This Week at NJ21st: Schools in Focus, Council in Question

Sep 6, 2025

Back to School An educator in our community breaks down recent U.S. News school rankings on our 7-District Dashboard and provides a brief three-year trend analysis. Millburn holds strong at the top positions, but other schools shifted significantly.
Board of Education Representative Akiri shares her thoughts on New Jersey’s controversial Adaptive Testing rollout, and John publishes a policy brief on the rights of undocumented students in New Jersey schools that he emailed to various Boards of Education, municipal governments, and police departments.

More Council Confusion This week’s newsletter starts with more confusing narratives and announcements on the Berkeley Heights Town Council side. We begin with our second dive into the Township’s unattributed, unsigned multi-paragraph press release on the Township’s increasing flooding issue — honing in on the Township’s claims about their ability to clear creeks and streams.

We then move to a surprising announcement on the turf field. After weeks of NJ21st fact-checking the Township’s “it’s not a lease” position, the Recreation Commission suddenly discovered environmental concerns that NJ21st and Board of Education members brought up last year. Board of Education Representative Sai Akiri provides the community with an overview of the initial announcement and then her exchange with the Township Administrator. We also publish a portion of the exchange we requested under OPRA (we expect the full record next week) and provide verification and insight into the discussions taking place.

Build Baby, Build? Shauna pens a Community Voices piece on the importance of protecting New Jersey’s green spaces and each individual’s responsibility in working toward that goal. John publishes a brief “how-to” on a new state dashboard that allows residents to easily access valuable housing data for their communities.

Pre-Game We have two informal surveys asking Berkeley Heights and New Providence residents about what they want their candidates for local office to focus on—the surveys are anonymous.