Hoboken Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christine Johnson said last week that she heard from at least three families about a possible change in district policy, but it wasn’t true. She said that the parents asked whether the Hoboken Public School District would no longer be offering families the opportunity to request which elementary school in the district their children will attend.
Each spring, parents get a form where they can list their first, second, and third choice for which elementary school their kids attend. Some choose the school near their home, some do not. The district considers the parents’ choices, special circumstances, siblings, and proximity in placing the students.
But some parents noticed a change in the wording of the form that made them believe geography would be the main consideration this year.
“We have not eliminated school preference,” said Johnson last week. “I have received maybe three calls or emails about this from concerned families, and I explained to each of them that that is not the case.”
_____________
“We kind of brought this on ourselves a little.” – Dr. Christine Johnson
____________
According to Johnson, the rumors began after she decided to make the process more transparent.
“We just outlined the process that has already existed in the district before I got here, to make it easier for families to understand and more transparent.”
Parents who register their kids in the preschool or elementary schools must provide a copy of their current lease, deed, mortgage statement, or tax bill, a copy of current cable, phone, PSEG bill, bank or credit card statement, a copy of their photo identification, a copy of the children immunizations and physical, and the child’s birth certificate or passport.
Then children are placed according to various criteria.
“Children with special needs, children who are considered homeless, and children with siblings already enrolled in the Hoboken Public School District are considered priority,” said Johnson.
According to Johnson the district tries to accommodate a family’s choice.
“We are still conscience of their preferences,” said Johnson.
Some schools have more spots than others; so ultimately, a lottery may determine where kids go when it comes to Preschool aged children as the district doesn’t have enough seats to accommodate every child.
“If a family has a problem with where their child will be attending school and they contact us, we work hard to accommodate them as best we can,” said Johnson.
“We don’t want to separate a family. For instance if we have a mother who is worried about dropping off one of her kids at Wallace and the other at another school, we try to eliminate that concern by giving sibling preference. That way they can both be at the same school together.”
Johnson noted that the constraints of classroom size and growing enrollment make it difficult for every family to be placed where they like.
Johnson said that the majority of students in elementary school are slotted for Wallace School because it is the biggest, with the most seats.
She added that children with disabilities are also often assigned to Wallace, as that is where the resources are.
In the past, some families have asserted that because of choice and geography, some public schools end up racially weighted one way or another. In the 2012-13 school year, Connors elementary school, near the federally funded Hoboken projects, was 97 percent economically disadvantaged based on students’ eligibility for free or reduced price lunch. Some have claimed that families of high economic means who live near Connors choose to send their kids elsewhere.
The district has four elementary schools – Wallace, Connors, Brandt (which runs from preschool to second grade next year), and Calabro, which is the smallest.
Marilyn Baer can be reached at marilynb@hudsonreporter.com.
