Jersey City School Board Passes Fully Funded $814M Budget

JERSEY CITY, NJ — The Jersey City Board of Education passed the first fully funded school budget in years on Monday. The budget has an $814 million price tag and means a nearly $1,000 tax increase for Jersey City homeowners.

The tax increase was proposed and passed as the way to implement a fully funded budget after the state cut funding to Jersey City schools by $152 million this year.

The budget was approved by the board in a 6-3 vote.

Board trustees who voted in favor of the budget are as follows:

• President Mussab Ali
• Gerald Lyons
• Joan Terrell-Paige
• Lorenzo Richardson
• Marilyn Roman
• Gina Verdibello

Board trustees who voted against the budget are as follows:

• Vice President Lekendrick Shaw
• Alexander Hamilton
• Noemi Velazquez

The Jersey City Public School District educates over 30,000 students. Superintendent Franklin Walker pointed out that 80 percent of the district's students are categorized as economically disadvantaged and a stable budget makes all the difference.

"Our only option to secure the necessary funding to submit a balanced budget that meets the students needs is a tax levy," Walker said.

The budget would allot funds for 216 new staff members in the district, including teachers and aides. A summer program for English language learners was also allotted into the budget.

At Monday's meeting, trustees expressed frustration with the city's response to the budget as well as they need to rely on tax increases to fund the schools, rather than a long-term solution.

"We got a terrible letter, email from the Mayor of Jersey City, blaming us for all the woes of the people who are residents of this city, telling us that, you’re responsible for having raised on average $1,000 per household in the city. And he went on and I said, no you’ve made a mistake here. We’re the people who are the scapegoats here, sitting between the State of New Jersey and your city, our city," Trustee Marilyn Roman said.

"I really want a long-term solution regarding this budget and I’m really sort of tired of this being the only solution we have because it should not be the only answer that we have to raise the levy all the time," Trustee Alexander Hamilton said.