The Enrollment Jump
Fairfield Township, New Jersey, approved Al-Ghazaly High School, an Islamic private school run by the Islamic Education Foundation, with the understanding that 90 students would attend. After the school received a Certificate of Re-Occupancy earlier this year, enrollment reached around 313 students. The school also pressed local authorities to raise its authorized enrollment to 400. That is not a rounding error. It is more than three times the number approved by the town, raising direct questions about building capacity, traffic, parking, and public safety for nearby residents. A private school may want to serve more families, but the town’s approval still sets terms that are supposed to mean something.
Jaludi Defends the Decision
At a planning board meeting last Tuesday, IEF Schools executive director Hayat Jaludi defended the decision to operate with far more students than the approved limit. One board member asked, “How can you have 314 students in a building when you’re only allowed to have 90?” Jaludi said the school entered the building assuming its occupancy matched the number of students enrolled. She also argued that educators should understand the importance of avoiding an interruption to students’ right to education. Jaludi said the school had tried to operate within the 90-student capacity and had been successful, while also warning that 313 students could face an interruption. That argument puts a real concern against a basic rule: good intentions do not automatically replace approval.
Questions About Compliance and Safety
The school’s lawyer said the occupancy issue was “news to me,” while Jaludi appeared unfazed by the enrollment gap. Comparing roughly 313 students with the approved 90 means the school had 247 percent more students than allowed. This is not only a paperwork dispute. The larger operation creates traffic and parking problems, along with other logistical and safety concerns for Fairfield residents. Those concerns deserve answers from any school, regardless of its religious affiliation. The students’ faith is not a substitute for a permit, and the permit is not a suggestion. The central question is whether an institution can expand first and ask local officials for approval later.
Town Officials Say Residents Need Answers
Fairfield Mayor William Galese appeared unintimidated by the school’s demand. He said, “We have a community of 8,000 people who need to be answered…” That statement captures the town’s side of the dispute. Officials are accountable not only to the school and the families it serves, but also to the wider community dealing with the traffic, parking, and safety consequences of a much larger operation. The school can ask the planning board to approve a higher enrollment, and the board can weigh that request. What it should not do is treat a 90-student approval as though it already covered 313. The available account does not report a final decision from the planning board.
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The town of Fairfield, NJ gave approval for a Muslim school, with a cap of 90 students.
5 weeks in and they already got busted for flooding the town with HUNDREDS more.
Here's the infuriating exchange: pic.twitter.com/0GnBAx2kAX
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 18, 2026