What Families Need to Know About the Upcoming Berkeley Heights Board of Education Meeting

John’s Notes on the 05/28/2026 Berkeley Heights Agenda

The agenda for the 05/28 Berkeley Heights Meeting reads like a typical next phase of the budget process and looks to approve about 76 resolutions connected to either finance or personnel.

One of the more significant items on the finance side is the 26-27 tax payment schedule – a little over $49M in General Fund taxes and nearly $500K in debt service approaching the $50M mark which the Township will send over in $4.13M monthly installments.

There’s also a impressive volume of professional service contracts tied to special education, translation, nursing, and behavioral work that involve a slew of vendors.

That includes the creation of a 1.0 FTE Board Certified Behavior Analyst position (district wide) and a 1.0 FTE Wilson Certified Instructor position for elementary schools, both approved in the 26-27 budget.

Finance also includes several special education and extended school year costs- one placement at Capstone Center is NTE $36K for the Extended School Year (July 1–August 31, 2026), along with a separate regular school year placement NTE $223,200. There’s also a Community Based Instruction summer camp (Spectrum Consulting) NTE $24,705, along with related transportation NTE $16,672.50.

These costs are usually legally required and student-specific and are a good example of why special education budgets can move fast.

On the transportation side, the Board is scheduled to renew a First Student contract- NTE $512,809.20.

Going to athletics…

There are two donations-

$10,853 for football equipment funded through the Highlander Football Fund

$31,036.26 donation from the Berkeley Heights Police Athletic League for batting cages at CMS and MKM.

At some point it might be reasonable to ask whether future athletic fundraising could be structured, where legally and practically possible, to offset existing Athletics costs and achieve greater budget flexibility in supporting academic programs.

SD Gameday and Jag-One are listed for backup athletic training each with NTE’s of $5K.

Technology is another big area and some of the larger numbers include PowerSchool at $50,734.81 OnCourse at $38,933.09 iReady at $63,274.50 LinkIt at $42,353 Frontline at $36,381.19 Google Workspace for Education at $18,732 Apptegy/Thrillshare at $16,438.28.

The agenda also includes Gaggle Safety Management Services and an NTE of $20,500. When this item was on the agenda earlier this year, I expressed concerns about this program because of external staffing and student privacy concerns.

Moving onto policy…

2624 has been an ongoing conversation that pushes for grading consistency.

0149 allows retired board members who have served at least one full three-year term to present diplomas to their children or grandchildren within 10.5 years after the end of their service, with the prior consent of the Superintendent and extends the same to retired board members from a send-receive district who completed one full term on the Berkeley Heights BOE.

1220 also up for second reading that notably removes language that requires the Superintendent to devote themselves exclusively to the duties of the office. The policy also includes language stating that a Superintendent contract is null and void if the Superintendent’s certificate is revoked.

Next stop is personnel with three significant positions up for re-employment Assistant SI @ $193,500 Business Admin @ $142,500 Assistant BA at $93,215

Contracts are included in the attachments.

Dr. Winston Jackson is on the docket to be approved as Interim Assistant Principal at GL from August 27, 2026 through June 17, 2027- per diem rate of $500.

Part-time data analyst position is set to be amended by increasing the number of days from 135 to 147 at $398 per day.

The District’s Communications/Social Media Specialist is also up for re-employment at $27.55 per hour for up to 20 hours per week.

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