NJ Education Report

Amidst the general dysfunction that is your State Capitol, Trenton gets the prize for the most active effort to recall its picaresque mayor, Tony Mack. Would that his highlights video (he’s gone through – count’em – nine business administrators in just over a year) exclude matters relating to Trenton Public Schools! Alas, no.

The latest is that the Trenton City Council is about to deliberate the worthiness of a $2.5 million bond to renovate some of the deteriorating school buildings. The Council made a list of priorities. However, Mayor Mack overrode the priority list to push to the top two items, for a total bite of $1.4 million: a new artificial turf football field and a new track.

From the Trenton Times:

“I was surprised,” Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson said of the track and field projects being included in the bond ordinance. “They’re all really critical things, so it’s hard to say which ones come before another but we have some serious issues structurally with the buildings.”

It’s understandable that Councilwoman Reynolds-Jackson was surprised. Maybe she didn’t know that Mayor Mack’s brother, Raphiel, was just appointed head coach of the Trenton football team.