Notes on the BHPSNJ 06/10/2024 BOE Meeting: Math Department Update
The District updated the website to include a presentation by the Mathematics Department. What is important here is that the District finally acknowledges parental concerns connected to Math without the dismissive condescension the community has experienced in years past. Much progress has been made in scaling BTC back, given the highly problematic lack of Empirical evidence supporting it and the...
Proposed Changes to Policy 3211- Code of Ethics
Another Policy Item on the 05/30/2024 Berkeley Heights BOE Meeting Agenda Since every political and special interest in town doesn’t like our site – why not just bring up the teachers’ union? The main change to this policy involves language that appears to indicate that the only courses of action that can be taken concerning violating the code of ethics...
05/30/2024 BOE Agenda Notes on Proposed Changes to Policy 2411- Guidance Counseling
The first item of concern for me in the proposed policy is the removal of language that: (1) Indicates collaboration between the guidance office and teaching staff (2) Reaffirms the necessity of having licensed/certified guidance and counseling staff (3) Assures services are available to all students from pre-K through Senior Year Old Policy New (draft) Policy The policy...
John’s Notes on the Berkeley Heights 05/30/2024 BOE Meeting Agenda
Policy 0167- Public Participation in Board Meetings Before getting into this specific policy, the policy documents up for review do not contain the term “Draft” on them. Not all document changes (from the old policy) are indicated in bold. This can lead to a lot of confusion and makes it harder for the public to understand how the proposed policy...
Questions on the 2024-25 BHPSNJ Budget & Quick Note on “Special Interests” & “Echo Chambers” (lol)
Email Sent to Finance Chair Dipti Khanna and Mr. Nixon: “I took a look at the budget (spreadsheet) and have the following questions: $56k increase on security (from 204k to 261k)- what security events have caused us to increase our spending in this area to a quarter of a million? Again this is a lot of money for a District...
John’s Notes on the Berkeley Heights 05/20/2024 BOE Meeting
NJSBA Superintendent Search & Social Media Policy NJSBA As we reported at the last meeting, the BOE President signed a contract with the NJSBA to facilitate the Superintendent search. It’s worth noting that this was done without a full board review of the contract, a decision that has raised some concerns. Last night, the NJSBA indicated that BOE Members would be limited in the...
The Primary Is Underway: Republicans Keep Problematic Ballot Design and a Familiar Name Runs for County Office
Ballot Design The ballots are out, and Democrats have moved forward with ending the line while Republicans will continue with the old ballot design. As we wrote in April, “the line” refers to a ballot design both party machines have used in NJ to ensure their candidates have a strong advantage in the primaries. Earlier this year, Senate Candidate Andy...
NJ Proficiency Reports – Berkeley Heights Public Schools Climate Indicators
Two climate indicators we decided to examine this year were HIB and Chronic Absenteeism compared to the other schools on the BHCW 7-District Dashboard. Chronic Absenteeism Berkeley Heights was in the higher middle in the percentage of students identified as chronically absent but experienced the second-highest jump from 2018 to 2019. HIB We demonstrated some improvement in connection to...
The New BOE Majority is Turning Things Around, and the Party Machines Are Getting Nervous
I am writing a lot this week but have more to say than usual. If all you’ve been paying attention to is the noise on the forums and theatre in Council meetings, you would have missed a few significant developments. With a new majority in place within the BOE, some significant changes that will benefit families have arisen: (1) Budget : For...
05/07/2024 Town Council Meeting – Two Issues Come to a Head
While much attention has been given to the Board of Education over the past few months, and I am thrilled to see the public interest and parent engagement BHCW has been working to increase is booming, interesting developments have been occurring over at the Town Council. During last night’s Town Council Meeting, two brewing issues came to a Head. Some...
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