Fear, Loathing, Eid, And An Ethics Charge At The Jersey City School Board

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A number of unusual controversies have marked recent Jersey City Board of Education meetings.

On the last day in February, five of the nine board members took a controversial vote to remove Board President Natalia Ioffe and Vice President Noemi Velazquez from their posts.

They replaced the president with board trustee Dejon Morris, who recently finished a 90-day suspension from his police job for poor conduct toward the public and allegedly mishandling evidence.

The votes to remove the pair came after Ioffe had filed an ethics complaint against Morris regarding a law firm he'd allegedly met with last year.

In mid-March, two weeks after the raucous meeting, Schools Superintendent Norma Fernandez asked the state's Department of Education to have a monitor oversee the board, which controls a $1 billion budget.

Fernandez's administration also asked the state to reinstate Ioffe and Velazquez, according to NJ.com.

Eid On The 'Incorrect' Day

Meanwhile, last week, Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh, who represents Downtown and Jersey City Heights, got into a war of words with new board president Morris, apparently over the fact that the board had given students in the district a day off for Eid on the wrong day.

On Friday, Saleh posted on social media, "At an interfaith iftar Jersey City Board of Education Trustee Dejon Morris promised to make sure the Eid holiday would be scheduled on the incorrect date, FOREVER. I then asked why are you here? and said you should leave if he felt that way. He said he was invited here and I told him that’s your prerogative to stay but he will see that the Muslim community will vote him out. He took that as a threat and asked if I was threatening him and I called him a joke and an embarrassment for trying to throw his badge in my face. Jersey City deserves better."

Rep. Rob Menendez Jr. Tweeted, "Advocating for the students of the Jersey City public schools who observe Eid should ot e met with resistance, especially when we pride ourselves on our community's incredible diversity. I'm proud of my friend and will always stand with him as he stands for his community."

Jersey City schools are closed this Monday, April 8, for Eid.

One board observer remarked last month, "These people shouldn't be in charge of watering a cactus, much less a $1B education department."

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