Secaucus Superintendent Explains Why Full-Day PreK Is Not Happening

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 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. 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."

"You can blame me. You are right and I really apologize for that," acting superintendent Charlie Voorhees told her.

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.

"It was really frustrating for us because we didn't find out until June 13, but we were told just days before 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 free, full-day PreK.

"If we have room for more apartments in this town, we have room for more schools," Dadgostar 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. Then, late on a Friday afternoon in June, the town made the stunning decision there was actually not enough funding, and there were too many logistical problems to put it into place.

Voorhees 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," he started off.

Voorhees said some of the biggest problems were:

• #1. Could not find classroom space: The Board of Education determined St. Matthew's pre-school, which perennially receives rave reviews from many parents in town, was not eligible to be used as classroom space for free, full-day PreK.

"We were all in," explained Rev. Danielle McCleary, pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran church, which operates the school. "But the school board informed us that they no longer wanted to work with us because it would require too much construction in our space. The choice was made for us ... In all honesty, St. Matthews was excited about the prospect of it, just like many others."

With St. Matthew's out, that left the school district looking at classroom space in Harmony, Kiddie Academy and possibly Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic church, which has not been used as a school in many years.

"We were going to use the art rooms in Clarendon and Huber," said Voorhees. "But in PreK you need bathrooms in the classrooms. Well, the art rooms in Clarendon and Huber don't have them."

• #2. Making sure private daycares follow the state-mandated curriculum: For a town to offer free, full-day PreK using state funds, all private nursery schools in town have to follow a state-mandated curriculum from the NJ Department of Education. Voorhees said the Secaucus school district was unable to hire teachers for private schools, and "we cannot police the curriculum offered in private day cares."
• Union City toddlers may have had to be bused into town: Secaucus already has 60 kids enrolled in the half-day PreK at Millridge School. Voorhees said the district encountered another problem of deciding which kids would go to Clarendon/Huber and which would go to private nursery schools.

Also, by state law a HeadStart program has to be included when a school district offers free, full-day PreK. The nearest HeadStart is in Union City. So some Union City HeadStart toddlers would have to be bused into Secaucus — which the Secaucus school district would have had to pay for.

"So, some of our 4-year-olds would have been shut out of our town program," said Voorhees, meaning Millridge. "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 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," 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 Voorhees even want to be the permanent Secaucus school superintendent?

Patch questioned Voorhees after Tuesday night's meeting: Will he be hired to be the superintendent? Does he even want the job?

"I will be the acting superintendent until Sept. 30," answered 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 Alfonso is on a permanent paid leave by the Board of Education, being paid his $180,000 yearly salary after the Board put him 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)."