MONTCLAIR KIDS FIRST TO SPONSOR ALL FINANCIALLY DISADVANTAGED MONTCLAIR FAMILIES WITH FOUR YEARS OF FREE HOME WIFI ACCESS

- MKF Initiative to Launch a Series of Efforts Aimed at Serving Montclair’s Kids -

[Montclair, New Jersey – June 25, 2015]  In response to the alarming achievement gap in Montclair’s public schools, Montclair Kids First (MKF) announced today that it is sponsoring financially disadvantaged Montclair families with free home Internet access for four years.  In collaboration with JerseyOn, a statewide nonprofit focused on connecting low-income students and their families to the Internet, MKF will fund the purchase of a series of Sprint NETGEAR Fuse Mobile Hotspot devices.  The technology will be made available to all Montclair resident parents whose children attend Montclair public schools and qualify for the District’s free & reduced lunch program.  MKF hopes to ensure that over 1,500 Montclair students will have the opportunity to receive free Internet access in their homes.  Today’s announcement will also serve as the first in a series of ambitious and innovative initiatives by MKF to serve Montclair students.

Each hotspot device will provide 3GBs of free monthly data service for four continuous years on Sprint’s 4GLTE network.  There will be no cost or obligation to the user.  Specifically, the device will be restricted to educational use.  As part of the negotiations, Sprint and JerseyOn will ensure each Internet access device will block anything deemed inappropriate for children.

Over the summer months, MKF will proactively outreach various community organizations, local religious leaders and Montclair School District leadership in hopes of building additional partnerships around this initiative.  If the introduction and implementation of the program is successful, MKF hopes to develop and grow the program to sponsor computers and other learning tools and devices to all economically disadvantaged students in Montclair.  

“Montclair Kids First passionately believes we must come together to address our achievement gap,” stated MKF member Shelly Lombard.  “MKF credits the hundreds of hours Jonathan Simon and the Montclair AGAP panel have dedicated to addressing this issue.  Now we must step up and do our share.   We have celebrated our town’s deserving achievements, but have ignored issues like the gap for too long.  While we live in a wonderful community, we must continue to offer solutions, ideas and support until every child in our town is given equal opportunity to learn and excel.”

“Connectivity provides valuable learning opportunities.  It has become critical to preparing kids for college and careers and has become a vital tool for students to communicate with teachers,” stated MKF Member Sam Cole. “Every child in Montclair should be provided this opportunity and it is simply unacceptable that the only way some of our kids are able to access the Internet is from their classroom or our public library.  We need a paradigm shift in how our community addresses these and other challenges.  

MKF is funding this ambitious effort because each of us believes we have a responsibility to all our kids, neighbors and our public schools.  A child’s academic success should never be determined by his or her economic status.   A digital, economic and academic divide has existed in Montclair for years and we must work together to address this issue head on.”

“Today’s announcement is the launch of a series of initiatives that MKF will look to fund and implement,” stated MKF Member Matthew Frankel.  “Ideas will be announced in partnership with its membership and Montclair’s community organizations and we hope to continue filling voids that address the specific needs of all our kids.  These initiatives are optional to Montclair parents.  There will be no obligations and will simply be available to the community.  It is our hope that those who have not yet joined MKF will do so and lend their voice to developing ideas that will serve our kids.”

“We know that broadband connectivity and digital literacy skills are key to a 21st century education. Unfortunately, too many students in NJ are still unconnected, living on the wrong side of the digital divide. This problem is 100 percent solvable, but it takes excellent, localized program's like MKF's to help close the opportunity gap. I applaud their work,” said JerseyOn Chairman Josh Gottheimer. 

When asked about the initiative, Montclair’s AGAP Chair, Jonathan Simon, expressed enthusiasm about the idea.  "While we know that socioeconomic status only explains a portion of the achievement gap in our town, we also know that equitable access to resources is a necessary condition for closing the gap.  This program provides an opportunity for our families to enhance their children's classroom learning, whether that means an extra resource to complete a project or study for a test.  Given the magnitude of our challenge, we welcome any sensible efforts that will help to level the playing field for our kids."

How the initiative will work:

Step One – Equipment Purchase
MKF will purchase each hotspot device. 

Step Two – MKF to Partner with Community Organizations 
Over the summer months MKF will proactively outreach various community organizations, local religious leaders, and the Montclair School District and ask for their involvement and input to ensure all Montclair’s financially disadvantaged families are aware of this opportunity.  MKF will plan to announce these partnerships publically as they become defined.

