Will Voters Care in April?

As hot as things sound on blogs and forums regarding school board issues, will more people take an interest in the annual school board election in 2010?

Here are the results of the April 2009 school board election:

For three three-year seats

Patricia I. Barksdale ------881
Brenda Gilbert ------------717
Rasheed Abdul-Haqq -----453
Joseph M. Ruffin Sr. ------ 577
Mahogany Hendricks ------558
Joanne Hollis --------------635
Lisa Logan-Leach ---------675
Personal Choice --------------1
Total --------------------4,497

For an unexpired term:

Terrence Williams --- 302
Katherine Peterson -- 583
Tammy Westbrook -- 495
Total ---------------1,381

Now keep in mind that for the full terms, each voter could choose three, so the total voter turnout did not mean nearly 5,000 people went to the polls. Now here is the pathetic part: In April 2009, the total number of registered voters in Plainfield was 21,784.

School board elections are notorious for low turnout, but with all the issues in the Plainfield district, it just seems a shame that more people do not want to have their say on who sits on the board.

The same scenario will occur this year, three three-year terms and one unexpired term. That's four of the nine board seats, enough to approach a critical mass for change. Prospective candidates have been busy figuring out slates and strategies in advance of the March 1 filing date for the election. The election itself will be April 20, giving voters enough time to get to know more about the candidates. But then you have to make your way to the polls on Election Day to vote for those you deem best qualified.

The four who come on board this year will join the five others in facing likely big sweeps in state education policy and funding. All will need the best board skills they can muster in order to serve the district in a time of major change.

--Bernice Paglia

North Avenue, Netherwood Issues Coming Up

Those who are following redevelopment in the city must pay close attention this week to the City Council and Planning Board.

On Monday (Dec. 3, 2007), the council will consider three resolutions related to the North Avenue proposal. That is the one involving three blocks around the main train station. The city has a redevelopment agreement with Landmark Development Corp., a group that plans to restore the historic 1880s buildings in the North Avenue Historic District, the city’s original commercial site by the main train station, and to erect multi-story condos behind them.

Meanwhile, an “in need of redevelopment study” of parts of two other blocks was made. The target area to the west includes the PNC Bank and its parking lots, Appliance-Arama and the old Thomas Furniture store (once the Courier News building). To the north, a city-owned parking lot, Investors Savings Bank and the Elks building are included. On Monday, the council will be asked to accept findings that there properties are in need of redevelopment. A separate resolution calls for the council to authorize preparation of a a redevelopment plan for the combined original and expanded area.

Another resolution has to do with stating the city’s commitment to redevelopment of the two city-owned parcels that make up Municipal Lot 6, now used for parking behind Bill’s Luncheonette, Suburban Jewelers and other businesses on East Front Street between Park and Watchung avenues. The statement is necessary for an application to the state for funding a brownfields investigation of the two parcels.

Merchants and a handful of residents have been tracking the progress of the North Avenue proposal since it was first unveiled in August 2006. Even then, developer Frank Cretella suggested there might be an expansion of the redevelopment area to form a “critical mass” downtown. The original proposal was for 415 residential units and 130,000square feet of retail and commercial space, with buildings as high as eight to 10 stories.

Monday’s meeting is 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave. The documents may be viewed on Councilman Rashid Burney’s web site. Burney has begun scanning in the council agenda and documents at http://www.rashidburney.com/ as a convenience to the public.

If moved to the agenda, the resolutions will be up for a vote on Wednesday (Dec. 5, 2007) at the regular City Council meeting, 8 p.m. at Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

On Thursday (Dec. 6, 2007), the Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the revised Netherwood redevelopment study. Originally including 93 parcels around the Netherwood train station, the study area was reduced to 16 properties on North and South avenues between Berckman and Richmond streets. The new area is outside the quarter-mile radius that is the most recent standard for increased density around the two train stations and two “transit hubs” where former stations stood at Clinton and Grant avenues.

The Netherwood study sparked a Sunshine Law discussion at the Planning Board’s special meeting last week. The Nov. 30 meeting was advertised to be held for discussion of the land use element of the master plan, but some members wanted to discuss the Netherwood study. Board attorney Michele Donato pointed out that at a special meeting, only matters advertised in the legal notice for the meeting could be discussed.

In August 2006, the City Council agreed to turn all redevelopment activities over to the Union County Improvement Authority, headed by Charlotte DeFilippo, who is also the chairwoman of the Union County Regular Democratic Organization. Since then, redevelopment studies and plans have been done by George Stevenson of Remington & Vernick instead of being done in-house. Recently, Public Works & Urban Development Director Jennifer Wenson-Maier has asked the council to eliminate a city principal planner’s salary from the 2008 fiscal year budget, saying the firm could perform the functions instead.

