jersey City Board of Education candidate
I appreciate this candidate. I want to add corruption needs to go in JC Schools. Good teachers can be better by helping to root out bad teachers, bad administrators, and other bad actors in the district. The union should help. Our schools should focus on the children. If our teachers need a hiatus to unlearn their static, fixed, and deficit mindsets in order to continue teaching and working, set something up for them. Do not allow them to continue to be belligerent, racist, and abusive towards the children. That’s the minimum. The school board should have more of a say in rooting out all malfeasance from the district.
I appreciate what this candidate claims to want to do. It’s important that a school district focus on children and learning. However, there is a ridiculous amount of corruption that stems from a deficit mindset in teachers and school administration. They put on a fake smile and make claims about being professionals and educators, but their often refer to academics as discipline, which really means compliance. The school staff do not use pragmatic evidence based methods to help students learn. They do not appear to believe in what developmental means; the child study teams in some schools do not understand autism. Our children get yelled at, ODD is over diagnosed, and often the lexicon of the teachers and parents in the district falls within the boundary of racist tropes and dogma. I believe some folks have to go. The union should help weed them out or figure out a way to help remember what it means to be an educator. The teachers who do not like kids need to go. They should not be sticking up for angry, disgruntled teachers like police unions stand up for bad cops.
He sounds like a Trump supporter trying to play nice with the democratic diverse voters in Jersey City. The same talk about efficiency. He also caters to the rich genteel house owner Jersey City by talking against increasing taxes. He or his ancestors didn’t believe enough to send him to JCBOE schools when young..
Many of his ideas are good. No question that corruption needs to be rooted out in JCBoE and more sunshine needs to be brought in. But he doesn’t seem the right candidate for it.
He could bring in a Musk like efficiency cut that could ruin the whole school district.
Thanks I will pass.