The North Bergen Board of Education just announced that they are dropping their pre-K application with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, saying the alternative will save taxpayers a total of $17 million.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Our school district is constantly re-evaluating our students’ needs and our ability to provide the facilities required to meet our educational goals, and at this time we have concluded that proceeding with the diversion process and building a permanent structure at that site is not financially feasible,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. George Solter said in a statement.
“We began the diversion process because we wanted to expand to a free Full Day Pre-K program, and we were able to meet that goal for the first time this year thanks to our School Realignment Plan and the opening of the Nicholas J. Sacco Junior High School. Now we will be able to save North Bergen taxpayers $17 million in reduced construction costs while still fulfilling our educational goals, which is a win-win for our students, parents and taxpayers.”
While the district added that other options are “less optimal,” projected construction costs are simply too high to pursue any further.
The NJDEP held two public sessions about the potential pre-K expansion at Braddock Park this summer, where impassioned speakers spoke for and against the plan.
Earlier this year, the Union City and West New York Boards of Commissioners, along with the Weehawken Town Council, approved resolutions opposing keeping the trailers in the park in the midst of a Hudson County civil war that pitted North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco against state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack.
The Guttenberg Town Council also approved a resolution opposing the measure last month.
Then in April, North Bergen unveiled a new pre-school plan, a proposal that would involve moving on from the trailers in Braddock Park, as HCV first reported.
Last week, the North Bergen BOE opened the Nicholas J. Sacco Junior High School which is now serving 7th and 8th grade students and will expand to 9th graders next year.
The new school opened additional classroom space at the township’s local elementary schools, creating the space necessary for the Pre-K 4 program which is now open to all eligible North Bergen students, the district added this evening.
Concurrently, the district began offering free Full Day Pre-K 3 to a limited number of students whose families meet federal poverty guidelines.
Those students are being housed at a local Head Start certified private preschool, and the BOE is working to expand the program by identifying additional seats at local state-certified private preschools and daycares.
Pre-K 3 and 4 programs are funded by the New Jersey State Preschool Expansion Aid program, which did not exist at the time the diversion application was first initiated.
Instead of investing more funds into early childhood education, the towns rip money away from it and pay their adminisrators and superintendents gross amounts of money and our societial system continues to become worse. What our system does but push them through age out promotions due to poor test scores.
How much of our money was wasted hiring Trenton consultants to prepare slide presentations to push this through? Now the narrative changes and we are told this will save $17 million? More likely, enrollment is dropping, prior estimates were (wink wink) generous and overstated enrollment, and expected state and federal funding is dropping. Also, remember NB is a sanctuary city.
North Bergen isn’t saving taxpayers anything – North Bergen is COSTING taxpayers millions of dollars for violating environmental regulations and for pursuing a too many years-long diversion application that was based on the deceitful idea that NB needed more classrooms and the only place for the classrooms was on protected Braddock Park land.
For 25 years North Bergen officials illegally removed a Hudson County Braddock Park softball field while lying to the public and state about it and jeopardizing lives. Instead of being contrite, they boast.
BTW, it wasn’t North Bergen officials who first publicly suggested buying the High Tech HS campus, as NB officials now take credit for – It was myself and someone else. Even former County Executive Tom Degise admitted 1:45 into this interview on youtube that “this innovative idea was fallen upon all of us”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYy7FcVTVPQ
It’s really unfortunate this whole process had to be such a adversarial back and forth, but I’m glad it concluded and we have a good resolution – for now. Unfortunately, I don’t expect accountability and I fully expect more of this slanted reporting and whitewashing of what really happened. Luckily the activists have everything fully documented.
I think all parties wanted what was best for both taxpayers and the children. However, we were not providing innovative solutions and instead allowing for corrupt influence to essentially just “steal” land away from the county’s wider public use. As someone who grew up in both WNY and N Bergen, it’s not fair to the other towns that more and more of this park is fenced off and closed up to the public. We should be using the opportunity of this land to create something beautiful and environmentally conscious that all can enjoy.
I’m proud of all the residents that stood up to what was clearly wrong and they won. Just like they did when we had to stop a polluting natural-gas powered plant from getting built in our area.
I hope we continue to remain engaged in a civilized manner with our elected officials and demand what is collectively ours. It’s bad enough that they keep plastering their names on things WE pay for.
I hope we also follow closely to ensure this town builds a best-in-class education system and pre-school for our children. This is an investment in our economic growth as well as our kid’s futures. I don’t care if this kid is born in America or anywhere else in the world. They’re welcome here and I embrace them with open arms.
ALL IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME! A persona’s “legal status” should not be held against them when neither you nor most other people are doing anything about making it easier for them to live safely and legally as productive members of our community. In fact by continuously promoting the issue of illegal immigration as some kind of “problem” that makes those people’s lives miserable, you are not helping the problem and are easily manipulated useful id*ots that keep us divided. LOVE ALL YOUR NEIGHBORS. ALL of them.