In 2024, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education voted to make all BOE Committee Meeting Minutes Publicly Available on the District Website. Here are quick notes on the 05/2024 Committee Meeting Minutes with links to the full documents.

Finance and Facilities

05/29/2024 Highlights

• Surveys on Menu Items for Elementary School Students discussed
• Despite the decision not to increase Activity Fees, sentiment that fees were too low to cover costs was noted.

Link to Full Minutes

05/14/2024 Highlights

• Overview of Decision to Select Architect- During the last BOE Meeting we learned that all the capital projects budgeted for by the prior Administration are currently off the grid as a result of a delay in processing paperwork by the DCA in Trenton.

Link to Full Minutes

05/03/2024

• Transportation was discussed, and we find that rates set for Subscription Busing this year are one of the lowest when compared to similar Districts.

The Board voted to establish a cost of $500 per student with a family cap of $750 for 2024-2025.

Link to Full Minutes

Personnel

05/23/2024

• Despite all the hand-wringing from special interest groups throughout the community that “no one will want to come work at BHPSNJ” we find that there are 22 applicants for the Interim SI position and 59 applicants for Director of Elementary Education

Link to Full Minutes

05/2/2024

• Mr. Nixon wants to tackle the issue we’ve had for three years on on making Central Office Staff Contracts more uniform- concerns the past three years centered on “perks” given out to “favorites”. Contracts for all public employees in a district are public records and are made available in some districts without requiring an OPRA request.  Uniform contracts are also important in preventing the politicization of central office staff a historical issue connected to the Superintendent and Business Administrator and currently still an issue in the Business Administration office.

Link to Full Minutes

Technology

05/13/2024

• District exploring options to replace phone system- may be possible to move to VOIP/Cloud System this year
• Increase in Budget and Zoom Participation in Meetings Discussed

Link to Full Minutes

Policy Committee

05/16/2024

• Much of this is already covered in past articles:
  • Proposed Changes to Policy 3211- Code of Ethics
  • 05/30/2024 BOE Agenda Notes on Proposed Changes to Policy 2411- Guidance Counseling
  • John’s Notes on the Berkeley Heights 05/30/2024 BOE Meeting Agenda (Public Participation in Board Meetings
  • Laura’s Notes on the Berkeley Heights 05/20/2024 BOE Meeting Agenda (Social Media Policy)

One major issue with policies presented during the last BOE Meeting involved the lack of tracked changes which has been precedent.  For whatever reason, the new policies did not note differences from the current policy which made understanding the changes tedious and time consuming.

Link to Full Minutes

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