Hackensack school board drops opposition to Maywood's bid to withdraw its students

Hackensack High School (photo from public schools' Facebook page).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK -- Despite the potential loss of $3.6 million in annual tuition payments, the Board of Education won't try to block the withdrawal of 250 Maywood students from the high school.

In a formal vote at their meeting on Sept. 16, school board members said:

"The Board of Education of Maywood and Hackensack have agreed, out of respect for their taxpayers, that litigation ... would be unduly divisive and expensive...."

'Overcrowding'

On Aug. 8, 2019 -- months after rumors started flying -- the Maywood school board filed a petition with the state commissioner of education to end its sending-receiving relationship with Hackensack, and instead start sending Maywood students in Grades 9 to 12 to Becton Regional High School in East Rutherford.

Maywood called overcrowding "a serious problem" at Hackensack High School, where 1,887 students were enrolled in the 2017-18 school year, well over its "functional capacity" of 1,595 students.

Maywood said no other solution to the overcrowding existed after Hackensack voters -- in January 2019 -- rejected a $170 million bond referendum that, among other things, called for the construction of a junior high school on the high school campus.

$3.6 million in tuition

Maywood sent about 250 students to the high school in the 2017-18 school year, and paid $3,659,o11.81 in tuition to Hackensack. 

Mayor John Labrosse has said that "if Maywood and other sending districts [Rochelle Park and South Hackensack] are successful in their efforts to remove their 500 students from our high school and send them elsewhere, the overcrowding issue would disappear overnight." 

Rochelle Park and South Hackensack are paying a little over $14,000 in tuition per student sent to Hackensack High school in the current school year.

Maywood is paying more than $15,000 in tuition per student.

Three weeks after Maywood filed its petition, the Hackensack board filed an answer, opposing Maywood's proposal, and denying all of Maywood's claims.

'Racial composition'

Hackensack's appeal to the state education commissioner had said that ending the sending-receiving relationship would "result in substantial negative impact" on the racial composition of students, the financial condition of Hackensack public schools and the quality of education.

Months before that appeal was filed, board member Frances Cojelga sent an email to board attorney John G. Geppert Jr., noting rumors of Maywood's move.

She asked whether it would be "in our best interest" to tell state education officials "that we are severely overcrowded" and that Maywood "should be let out of their contract with us..."

"I believe our #1 concern and priority should be the students who live in Hackensack and the Hackensack taxpayer who shoulder the burden of our schools," she said. 

And Geppert said in an email to Hackensack school officials that he was advised by Maywood's special counsel that if the borough's petition isn't opposed, "the process [ending the sending-receiving relationship] usually has a phase out over four years."

Board of Education member Frances Cojelga in a photo from the Hackensack Public Schools' website.

News media do another awful job, wasting our time in trying to call midterm elections

A voter entering the Fairmount School in Hackensack around 2 this afternoon to vote in the 2018 midterm congressional elections, as well as on county races and two ballot questions. Voting machines were set up in the cafeteria. Hackensack schools were dismissed after a half day.

A voter using a cane as he approached the doors to the Hackensack High School gymnasium, another polling place where voting machines were set up.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Nearly 2 years into the presidency of Donald J. Trump, not a single reporter has had the courage to confront him and say, "Mr. President, please stop lying to the American people."

Instead, they've covered every one of his partisan rallies, and spread his lies around the world with no fact-checking.

Then, days or weeks later, The Washington Post or New York Times thunder about all of the lies Trump has told.

Who will win?

Today is Election Day across America, and the news media have spent the past few weeks obsessing over who will win, and whether Democrats will be able to take control of the House and Senate.

Why not just wait for the results to come in after the polls close, and devote all that energy to laying out the issues instead of relentlessly focusing on politics?

Polls are notoriously inaccurate, yet their reports are filled with them, and updated every day, it seems.

Sensational ads

NBC, CBS and other networks accept the most sensational, deceptive or inaccurate campaign ads, signaling to viewers that only the bottom line matters.

