Hoboken Op-Ed: City Needs Equal Kindergarten Expansion

HOBOKEN, NJ — The following letter to the editor comes courtesy of Hoboken residents Ailene McGuirk and Matthew Shoemaker and was originally sent to Hoboken Superintendent Christine Johnson, Assistant Superintendent Gerald Fitzhugh and the Hoboken Board of Education.

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“Our daughter will be attending kindergarten at Connors this September. We live in the Southwest neighborhood and are very excited for our child to attend our neighborhood school. Having first moved to Hoboken in the late 1990's I am so pleased to see the progress the district has made, and especially pleased to see the wonderful developments at Connors.

“Recently I tuned into the saved stream of the June 13 Board of Education meeting eager to hear news about the pending kindergarten placements. When the topic came up I was quite surprised to hear Dr. Johnson mentioning that Connors would only have two sections of kindergarten for the 2017-2018 school year, and that 27 of those 42 seats would be taken by siblings of current students. Having toured the school in February I distinctly remembered 4 sections for kindergarten, an expansion over previous years to meet the growing demand in the neighborhood. Watching the same meeting I was also surprised to hear reference to "choice" for elementary school placements; at the kindergarten visitation day the "neighborhood" nature of placements was strongly emphasized.

“We have been in town long enough to have a decent understanding of the limitations the Board of Education faces with regards to the size and location of its facilities, coupled with the often-transient nature of families with younger school-aged children. However, we are flummoxed as to why there will only be 3 kindergarten sections south of 6th street, serving approximately 62 students between Connors and Calabro, and over 250 seats for kindergarten uptown between Wallace and Brandt? Add to that the wild disparity between the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at Connors (90% for 2015-2016) and Brandt (8% for 2015-2016) and I am beginning to think something larger is afoot.

“Wallace and Calabro are much more representative of the socio-economic realities of the district, yet from what we can see we will now have one "highly-advantaged" elementary school at Brandt, and will continue with a "highly-disadvantaged" school at Connors. Trend lines take years to shift and if kindergarten seats are removed from Connors the trend line is far less likely to change. The problem certainly isn’t a lack of kindergarten students as Dr. Johnson herself was quoted in the June 18, 2017 issue of the Hudson Reporter, “More families are coming and staying and are willing to give us a try. We see it in our pre-K families who are taking the chance and staying for kindergarten. Our enrollment numbers are increasing.” Are these enrollment numbers only increasing uptown? I think not…

“As parents, we know our daughter will have a great experience at Connors. As homeowners and taxpayers in SW Hoboken we are infuriated that seats appear to be added uptown at a majority "advantaged" school, and available seats are being reduced at Connors. It is as if the District is signaling a tacit agreement with the playground whispers among parents of advantaged children that Connors simply isn't the right choice, or that despite Connors being close to their homes it is somehow lacking in comparison to other schools in the district. Segregation disguised as "choice" is not something that we should be perpetuating in our district. Connors suffers a PR problem that the district has done very little to combat. The test scores at Connors and its overall improvement in recent years are deserving of recognition, yet still leave the school looking lackluster on paper compared to the other district options. Perpetuating the isolation of economically disadvantaged students at Connors in a city that is barely over a mile square and densely populated strikes me as dereliction of duty on the part of the District.

“The best advertisement for Connors, in my opinion, was the great Art Showcase held in April. Anyone who attended could feel the excitement and potential of all of the students in attendance. Families filled the auditorium to capacity and there was a great sense of community. Additionally, some forward-thinking parents organized an informal Q&A for families interested in sending their children to Connors for kindergarten. All of this can help to change the conversation to one about where a school is going, not where it was in the past. However there was no further outreach on the part of the district to parents within walking distance of Connors, no further effort to explain to parents that the focus, performance, and culture of Connors is one in which all students will be able to thrive, regardless of their economic background.

“We would like to see a thorough explanation of why kindergarten seats at Connors were removed, where precisely those seats were added, and the free/reduced lunch population percentage of the incoming kindergarten classes at all four elementary schools. We would like to hear from the district what its plans are for making all schools more representative of the socio-economic realities of the population of the Hoboken district. In the meantime, we are going to speak to our neighbors and community groups here in SW Hoboken and make people aware that our neighborhood elementary school is being diminished in favor of schools uptown. The perpetuation of segregation between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Hoboken not only impacts school performance, but it also has the potential to adversely impact property values in SW Hoboken.

“We know that we are not alone in our desire to see Connors as the elementary school of choice for all parents in the Southwest. We hope this can be the start of a dialogue. We have copied Mayor Zimmer and the Council because this is an issue that is so much larger than schools, it is about the kind of inclusive community that Hoboken strives to be. We appreciate you taking the time to hear our thoughts.”

Patch file photo