New Jersey Education Conference highlights victories and makes recommendations to strengthen state's schools

Over 200 parents and education stakeholders from throughout New Jersey attended the Community Building Support Initiative (CBSI) Statewide Education Committee’s “ Education Organizing Conference,” held March 29 and March 30.

The purpose of the conference was to:

• Celebrate the past year's accomplishments.
• Obtain skills and information that can assist parents in their organizing efforts to improve their local school.
• Identify ways parents can work together on common issues in order to hold New Jersey public officials accountable for the improvement of New Jersey Public Schools

The Conference began with a rousing speech by Loucious Jones, chairperson of the CBSI Education Coalition on the successes of local groups since the last education conference November 2001. The conference keynote speaker was Hyacinth Yenni, chairperson of the Hartford Areas Rally Together in Hartford, CT. She spoke on the need for parents to work together, to network and to form coalitions to improve public schools locally, regionally and nationally. She encouraged parents to attend the National People’s Action (NPA) Conference in Washington, DC on May 31-June 2.

The CBSI Statewide Education Committee presented awards to Caren Franzini, Executive Director, NJ Economic Development Authority, responsible for the funding of school facility programs, for her leadership and “sharing the vision of equal school facilities for all children.” Also in attendance and presented with leadership awards were State Sen. Ronald Rice and US Rep. Donald Payne who ignited the crowd with a fiery speech. The award that energized and excited conference participants the most was presented to Manuel Antunes, youth leader from St. James CDC Youth Council in Newark, NJ. He also represented CBSI as part of NPA’s Education leadership team in Washington DC in 2002.

The conference provided workshops for participants that focused on building and/or improving their organizing skills, information on how to read school budgets and how the New Jersey Abbott Court Decision can improve schools and communities by providing jobs and business opportunities.

The highlight of the conference was the session with officials from New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) and New Jersey School Construction Corporation. CBSI Education Committee members presented proposals to:

• Speed up the school construction process.
• Increase parent and resident participation in all phases of the design of new schools.
• Improve the access of local residents to school construction jobs and small business contracts.

Conference leaders noted in their testimony that while progress had been made in the state’s construction program since last year, school districts are still ignored. Only eight out of 30 districts have no schools approved and under development, and 11 districts have only one school in the construction process. State officials accepted most of the group’s proposals.
Conference leaders pressed the New Jersey DOE on eight specific steps to improve the school design and construction process. Included were:

1. Measures to strengthen DOE’s requirements for parent and local resident participation in the earliest stages of school site selection and design.
   Issue standards to provide more support for including spaces in schools for community uses.
2. Push forward on pre-school construction.
3. Increase technical assistance to local school districts needing help for complexities of new school design.
4. Site visits by DOE top officials in CBSI cities.
   

Because of the problems getting DOE to commit to sending someone to the meeting, CBSI leaders and conference participants were surprised when they agreed to the proposals. The leaders were further surprised when DOE officials asked CBSI leaders to appoint two of its members to DOE’s Task Force on Facilities. The leaders agreed to discuss with members.
Officials from NJ School Construction Corporation also responded positively to proposals from CBSI leaders, which included:

1. More detailed information on schools in CBSI cities.
2. Stiffer requirements for parent and resident participation in school design.
3. Stronger provisions to increase local residents’ opportunities to obtain jobs in school construction projects.
   
   

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