Hudson County View
The Bayonne Board of Education okayed the final $154,839,001 budget, which comes with a one percent tax increase, for the 2021-2022 scholastic year, as well as hiring an emergency response and crisis coordinator for the first time at last night’s meeting.
The one percent increase brings the tax levy up to $70,451,920, with the total budget up $697,544 from the previous year.
The spending plan was approved by a vote of 8-1, with Trustee Jody Casais voting no, after a brief presentation by School Business Administrator Dan Castles.
As for the emergency response and crisis coordinator position, former Deputy Police Chief Walter Rogers, who retired last year, will be appointed effective May 1st for one year.
Hudson Reporter
Board of Education approves Special Education position
The department faces complex issues ×
Superintendent Niesz (center) addressed the Board of Education on Jan. 26.
The Bayonne School District created a new assistant superintendent position at the Board of Education meeting on Jan. 26.
According to Superintendent of Schools John Niesz, the district’s Special Education Department faces “extensive, persistent and complex” issues. There are 1,500 special education students, or approximately 15 percent of the school population.
“This is obviously a significant number of students who require concentrated attention,” Niesz said, calling for the creation an Assistant Superintendent of Special Services position, which “would not only take charge of this entire educational area, but this position will create a clear understanding for the staff and the community of the importance the district places on education.”
Hudson Reporter
First elected Black BOE trustee unseats trustee accused of racism
Board of Education leadership re-elected ×
Board Secretary Gary Maita swears in (from left to right) Trustees Maria Valado, Pam Sclafene, David Watson, and Christopher Munoz.
The Bayonne Board of Education has voted to keep its current leadership. At the Jan. 5 meeting, Trustee Maria Valado was re-elected to President, and Christopher Munoz was re-elected to Vice President.
The board voted unanimously for both Valado and Munoz, 8-0. Trustee Ava Finnerty was absent for medical reasons and did not vote.
Two new trustees were sworn in at the meeting, David “Doc” Watson and Pam Sclafene. Valado, Munoz, and Watson won their seats in the 2020 election, running under the “Together We Can” slate endorsed by Mayor James Davis and the entire city council.
Hudson Reporter
Too early or too late?
The Board of Education squabbles over resolution timing ×
Heated discussion flared between socially distant board members behind plexiglass.
The Bayonne Board of Education voted down a resolution at its Dec. 10 meeting authored by Trustee Ava Finnerty regarding proposed changes to policy dictating board meeting conduct. Throughout the year, she has been calling for an earlier deadline regarding when resolutions can be added to a meeting’s agenda.
Preventing last-minute resolutions
Finnerty wants a rule that resolutions or other items must be added to an agenda ten days before a board meeting. She called the proposed policy change “a matter of transparency” and said it was written consultation with the New Jersey School Board Association.
Hudson County View
Bayonne Board of Education Trustee Joseph Broderick, who served as board president four times between 2016 and 2019, resigned last week and will be replaced by Pam Sclafane.
“I want to thank him for all the great work that he did. He was the first elected president to the board and he worked with so much patience with all of us and treated everyone with so much respect. He will truly be missed here,” Board President Maria Valado said at Wednesday’s meeting.
“His knowledge, his giving of himself to the Bayonne district is all qualities that we applaud and that we admired in him and we are gonna miss him very much here.”