Berkeley Heights School District Saddled with Current Attorney for Another Year
While it was clear at the end of 2022 that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was not going to address calls to look into hiring a different law firm, it was still disappointing to see the firm of Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, LLC renewed for another year with no hesitation or opposition. This law firm has given our district...
“Teaching is an Art”
We’ve heard this from our Superintendent recently in conjunction with parent concerns over Building Thinking Classroom methods and the impact it is having on students. Our administration, across the district, has declined to intervene on behalf of students who are failing, whose families have to turn to tutors or outside math classes, or who have come to realize their best...
Thinking Classroom: Where Are We Now, What Happens Next
Building the Thinking Classroom (BTC), on paper and in theory, sounds like a wonderful way to teach. Who doesn’t want their child to be a critical thinker, able to come up with independent, creative solutions to problems? In reality, as parents either know now, or are coming to realize, there is nearly as wide a range of success with this...
Renewed Parent Frustration and More Poor Decision-Making from District Administrators
Implementing new teaching methods can be a wonderful way to spark a student’s interest or create a better and more thorough understanding of material. It can just as easily lead to confusion, frustration and lessened motivation for learning, which is what we have seen over the past two to three years in our district with the move first to the...
The ‘Work Together’ Group is at it Again (Still)
The Berkeley Heights BOE elections are over. The district will have two new representatives, along with returning member Angela Penna, installed in less than two months. And yet, ‘we hate Sai’ continues to be the hobby of District leadership and the BOE Members who support them. Why? Who is directing this, and who benefits? Where is the collaboration? Where is...
Unnecessary “Lawsuits” and The Blame Game
In what has to be the most brilliant irony of the year, Berkeley Heights BOE Member Angela Penna penned a candidate statement which included the following: “Board members are engaging in their own forms of political posturing and grandstanding; particularly when they disagree with their fellow board members.” “We see statements in social media suffixed with “This is my personal...
School Ethics Commission decision Involving Five BOE Members Moves Case to Office of Administrative Law
Motion to Dismiss filed by BOE Attorney Rejected In It’s Entirety by School Ethics Commission At a meeting of the New Jersey School Ethics Commission (SEC) on October 17th, a decision was rendered on one of the ethics complaints filed against several members of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education. Although some residents would have you believe that a formal...
PEELING BACK DR. vARLEY’S POLICY RUSH
Given the number of policy updates in recent months during BOE meetings, and with a questionable decision about the League of Women Voters ability to host a candidate debate at Governor Livingston, Berkeley Heights parents expressed concern over the number of policy updates and their content. In response, during the September 22, 2022 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Varley had...
FOLLOW UP TO DISTRICT POLICY CHANGES – BOE MEETING 09/22/2022
-Shauna Williams Now that the dust has kinda sorta settled from the last BOE meeting let’s take a look at one of the specific issues that arose. Dr. Varley said that the policy changes are required by the state (or another outside agency?) and that they haven’t been updated in a decade or more. That leaves me with the following...
Political Leanings of Berkeley Heights
As a relative newcomer to Berkeley Heights, it wasn’t until I had been here through one or two election cycles that I noticed the typical national-level party split between Democrats and Republicans is quite different from how politics play out in Berkeley Heights. Politics and party are very easily understood in NYC. Everyone is liberal and everyone is a Democrat....
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