Step Three – Families Make a Request
By the fall of the 2015-2016 school year, MKF will announce publicly announce a formal process for families to receive their free hotspot device.  Equipment purchases by MKF will be based on parent interest from qualifying households.  A Montclair parent or guardian must make each request for the hotspot device.

Step Four – Receiving the Internet Device
Distribution will include the free hotspot device, directions on set up and contact information for technical support.  The hotspot device will be able to plug it into laptops or computers.  The device will provide four years of free Internet access.

If the introduction and implementation of the program is successful, MKF hopes to continue offering the program as an option to newly eligible Montclair families each year. In addition, MKF will look to expand the sponsorship program to ensure that every low income Montclair family also has computers and other learning tools in the home.  

About Montclair Kids First
Montclair Kids First (MKF) is a coalition of Montclair parents and residents who believe deeply in the promise of Public Education and in Montclair’s Public School system.  The group reflects Montclair’s diverse backgrounds, ideas, and values.  Putting our kids first means that every Montclair child has access to a first-rate education, that every Montclair parent is empowered with a strong voice, and that we, as members of the Montclair community, are responsible for providing solutions and supporting initiatives that strengthen our public schools.  To learn more please go to - http://www.montclairkidsfirst.org.

About JerseyOn
JerseyOn, a new state-wide non-profit focused on connecting low-income students and their families, in an effort to bring affordable, high-speed broadband to all residents.  JerseyOn works to eliminate the digital, economic, and academic divides by delivering low-cost home Internet, affordable computers, and digital literacy training for the thousands of unconnected people in our state. More information can be found at www.jerseyon.org.

Greetings,

On June 1, 2015, Sean Spiller made the following statement to Montclair On Tap regarding the pending conflict of interest and ethics complaints filed against Mr. Spiller by Montclair Kids First (MKF).  

Mr. Spiller stated,  "The judge dismissed three of four complaints. No documents have to be produced, as now we go back to court to determine if anything has to be provided for the one count remaining.”

On the same day, Mr. Spiller issued a similar statement to Baristanet, "a judge recently dismissed three of MKF’s claims outright without even hearing them.”

Rather than continuing to exchange unsubstantiated claims, MKF obtained the actual court order for the May 29th hearing.  

- The order shows that all three complaints challenging the ethics of Spiller's service on the Board of School Estimate ("BSE") were upheld and that only one complaint was dismissed. This is contrary to Spiller’s claim that three of the four complaints were dismissed by Judge Moore.  

- Importantly, the dismissed complaint did not challenge the ethics of Spiller's service on the BSE, but, instead, alleged that an ethics violation is also a violation of our kids' civil-rights. The judge held that they were not and dismissed the claim, while upholding MKF's core claims that Spiller's service on the BSE violates state and municipal ethics laws.  

- As the court order indicates, Judge Moore also asked that legal counsel for both sides reach a “reasonable accommodation” on the discovery of facts and evidence.  Again, this is contrary to Spiller’s claim that "No documents have to be produced, as now we go back to court to determine if anything has to be provided for the one count remaining."

- Finally, Judge Moore requested that the complaint be expanded to include Montclair’s Board of School Estimate should MKF seek to invalidate the budget vote of the Board of School Estimate for FY2016. On June 5th, the Montclair Board of School Estimate was notified of this expansion. It is now a defending party to the lawsuit.

The Court order can be found here.

As defined in our mission, MKF believes that all information and background pertaining to decisions regarding public education should be available to everyone. MKF deeply believes that parents and taxpayers should have all factual information available so they can make the best judgements for themselves. MKF will advocate, petition and invest to ensure greater transparency of our elected and appointed officials in the area of education.

Sincerely,

MKF

Montclair Kids First (MKF) would like to welcome Shelly Lombard as a public member of our organization!  

As many of you know, Shelly has worked tirelessly as a volunteer member of Montclair’s Board of Education for a number of years.  Now that her Board term has ended, we are thrilled to have Shelly's perspective and experience.

Today, there is a letter in the Montclair Times from Shelly stating her involvement in our organization.  

***

The Montclair Times letter by Shelly Lombard: "Herron needs to have a seat." - June 4, 2015

Lombard joins Montclair Kids First

David Herron asked what I did about the achievement gap while I served on the Board of Education.

I did what I was supposed to do. I helped hire a transformational superintendent with a track record of closing achievement gaps, something that NAACP Chairman James Harris acknowledged when Dr. Penny MacCormack arrived.

