John’s Notes on the 10/12/2023 BOE Meeting – “Misinformation” Edition
There’s a lot here to unpack and I am not going to get to it all in one article. The first thing that struck me was Ms. Bradford’s comments about District Administrators talking about parents spreading misinformation about Building Thinking Classroom and Dr. Giordano’s response to my comments that parents made it seem that BTC was being applied to the...
Board of Education Turnover Continues in Berkeley Heights
Seven Board of Education members have decided not to run for reelection since Dr. Melissa Varley took the helm at BHPS -Written by an Educator in the Community According to “Union County Votes,” the official election website of our county, two Berkeley Heights Board of Education (BOE) members are not running for reelection this year. As of the filing deadline,...
Laura’s Notes on the 10/12/2023 BOE Agenda
The BOE Majority is Starting to Pour Concrete into the Pipes Before a New Board Takes Office ADMINISTRATION A: DISTRICT BYLAWS/POLICIES/REGULATIONS – FIRST READING How much of these policy changes are about the kids? My takeaway is that these policy changes are about self-preservation and keeping the power in the current BOE majority. Any organization that seeks to inhibit the...
Questions to The 2023 Berkeley Heights BOE Candidates – Question 2
The Second in a Series of Questions to the 2023 Berkeley Heights, NJ BOE Candidates The Courtesy Bussing issue appears to be yet another scandal under this administration and a costly one at that. Transportation has been extraordinarily problematic under this administration. What factors do you believe have fed into the multitude of issue connected to Busing in the last...
Berkeley Heights BOE Committee Meeting Minutes for August 2023
Below are the Board Committee Meeting Minutes BHCW received for August through an OPRA request. Committee meetings are different than closed sessions – what is discussed during these meetings can very well be addressed by the Board in public meetings. The argument against doing so by one BOE member has been that it would prevent the BOE from accomplishing as...
Berkeley Heights BOE Executive Session Minutes
01/2023 through 06/2023 Below is a link to Executive Session Minutes from 01/2023 through 06/29/2023. We may never know whether the contained redactions are appropriate. Although items related to negotiations once completed can be disclosed. We can reasonably guess that the negotiations listed in the minutes might be with the BHAA based on review of regular meeting agenda and minutes...
Community Correspondence to the Board of Education – August 2023
There was no meeting in July, and no correspondence to the Board in July- much of what was provided to BHCW was written to the Board in June. The District habitually does not give responsive documents, so if you wrote to the Board of Education in July, please let us know. Also, the OPRA Custodian continues redacting his name and...
Setting Up For Failure
How Many Weird Experiments Need To Go Wrong Before the Berkeley Heights School District Corrects Its Approach to Teaching Our Kids? During the pandemic, when our schools were shut down forcing our children to learn and educators to teach remotely, I became hyper-aware of the implementation of a new literacy program, “The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.” This program,...
Will the Berkeley Heights BOE Majority Exploit an Unlawful Ordinance to Block a Lawful Election Result?
Natasha Joly writes to the Town Council on Concerns Regarding Potential Election Interference on the part of the Berkeley Heights BOE Majority During the most recent BOE Meeting, the Board of Education voted to modify election policies just before this November Election. The final reading and vote is slated to occur in October. The public and BOE Candidates needed clarification...
The Retirement That Wasn’t
Marybeth Kopacz, the now-former Assistant Superintendent of BHPS, ends up in Roxbury Township Schools as Supervisor -Written by an Educator in the Community The “retirement” of Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education and Intervention Marybeth Kopacz was one of six administrators to depart BHPS for various reasons over four months (April-July 2023). However, the departure of...
nj21st.com (with the exception of featured images and logo) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
