The Screws Continue to Tighten
The District Takes Further Steps in Muting the Voices of Community Members Earlier this year community members discovered that the BOE made a decision to make a practice of violating it’s own policies every meeting by preventing residents from coming up a second time and a potential freedom of speech infraction by the BOE attorney when he informed a resident...
How Many Administrators Can Fit on a Fiscal Cliff?
After writing about Ms. Kot’s interesting version of why we are nearing a “fiscal cliff,” (just as we are approaching Budget review and approval for the District), I thought it might be helpful to compare the Central Office Staff of New Providence and the Berkeley Heights (NP has approximately the same size district as we do – about 2,400 students...
More Than Just Ethics: The First of Three OPRA Cases Validates Parent Concerns on District’s Costly and Improper OPRA Redactions
The Government Records Council (GRC), also known as the authority on government records, a/k/a documents requested under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), recently confirmed suspicions that the Berkeley Heights Public School (BHPS) Records Custodian (Currently Julie Kot and ‘designee’ Steve Hopkins) inappropriately redacted (to black or white-out) responsive records. This ruling and fact are substantial because Ms. Kot has...
BHCW Night Watch Episode 5: John Sincaglia on Budget, Ethics, Terrible Attorneys & Italian Food
In this episode of Night Watch John Sincaglia – the man, the myth, the legend – joins us to discuss the School Budget Process, Ethics Violations, and our terrible Attorneys. He also gives his opinion on JP’s creative experiments with Italian food and the best Italian food in Berkeley Heights.
Ms. Bradford’s OPRA Custodian Vote: Super Secret Information & One More Business Assistant
In this clip, BOE Member Gale Bradford claims that she was “on the other side” of the OPRA Custodian issue (there does not appear to be any public record of statements from her confirming this). She then claims that she received “new information” that was not available to her as a member of the public that caused her to change...
Dr. Melissa Varley’s Tax Payer Funded Defense
Questions Remain Unanswered Sai Akiri The text below is my last reply to Dr. Melissa Varley as a response to her answers to my questions on the amount of money the District has spent on her defense against the Nepotism allegation that the proposed settlement agreement appears to demonstrate that she is now admitting to. Please read the email exchange...
BHCW Newsletter 02/12/2023
What’s Important to Know About Berkeley Heights, NJ This Week In this week newsletter, -More Concerns on the use of District Dollars in Shielding the Superintendent and BOE Members -The Mayor Hangs out with the Night Watch Crew and in our regular cast we discuss the second BOE Meeting of the Year -More Discussion on Police in Schools -Questions for...
Email To The BOE on the Proposed OPRA Custodian of Records PositIon
MORE MONEY OUT OF THE CLASSROOM FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, the District is trying to add yet another position to the Business office while using the cynical and Machiavellian ploy of blaming residents who are using OPRA to request information from a District that has progressively clamped down avenues...
BHCW 02/05/2023 Weekly Newsletter
In this week’s newsletter: View the Online VersionorDownload the PDF
A Perfect Storm
In this clip, a parent provides a brief overview of how a perfect storm of misinformed and inaccurate guidance from the Superintendent, the political interests of BOE Members, and opportunistic Attorneys who appear to be giving bad legal advice on one issue after another has led to a pile-up of substantiated ethics charges and a mountain of legal fees that...
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