Did Dr. Varley Get a Raise Without a Board Vote?
And why weren’t Berkeley Heights Residents Aware of it? Update on 01/14/2023: The BOE DID Vote on this Increase but there is more to the Story. It appears Dr. Varley got a 2% raise without a vote by the Board of Education. To walk through this, we need to first walk through her contract. If you recall, Dr. Varley...
90 Thousand Reasons the Berkeley Heights Public School District Needs to Hire a New Law Firm Next Year
And Why Other NJ Districts Should Reconsider Hiring “Mega-Firms” Our favorite law firm, Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs, hit the 90K mark this month, taking in 50% of the District’s spending, which totaled ~180.000 according to Bill Lists from 1/2023 Through 12/2023. The firm surpassed the entirety of the District’s legal expenditure for the fiscal year before Dr. Varley’s tenure...
Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs Has Over 86,000 Reasons to Be Thankful for Berkeley Heights
I should start out by acknowledging that our District has taken a small step in the right direction by publishing the Bill List and Transfer Report with this month’s Board Meeting Packet. However, considering all the claw-backs over the past three years, we are far from where we need to be. So yes – it is a good step- but...
How Concerns over Present and Future Class Sizes & Increased Hiring of Administrators Turned into A Lesson On Parental Belittlement
-Michelle Phillippi My first inklings of something feels off this school year began in August. When my first two children began school in our district, I had felt a sense of ease and knew my children were supported in the classroom. Class sizes were smaller and there was much more teacher support in the classroom. But when my youngest entered...
What The New Berkeley Heights BOE Must Do In The First Three Months of 2024 To Rebuild Our District
A historically low turnout election still produced 2000+ votes, affirming change…..now what? While the BOE election was uncontested, the message was clear- the community wants things to change. While thousands were likely spent on the Town Council Election (something we will write about), it would be a surprise if the BOE candidates who garnered an overwhelming vote count given the...
Did Anyone Even Look At The $63 Million Berkeley Heights Public School Budget Before It Was Passed?
In September, BHCW finally received a copy of the Detailed Adopted budgets for the 2023-24 school year for BHPSNJ and several other Districts. In that process, the state agreed to stop redacting account numbers on school budgets. Our publication of that budget was the first opportunity some of our BOE Members had to see it – even though the entire...
10/12/2023 Bill List: More of Our School’s Dollars go to Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs
The link below is the bill list approved during the 10/12/2023 BOE. As expected, this month’s legal bills are lower; we suspect how bills are approved is a matter of optics. The first bill list of 2023 (January) totaled a whopping $31,467 spent on legal services– recall this was month one of two new BOE Members joining the Board, one...
Another Great Month for Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri and Jacobs
09/14/2023 Berkeley Heights Public Schools Bill List Below is a link to the most recent Bill list approved by the BOE during the 09/2023 Meeting. Parents should ask how BOE Members can approve their own legal bills while denying a BOE member a defense on a largely defunct ethics case the BOE Majority was responsible for creating. This presents a...
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The Unredacted Detailed Budget That Some of Our BOE Members Have Not Seen
2023-2024 Unredacted Detailed Adopted Budget- Berkeley Heights Public Schools According to confirmed sources within the District neither the previous Business Administrator, Finance Chair Joy Young or Board President Angela Penna circulated the unredacted detailed adopted budget for school year 2023-2024 to the full BOE. In other words, this would be the first time some BOE members have access to this...
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