An attempted coup of the Jersey City school board leadership has robbed board members first say on the district’s preliminary budget for the 2024-25 school year. Instead the billion-dollar budget plan will go directly to the county superintendent, a move that has infuriated some board members.
Contested board President DeJon Morris and trustees Chris Tisdale and Afaf Muhammad were surprised to learn they won’t get a chance to speak on the budget Monday after the scheduled meeting was cancelled because of a dispute over who are the rightful leaders of the board.
“When you ask real questions that may disrupt or cause worry, things like this will happen,” Morris told The Jersey Journal in a text. “It also appears the administration is afraid of the Jersey City taxpayers coming to the meeting … So they don’t trust the public and are obviously circumventing the process, which has always been the complaint.”
“Who authorized that?” Tisdale said in a phone call. “Why would the people not have the right to see where their money is being spent? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Monday’s caucus meeting was canceled after a chaotic Feb. 29 school board meeting left uncertainty about who leads the board of education. Jersey City Superintendent Norma Fernandez said the preliminary “fully funded” school budget will be sent directly to County Superintendent Melissa Pearce instead of going for a vote before the school board.
Under state law, the school spending plan must be presented to the county superintendent by March 20. School budget conversations often begin with a public presentation by the school district, allowing board members and the community an opportunity to lobby for some program and against others.
Then the school board votes on the budget, which is sent to the county superintendent for approval before returning to the school board for final adoption.
“We are ready with the budget, I believe Monday’s meeting will be canceled,” Fernandez said Friday before the cancellation was confirmed. “No cuts. No personnel cuts and no increases to the taxpayer.”
She added that a hearing with the state Office of Administrative Law (OAL) will be held Wednesday to determine if the Feb. 29 votes to oust President Natalia Ioffe and Vice President Noemi Velazquez and replace them with Morris as president and Barkouch as vice president were conducted legally.
It is still unclear if a decision will made at the hearing.
It is also unclear whether the budget will be made public before the next meeting, which will now be held virtually Thursday. Fernandez did not respond to follow-up questions.
Morris says the Monday meeting was canceled because of questions he had on the budget after receiving a four-page synopsis. He requested in an email to Business Administrator Dennis Frohnapfel the full budget along with a breakdown of vacancies and payroll collection.
“I’m officially requesting the whole budget explaining each line item,” Morris said in the email. “As the chair of the finance committee, this is not an unreasonable request.”
The abrupt battle among board members came just days after the five board members refused to sign off on tenure charges against the previous business administrator, Regina Robinson. Fernandez in a statement to the OAL said a reckless Robinson cost “millions of dollars in fines and unnecessary expenses” for the district.
Ethics charges were also filed by Ioffe against Morris for allegedly “vigorously” pushing for the hiring of a law firm he met at an Atlantic City conference in November. The firm was approved by the remaining board members at Feb. 29 meeting after Ioffe declared a recess and she, Velazquez and two other board members, George Blount and Alpa Patel, left the meeting.
Ioffe told The Jersey Journal the board will still get a chance to debate the budget when it comes back for final approval in late April or May. She is not worried about it going directly to the county superintendent because the budget will not impact taxpayers.
“The board is not being asked to relinquish control and the board is not being asked to relinquish responsibility of asking questions about this budget,” Ioffe said. “Unfortunately we are in a situation where time is working against us and certain issues have to be resolved before we can resume our normal operations.”
Changes can still be made to the budget after the county superintendent approves the budget, but the final amount must stay the same.
Teachers’ union President Ron Greco trusts the county superintendent “before any of these board members.” He said the board’s behavior on Feb. 29 has left teacher hirings and student events like a trip to Washington, D.C., on hold.
“They can’t even conduct a meeting properly, so that is a good thing,” Greco said about the budget going to the county superintendent. “We have people that were not approved to come here and work, so you know what they have already done? Screw it. I am going to another district.”