Studies show that poor and/or struggling children often get the weakest teachers and are the most vulnerable because of limited support at home. Dr. MacCormack worked to implement systems to ensure consistent instruction and high expectations in every classroom.

Mr. Herron has wasted taxpayer dollars for years on silly legal actions against teachers, the district, and Board members and nuisance investigations like the one of the MHS guidance department.

Before Dr. MacCormack was announced as our new superintendent, he sent me her photo and a one-line email: "The new superintendent looks like THIS?" I don’t know if he was unhappy about her gender or race or both.

He joined others like Michelle Fine in attacking her on everything from her lack of a New Jersey certificate to the PARCC exam, conveniently forgetting that new out-of-state hires usually get their New Jersey certificate after they arrive and that PARCC was a state mandate, not Dr. MacCormack’s initiative. From her recently obtained emails, it appears that Ms. Fine’s attacks were a highly coordinated effort to bully Dr. MacCormack out of town.

A small group of people with a vested interest in the status quo because of their day jobs and anti-charter school books have monopolized the conversation too long. The status quo isn’t just fine.

That’s why I am joining Montclair Kids First. We have good schools. Our kids deserve great schools. We believe EVERY child deserves a first-rate education and that EVERY parent’s voice should be heard.

Shelly Lombard

Montclair

***

As you will likely note, in addition to Ms. Lombard, we have made other significant additions to our public member list. Please visit the MKF Membership page for a full update.  
 
Thank you for your continued involvement and support!

Montclair Kids First

On Friday, May 29th, Judge Thomas Moore denied Sean Spiller’s motion to dismiss the ethics and conflict of interest violations alleged by Montclair Kids First (MKF) in its formal complaint. In addition, Judge Moore ruled that the Montclair Education Association (MEA) must reasonably produce key discovery information that it had previously refused to provide MKF.
 
Representing MKF at the hearing was Shavar Jeffries of Lowenstein Sandler. Representing Mr. Spiller was the law firm of Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum, & Friedman. 

The following is a statement from Jon Bonesteel for Montclair Kids First:  

“Mr. Spiller’s ethics and conflict of interest initially began as a private matter between Montclair parents and Mr. Spiller some time ago.  Rather than address, or even acknowledge, these fair concerns, Mr. Spiller and the NJEA have escalated this issue and done everything possible to defend their own interests, rather than work with the Montclair community."

“On Friday, Judge Moore denied Mr. Spiller’s motion to dismiss the ethics and conflict of interest complaints against him.  This is an important first step toward bringing greater transparency to our community and we greatly appreciate Judge Moore’s commitment to a fair and equitable process."

“As the 3rd highest ranking official in the NJEA, Mr. Spiller’s fiduciary responsibility is to his union membership.  Mr. Spiller has used his appointment on the Montclair Board of School Estimate to strengthen the Union he represents, and he has done so at the expense of Montclair's children and taxpayers."

"MKF will continue to shine a light on how decisions that impact our children are currently being made in Montclair, and we will use every means at our disposal to do so.”

To view the full complaint filed against Mr. Spiller’s ethical and conflict of interest violations, please go to -http://www.montclairkidsfirst.org/legal-briefs.html.

Last week, a pretty amazing letter was issued by 12 significant Civil Rights Group regarding the PARCC test.

While Montclair Kids First respects a parent’s individual choice regarding PARCC, we do believe it is important that decisions are based on the facts and not on misleading rhetoric or political agendas.

Over the course of the last few months, we have witnessed a number of false claims by a select group of parents in Montclair regarding the PARCC test.  

When it comes to issues of civil rights, we are much more inclined to follow the collective opinion of: 

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The American Association of University Women (AAUW), Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA), Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), NAACP, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), National Urban League (NUL), Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), and TASH

We hope you will read the following letter and please share with your friends and neighbors.  

Thank you,

MKF

***

http://www.civilrights.org/press/2015/anti-testing-efforts.html

At the Board of Education meeting on Monday May 4th, departing Board Members Leslie Larson and Shelly Lombard spoke on their service and the road ahead for our public schools.  Here, we share their speaking notes (not verbatim presentations).

