Time to Put Student Needs Ahead of Lawyers and Petty Politics
Political Vendettas and Unethical Behaviors are Harming our Students Here’s a little test. Ten months ago, five of our eight BOE members (to be joined by a sixth member a month later) chose to start a chain of actions in bringing about ethics charges against a fellow board member. Those actions resulted in several opposing ethics complaints by town residents....
The Penna Bloc Shows A Crack
Laura’s Notes from the 03/30/2023 Budget Meeting The 3/30/23 Board meeting was a thing of beauty. People were passionate, and the Board majority voted in a way that reflected some glimmer of compassion for those who spoke. Okay, it had some embarrassing and dark moments. But we saw some resistance to the Administration, so I’ll take any movement in the...
Community Correspondence to the Board January through March 2023
Last year the BOE stopped reading Board Correspondence at BOE Meetings, robbing the community of important perspectives from parents, students, and teachers. This year the BOE stopped including this correspondence as part of the minutes, only orally reporting on the correspondence and often with a spin on the subject matter. This is an example of how the Business Administrator is...
BHCW 04/02/2023 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Berkeley Heights This Week…. Online Version PDF Version There are three ways to get BHCW content delivered to your doorstep: (1) Sign-Up for our weekly/bi weekly newsletter. This is the most popular option so far. Subscribers will get email with articles published for the time period in between. (2) Subscribe to our Substack which will deliver articles to...
BHCW Night Watch Episode 11: Breakdown of the 03/30/2023 Budget Meeting
In this episode of Night Watch, Natasha joins the crew to discuss the 03/30/2023 Budget Meeting. We fact-check Julie Kot’s assertions, discuss concerns about Pam Stanley’s relationship with the Administration, the Superintendent’s confusing messaging on class sizes, and Robert’s allergy to BOE Members asking questions in public. All Night Watch Episodes
Pamela Cosplays Board Administrator Kot
-Sai Akiri If you watched the 3/30 BOE meeting, it is understandable if some walked away with that question in their minds. There were multiple questions on the courtesy busing about the number of children, the cost included in the tentative budget, and so on. Julie Kot was unable to answer them. Rather surprising since the tentative budget she presented...
Shauna’s Notes on 03/30/2023 Berkeley Heights BOE Budget Meeting
Before I get into Shauna’s Notes, I want to thank the families, teachers, and Administrators of Berkeley Heights for showing up to the meeting. Representative Government only works when the rooms where government officials make decisions are full. We finally saw passion from more than a handful of people today, a spirited debate among BOE Members, a split vote, and...
The only Source of Misinformation in our Community is District Administration
The Superintendent Needs to stop Manufacturing False Crises She then Pretends to Resolve while Blaming the Community. Yesterday Shauna published an article that pointed to the very words the Superintendent said at the last budget meeting that reasonably led to many in our community believing cuts to AP classes were on the horizon. When you take those words and past...
Admin Steps in it Again?
Dr. Varley’s recent email about the AP Class Controversy tells an interesting story. Update: A parent just contacted me to direct me to the last BOE meeting on 3/13. At timestamp 1:32:15 Mrs. Stanley mentions seeing other towns have to cut programs. In response, at timestamp 1:33:05 the Superintendent says, “For 6-12 we have some classes that operate below five,...
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