Please email: natalia@ioffe.net if you would like to put up a poster in your window. Thank you!
From words to action. I don’t need to win an election to help parent groups connect and facilitate their daily collaboration with JCPS. This work will continue, because we know it’s important to stay connected, learn from each other and make it easier for others.
JCPS Parent groups partnering to make their schools strong and successful! Parent leaders representing PS#16, PS#5, PS#37, PS#3 & MS#4 engaged in a working session to come up with a comprehensive plan to facilitate the PTA/district cooperation and benefit ALL schools. I’ve always said that no administrator or public official is going to be more invested in the welfare of our students than we are. It’s a privilege to work with these guys in helping our schools.
At VVPA I answered questions about the sustainability of the non-profit model as it potentially can apply to our school district, changing the state’s perception of Jersey City, and successfully applying corporate partnerships and free market strategies to help with our school funding deficit.
Excerpt form the JCBOE candidate forum with Parents Take Action (hosted by Gina Verdibello and Hudson County View). Question from the audience: “what would you change as a board member and what change falls outside of BOE scope, but you still hope to see.” Candidate responses.
Meet 4 of the 8 candidates running for the Jersey City Board of Ed. There are 3 open slots for 3-year terms. Meet Marilyn Roman, an incumbent running for her 3rd 3 -year term. Joan Terrell Paige was a former city council aid. Natalia Ioffe is a public school parent advocate / fundraiser at the CORNELIA F. BRADFORD SCHOOL – PS 16. Mussab Ali is a Rutgers University honor student, who won the 1 year term last year.
Continue reading
To provide an example of how much it would cost Jersey City to equip all schools with high powered A/C’s – the parent council at PS16 raised $42K in 2012-2013 to install units into 18 classrooms and about half as many mini-classrooms and offices. “Friedrich” – at approx. $1500 apiece. (Comparable BTU units can be purchased for half-price on the free market).
***If we imagine that ALL 40 JC public schools needed to be supplied on a similar scale it would take approximately $2,000,000.
With the help of corporate partnerships/an Educational Fund to support JCPS, it is a completely achievable goal. ***If every new residential high-rise that supplies hundreds of new students into our schools, contributed towards our public education we could cool all our schools within a year.
(From the article:) “In April 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a $28.75 million initiative to install air conditioning units in all city classrooms by 2022.
Nothing on that scale is happening, or even proposed, in New Jersey.
A bill that would require local school boards to adopt “temperature control guidelines and standards” was introduced in 2016 and approved in March by the Assembly Education Committee.”
NJ.COM – “Kids are sweating in school, and many aren’t getting AC anytime soon”
Had a great time with Frank Educational Gilmore speaking about the JCBOE race, taking responsibility for our students and the Jersey City Community.
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- My story: from a high school delinquent to honor student thanks to a teacher
- Dangers of cutting freshman High School athletics and what we can do to prevent it
- Mitigating the adjustment aid cuts by the state
- Preferred Meals contract dispute and school nutrition
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(An excerpt from 2016 Interview with UrdoingItRight.com click on the link for full text)
Tell me about your ideas regarding allocation of funds and the 600 million dollar budget.
There are practical cost-saving solutions which can help the school district use its finances more efficiently. Current BOE purchasing system is tied up in practices that force schools to purchase supplies at higher prices than the free market offers.
As a parent council leader I have been able to help our school circumvent some of these spendings, by raising funds and purchasing certain household needs from free market vendors, at lower prices, with expedited deliveries. That way our school principal can use the school’s funds towards much needed academic programs or field trips for the students.
A principal should not be forced to chose between purchasing an A/C unit for a classroom or being able to afford an extra school bus for a class trip. That is why parent ambassadors are an essential support system for any school. To save our schools money, the board must work to streamline this purchasing system for the district as a whole and try to avoid paying the unjustifiably marked up prices for school supplies and facilities.
Many parents are concerned about testing as a primary (and in some cases singular) tool for evaluation of students, teachers, and schools. Can you speak to that? Continue reading “BOE Candidate Q & A: Natalia Ioffe”
Very glad to have made a small impact to the pre-plated meals improvement for our schools. One step at a time.
Reposting from #TheSchoolDistrictOfJerseyCity :
“Happy to say that the district will be using Whitsons as the food provider until Dec 2018. Another bid proposal will go out during this time in order to have a vendor to finish out the year. Shout out to the parents like Monique K. Andrews, Shanna Caron Givens #NataliaIoffe and Jillian Mellen for speaking today! […] Thank you to the board for making a wise decision and going with the vendor that had the best taste test amongst the students. It’s not over yet but at least for now we can try Whitsons”
Watch full live-stream on the JCPS FB Page HERE
