On 10/28/22, over 100 parents and caregivers, clergy, and community leaders from Jersey City Together gathered at PS 17 in Jersey City to celebrate the progress we have made in extending clean and safe drinking fountains in the public schools, and to press for more progress.

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Since 2018, Jersey City Together has been advocating for safe, running drinking water to be available in every Jersey City public school. Because of our work:

• 14,500 students at 18 schools now have access to clean, safe drinking fountains, 

• 5,000 additional students will gain access during this school year.

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At our action, Superintendent Dr. Norma Fernandez made three commitments.

 

First, she committed to completing the work on the sixteen schools where water infrastructure and new fountains are being upgraded through a JCBOE-JCMUA Shared Services Agreement. The work will be completed at all of these schools by June 30, 2023.These schools are highlighted in orange in the graphic below.

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Second, she committed to developing a plan for the twelve schools and early childhood centers that are not included in the current Shared Services Agreement with the JCMUA. These schools are highlighted in red below.

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Third, Dr. Fernandez committed to continuing to publicly share information about progress on water remediation at regularly scheduled JCBOE meetings.

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We thank Dr. Norma Fernandez of the Jersey City Public Schools and Mr. Joe Cunha of the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority for their work together to reach this point.

This was made possible by the hard work of our team of leaders; you can check out the timeline of our water advocacy here.