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1-28-11 Education & Related Issues in the News
Star Ledger ‘N.J. bill aims to end nepotism at charter, public schools’

Politickernj.com ‘Christie lays groundwork in speech to revisit pension and healthcare and education reform’

Courier Post ‘Changes made on Assembly GOP team’

Njspotlight.com ‘Specialization or Segregation? NJ's First Charter School for Autistic Children Already Faces Challenges’

Star Ledger  ‘N.J. bill aims to end nepotism at charter, public schools’

Politickernj.com  Christie lays groundwork in speech to revisit pension and healthcare and education reform’

Courier Post  ‘Changes made on Assembly GOP team’

Njspotlight.com  ‘Specialization or Segregation? NJ's First Charter School for Autistic Children Already Faces Challenges’

Star Ledger  ‘N.J. bill aims to end nepotism at charter, public schools’

Published: Friday, January 28, 2011, 6:25 AM

By Star-Ledger Staff

Gene Maeroff says he knows of a district where nepotism hiring is out of control.

That place would be Edison, he says, his own district, one of many that he says has a "notorious" reputation for hiring based on connections.

"Historically, there’s been a great deal of abuse in Edison in terms of nepotism hiring and in terms of hiring based on favoritism and patronage," said Maeroff, a professor at Columbia University who recently became board president. "It’s really deplorable."

Though nepotism has been a way of life in some New Jersey school districts, there are signs that change may be coming.

A bill being considered by the state Assembly would prohibit the state’s charter schools and 588 school districts from hiring staff who are related to the superintendent, a board member, personnel director, business administrator or the school district’s attorney.

According to the legislation, a relative is defined in the bill as a person’s child, sibling, parent, extended family, in-law, half- or stepchild, domestic partner, and anyone else related to the individual or their spouse "by blood, marriage or adoption."

The Assembly Education Committee approved the bill (A-646) last month with amendments that included exceptions to the nepotism rule, such as employing relatives if they are the only qualified candidate available after receiving approval from the county superintendent. The next step is for the bill to come to a floor vote in the full Assembly. A companion bill in the Senate (S-1925) was introduced by state Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) in May.

If the bill is adopted, the state Department of Education would enforce the statute.

"There is a reason why nepotism rules exist. When left unchecked, many people would get friends and family on the payroll instead of the best and the brightest," said Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), one of the bill’s 18 sponsors. "The taxpayers are getting shortchanged and so are the students."

The bill expands on the School Funding Reform Act passed in 2008, which requires districts to have anti-nepotism policies that prohibit districts from hiring staff related to the district’s superintendent or a school board member, said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. This bill is needed, Yaple said, because it would apply not just to the superintendent and school board members’ relatives but also prohibit additional administrators from hiring relatives.

In the past, boards were allowed to hire relatives of members — as long as the member with the family connection abstained from voting on the hire, he said.

Instances of nepotism can be found in almost every district.

In Bloomfield, the school district’s business administrator was supervising his own sister-in-law, an assistant payroll manager. She had to be let go because staff are not allowed to supervise family members, and the district could not find another suitable arrangement to keep the employee, according to Catherine Mozak, acting superintendent.

"When it comes to nepotism, the pendulum is swinging. The rules are now becoming more stringent," she said.

Summit School District adopted a nepotism policy that’s even more stringent than the proposed bill after receiving complaints. Residents claimed that the district hired too many summer employees in the past with family ties to the district. As a result, the district fired 16 of those employees, according to district officials, and banned the hiring of employees related to any staff member — not just top administrators.

In Roselle Park, a family sued the board of education in August after a substitute teacher, Nickolas Genovese, was in court on sexual abuse charges involving an underage student. The student’s family contends in the lawsuit that Genovese was not properly vetted because his father, Michael Genovese, is a board member.

In May, Nickolas Genovese pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Union County to a charge of criminal sexual contact. He was sentenced to two years of probation. The girl’s family filed the civil suit in August.

The superintendent, Michael Genovese and the student’s attorney declined to comment.

