Four Years of Shining a Light

This past year reminded us why we started NJ21st in the first place.

We wanted to create a space where the community could get the full story — not just the one pushed out by press releases and polished PR. A place where people could freely challenge those in power, ask hard questions, and speak to authority confident in the belief that their right to question and disagree was supported.

When our students were locked out of tennis courts, we told the whole story. When the Township pushed a vague lease through to the BOE, we laid out exactly what was missing. And when the Fire Prevention Bureau was quietly restructured, over 300 residents stood up and said “this matters” — and the ordinance changed. The people that spoke at meetings that were historically left out of articles had a platform with us.

We looked at campaign filings and exposed outside money backing one BOE candidate. We asked all the candidates real questions and held their rhetoric to a mirror. We broke down the sewage referendum issue in a way that respected our community and allowed our neighbors to show up to meetings informed and prepared.

We stayed on the ethics beat too — reporting on the complaint against five BOE members, the OAL ruling against them, and the School Ethics Commission’s call for tougher penalties. Now, as they move to appeal and spend more of your tax dollars, we’re still here asking: why?

We also uncovered the district’s GPA policy problem — and explained how it might be affecting students’ college chances. We continued our work in comparing performance and environmental metrics across school districts, tracked special education placements, and flagged a massive (and still unexplained) gap in reported spending on police in schools between the District and Township.

We built tools that make it easier for you to see what’s happening:

• A tax dashboard demonstrating trajectories across communities
• Our seven district dashboard that gives residents a clear eye on school spending and proficiency.
• A spreadsheet of township vendors who donated to political campaigns
• An easier way to file OPRA requests
• And a public wiki that breaks down complicated issues with real documentation and links

We still showed up for the day-to-day stuff too. Council meetings, BOE agendas and Budget hearings. We broke down what passed in writing instead of relying on the spin.

When residents had something to say — about school services, public safety, or local decisions — this platform gave them a place to say it without fearing their voice would be silenced because someone in power called it inaccurate without any evidence. It gave a microphone to people who weren’t allowed to be heard anywhere else.

This year, we officially became a nonprofit and joined LION Publishers, a national network of independent local outlets working to rebuild trust in journalism from the ground up.

So thank you. For reading. For speaking up. For telling us your story and for sharing ours, sending us tips, and supporting this work when it wasn’t the easy or popular thing to do.

If NJ21st has grown in reach and impact, it’s because people like you believed it mattered.

Here’s to what we’ve built together — and what comes next.

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Shauna, Laura, John