Thursday Night: Secaucus Mayor Announces His Thoughts On Redistricting

SECAUCUS, NJ — Update, Feb. 15: The Secaucus school district now announced they pushed redistricting, should it happen, to September 2025.

Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli will announce his thoughts on proposed redistricting at the Thursday night (Feb. 15) Board of Education meeting.

The public portion of the meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Secaucus middle/high school PAC.

Gonnelli said he will stand up and reveal whether he supports redistricting or not.

This is the extremely controversial proposal to house K - 2nd at Clarendon Elementary, and 3rd - 5th at Huber Street. School superintendent Erick Alfonso wants this to be in place on the first day of school in September 2024. (Read: Secaucus Making A Dramatic Change At Its 2 Elementary Schools)

In the past two weeks, Gonnelli said he's received "hundreds" of text messages, emails and phone calls from town residents. Some support redistricting. But many are against it.

What is important for the public to know is that redistricting can happen with or without the support of Mayor Gonnelli. Alfonso wants redistricting to occur, but he needs a majority vote of the school board to make it happen. That vote would be taken some time this spring.

Although Gonnelli is a powerful figure in Secaucus, neither he nor the town Council have any legal say over decisions made by the school board — or how its members vote. Gonnelli acknowledged this much to Patch Thursday.

"They are going to vote how they're going to vote," he said. "But I will be making my thoughts known because this is something that affects all residents of town, whether you have kids in the schools or not, are a senior citizen, etc. There is going to be a lot more traffic from this."

The town of Secaucus does not control any of the school district budget. However, in the past the town has collaborated with the district on providing things such as school buses. That may happen again if redistricting goes through, as more school buses will be needed.

Again, redistricting can go through even if Gonnelli announces he is against it. However, he is influential in Secaucus, so what he says next Thursday night could sway some Board members who are still undecided.

What we know so far:

Redistricting is not a new idea. It was first brought up about 10 years ago, and various elected Boards of Education have batted it about ever since. However, the idea was not publicly discussed much, especially during the years of the pandemic.

This is why many Secaucus parents feel redistricting was sprung on them, and they said as much at public meetings.

At the massive Jan. 29 meeting, attended by dozens of parents, BOE president Kelli D'Addetta said she supports redistricting. In fact, one of the reasons the current BOE hired Alfonso was to make redistricting happen.

"Where the board stands ... is that we are in favor of Dr. Alfonso's proposal," she told Patch this Thursday.

"This current Board included this as priority in hiring Dr. Alfonso, and expressed to him the importance of this initiative," D'Addetta said Jan. 29. "We have full confidence that Dr. Alfonso will successfully move this initiative forward for the benefit of our students and families."

Alfonso said the No. 1 reason why he wants redistricting to happen is because it will improve the quality of education in Secaucus.

Redistricting will allow for "equitable distribution of resources and opportunities," he said. "This will ensure that all students have access to education and support, regardless of where they live in town."

All grade-levels will have the same teachers, in the same classrooms, he said. This will allow the curriculum to become more focused and more targeted per grade level. Special-education teachers and aides will be concentrated in the grades and classes that need them. If a student needs additional support, all the grade-appropriate aides and supplemental help will be concentrated in one place, in one building.

Next meeting: BOE meeting 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Secaucus High School - Performing Arts Center

Secaucus Superintendent Pushes Redistricting; Many Parents Displeased (Jan. 30)

Secaucus Making A Dramatic Change At Its 2 Elementary Schools (Jan. 19)