Yet in a state with 588 school districts, keeping relatives off the payroll is not an easy task. Bob Rusignuolo, a former school board member in Nutley, said it’s unavoidable in small towns.

"Relatives were always given consideration," Rusignuolo said. "In a small town you’re always going to have relatives getting jobs, the question is if it’s illegal. And I don’t think any laws were broken."

Woodbridge Superintendent John Crowe said the bill will not affect his school district because nepotism rules have been in place since at least 1992.

Despite the rules, the state treasury department’s 2001 local government budget review of Woodbridge School District showed that eight of nine board members had a conflict of interest during negotiations with the Woodbridge Township Education Association due to family connections or past endorsement by the union.

Crowe was not the superintendent at the time and said he did not know specifically about the situation.

By Aliza Appelbaum and Eunice Lee/The Star-Ledger

 

Politickernj.com  Christie lays groundwork in speech to revisit pension and healthcare and education reform’

By Max Pizarro | January 27th, 2011 - 7:59pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At the annual New Jersey Chamber of Commerce banquet, Gov. Chris Christie tonight applauded the chamber for the financial and spiritual support it lends to the state business community and redoubled his vow to impose fiscal discipline on the state's finances.

"I couldn't go to Florida, I'm here," deadpanned the governor, by way of explaining his presence, a reference to the overnight snowstorm back in the Garden State and headlines during the last snowstorm that reamed him for being down south. 

"A year ago we understood the need to react to (the budget) bluntly, and that by sticking our heads in the sand, we would not solve our problems," the governor told the crowd.

A massive table stood elevated above the rest of the banquet hall here at the Woodley Park Marriott crammed with dignitaries, including Christie, former Gov. Brendan Byrne, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and congressmen from both parties.

"New Jersey must focus on the big things," said Christie, echoing President Barack Obama's Tuesday night State of the Union. 

"He said America must focus on the big things. Now there may be differences on what those big things are, but politicians on both sides of the aisle understand that the big things need to be tackled. The days of huge spending and taxing and deficits in New Jersey are coming to an end. I hope the congressmen and president come together to bring them to an end as well. If we don't we are consigning our children and grandchildren to a lesser American life."

The governor generated applause when he said, "I don't think there's a person in this room" who doesn't want to do that.

"We must finally say no," Christie told the core of politicians in the room.

So far so good. No argument.

"People are anxious to hear these truths," Christie said. "That's what they sent us to our positions to do."

Okay.

But then he repeated his desire to get more public workers to contribute to their pensions and healthcare, an issue that has divided the Republican governor from public sector-reliant members of the opposing party. And yet there was no jarring opposition in the room. No surly murmur of protest.

"This is not soaring rhetoric," said Christie, "...but the soaring rhetoric won't cure us. The only thing that will cure us is to step up to the challenge and to fix it like men and women."

Christie said the state pension fund will be broke in 2020.

"If you want to be honest with  the police officer, teacher or county worker, you've got to look at the guy and tell him the truth, so when he retires he has something - not nothing," said the governor.

But after the sweetness and light setup and invocation of Obama, he went for the kill.

Vowing to fight high cost, dysfunctional systems that diss inner city children, he said again and forcefully that education reform is something that must happen in New Jersey. The overwhelming majority of teachers are good and hard-working, Christie admitted.

"But that's not good enough," he said, "because if your child is in a classroom with an underperforming teacher, it gives you no comfort to know someone else's child is in a classroom with a good teacher."

$25,000 per-pupil per year in Newark in chronically failing schools won't cut it, said Christie.

The message from educational establishment is "hold on, it will get better."

But Christie amped up his message of charters, merit pay and vouchers, without saying vouchers.

"If there was any reason I won the election it was because the people of the state knew what a mess the state was in and they thought maybe this cranky, tough, big-mouthed prosecutor might have the guts for a period of time to try to fix these problems," the governor said.

Applause ensued.

underfunding in cutting its outlook to negative last year.

The governor has said he plans to “put a down payment” on tax restructuring when he presents his budget Feb. 22, without providing specifics. Economic adviser Robert Grady said last month that Christie is preparing changes to the tax code.

