They Said That?
I will revisit the best little gems of insane foolishness brought to you by the brain trust of the Berkeley Heights Town Council and the Board of Education. “This isn’t about Liza” – LOL! We owe great thanks to Jeanne Kingsley (Council) for stating this multiple times, in response to the overwhelming number of residents advocating for Liza’s reappointment. At...
Unpopular Opinion on School Safety
I sent the following email to the BOE this morning and wanted to share it here as well. Good Afternoon, Schools are safe- the community-wide and national conversation on school safety is not based on any evidence. Lockdown drills do not have any evidence of doing anything but traumatize children. Adding police in schools doesn’t do anything to prevent school shootings; the...
Incident at CMS Continues to Prompt More Questions
If you have a child who attends CMS then you received a letter addressing the incident that occurred on Friday. And, unless you live under a rock, by now you have seen this letter and heard the shockwaves by parents in this community. As adults, it’s not easy to speak up and even we struggle with making the right choices. ...
Peeling the Spin: A Condensed Look at OPRA Requests
There are currently 118 individual screenshots of OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests, from June 2022 to the present, on the district website. In an effort to parse this out and make it easier to get to the meat of the issue surrounding the appointment of a School Records Custodian, here is a breakdown. Of the 118 posted screenshots, five...
Our First Episode of BHCW Night Watch
We discuss:-The District’s Security Mess/Theatre-Newly obtained settlement agreement @ Dr. Varley’s Nepotism Case-The first two Berkeley Heights BOE Meetings of the Year
Tom Foregger Saves The Day Again
One of our concerns has been remedied for now as Tom guides the Board away from violating its own policies. Comments from residents on this clip of the District hiring yet ANOTHER person to help our Business Administrator do her job: “Not only is it a violation of policy, the district has not done it’s due diligence in investigating whether...
01/19/2023 BOE Meeting- What Parents Should Be Aware of Going In To This Meeting
There is a 15-page agenda with a 106-page attachment. BHCW reached out to the District last night as the policy revisions were STILL not publicly available until today. Buried in this mountain of paper parents should pay attention to the following: Resolution A: Approve the Annual Appointment of Stephen Hopkins as Records Custodian. This is a new appointment and a role...
R 5530- Missed Opportunity: The recent decision to continue a harmful approach to the Substance Use issue in our Schools
The use of suspensions by schools is evidenced to create more academic problems and legal difficulties without any benefit to context. (https://bit.ly/3PZ2tZU) During the 03/09/2022 BOE Meeting, the District had an opportunity to tackle the very significant issue of Substance Use and Abuse through an evidence-based approach. This policy provided the District with not only an opportunity to effectively tackle...
The Berkeley Heights Public Schools French Controversy of 2022: A Written Record of Events
On Friday, April 8th, at 11:52 am (a few days before Spring Break), parents with children within the CMS French program received an email from their children’s French Teacher. The email informed parents that the trip planned for Quebec by CMS was in danger of being canceled and that the District was moving forward with ending French as a language...
Comments on Recent Data provided by the BH School District on Reconfiguration
Recently, the District presented an infographic that demonstrates that the vast majority of families impacted by the reconfiguration “Strongly Agreed” with the following statement: “The community benefitted from the school district’s reconfiguration to implement a universal full-day program.” What residents need to keep in mind that the survey only went to families who directly benefitted from FDK, which we all...
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