
NJ21st 03/02/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week was an eventful one for our school district: We cover communications from the Mayor, Town Administrator, and Recreation Committee that attempt to pressure the District into handing over its land by threatening service cuts and restricting student access to tennis courts. Board of Education Meeting (02/27/2025):...

NJ21st 02/22/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter opens with the School Ethics Commission’s recommendation to censure Pamela Stanley, Robert Cianculli, Jordan Hyman, Michael D’Aquila, and Joy Young for their tax-funded yet unsuccessful political hit job on Sai Akiri. Next, we dive into the latest Town Council meeting that includes heated discussions on...

NJ21st 02/15/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter starts with an in-depth look at the audit findings for Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, Madison, Millburn, Westfield, and Chatham to help families of these communities provide more informed feedback on their Budget ProcessDistricts. To make the data more accessible, we’ve incorporated visual dashboards that...

NJ21st 02/07/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. Our latest newsletter kicks off with a deep dive into serious concerns surrounding Governor Livingston’s GPA system and its potential impact on both past and present students navigating college admissions. We then turn our focus to the Town Council’s controversial decision to dismantle the local ethics committee—while approving...

GPA Conversion Penalizing BHPS Students & Affecting College Admission?
Email from Daniel Brown, a Berkeley Heights Resident and Parent with Children in the District, to the Berkeley Heights BOE and Administration I am writing to express my concern about the 4.5-point GPA scale currently used at Governor Livingston High School and how it may be inadvertently disadvantaging students in the college admissions process. When colleges convert GPAs back to...

NJ21st 01/31/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter kicks off with a Town Council meeting that raced through 20 resolutions at lightning speed, swiftly dissolving an ethics committee—without a hint of dissent or discussion. Next, we break down a packed Board of Education (BOE) meeting, where machine representative Gale Bradford once again bypassed...

Laura’s Notes on the 01/27/2025 BOE Meeting
EDUCATION F. Approve New Courses: CMS – Mathematics Grade 8 (attachment E). This is being proposed by Dr. Curtiss to serve as a course to comply with the state standards in addition to provide students with a substantial foundation in geometry. This course, if approved, will be rolled out this fall. PERSONNEL B. Mr. Dirk Phillips will continue as Interim...

NJ21st 01/19/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter delves into a critical follow-up report from the Office of State Comptroller. The report exposes a private police training program that cost New Jersey taxpayers $1 million and promoted unconstitutional and discriminatory practices. Disturbingly, Berkeley Heights Township, alongside 15 other municipalities, participated in this training....

Year 1 Recommendations for New Superintendent Dr. Kim Feltre
Emphasis on listening to all stakeholders and academics needed that was not prevalent in the Varley administration -Written by a non-politically affiliated Educator in the Community On October 29th, 2024, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education (BHBOE) unanimously approved Dr. Kim Feltre as Superintendent of Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS), effective January 1st, 2025. Below are five goals, with two...

NJ21st 01/13/2025 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Our Local & State Government This Week…. This week’s newsletter kicks off with a recap of the BOE organization meeting, which, much like last year, featured disruptive theatrics. Ms. Stanley made attempts to filibuster critical discussions, while the business administrator issued inaccurate accusations toward BOE members. Unfortunately, key issues were either deferred or overlooked. Next,...