Hackensack's school board appears to be incompetent

The Avalon Hackensack at Riverside luxury apartments, shown in February, potentially will add students to already crowded classrooms in Hackensack. Two-bedroom apartments are renting from $2,355 a month, and three-bedroom units start at $3,035 a month. Parking is extra: $100 a month for the first vehicle, $50 a month for the second. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack schools are experiencing an enrollment boomlet, and officials are scrambling to lease space in a Catholic school that is closing, The Record reports today.

The story, on the Local front, makes no reference to a Hackensack Avenue luxury apartment complex with two- and three-bedroom apartments that potentially will add more children to the overburdened schools.

Finger pointing

Joseph Abate, the interim schools superintendent, blames the lack of long-range planning, and school board members blame "turnover in administration for the lack of a current plan."

So, what has eight-term school trustee Francis W. Albolino -- a political ally of the Zisa family -- and other longtime members of the board been doing?

They've been spending more money per pupil than Ridgewood, and getting little academic excellence in return.

Wrong story for A-1

Not only do the editors do their best to make today's major Page 1 story hard to follow, but readers who stick with it to the bitter end must wonder why it's on the front page in the first place.

"Wrong number goes

right for ailing woman"

The reporter does a good job with this much-ado-about-nothing occurrence, once you overlook the silly lead paragraph:

"Next time you dial a wrong number, think about this."

Bluenotes

The A-1 obituary of jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller is yet another attempt to avoid the most compelling question about his death at age 57:

Why are so many other African-American men dying in their 50s?

All news is local

On Friday, The Record did what a local newspaper can do best.

A front-page story revealed that James Comey -- President Obama's pick to be FBI director -- was himself a crime victim more than 35 years ago in Allendale.

Sadly, that kind of local perspective is missing from the national and international news stories Editor Marty Gottlieb likes to run on Page 1, as if The Record is a trans-Hudson version of The New York Times. 

Friday's A-1 also was notable for the absence of another Rutgers column by sports writer Tara Sullivan, the paper's own vagina monologue.

Seeing stars

Friday's restaurant review gives a good-to-excellent rating to Raymond's in Ridgewood, even though the only "flawless" dish was French toast (BL-18).

And the restaurant misses a heart-healthy rating by a country mile -- cooking leaves of Brussels sprouts in duck fat, and adding butter, cream and mascarpone to shrimp and grits.

Thai mystery

In the May 2013 issue of (201) magazine, Editorial Assistant Ryan Greene sounds knowledgeable in discussing the food he sampled at Pimaan Thai Restaurant in Emerson.

But then, his review says "the papaya salad" has "no actual papaya, for whatever reason."

I called the restaurant to confirm it serves "green papaya" salad, a staple of Thai cuisine.

Of course, it contains papaya, but it's just not the sweet, ripe fruit Greene or the (201) editors might be familiar with.

If that's not embarrassing enough, who wrote the amateurish headline?

"Thai Something New"

Hackensack school board is a lesson in politics

Hackensack Board of Education member Jason Nunnermacker, center, is running for City Council in the May 14 election on a slate that has sent out false attack mailings about its opponents. He is flanked by interim Schools Superintendent Joseph Abate, left, and Timothy J. Hoffman, 19, who was elected to the board on April 16 by a ridiculously small minority of registered voters.

The superintendent of Hackensack schools and his staff moved to a building at 191 Second St. about 3 years ago, but the sign out front, above, still does not reflect their occupancy, as if they are deliberately trying to hide from parents, and there are no visitor spots in the parking lot.

The word "SUPERINTENDENT" on the door isn't visible from the street. Parents have to play "find the superintendent," because older phone books still list 355 State St. (the Middle School) as his address and contain obsolete phone numbers. A current phone book doesn't even list the superintendent's office under Hackensack schools.

The Hackensack Board of Education's policy on political activity doesn't bar an active board member from running for City Council, the board's attorney said Monday night.

School trustee Jason Nunnermacker is a member of the Hackensack Coaltion for Open Government, a slate of candidates seeking election on May 14.

There is plenty of evidence the slate is backed and financed in part by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind the Zisa family dynasty that is so desperately trying to hold onto power in "Zisaville."

At the board's meeting in Hackensack High School, attorney Richard Salkin objected when independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson accused Nunnermacker and his slate of lying about their opponents in attack mailings.

Sasson asked if that was appropriate behavior for a board member, who is supposed to set an example for students.

The Open Government slate already set a poor example for children when its lead candidate -- former high school resource officer and retired police detective Kenneth Martin -- was caught by a store surveillance camera stealing signs put up by the Citizens for Change slate.

Sasson and other members of the public get only 3 minutes to speak before the board, compared with 5 minutes before the council.

Public jobs 

Salkin has a second public job -- municipal prosecutor. And he's a former city attorney, a position he was appointed to by the powers that be.

The attorney also has escorted Nunnermacker and his running-mates to at least one council meeting, where the candidates were overheard discussing where to get the best empanada in Hackensack.

When they encounter Salkin, many taxpayers see red -- the color of his modest Toyota SUV. 

Do they have a minyan?

Sasson also asked if Nunnermacker's colleague on the board, former Councilman Mark Stein, is an official at Temple Beth El on Summit Avenue, but Salkin again objected, saying that was "personal."

The synagogue apparently has been rented by Nunnermacker and other members of his slate to meet congregants on Thursday night, and the other six council candidates are excluded. 

"The board prohibits the use of school premises and school time ... for political purposes," according to board policy.

Nunnermacker appears to have violated the spirit of the regulation when he and other members of his slate mailed campaign material to an unknown number of teachers and support staff on a "confidential" list.

Is there any good reason to vote for Nunnermacker? Hackensack's board spends more per student than Ridgewood, and has little to show for it.
 
'Instant' heroin series

Beginning with Friday's "major heroin bust" on Page 1 and ending with today's report on parents facing "the agony ... of a child's heroin addiction," The Record appears to have come up with an "instant" series.

Were all of the stories coordinated with Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, who erroneously released a photo of a Fair Lawn woman who was not charged with any wrongdoing (see the embarrassing "Retraction" on A-2 today)?

Two corrections also appear on A-2 today, but the paper can only blame them on the incompetence of Production Editor Liz Houlton and her sleepy copy editors.

Dog news

A photo on L-2 today seems to say Teaneck spent $20,000 on a dog park, but nobody -- and no canine -- is using it.

Were the editors so desperate to fill space in the Local news section that they couldn't send the photographer back for a shot filled with people and dogs?