06/05/2023 BOE Meeting: John’s Notes

Ms. Stanley Continues to Help The Public Understand the Board Majority’s “Logic”

I’m going to highlight what I feel is the most critical interaction of the BOE Meeting after the Educator of the Year Awards.

If you recall, last month, the BOE Majority blocked Dr. Foregger and Ms. Khanna’s request to have Dr. Varley explain the decline in rankings (read decline in Math, English, and Science proficiencies). That explanation would have occurred last night had it not been for the combination of “No” votes and abstentions on the part of Mr. Cianculli, Ms. Young, Ms. Stanley, and Ms. Penna, and Ms. Bradford.

Since then, I provided the BOE my analysis of the numbers through multiple emails.

Last night I asked the BOE majority why they voted to prevent the Superintendent from providing the public with data to support that the reasons our declines are more significant than six other comparable schools were due to COVID and, (according to the Superintendent), apathetic AP Students.

Shortly after my comments, Ms. Stanley goes on a bit of a speech where she advances the idea that Berkeley Heights has no choice but to be a Board of Committees because of packed agendas. This is an interesting position given that the reason they are “packed” has to do with the BOE reducing it’s frequency of meetings and filling up the agenda with everything but what is essential- like voting to fund Ms. Stanley’s ethics complaints.

Here’s the deal – the only reason committees exist on the Berkeley Heights BOE is to do “the work” away from the public eye.

Anyway, back to Ms. Stanley’s comments.

She then asks Ms. Khanna and Dr. Foregger why they have yet to contact the Committee about the declines. Now this is the ringer….Ms. Khanna asked Ms. Stanley when the Committee would have the report ready. Ms. Stanley’s response – they still need to meet. So follow the logic here:

Ms. Stanley admonishes other BOE Members for not reaching out to the Committee for information they requested during the prior meeting – yet they have not even met to discuss it.

The fact that Ms. Khanna and Dr. Foregger were the only BOE Members to ask the Superintendent about the issue apparently wasn’t evidence enough that they would want an update.

Why would Ms. Stanley and the curriculum committee need to be asked for this by anyone – why wouldn’t they prioritize this enough to bring the issue up themselves? 

Strangely, the curriculum committee is meeting on this issue precisely one day after a meeting – one month after the request for information – as if they couldn’t meet any other day before the 6/5 meeting.

I wonder why the Curriculum Committee is even meeting on this issue.

Dr. Varley, who, as Ms. Joly pointed out, is the Superintendent of Schools. Ms. Joly also pointed out that Dr. Varley cited ranking improvement during her tenure in Sparta on the resume she submitted to Sarasota. That ranking increase was not based on the NJ Proficiency Scores (there is no record of the District participating in that testing during that time).

So rankings that appear to be based on vapor or inappropriate measures (like SAT scores which are more like IQ tests) are important enough for a publicly displayed resume however, rankings based on proficiencies (a measure of how well a child is learning) need two months and a committee to discuss. Interesting that Dr. Varley did not cite the movement of Berkeley Heights rankings during her tenure on her resume.

It is Dr. Varley’s job to be on top of proficiencies, she is paid to do this and a thorough explanation should be on the tip of her tongue.

She and her Assistant both have Ph.D.’s – this issue is precisely the reason their positions exist.

Why do they need a committee (the public has no access to) to read a report and then explain the Superintendent’s position that COVID and AP Students are the main factors driving our decline?

How is Ms. Stanley a more competent authority on this matter than the Superintendent or her Assistant?

In any case Ms. Stanley, in response to Ms. Khanna’s question, indicated that the committee would have a work product explaining the Superintendents reasons for the decline today.

I have emailed the BOE and asked that the report be released immediately and that the Superintendent take questions from the public on this report – questions that are actually answered.

Video of My Comments and the Exchange between Ms. Stanley and Ms. Khanna:

Email to the BOE requesting Curriculum Committee Work Product on Proficiencies​

Articles on The BHPSNJ Declines

Articles on the BOE’s “Packed Agenda” Involving “Important Work”