Christie’s latest remarks echoed his Jan. 11 State of the State address and pronouncements this month at town-hall meetings as he pressed his case for overhauling state government. Christie has said he’ll be a “broken record” on reducing the costs of public pensions, benefits and education as he seeks to balance the budget without raising taxes.

Christie may face a deficit next year equivalent to more than a third of his current $29.4 billion spending plan, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services projected in July.

The governor’s pension proposals include rolling back a 9 percent benefits increase from 2001, raising the retirement age to 65 from as low as 60, and suspending retiree cost-of-living raises. He also wants public workers and teachers to pay as much as 30 percent of their health insurance cost, instead of the current 1.5 percent of their salaries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Terrence Dopp in Trenton, New Jersey, at tdopp@bloomberg.net; William Selway in Washington at wselway@bloomberg.net

 

Courier Post  ‘Changes made on Assembly GOP team’

by Jason Method • new jersey press media • january 28, 2011

TRENTON — The Assembly Republicans continued to change their budget team on Thursday, announcing another departure and the appointment of two new members to the powerful budget committee.

Assemblyman David W. Wolfe, R-Ocean, said in a statement that he will leave the powerful committee and focus his energies on education reform as the ranking member of the Assembly Education Committee.

The announcement came a day after Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III, R-Burlington, who represents parts of Ocean County, announced he was stepping down as Republican budget officer. Malone was replaced by Declan J. O'Scanlon Jr., R-Monmouth.

Wolfe and Malone will be replaced by Republican Assemblymen Anthony M. Bucco, of Morris County, and Gary R. Chiusano of Sussex County. Democrats, however, control both houses of the state Legislature and have a majority on the committee.

The changes come as the state faces a $10.5 billion budget gap and another year of difficult budget decisions, perhaps even more difficult than last year's budget, during a legislative election year, no less.

Gov. Chris Christie and the Democratic leaders have proposed competing reforms for the state's beleaguered pension system. Meanwhile, a high-stakes battle over schools spending is shaping up at the state Supreme Court.

Bucco said in an interview that he intended to hard look at government expenditures.

"We need to continue with fiscal restraint," Bucco said. "We need to look at every aspect of state spending, to make sure the resources are going to right places. We need to continues to recognize we can't spend what we don't have."

Wolfe, who is an administrator at Ocean County College, said in an interview that with all the proposed changes in education, such as tenure reform and charter schools, his time was better spent on the education committee.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannnenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net.

Njspotlight.com  ‘Specialization or Segregation? NJ's First Charter School for Autistic Children Already Faces Challenges’

Newark's Forest Hill Charter School pushes the envelope as to what charters can be -- and charge

By John Mooney, January 28 in Education

Approved last week, the Forest Hill Charter School in Newark has received much attention as New Jersey’s first charter devoted entirely to students with autism. It was singled out by Gov. Chris Christie as part of a new generation of autonomous schools.

Related Links

A look at its winning 150-page application shows how it will change the way charters have operated here for the past 15 years, including a $55,000 tuition per child that puts it tops among all charter schools.

Still, for all its lofty goals, the school faces a host of challenges and questions before it will open in 2012, as planned. Its chief founder conceded there remain questions in how it will be paid for, and even where it will be located. Some have asked how it was even approved under current law.

None of that much fazes the founder, Michele Adubato, a 20-year veteran of Newark public schools and the daughter of Stephen Adubato, the city’s well-known North Ward power broker.

In her work with children with autism, including in Newark’s Regional Day School, Adubato said the field cries out for innovative programs that will serve families seeking new options and the taxpayers who pay for them.

The school already has a website detailing the plans and pressing the concept, with the subtitle: "A different way of thinking."

"I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t feel it could be innovative" Michele Adubato said.

Praise and Criticism

Since its announcement as one of 23 new charter schools approved by the Christie administration, the largest class of new approvals yet, the Forest Hill Charter School has won both praise and criticism.

The praise has come from some advocates who cite the need for quality programs to serve what is the largest concentration of children with autism in the country. The school would start with 50 students, from kindergarten to seventh grade, and grow within three years to 80 students. It would serve Newark students first, and surrounding cities after that.

