No Ordinance, No Referendum: Were Berkeley Heights Residents Shut Out?
Let’s start simple: if a New Jersey town wants to lease public land, it’s supposed to pass an ordinance. Ordinances take time—public notice, two readings, a hearing—and they give residents the right to petition for a referendum. A resolution is quick, one-meeting business. No hearing. No referendum. That difference matters. What the Township did Back in March, the Township passed...
$3.5M “Emergency” Storm Bond Now Likely to Fall on Berkeley Heights Taxpayers
In an unsigned Township article published August 26, an unnamed township representative confirmed one material fact- New Jersey is unlikely to meet the FEMA threshold for disaster funding, which means the $3.5 million bond ordinance passed on August 19 falls back on Berkeley Heights families if any of it is used. NJ21st tried to make this clear during the August...
Behind the $60 Million Berkeley Heights Sewage Plant Price Tag…. What’s Documented, What’s Not
When Berkeley Heights talk about $60 million in needed sewer system upgrades, it can sound like there’s a detailed engineering report sitting in the Municipal Building that lists every pipe, pump, and repair. That’s not what’s actually happening. The story is more complicated. The $30 Million, 15-Year Baseline When the township put the wastewater system up for potential sale, the...
New Jersey’s Adaptive Testing: A Field Test Without Federal Guardrails?
Last week, NJ21st reached out directly to the U.S. Department of Education to flag major concerns about New Jersey’s plan to roll out “NJSLA-Adaptive” testing this fall. We also shared the email with Commissioner Dehmer, Governor Murphy and the NJ BOE through Director Shoener, asking for clarity on whether this shift complies with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)....
Building Blind: Is New Jersey’s Development Boom Overwhelming Schools and Flooding Homes?
If you want to know where the state is growing, don’t listen to speeches. Follow the permits. The NJ DCA 2024 housing permit numbers tell a story of towns building towers while others are sticking to cul-de-sacs with a few re-imagining shopping strips as live-work hubs. This while communities struggle to deal with infrastructure impact and working families still wait...
This Week at NJ21st: Pavement, Proficiency, and Power Outages
Burning Through Reeboks Laura walked for miles and hours documenting driveways the town is spending “emergency” bond money repairing – what she found was both dissapointing and infuriating. She followed up with coverage of the Town Council meeting where the “emergency” bond was approved and a resident asked Councilwoman Susan Poage about her glossy campaign materials and promises to work...
NJ Regulators Call Out JCP&L After Three Years of Declining Reliability
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has put Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) on notice after three straight years of declining reliability across its service area. From 2022 through 2024, JCP&L’s saw more frequent outages and customers experienced longer waits for power outages to be resolved. In 2024, the company recorded a ten-year high in outages. The...
Resident Pushes Back on “Our Hands Are Tied” Narrative — Holds Poage Accountable to Campaign Materials
In this video, Jacqueline Cinque does what we wish more residents would: hold the Council accountable to their own words. Imagine if every resident showed up to Council and BOE meetings this prepared. Imagine if every resident pushed back with the same level of scrutiny. Meanwhile, the Council rushed through a $3.5 million bond at warp speed for oddly specific...
Community Voices: Start Showing Up, Berkeley Heights
The district is finally doing some things right. The NJGPA results are promising. Agendas and presentations are coming out earlier. The new Superintendent has begun releasing important documents, and so far BHPS has avoided more OPRA lawsuits. Our Assistant Superintendent looks engaged and on the ball, and the full-time Business Administrator seems solid on paper — not a relic from...
08/21/2025 BHPSNJ BOE Agenda Notes- NJGPA Recovery, Policy Overhaul …Progress with Caution
NJGPA Presentation In English Language Arts, readiness was 95.5% in 2023 , dropped to 87.3% in 2024 , then recovered to 93.8% in 2025. Math took the bigger hit, falling from 82.0% in 2023 to 72.3% in 2024 , with more than one in four juniors flagged as not on track. By 2025, math came back hard to 86.5% ,...
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