Assigning the role to an administrator would be more helpful for student literacy and summer reading assignments.

-Written by an Educator in our District

At the June 5th, 2025 Berkeley Heights Board of Education (BHBOE) meeting, Personnel agenda item M titled “Approve re-appointment of school district liaison to the library board,” which would have appointed the Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) early childhood center Media Specialist (aka Librarian) with a stipend went up for discussion. The following transpired: 

BOE member Dr. Thomas Foregger stated: “I don’t think we are required to do the school district [library] liaison, so I’m going to vote no on that.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Sai Bhargavi Akiri replied: “I think we had this discussion last year also. This is something that happened – approving for school district liaison for library board – you can attend them via Zoom. The Superintendent was invited. I think this practice of appointing a liaison and paying them $1,000 started around four years ago. We have been asking what is the value, what are we getting back for $1,000? If you [looking at Superintendent Dr. Kim Feltre] want to attend these library board meetings, these are on the Zoom, you don’t have to go to them in person. I agree with Tom. I don’t think we need to pay [the $1,030 stipend] for somebody to go to these library board meetings.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE Vice President Dipti Khanna continued: “In June 2024, there was a name proposed, a reappointment for this position. My memory says this did not pass last year. What I am seeing on this resolution is reappointment of a different name. Was there an appointment made in the interim that was Board approved, but I’m just not able to recall?” (video link with time stamp).

Budget and Accounting Specialist Lisa McAdam (filling in for the Business Administrator) reported that last year, the resolution and the same candidate [for the library liaison meeting] was passed at a later meeting (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Natasha Joly: “As a Board, we do not see any report outs. We do not know what the benefit of this is. I know you [To Dr. Feltre] have mentioned you have some reports. Can you tell us about the frequency of the meetings and what you find valuable in this?” (video link with time stamp).

Superintendent Dr. Kim Feltre: “I believe [the library board] meets once per month. My understanding is…What I find valuable is the connection that this teacher is making with the library helps form partnerships between things that the library has done and things that have gone on in school. I would have to go back and re-read what has been given to me, because I don’t know which programs and what came out of. I do recall something happened at one of the elementary schools because of this partnership, but I cannot speak to it directly.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Pam Stanley: “I know that our students at the high school do a lot of work at the library helping people. I know that [the library] struggles to always know what books teachers are recommending for students to read, that it is hard for [the library] to keep up, and that this is that help. It is still not perfect. If a teacher is recommending a book or they have lists of books, and this library does not have them in stock, then it is not beneficial. [The library] wants our teachers to give [the school district library liaison] any kind of list that they share with these students so [the library] can have these books on hand.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Sai Bhargavi Akiri adds: “[The library Board] does not meet every month. July and August meetings are optional.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE President Gale Bradford then asks Dr. Feltre if there could be a liaison report from the library liaison [the early childhood center Media Specialist] to the BHBOE, which Dr. Feltre agrees to. (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Deborah Terrero: “Is this a role that could be filled by the English Department…Is this something that the [Director Supervisor of English] could share with the library? Maybe that would alleviate that communication. Clearly, there are [Board members] that have an issue with this.” (video link with time stamp).

Superintendent Dr. Feltre: “I don’t know if this is outside the scope of any administrator. You’re going to have [the Berkeley Heights Administrators’ Association union] to have a stipend, too. I think that’s how this stipend came about. It’s outside a teacher’s role so it’s a teacher stipend to attend. I don’t have the history as to why we are paying a teacher to do it.” (video link with time stamp).

BOE member Natasha Joly: “How does it work with some Athletics? You have some teachers who are coaching who get paid a stipend. You also have some volunteer coaches. I just don’t know if this position needs to be paid.” (video link with time stamp).

After this discussion, the re-appointment of school district liaison to the library board failed with three board members voting ‘yes’ (Mr. Dillon, Mrs. Stanley, and Mrs. Bradford) and five board members voting ‘no’ (Mrs. Akiri, Dr. Foregger, Mrs. Joly, Mrs. Khanna, and Mrs. Terrero).

Background:

Historically, the Berkeley Heights Public Library Board of Trustees consists of four community members (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer), a representative from the Morris-Union Federation of Libraries, the Mayor, and the Superintendent, each of the latter two with an alternate. For the current Board, Mayor Angie Devanney’s name is listed next to ‘Mayor.’ No name is listed next to Superintendent with only the Alternate’s name listed, the BHPS Early Childhood Center Media Specialist previously mentioned to be appointed to this position for another year with a $1,030 stipend.

Dating back to when Judy Rattner was Superintendent of BHPS (2005-2018), she sat on the library board. When Superintendent Dr. Melissa Whitfield-Varley came in, she had approved a stipend position to take something off her plate, which created less community involvement between Whitfield-Varley and the community. While Dr. Whitfield-Varley was Superintendent, an administrative assistant not involved with student instruction received a stipend to sit on the library board.

How neighboring districts operate:

In New Providence, the ‘Board of Education Representative’ to the Library Board of Trustees is the district’s Director of Curriculum.

In Summit, the Superintendent’s Representative is a librarian of one of Summit’s elementary schools.

In Chatham, the Superintendent’s Representative is the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum.

In Madison, the Liaison to the Superintendent of Schools is a librarian of one of Madison’s elementary schools.

In Millburn, the Superintendent’s Representative is a Grade 3 teacher at one of Millburn’s elementary schools.

In Westfield, the position is currently unfilled.

In summary, we see in Summit, Madison, and Millburn, the position goes to a teacher/Media Specialist, similar to what was placed on the BHBOE agenda in June. In New Providence and Chatham, the library liaison is a Central Office administrator.

Highlights of BHBOE discussion above:

Board Member Natasha Joly mentioned how she, as a BHBOE member, does not know the benefit of the library liaison position since there are no minutes sent to the BHBOE from the library board meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Kim Feltre stated that she does not know which programs come out of this liaison meeting with the library for BHPS. This is problematic considering Dr. Feltre is recommending to renew the stipend. Later, Dr. Feltre agrees to give future library liaison reports to the BHBOE.

Board Member Pam Stanley brought up an excellent point that the public library has to keep up with book recommendations. These assignments, such as summer reading, occur at Grade 6-12 level. It is unlikely that students at the early childhood and elementary level would receive a summer assignment and therefore, why have a K-2 Media Specialist fill the library liaison position? To tie this in with Mrs. Terrero’s comment that the library liaison should fall on the English department, such as an English Supervisor, then ultimately, the library liaison should fall on the administrator who oversees English teachers and Media Specialists, and be written in the job description. BHPS is currently hiring for a “District Supervisor (English/Music/Basic Skills/Media Specialist),” with supervision of “English” and “Media Specialist” in the title and job description. Therefore, the Supervisor of English and Media Specialists should be the library liaison, which would best help out with Grade 6-12 book recommendations. If not, then the role should return to the Superintendent so she knows directly which programs come out of the public library.

If the position were to be a teacher/Media Specialist, it would make more sense to have a faculty member from the middle school or high school who is closer to knowing the assignment list for book availability for summer assignments.

NJ21st allows for confidentially sourced articles from employees of local government agencies or volunteers of non-profits whose organizations would take retaliatory action against their employees and , in the case of volunteer organizations, officers for exercising their right to express an opinion about local government. We have verified the confidential source for this article and have met with him/her face to face.

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