The critics have contended the exclusive setting created in the separate school only adds to New Jersey’s black mark as one of the nation’s most segregated states for special needs children.

In the days after the school’s approval was announced, leaders of the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN) issued a statement saying it may legally challenge the school as part of a broader lawsuit against the state for its failure to enforce federal and state policies that insist on educating children in the a "least restrictive environment."

Diana Autin, SPAN’s co-director, said Forest Hill also appears to run counter to the state’s own charter school law -- and broader discrimination laws -- that prohibit a school from excluding a child on the basis of gender, race, religion or disability.

"We will be reviewing how a public school that is composed entirely of students with disabilities will be able to meet its legal mandate as a local district to educate students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment with their non-disabled peers," said Autin.

Adubato boils at the criticism, saying that she believes in inclusionary settings for children with disabilities, but also points out the school would serve those with significant requirements that need the specialized setting.

"I don’t feel this is segregation but specialization," she said. "In this context, this is the least restrictive environment for these children."

"Of course, we’d love all students in a general education setting, and my goal is always to mainstream students," Adubato continued. "But I believe in purposeful inclusion, not just inclusion for inclusion’s sake."

Anti-Discrimination Issues

Whether the school would violate anti-discrimination laws is a trickier question that the application took pains to try to address. For one, such special education charter schools exist elsewhere in the country, with one group listing nearly 100 nationwide. And the application, despite its open enrollment requirements, said New Jersey’s law allows for such flexibility as well.

"It states that a 'charter school may establish reasonable criteria to evaluate prospective students' set forth in a school’s charter," reads the application. "Criteria focused on students with autism and PDD [pervasive development disorder] would fall within this provision."

Still, it’s clearly an issue with the state, too. Christie is proposing a rewrite of the state’s charter school law to specifically include language that would allow a focus on children with "individualized education programs," a requirement of those classified as special needs.

Nevertheless, a spokesman for the state Department of Education said that did not prevent the state from approving this program all the same.

"The open enrollment provision of the state's charter law does not preclude the department from approving charter schools with specializations," said spokesman Alan Guenther in a brief statement.

A Year to Plan

That issue may not be germane until the school receives its actual charter, an event that doesn't happen until it's ready to open. In the meantime, the school is taking a so-called planning year, and there is much to do.

For one, it’s not decided where the school will be located and who will build it. State law prohibits public funds for facility costs, and the application says the school would be paid for by the North Ward Center, the headquarters of Steve Adubato’s social services empire -- and some would say his political one, too. Michele Adubato now runs the center.

The application even came with an artist rendering of a modern two-story building, complete with solar panels on the roof.

But Michele Adubato yesterday said the details of the facility are not yet completed, including its funding and its location, although she said it would be in the North Ward.

"We are still working on that," she said of the center’s funding. "We don’t know [North Ward Center’s role] for a fact, but that’s still a goal. We want to build something from ground up. Newark has Science High School and Technology High. Why not a state-of-the-art facility for children with autism?"

Another question is the funding of the school’s daily operation. The application calls for a $2.7 million annual budget, just shy of $55,000 per each of the first 50 students. In terms of costs for full autism programs --including the proposed 3-to-1 student-teacher ratio -- that amount is not unusual.

The application says the revenues would come from state and local charter school aid, as well as some federal aid. One of the state funds also steers additional funds for extraordinary costs, or those above $40,000 per child.

$1.2 Million in Extra Aid

Still, the application also seeks an additional $1.2 million a year in extra aid from Newark schools, a funding stream that Adubato said she has yet to receive assurance of. She maintained that the district easily spends that much for these children now.

"Of course we recognize that this hasn’t been done before, but the funding already exists," she said. "The money is there."

Efforts to reach Newark school officials yesterday were unsuccessful. And when asked if an agreement had been reached with the local district, Adubato only said that the district had not opposed the application.

"They had a chance to criticize, and they sent the application through," she said. "The budget was there. And I believe when all is said and done, we’ll be an economically viable option for Newark."