Newark Board Of Education President Issues Apology Following Comment During Virtual Meeting – TAPinto.net

NEWARK, NJ — Newark School Board President Josephine Garcia issued an apology today after making an inadvertent remark that was picked up by her microphone during a virtual public board meeting Thursday evening.

The remark came as the board prepared to begin the public comment period of the meeting. “Here comes the bull****,” Garcia can be heard saying.

Following the remark, the public comment period carried forward and was neither publicly addressed at the moment nor during the remainder of the meeting’s public session. Although the meeting pressed on, members of the public who heard the comment were left displeased.

On Friday, Garcia addressed the incident on her Facebook page.

“I would like to apologize for a comment that mistakenly went out over the air last night,” Garcia wrote. “Please know that this comment was not directed toward, or a characterization of, any member of the public or the public participation process. I have dedicated over two decades to public service and will continue to work with the community that I love on behalf of its children and families.” 

Garcia was elected to the Newark school board in April 2017 and elected president of the board. She serves as the chair of the governance committee as well as vice chair of the legal committee and has also served as the president of the Essex County New Jersey School Board Association since May 2019.

Parents Educating Parents Inc. (PEP), a community nonprofit organization that acts as an advisory group between the community, educators, and parents for educational and social development, voiced their concern over the remark.

“The community actively attends Newark school board meetings where we often express our concerns, make suggestions for improvements, and often advocate for transparency to assist the board in governance of our school district,”  PEP CEO Yolanda Johnson said. “We, the community, feel disenfranchised, hurt, and traumatized by the board’s chairperson, Josephine Garcia, condescending and demeaning remark toward the public. 

Johnson said PEP is “inclined to ask Josephine Garcia to step down.”

Other members of the community also expressed concern over Garcia’s remark, including Wilhelmina Holder, of the Secondary Parents Council and a former Essex County Parent-Teacher Association president; Yvette Jordan, a history teacher at Central High School, who attended and spoke at Thursday night’s meeting and Denise Cole, who ran unsuccessfully for the board last year.

“I was absolutely stunned,” Holder said. “We work hard on behalf or our children to improve their outcomes and to enrich the community, so we can benefit from their gifts and talents. To know or even think, that the board views the community in such a negative, despicable, and unproductive light is frustrating and sickening.”