It's no surprise there are so many apathetic voters in Hackensack and elsewhere across the nation.

The blame rests squarely on the news media, who seem cowed by Trump's campaign to portray them as the enemy of the people.

It's another sad day for the Fourth Estate.

Hackensack Councilman Leo Battaglia, in dark top and cap, in the Fairmount School cafeteria this afternoon.

Ex-Record staffers will be crying in their beer tonight at a big Irish pub in Clifton

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle believes Republicans will be committing political suicide, if they back Trumpcare as a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. The New York Times reports today "is a big day in the House of Representatives -- and for millions of Americans at risk of losing their health insurance."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A farewell party is being thrown tonight for about 50 reporters and editors who are among the latest victims of the Gannett-inspired bloodletting at The Record of Woodland Park.

Among retirees expected to attend the bash at The Shannon Rose in Clifton are:

Former Production Editor Bob Cunningham, who also wore the hat of newsroom enforcer in Hackensack; and Vinny Byrne, onetime head of the copy desk, which edits stories and writes headlines.

This week's layoffs involve a total of 141 employees of North Jersey Media Group, the publishing company Gannett Co. bought from the Borg family last July for more than $40 million.

So far, Gannett has cut more than 350 jobs at the Woodland Park daily.

Who is going

The latest round of layoffs includes Jill Schensul, who was the award-winning travel editor; Better Living Editor Marc Schwarz and feature staffers Kara Yorio and Ray Edel.

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and food writer Sophia Gottfried are keeping their jobs for now.

So are feature writer Jim Beckerman and Joan Verdon, the reporter whose shopping-center beat focuses on some of The Record's biggest advertisers.

Verdon is the only member of the business staff who escaped the layoffs.

Three veterans of the news staff, Deirdre Sykes, Jay Levin and Pat Alex, also are leaving.

Record Columnists Mike Kelly, John Cichowski, Bill Ervlino and Charles Stile are being retained for their ability to fill yawning holes in news and feature pages now that so many writers have been given the heave-ho.

Kara Yorio, a writer on The Record's Better Living staff, was laid off.

Columnist Mike Kelly is keeping his position.

Today's paper

The Zisas appear to be up to their dirty tricks in Hackensack again, according to a story in The Record today (Local front).

Caseen Gaines, a Hackensack High School English teacher, also is campaign manager for Hackensack United for Progress, the Zisa-backed slate in the City Council election in May.

Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon reports Gaines "appears to have distributed campaign material" to the media "during school time and on school grounds, according to emails and public records" (1L).

"The city schools' policy prohibits some political work during school hours," Torrejon says.

Gaines' actions were defended by Richard Salkin, a longtime Zisa loyalist who is school board attorney and legal counsel for the Hackensack United for Progress slate.

"If you look at the policy, no way he's done anything wrong," Salkin says of Gaines.

Anthony Zisa

In last April's school election, another Hackensack High teacher, Anthony Zisa, apparently supplied the addresses of members of the teachers union to Team Hackenack, which backed three school board candidates. 

Over the objections of the teachers union president, Team Hackensack, created by the Zisa family political dynasty, invited the teachers to a meet-and-greet barbecue at Anthony Zisa's home, 337 Maple Hill Drive in Hackensack.

Anthony Zisa, son of disgraced former Police Chief Ken Zisa, lives in the home of his grandfather, the late Frank C. Zisa, family patriarch and onetime mayor of Hackensack.

Trumpcare

Here is The New York Times' take on today's scheduled vote to replace the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act:

"Today is a big day in the House of Representatives — and for millions of Americans at risk of losing their health insurance.

"House Republicans are planning to bring up their health care bill for a vote, and it’s not clear whether the bill will pass. A quick summary:

"The bill would take away health insurance from an estimated 24 million people and raise costs for many older Americans. It would channel the savings into large tax cuts for the affluent."