NJ Education Report

There has been tons of ink spilled on the corruption at Elizabeth Public Schools district, the second-largest district in the New Jersey with a mostly low-income, Latino enrollment. City and county bigwigs like to pretend they don’t control school board members and district leaders although everyone knows better. The pretense was largely intact until today when Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage publicly threatened teachers, telling them if they participate in an anticipated strike they’ll be punished–by him.

(No one was offered a “10% raise.”)

Backstory: Earlier this month the Elizabeth School Board and the local teachers union declared an impasse on contract negotiations preceded by teachers protesting the Board’s recalcitrance: “We’re tired of being unwilling participants in your charade,” one said. “You have words but no actions.” Another teacher: “We just celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week but I don’t know a single teacher who feels appreciated.” One educator pleaded, “as leaders of the Board of Education, lead! Break away from those political strings!”

Those political strings are strong and predate current Mayor Chris Bollwage. Yet we might as well be back a decade ago when former Board president Rafael Fajardo ensured that his sister was hired as a truant officer for pre-school children, even though there is no requirement that preschoolers attend school, the district was flagged for offering money to students to campaign for the mayor’s preferred school board candidates, and board members who made good money falsely applied for their children to receive free lunch.

There’s so little oxygen between the city government and the School Board that seven out of nine current board members either work for the city/county or have family members who work for the city/county. Occasionally a brave staff member like Luann Breese or parent like Maria Eliza Lorenz (video, op-ed, story) calls out the corruption. In May a group of community members demanded Superintendent Olga Hugelmeyer’s resignation for denying students with disabilities their educational rights; issuing overly-harsh disciplinary measures, ignoring the needs of LGBTQ+ students; treating teacher contract negotiations as a “charade;” and hiring administrators without proper certifications. Nothing ever changes.

But now the world’s a stage (see community member responses to Bollage’s tweet below) so maybe, just maybe, something will happen.

I spoke earlier today to Lorenz. Here’s what she told me:

“It is a sad reality when politics infiltrate our schools. The mayor salivated and gained control of a school board and has succeeded for 6 years. Now he controls the budget for both city and BOE. He supports the candidates for the school board by posing for pictures with them and stating on flyers to vote Democrat in a non-partisan school race. City council members support these mayor-backed candidates financially and campaign door to door. Three school board members received ethics violations for voting city councilmen to a position within the schools.  It is a mafia the Elizabeth mafia where you are threatened and denied promotion if you strike. I thought that personnel decisions were at the recommendation of the Superintendent but not here in Elizabeth. Now Bollage is telling us straight out that through his own words he can control or destroy your career. We have a clear view as to who is in charge and the corruption within.”

Related: Back in 2019 the city police chief James Cosgrove was forced to resign after, according to the Star-Ledger, “officers in his department told investigators that he routinely used the n-word to describe African-Americans, and the c-word to describe women.” How did Bollage react? By shouting that the Star-Ledger was printing “fake news” and indulging in character assasination. Editor Tom Moran wrote that Bollange “seems determined to make a caricature of himself as an old white politician who is out of touch with a population that’s 80 percent black and Latino.” He predicted,

Bollwage will nominate a new police director based on the recommendations of a committee of elected officials and cops that he personally appointed, one that excludes community activists, despite their repeated requests.

Moran was right. That’s exactly what happened and the police department is an analogue for the school district. But maybe this time’s the charm. Maybe this time someone–Union County politicos with a conscience?–will value the lives of children, Elizabeth School District staff, and community members over raw power. Maybe people have had enough.