The council and land use boards are still supposed to sign off on all findings and proposals, but after Stevenson inadvertently included a reference to a completed redevelopment plan in a PowerPoint presentation on a mere study, citizens have been on the alert for premature actions.

--Bernice Paglia

Charter schools in Plainfield

Plainfield’s three charter schools are the only ones in all of Union County.

One has been operating for five years, one will open in September and the third is planning for a September 2006 opening.

A charter school is a public school that operates independently of the district board of education under a charter granted by the Commissioner. Once the charter is approved and established, the school is managed by a board of trustees with status as a public agent authorized by the State Board of Education to supervise and control the school. A charter school is a corporate entity with all the powers needed to carry out its charter program.
--Source: NJ Dept. of Education
NJ charter school fact sheet

Queen City Academy Charter School won state approval in 1999. It opened in 2000 with 177 children in grades K-8 and had 198 students in the 2004-05 school year. Having won renewal of its charter this year, the school is moving toward a maximum of 234 students.

Just as the school was moving last fall from a downtown office building to the former Temple Sholom building on West Seventh Street, it lost its founder, Paula DiVenuto, to an untimely death. But despite the setback, Queen City held its third graduation in June and Lead Person Cynthia Cone said the continued expansion will permit activities including chorus, a band and sports teams.

“The critical mass of kids is necessary,“ she said.

The new campus has trees, grass and parking that were all lacking downtown, she said. And teachers had to pay $250 a year to park in nearby city lots. Now the staff of 19 includes music, art, computer, Spanish and physical education teachers. There is still a waiting list of about 100 children, Cone said.

She is pleased to have another school opening this year. A previous school, Career Academy for Lifelong Learning, had its charter rescinded, leaving Queen City the only charter school in Plainfield for a while.

Cone said having new schools boosts the charter school movement.

“It’s good to have company,“ she said. “I like to think that we had a good, solid run.“ More schools “put the charter school in a good light,“ she said. “Charter schools are a wonderful option for parents and children."

Union County TEAMS (Technology, Engineering, Architecture, Math & Science) Charter School will open in September, executive director Sheila Thorpe said.

The school [link] will operate within the brand new Shiloh Baptist Church complex that opened in March on West Fourth Street. It will have 180 students in grades K-8.

Central Jersey Arts Charter School projects a 2006-07 opening with 248 students in grades K-5.

The Plainfield school district can approve or reject a charter school application and rejected them in the past to protest the loss of state per-pupil funding from the district. Charter schools receive 90 percent of state funding for each child enrolled. But the state Commissioner of Education has the final say on approvals.

As of January 2005, there were 55 approved charter schools in 14 of New Jersey’s 21 counties.

--Bernice Paglia

KEYWORDS: education

Commentary on New Fiscal Year

Random image: Rainy June produced lots of mushrooms.

Soon the new fiscal year will begin and officials will start work on the budget for the year from July 1 to June 30, 2010. The SFY 2009 budget process for the year that ends next week was marred by miscommunications, delays and a $1.7 million error that wasn’t caught by any of the officials who signed off on the official document sent to the state Division of Local Government Services. A Citizens Budget Advisory Committee was highly critical of the administration and the City Council in a public presentation of its findings and recommendations.

Well, there’s always the next time. Council President Rashid Burney is calling for citizens to work on the new budget, which may be introduced as early as August, though an early start is no guarantee of timely passage. The SFY 2009 budget did not see final passage until April and residents were only spared a major tax hike through acceptance of a $2.7 million pension deferral plan.

The normal budget process has been to receive budget requests from department and division heads, which may be modified by the administration before budget introduction. Once the budget is introduced, it becomes the City Council’s budget to refine and amend before a public hearing and final passage.

But the process got a little blurry and amendments were formulated at a meeting where by chance no members of the public were present. Due to complexities with the state budget and other factors, the hand-off to the council was not as clear-cut as it may have been in the past.

In early 2009, with no fulltime finance director, the city brought in two expert advisers to help with the process behind the scenes. The city will enter the new fiscal year lacking a fulltime finance director and a permanent chief financial officer, which may trigger the need for extra help again.

The city only proposed one layoff, for savings of $10,000, in SFY 2009, but may have to join the ranks of municipalities that instituted furloughs, shorter work weeks and sometimes mass layoffs in the face of a general economic crisis.

The realities of the SFY 2010 budget process will be evident soon enough, and now that four of seven City Council members have blogs, residents should be able to follow the issues easily. Perhaps the most important unresolved item from SFY 2009 is establishment of an IT department and Burney has proposed another citizens’ committee to help guide that process.

Whether a resident commits to serving many hours on a special committee or just decides to pay close attention to the SFY budget process, input will be needed as the city makes its way through another challenging year. There may not be another one-shot means of reducing the tax impact and residents may need to declare what services and programs they can live without in the immediate future. Think about it.

--Bernice Paglia