The Board was asked to approve one step in the process toward a referendum during the June 26 meeting—specifically, to approve submission of the applications to the state for review.

Let me be clear why I could not support this.

In the past, I have said it may be better to discuss issues as a full Board versus our current committee structure; however, past administrations and current BOE members had insisted on efficiency. Yet, this was the second time that an issue had not gone before the Finance and Facilities Committee. The Board had not seen the numbers connected to the application until the night before the meeting after 9pm—a meeting that involved other significant items and hundreds of pages to review.

The Board agenda—the public documents—did not even list categorical estimates for the public to review. They offered absolutely no insight or detail as to what was included in the categories.

This kind of rushed process wasn’t new. From the very beginning, even back when Solutions Architecture was first added to the January 2025 reorganization agenda as a professional services provider, it came as a surprise to the Board.  Also, there was no prior agreement or vote to add extra meetings to review this major referendum projects, supporting documents.

Instead, we found ourselves scrambling to schedule special meetings at the very last minute. And now, that rushed reactive approach has become the norm. We are constantly told, “The deadline is coming, you have to approve this or we’ll be late.” This has been the modus operandi since 2021: major decisions made without proper process, and without the supporting information the Board needs.

We are following an accelerated schedule to get the referendum on the ballot for March 2026.

Why?

There is an effort to convince the public that they will not feel the cost of whatever is approved.

Through some imagined financial magic the district can borrow millions of dollars of debt and repay it and somehow the taxpayer will not even be aware of the tax increase that goes into paying for this debt.  Will the taxpayers be fooled by this?

I hope not.

It is better to take the time needed for careful deliberation and investigation of what is needed.

We were told that we had to rush this decision to submit the applications so that the public would not pick up on the tax impact in 2026 —that they wouldn’t feel what it may be like to not have to pay for the cost of this referendum because one debt would quickly replace another.

It’s very similar to stating that if our home mortgage is cleared after a 15-year term, taking on additional debt for the same amount will have no impact on monthly expenses. Unfortunately, no one in real life is willing to commit to an extra loan just because debt is rolling off, as debt is debt and public debt has an impact on taxpayers for decades to come.

There are families in this community struggling to keep up with their mortgages, food costs, and the cost of tutoring to compensate for the District’s issues in math, ELA and science.

If the District wanted my support, then they needed to follow the process THEY had advocated for: a full review by the Finance and Facilities Committee.

The Finance and facilities committee met on June 20, 2025.

They also needed to respect the families of this community and provide them with the very same information they themselves were using to come up with the costs of this project.

After the vote on June 26, 2025 to submit the applications we have yet to receive any confirmation on what was actually submitted to the state by June 30th.

These are my thoughts and opinions as an individual and do not represent the opinion of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education.

Sai Akiri

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