Leslie Larson Closing Remarks (88kB .PDF)

Shelly Lombard Closing Remarks (88kB .PDF)

We wanted to pass on today’s Star Ledger editorial, which not only puts Montclair and our own PARCC participation rate front and center, but also showcases some very scary consequences and realities that we never heard during the General Comment period at our Board of Education meetings.  

 http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/04/thanks_to_parcc_opt-outs_nj_schools_could_lose_big.html#incart_2box_opinion_index.ssf
 
Please note the following:

• New Jersey’s state-wide opt out rate for grades 3-8 is 4.6%. 
• Montclair’s opt out rate for grades 3-8 is 31% (25% for elementary and 37% for middle school). 

One conclusion is clear:   While many acknowledge that the PARCC exam is not perfect, the vast majority in our State supports the new testing regime, including many of Montclair’s local neighbors with excellent school systems.
 
MKF has not yet formed a point of view on how we, as a community, should now address this issue, but we do believe that communicating, listening and sharing factual information with each other is the first step.  That said, MKF supports the Montclair BoE Strategic Plan which included the use of the PARCC test to improve the quality of education delivered to our kids. 
 
As the Star Ledger article mentions, NJ state officials will not ignore these results, and certainly a great deal of attention will be brought to bear on Montclair on this issue.  There may also be financial ramifications to our recently approved budget.  It is our hope that all of you will communicate your displeasure with these results and advocate that we move forward with positive programs for our kids to our Board of Education members.  Their email addresses are:

David Deutsch: ddeutsch@montclair.k12.nj.us
Anne Mernin: amernin@montclair.k12.nj.us
David Cummings: dcummings@montclair.k12.nj.us
Jessica de Koninck: jdekoninck@montclair.k12.nj.us
Robin Kulwin: rkulwin@montclair.k12.nj.us
Leslie Larson: llarson@montclair.k12.nj.us
Shelly Lombard: slombard@montclair.k12.nj.us 

Since MKF is most focused on reviewing facts so we can make the best, most educated decisions for our kids, here are some more links that we hope might be helpful to you - 
 
http://www.nj.com/education/2015/04/despite_opt-out_movement_most_nj_kids_took_parcc.html#incart_river
 
http://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-releases-figures-on-opt-out-rates-for-new-state-tests-1.1309668
 
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2015/04/15/n-j-says-number-of-students-who-opted-out-of-tests-very-low/
 
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/04/16/technology-earns-high-marks-in-first-round-of-online-testing/
  
http://observer.com/2015/04/weakening-standardized-tests-amounts-to-killing-the-messenger/

Hello All,

First off, I would like to welcome everyone who has joined this mailing list since our last message.
 
As many of you already know, we had our first group meeting this week. Attendance was much larger than we had hoped and the dialog of thoughts and ideas on how MKF can best serve the community was encouraging and productive.  Thank you for all who attended and shared their voice.

If you could not attend the meeting, we’re sorry to have missed you.  From listening to those in attendance, I believe that until we formalize our mission and goals, my expectation is that I will remain the only public contact.  If for some reason you were not contacted about this meeting and would like to join the next one, please let me know directly.

For those of you who could not attend, here are a few of the outcomes of the meeting:

• We established a steering committee to narrow the focus of our near term goals, and we are working to update our mission given the events of the past few weeks.    
  
• We had a productive and detailed discussion on the current environment and how we can best engage the community.  
  
• We discussed a variety of initiatives that MKF can establish to support our schools and address issues like the Achievement Gap.
  
• Most of all, I think we all stand united that for the property taxes we pay and the values we share, that Montclair should not have an Achievement Gap and our high school should not be ranked 120 of 339 in the State.
  
• MKF will also continue to support the grievance against Councilman Sean Spiller.  The Judge will be hearing the full case on an expedited timeline. We have nothing against Mr. Spiller personally.  He has the right to be a paid elected officer of the NJEA.  He also has a right to be appointed to the Board of Estimate.  But doing both is an obvious conflict of interest that prioritizes the union that pays him over our kids.   
  
• On anonymity, a bit of a personal note - After my Letter to the Editor of Baristanet was published, I received what I expected in terms of responses.  Some of those responses were disappointing I must admit, but I have also been energized by the breadth and number of positive messages.  We at MKF understand and appreciate that the strength of our organization depends upon more members stepping out front like I have to engage the public directly.  As we look to finalize our mission and our priorities, I expect to introduce you to others who will join me very soon.
  

Thanks again for your interest and involvement.  

Please share this communication with your friends, and ask them to consider joining us at http://www.montclairkidsfirst.org

On this holiday weekend we wish everyone a Happy Easter and/or Passover, and I hope to see you on 5th Avenue wearing a silly bonnet.

Best,

Jon Bonesteel, MKF