Trenton preschool accuses district of sabotage
TRENTON >> One of the contracted providers for the Trenton school district says officials have intentionally made it hard for parents to get their children enrolled in preschool.
Those are only part of the alleged sabotage tactics the Puerto Rican Community Center (PRCC) says in a legal petition that have prevented students from receiving the education they’re supposed to under state law.
The lawyer for the private preschool, which serves 90 Trenton students, filed legal action last August outlining what she alleges is the school district refusal to comply with basic education requirements .
The complaint paints a bleak picture of conditions for preschool students that PRCC’s attorney said district officials have refused to address. She said district officials canceled a meeting last year to meet at the negotiations table to solve the issues, leaving her little choice but to file the petition.
“For the parents who are sending their kids to preschool [in the district], they want to see them have a good preschool experience,” Denise Dwyer, the attorney for PRCC, said in a recent phone interview. “They don’t want the preschools they’re going to shortchanged.”
Patterned Problems
She said she has met with at least one other Trenton preschool provider that has experienced similar issues with the district. That school, Dwyer said, is considering legal action.
Among the issues, PRCC says the district falsely assured the state Department of Education it was providing basic health care services for enrolled preschool students, as required by law, but that nurses from the district’s contract healthcare provider, Bayada, rarely visited the school to conduct required screenings.
The preschool also claims the district refused to approve salary increases for its director and staff, made new student registration so cumbersome that it chilled enrollment and allegedly misled the DOE about use of a teaching program that aids curriculum and helps teachers track students’ progress.
The school district used to have in-house preschool but outsourced that completely to community providers a couple years ago. School union officials called the decision a “travesty.”
“It was [Superintendent Fred] McDowell’s decision to outsource preschool, which was a travesty for our schools,” said Janice Williams, grievance chair of the Trenton Education Association. “He created this issue with preschool. It was working very well and very effectively [inhouse].”
McDowell’s last day with the district is at the end of this month, and the legal controversy, which is before an administrative court judge, has not been settled on his watch.
The two sides could reach a settlement before a hearing is scheduled. But the PRCC, pointing to the legal gridlock over the last year, doesn’t have faith that will happen any time soon.
“For more than a year, rather than trying to resolve the problems, the Office of Early Childhood has responded by attempting to intimidate us into silence, and recently threatening to close our preschool,” Alma Garcia, executive director of the PRCC, said in a statement. “If DOE will not make sure Abbott preschool providers receive the resources and support they need from the district, how can we secure high-quality services for our children and families, in an impoverished community?”
She called on Mayor Reed Gusciora, council members, 15th district assembly leaders Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Anthony Verelli and Gov. Phil Murphy to “defend the mandate to deliver high quality preschool to designated Abbott disadvantage communities,” referring to districts the state Supreme Court mandated receive additional state funds to keep up with wealthy districts.
Trenton school board general counsel James Rolle Jr. did not respond to a phone call or emailed request for comment on the PRCC’s claims.
Constant Issues
Garcia said the district funds the preschool’s $1.2 million budget. The contract calls for the PRCC to provide educational services for six hours each school day for 180 days.
But the district has bucked about approving a 10 percent salary increase for Garcia, arguing her salary is capped, according to the court papers. They do not outline how much Garcia makes each year to oversee operations at the preschool.
PRCC says its teachers are supposed to be paid commensurate with district teachers. But the preschool’s lawyer found that PRCC’s teachers with bachelor’s degrees and 10 years of experience made $15,000 less each year than district teachers with the same qualifications.
More disturbingly, Dwyer said that the district has told the DOE it provides health screening services for preschool students at PRCC but that has not occurred.
Families have also experienced delays in getting their kids registered for preschool because of the district’s requirements for parents to prove residency, the complaint states.
“Families are having to wait unreasonable amounts of time for their applications to be approved and to receive notification of their child’s placement,” the court documents say. “The District requires parents wishing to register their child for preschool to call a hotline that is only answered two days per week and is not answered at all during the hours of noon1:30 p.m., the time during which many working parents could call while on a lunch break. That hotline also does not accept voicemail so return calls cannot be made.
The district has refused to accept the listed addresses on parents’ driver’s licenses as proof of residency, the complaint states.
“The District has issued written guidance to private preschool providers directing them not to accept any computer-generated/printed bills and requiring families who are not homeowners or the named tenant on a lease to produce a notarized statement rather than just a written statement from the householder with whom they reside,” the complaint says.
The district allegedly changed the terms of its contract with PRCC effectively making family workers residency enforcement officers who are required to meet with parents three times at their homes to ensure they’re actually living in the city, Dwyer said.
“Family Workers are supposed to build trust with the families of preschoolers and foster a connection with the education system, not to be compliance monitors,” the attorney wrote.
The district has also allegedly refused to provide a required one-on-one aide for students with behavioral issues. The preschool says it cannot suspend or expel unruly students and must make efforts to work with them to get them help.
This has put the PRCC’s license with the state Department of Children and Families, which has taken a hardline stance that without the aides for those unruly students the preschool must take punitive action in jeopardy “for violating the prohibition against
The district allegedly lied to the state that it upgraded to Teaching Standards Gold Plus program preschool teachers need to track students’ progress. But the complaint says the district never upgraded to that program.
“Moreover, too often, teachers are unable even to access the lower-tier Teaching Strategies program because the District has allowed the license to expire,” Dwyer wrote.