Category: Newsletter

This Week at NJ21st: Council Ducks Public Scrutiny, Police Transparency Case Heats Up, Business Office Reset at BHPSNJ, and Elections Loom

Quack Quack. In one of the most significant meetings since the school reconfiguration battle the Berkeley Heights Town Council voted on whether to let voters decide the fate of the town’s sewage plant, adopted the municipal budget, and approved millions in new spending. Or did they? There’s no recording of the meeting. Once again, residents are left to rely on...
Newsletter

This Week at NJ21st: Fact-Checking the Sewage Plant Push, ACT Scores, BOE Drama & More

Berkeley Heights residents, brace yourselves for another PR-style referendum campaign—this time, it’s the possible sale of our municipal sewage plant. Shauna unpacks what this means for the community and why residents must fact-check everything coming from the Mayor and Council. Following last week’s SAT piece, our local educator returns with a 7-District ACT comparison. While the results remain underwhelming across...
Newsletter

NJ21st 04/27/2025 Newsletter

This week’s newsletter opens with a deep dive into the budget. After a month of the District illegally withholding the full document, the line-item version was finally released to NJ21st — but only the day after the BOE meeting, effectively stripping the public of any opportunity to review it beforehand. Even so, we expose the District’s familiar shell game: budgeting...
Newsletter

NJ21st 04/19/2025 Newsletter

This week’s newsletter begins with the Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPSNJ) presentation on SAT and ACT scores, highlighting significant contradictions with state-reported data. While the new Superintendent has promised transparency and improvements, familiar issues persist: delayed and obstructed access to budget details, refusal to fund critical services such as tutoring, continued prioritization of the Mayor’s favored projects and security expenditures,...
Newsletter

NJ21st 04/13/2025 Newsletter

This week’s newsletter opens with an in-depth look at New Jersey’s special education data, comparing suburban and city districts to expose deep-rooted disparities and systemic inequities in educational outcomes. We then turn to the April 8th Berkeley Heights Town Council meeting, where the Township budget quietly passed with little scrutiny. Inside, you’ll find a detailed breakdown—plus explosive remarks from former...
Newsletter

NJ21st 04/06/2025 Newsletter

This week’s newsletter is packed with new insights from 2024.We kick things off with our deep dive into the recently released NJ DOE School Performance Reports. This includes our brand-new 7-District Comparison Dashboard, an Interactive School Performance Explorer, and a comprehensive review of every school in the Berkeley Heights Public School District (BHPSNJ). Next, we unveil a major release: a...
Newsletter

NJ21st 03/29/2025 Newsletter

This week’s newsletter opens with the newly released 2024 statewide property tax data—complete with an interactive tool and in-depth analysis. We then turn to the March 25, 2025 Town Council Meeting, where concerned residents challenged the Mayor, Town Council, and Recreation Department on their tactics—only to be met with “ends justify the means” responses. Next, we feature two community voices:...
Newsletter

NJ21st 03/23/2025 Newsletter

What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter begins where the 03/18/2025 BHPSNJ Budget Meeting should have: the actual BHPSNJ budget. Instead, that meeting centered on a different topic—a turf field. Despite repeated claims of urgency, the project won’t be up for a vote until 03/25/2025—one full week after the budget meeting that...
Newsletter

NJ21st 03/15/2025 Newsletter

What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter begins with critical coverage of a pivotal BOE meeting, where the 2025 BHPSNJ Budget will be discussed and voted on. At the center of this discussion is Mayor Devanney’s attempt to disrupt the meeting by collaborating with the County-appointed BOE President to force the Lease...
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