SECAUCUS, NJ — Three Secaucus parents stood up at the Council meeting Tuesday night to express their frustration that the school district will not, after all, be offering free, full-day PreK in the fall — which the district promised to do in March, and then abruptly took the offer away in June.
Two Secaucus moms said they even started applying for jobs, with the intention that their children would be attending full-day PreK this September.
“I have two 4-year-olds; we just bought a house; I was gonna go back to work and they were going to be in school,” said Newrka Jordan, a mother of twins. “My kids were one of the first registered (for full-day PreK). And now I’m in a position where I find out I can’t do that. And I find this out June 13. That is not really fair. I just want to say to the town that is not a fair way to operate.”
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“You can blame me. You are right and I really apologize for that,” acting superintendent Charlie Voorhees told her at the Council meeting.
Another mom, Ashley Dadgostar, said she sent out resumes with the expectation her 3-year-old daughter would be in all-day PreK this fall.
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“It was really frustrating for us because we didn’t find out until June 13, but we were told just days before that that we had to get our kids’ medical records ready,” she said. “I grew up in Secaucus and I really feel bad saying this, but I feel the thinking in this town is you need to be a stay-at-home mom to afford to stay here. They don’t make it easy to be a working mom in this town.”
Both moms said they speak for “about 40 parents” who were counting on sending their kids to full-day PreK starting in September.
“If we have room for more apartments in this town, we have room for more schools,” she added.
(The Secaucus school district is actually not overcrowded, and currently has 100 fewer students than it did in the 1970s/80s.)
In March, the Secaucus school district announced it received a $1.5 million grant from the state and would be offering full-day PreK starting this September. Then, late on a Friday afternoon in June, the town made the stunning decision there was actually not enough funding for full-day PreK, and there were too many logistical problems to put it into place.
Voorhees is the acting Secaucus school superintendent right now, and he stood up at the Council meeting and explained to the public how full-day PreK fell through:
“I know this program was something everyone was looking forward to — I get it,” Voorhees started off.
Voorhees said some of the biggest problems were:
“We were going to use the art rooms in Clarendon and Huber for PreK,” said Voorhees. “But in PreK you need bathrooms in the classrooms. Well, the art rooms in Clarendon and Huber don’t have them. So then you have to get waivers from the parents.”
“So, some of our 4-year-olds would have been shut out of our town program,” said Voorhees. “Who would stay in Clarendon and Huber, and who would go to private?”
In the end, the Secaucus school district returned the $1.5 million grant back to the state of New Jersey.
“This really would have cost us money in so many ways,” Voorhees stressed to the public at the end of the meeting. “We would have had to pass a bond to borrow (additional) money for this.”
Another dad, who is the parent of a 3-year-old girl with special needs, said the decision by Secaucus school district to first offer, and then take away, full-day Prek was “pretty devastating to my family and to my daughter’s education.”
“I was promised an integrated and inclusive classroom for children with IEPs, which I consider a violation of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act,” he said. “We’re obviously not getting PreK as of next year and man, that hurts. But this town, this administration, this school board needs to do something — we need to make sure this council takes a more active role in getting a superintendent to make sure we don’t have our seventh superintendent in eleven years. We need continuity in leadership. The administration (of Secaucus school district) is in shambles.”
Does Charlie Voorhees want to be the permanent Secaucus school superintendent?
Patch questioned Voorhees after Tuesday night’s meeting. Will he be hired to be the Secaucus school superintendent full time? Does he even want the job?
“I will be the acting superintendent until Sept. 30,” said Voorhees. “We cannot even advertise for a new superintendent while that is going on.”
By “that is going on” he was referring to the fact that current Secaucus superintendent Erick Alphonso is on a permanent paid leave by the Board of Education, being paid his $180,000 yearly salary after he was put on leave for reasons that were never revealed.
Voorhees seemed eager to return to his regular job as athletic director and Secaucus head football coach.
“I have a very good day job,” he said. “I consider this my after-school job. There will eventually be more to come.”
And will Secaucus school district get free, full-day PreK in 2025, or 2026?
“To be continued,” Voorhees answered. “My goal was to get to graduation. And then my goal is to open schools (in the fall).”
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