“Slim Empirical Arguments”, “Pulling out the Rug” and “State Aid”
Level-Setting the Community Discussion on the Transportation Policy I encourage every parent to get involved, regardless of how they feel about the transportation policy or any policy for that matter. It is important for different voices on all sides to present their arguments – even if it is an opinion -opinions are important – they offer a perspective or a...
04/18/2024 BOE Meeting Agenda – Legal Bills
Overall Costs Remain Stable Yet the Law Firm of CLeary, Giacobbe, Alfieri and Jacobs Get a Bigger Cut Compared to Last Year Despite being at a slightly lower spend from where we were last year on total legal spending (83k v. 86k), the law firm of Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs is on track to make more money. At this...
John’s Notes on the 04/15/2024 BHPSNJ BOE Meeting
Attorney RFP Passes while Zoom Access for Families Gets Shut Down by Two BOE Reps Who Promised they Would Work to Make it Happen…. Last night, during the special meeting, the BOE re-opened the RFP process for attorneys. Ms. Stanley’s argument against it ranged from “it will increase costs” (which is not true – the BOE can negotiate a per-diem...
Zoom Participation Added to 04/15/2024 BOE Special Meeting
The Special Notice for the 04/15/2024 BOE Meeting has been updated to include a discussion of allowing community participation in meetings through Zoom. Ms. Joly and Ms. Akiri have been the most vocal advocates of this change, and this is consistent with Mr. Nixon’s and Ms. Bradford’s pledge to improve transparency and family involvement in the District. During COVID, families...
BHPSNJ Announces Special Board Meeting for 04/15/2024
Interim Superintendents To Be Interviewed and Attorney RFP’s To Be Discussed on 4/15/2024 BHPSNJ announced a special BOE Meeting on 04/15/2024 to interview Interim Superintendents. We hope that candidates will also present to the public. Interim Superintendents are typically retired, so there should be no concern about their employers finding out about seeking a new position. One resident asked us...
4/10/24 Board Meeting Recap, Series On Superintendent Search Firms
The first in a Series on Superintendent Search Firms that Presented during the 04/10/2024 Berkeley Heights BOE Meeting McPherson & Jacobsen Fee for services are $18,500 BHPS team will be comprised of Dr. Ralph Ferrie (former BHPS middle school Principal) not present) and Dr. Karen D’Avino (who presented an overview on the firm). Dr. D’Avino did tell the group that...
Laura’s Notes on the 04/10/2024 Berkeley Heights BOE Meeting Agenda
The April 10 Board meeting will begin at 6:45PM. The purpose of this meeting is solely to interview 3 Superintendent search firms (in addition to NJSBA which was interviewed earlier this year). The search firms are: McPherson & Jacobson, Kathleen Helewa Educational Consultants and 4M Consulting. The interviews are slated to be conducted from 7-8:30PM allowing for 30 minutes for...
Dipti Khanna -Fourth BHPSNJ BOE Member to Question Proposed Transportation Policy
Still No Data or Rational on the Secretive Policy Committee Chair’s Proposal Dipti Khanna has replied to BHCW’s questions about the Policy Committee’s transportation policy and the process surrounding its development. As indicated in prior articles, BHCW emailed the BOE the following questions: Are there plans to share the rubric and data driving the scoring that led to the hazardous...
2022-2023 7-District Dashboard District Wide Comparisons- Better But Not Good Enough
Background In 2022, BHCW, residents and three BOE Members (Khanna, Joly, Akiri) raised concerns about 2018-2019 Berkeley Heights Math, Science, and ELA proficiencies. In 2023, BHCW published extensively on the 2021-2022 results, demonstrating significant drops in all three areas. During this time, BHCW developed a 7-district dashboard of comparable schools that had Berkeley Heights last in ELA, Math, and Science...
2022-23 N.J. School Performance Reports Released- Berkeley Heights is Back?
Berkeley Heights Public Schools has one of the largest increases in proficiency ratings among all districts listed, consistent with surrounding districts -Written by an Educator in the Community Each year, the New Jersey Department of Education releases its School Performance Report. According to its release on Patch.com, “school districts are scored from 0 to 100 based on factors like standardized...
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