As The Board Turns

The Same Soap Opera, The Same Plot

Is it the mounting social pressure coming from the community or a total lack of self awareness?

As of late, there has been a trend at Board meetings to address public concerns and this new display of theatre is not to be missed. 

As a community we have been made aware that the majority of emails sent to the Board of Education and top Administration (Superintendent Varley) do not receive replies or responses.  In fact, I am one of the branded townsfolk who has not received a reply from the Board or Superintendent in over 18 months.  To be fair, on occasion I do receive a compassionately condescending email from Pamela Stanley demanding me to share my research or school me on some policy she herself doesn’t actually understand.  I should also share that Dipti Khanna and Tom Foregger almost always reply (even just a simple, “I received your correspondence”) to my emails.   My emails have ranged from inquiring who, in the 3 week absence of Stephen Hopkins out of office reply, will be responsible for fulfillment of OPRA requests to asking the Administration address the declining rankings of our schools to requesting the Board to their job in holding our Superintendent accountable.

At the last BOE Meeting, as we have seen over the last few months, Gale Bradford took it upon herself to present a prepared speech (this wasn’t a statement or discussion, she had prepared remarks which lasted for an upwards of 6 minutes – time stamp 19:02-25).  She attempted to address every email she had received since January ranging from declining rankings to supporting the need for both an Assistant Superintendent and Director of Elementary Education position.  She also spoke to the process of hiring, whereupon Robert interjected about the panel of interviewers, in which both agreed it included a “wide cross-section of the community.” I have repeatedly asked for a transparent process of picking people to sit on interview panels, but, alas, the secrecy continues.  Also worth mentioning is when Bradford said there was a total of a dozen candidates total who applied for the two open positions (Superintendent and Director) as if this was a remarkable turn-out.  For reference, Dr. Varley was among 20 applicants for the position of Superintendent of schools for Sarasota County (as previously reported, she was not offered employment likely because, according to Angela Penna, she has no plans on leaving our district). 

It would not have been a Board meeting without Pamela Stanley putting in her two cents.  Again, Mrs. Stanley took it upon herself, and with her vast knowledge and understanding of policy to instruct the Board and, what I can only assume were, members of the public on how to act during meetings, even shushing the public at one point. This begs the question of whether Ms. Stanley ever watches her decorum at Board meetings? Additionally, she directly responded to a residents question, brought up earlier in the evening during the citizens hearing, regarding a document in question. I thought Board members were not permitted to directly address residents? Pretty sure there’s a policy about that. Where exactly does the presiding officer of the Board come in to play here?  Is anyone else having flashbacks to the D’Aquilla – Stanley showdown of ’22?

At this point, I think it would be fair to abolish Board members’ email addresses as there are a few things happening here; 

1) Angela Penna is the only authorized person to respond (this is different from sending a reply) to emails and she FAILS to do this; 

2) Emails are not being replied to, but also not being responded to by anyone which, you guessed it, leads people to OPRA (are you seeing the trend here?); 

3) The culmination of emails to the Board are going under investigation by our very own Gale Bradford, and I’m guessing we can expect more 6 minute rants in the future since it doesn’t appear anyone will be receiving emails responses any time in the near future.

Related Articles:

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MKM Principal’s Resignation Letter to Dr. Varley and The Berkeley Heights Board of Education

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The BHPSNJ OPRA Troubles