NJ Education Report hears regularly from Asbury Park staff members about their struggles in this district but not often from parents.

However this week Asbury Park mother LaShon Anderson-Bray bravely picked up the phone and told me what it was like to have a daughter, whom we’ll call Ava, stuck in a school district where securing appropriate instruction is a constant battle.

“I’m in tears about this,” Anderson-Bray told me. “It’s all the children, not just mine, but I can only speak up for mine.” 

Ava is a very high-functioning student on the autism spectrum. She gets straight A’s but suffers from anxiety related to her diagnosis, which presents as giggling at inappropriate moments, especially when she feels bullied. Anderson-Bray took her daughter out of school during COVID because, in addition to her autism diagnosis, Ava has severe asthma and is immuno-compromised. She’s currently on a home instruction schedule, attending school from 4-6 pm Monday-Friday.

Here is our conversation, lightly edited, in question and answer format.

What is it like inside the schools?

“There are fights every day, even among 7th graders [in the combined middle school and high school].The kids can’t read or spell. They can’t do math. They don’t know anything. It’s like jail but it’s not safe, people always telling you what to do. I don’t think the children have problems with authority–it’s the ego attached to the authority.”

Who in particular has the ego problem?

“All the administrators! My daughter was going to Barack Obama Elementary School [now closed due to lack of enrollment] and that’s on the same street where my brother was gunned down. I wanted to move her to [a different school] but the principals think they have more authority than parents do. They don’t know anything and yet they try to silence parents.”

What are your thoughts on the superintendents?

“All they care about are their accolades, their fancy suits and expensive dresses. [Former Superintendent] Sancha Gray looked down on Brookdale [a local community college where the district has a dual enrollment program] and didn’t want to be associated with them. She was too good for them. That’s where I went to college!”

What about [current superintendent] RaShawn Adams?

“I don’t like him. I’ve asked him for help with Ava’s situation and he said he’d take care of it. He didn’t. I don’t see how he’s changing anything. All that changes are the faces. People say they’re coming in to rescue our district but the only people they’re rescuing are themselves, with their fat paychecks.” [The district has twice as many administrators as similar districts.]

What is Ava’s situation?

“She was at Thurgood Marshall Elementary and I had sent a long list of what she’s allergic to. She came home unresponsive, I called an ambulance, and she was in the ICU for three weeks. She almost died. In 2016 I started working at Thurgood Marshall so I could see what was going on but they got rid of me because I’m not the kind of person who goes along to get along. I’m passionate. I’m my own person. I know what these kids go through. They deal with teachers and administrators who come to school with their personal problems. When I was at Thurgood Marshall I saw a teacher smack a child. I reported it but nothing ever happened. No one’s going to put a hand on my child!”

Does Ava have an IEP [Individualized Education Plan]?

“No, she was classified [as eligible for special education services] when she was 3, which was fine, but Asbury Park put her in a self-contained classroom with such low expectations. She was so bored! I asked her if she wanted to be in a general education class and she said she did. I had her declassified and she gets straight A’s. 

Then COVID hit and I couldn’t take the risk of having her infected, given her immuno-deficiencies. She has those two hours after school but teachers who never see her give her grades. She’s never recognized, never gets a letter that she’s on the honor roll, and I don’t get notices about special events. When I ask about an option for more rigorous virtual instruction–I know other schools have it—they say they can’t and blame everything on [Gov. Phil] Murphy.

Anyway, she learns more at home than she does at school.”

Asbury Park gets lots of money per student. Does the district spend it effectively?

“Not at all! They use the children’s poverty as a means to get more money. Anyway, they’re more focused on sports than anything else–it’s all they talk about. I go to every school board meeting and at one they signaled officers to escort me out. That’s how they silence parents. To them, Asbury Park is a paycheck. If you have a teacher who treats students well, who has a passion for education, the administrators get rid of them. And all they do is congratulate each other.

What do they need all that money for? For Ava they get $42,000 a year? [That’s 2019 revenue; currently Asbury Park gets $33,476, the highest per pupil cost in its peer group.] For two hours a day? With no opportunities, no teacher actually paying attention to her? Where is our money going? Why can’t every kid have transportation? If my daughter had to walk it would take her an hour.  And if everything is so great, as the school board says, why are teachers funding things out of their own pockets?”

Have you tried to contact anyone in authority?

“Yes, I reached out to the Department of Education in Trenton but no one ever got back to me. I’ve been on this quest since September.”

What do you think the DOE should do?

“They should tear this district down and send them to Neptune [a neighboring district with higher achievement and lower cost per pupil].  Our children deserve to be taught by people who are passionate. Our children deserve a district managed by administrators who care, who want our children to succeed and survive.

Cars need gas to go. Children need a push to go, and that only happens when the adults around them care. That doesn’t happen in Asbury Park.”