Nothing says privilege more than "I am a tax-paying landowner in Jersey City." You don't need to tell everyone that you pay taxes and you own a plot of land in Jersey City to get something done.

No one is forcing you to bus your kids outside of the area but here is the question that you need to ask:

The problem with PS 16 is that the BOE is too lazy to do thorough checks on where people live Public school students are supposed to be zoned, meaning, they should be in walking distance, give or take a short bus ride. If this is the case, why are there so many cars doing drop-offs? Where do all of these people live exactly? Especially since you don't see any of these children roaming the area on the weekends.

I live around the corner and I have never been able to send my kids to 16. So, I drag them to Hoboken.

Do you park your car near where you live ? Do you need that car to make a living ?

Hey Steven and Francine-
I came in a little hot there, apologies didn't mean to offend, I'm just frustrated with the BOE. I'm not one to complain openly on the internet unless I deem it necessary. Just trying to make things a bit safer for the 12 dozen or so kids I see spilling out over your neighborhood sidewalks twice a day. I'm talking about removing maybe 5 spots from the street to solve this problem. I hope that doesn't impact you too much, Francine. I get it. No, I don't commute via car. I commute via a very crowded, but pretty reliable PATH train. Steven- in fact I have no choice. I cannot afford to send my children to private school in Hoboken. I await your sarcastic retort to that fact. I admit it sounds entitled to say you are a tax paying land owner, but if you have a better way to the through bureaucratic red tape, I am all ears. I don't think cutting each other down on a public forum is very productive, so if you prefer I retract my comment I'll do so, move on with my life, and take the slow approach to filling out 40 forms at City Hall. Good night, guys.

"I await your sarcastic retort to that fact."

Hoboken has free schools and my kids are in a free charter school in Hoboken. If you put your kids there, the BOE will pay you for transportation every 6 months. The school has a waiting list depending on their age. If your kids are in 3rd or 4th grade it's easier to get in.

The underlying issue is that until the BOE fixes the REAL issue, which is many of the people of PS 16 do not live in the neighborhood, why are the people IN the neighborhood busing their kids.

I get your frustration, which is why I ran to Hoboken. The BOE wanted me to put my kid on the bus to Danforth 5 years ago. I felt the distance was too far for a pre-K child to do, so I took my kid out of school and put her on the waiting list for PS 5 - which is an EXCELLENT school. If you can get into 5, do it. It doesn't look like much from the outside but the people there care.

Wishing you the best in your situation.

Hey Steve, in fact we didn't have a choice. Our kids are zoned for PS16, and in fact that's the school the go to, but due to overcrowding, because the city and BOE have done a poor job of opening new schools to keep up with the new residential development, we are forced to put our kids on a bus for a 7 mile journey to the PS 16 annex. And don't bring up your charter school if there's a waiting list, it's pointless. Hey take your kids here instead, oh wait you can't. And taking away 5 spots on Washington isn't as big of a deal as keeping 3 and 4 year olds safe.
"Oh I can't park my car."
"What about the kids safety?"
"But, my car!"
"Really."

Yes, you are zoned for 16 BUT you can take your kid to ANY public school in Jersey City if they aren't in Pre-K3.

I would call Hola to see if they have a spot available. It's better to be on the list waiting than not on the list at all. People move all the time. Some people opt not to take the spot. My son was in 4th grade and as the grades go up, spaces become more available. We walked in Friday and he was enrolled by Monday. That was 5 years ago. I haven't looked back.

You might also reach out to Gina Verdibello. Talk to her about your feelings about the annex.

Also, contact
SHIRLEY BENEKIN
sbenekin@jcboe.org

But for the record, you can walk into most Hoboken schools and ask to transfer. I wouldn't send my kids to Danforth on a school bus.

Thanks, Steven. That's super informative, I wasn't aware of the options. They don't exactly advertise that. I will look into it.

Steven, the busses are fine, that's not the issue. The issue is safer bus access for our very young children. Removing 5 spots for a few hours during a weekday isn't that big of a deal comparatively speaking. And your complaint earlier about non-zoned kids attend PS-16 and that's the reason for the problems, which it is not, is contradicted by telling us that our kids can attend any school we choose. One last thing, Danforth is a good school, PS16 is a good school, and both the school and the bus stop are in our neighborhood, and we want to send our kids to this school, we're just asking that it's made safer for our children. We don't think that's too big of an ask.

There aren’t enough spots on the block right now for the residents as it is. I know because I’m one of them. I get around this by paying a not insignificant amount of money to rent a spot in a lot across the street. Which is then blocked EVERY MORNING by the buses when I go to take my son to school (I opted not to bus him to Danforth). To avoid this I have started parking on the street every night (using a spot someone else might be able to use) but then on days like this morning I am thwarted again because multiple parents double parked, blocking me in, while I was sitting in my car about to pull out of my spot. So maybe also try talking to the other parents who are dropping off because some of them are making a dangerous situation worse by double parking in addition to the buses (who are blocking residents from their parking). That’s not to mention the parents who stand in the road or between the parked cars jumping and waving and carrying on. I had to drive around a woman standing in the middle of Grand St the other day who was doing this. The buses need to either be moved somewhere else or they need to hurry and open up the new school so these kids have a place to go in the neighborhood. But I don’t think taking what little parking we have is the answer. And saying that it’s only a few hours when you’re talking about 7:30-8:30am when people are getting ready to leave for work/school is a bit unrealistic I think.

Thank you for the information. Our office is coordinating with the Ward E Councilman to pursue any improvements that can be made to address this issue.

These issues need quick resolution!!! It’s about kids safety and one incident is all it takes to shut the street down

4 months and still not resolved...accidents are occurring here while the councilman’s office is sitting around and looking into options...just make a decision and solve the problem now rather than later

This issue was recategorized from Traffic/Pedestrian Safety Study Requests to Pedestrian Safety Study Request.

Issue 11763517 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.