
2023 Audit & 2024 Budget Question 1: General Administration- Support Services Spending
Questions on the Berkeley Heights Public School Audit The following is the first in a series of articles about questions presented to the Berkeley Heights Public School District Business Administrator on the 2023 Audit submitted to the State of NJ before Berkeley Heights families and taxpayers could review the document and ask questions contrary to state statute and our historical...

Shauna’s Notes on the 2/13 BHPS BOE (postponed) Meeting Agenda
Audit, Superintendent Search & “XX” This will be a special meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education, so there is very little on the agenda. What IS there is worth a look. William Swisher of Suplee Clooney & Co. will present the audit to the board. This is the audit that the State of New Jersey says should be...

Congratulations Ms. Bradford- It’s Time to Get to Work
Email sent to Ms. Bradford, Board of Education and County Superintendent Dear Ms. Bradford, Congratulations on securing the position of President for the Berkeley Heights Board of Education. It is my hope that moving forward you will act as an impartial facilitator of meetings. I want to present some of my concerns so you can be aware of the guidance...

2022-2023 7-District Dashboard Budget Resource – Updated
How Did the Berkeley Heights Public School District use it’s dollars compared to 6 other Districts… The ACFR is a document that School Districts submit to the state accounting for revenues and expenditures. As the budget process in our District (and most, if not all, surrounding Districts) , approaches, we converted the data in these documents into a spreadsheet for...

BHCW Responds to BHPS Administration’s Problematic Representation of NYT Article
Published 02/09/2024 on TapInto: In 2022, BHCW raised concerns about proficiencies directly to the BHPS Superintendent of Schools and received surface-level responses that did not address important questions. In 2023 BHCW provided an analysis of the most recent NJ DOE performance reports (released after our initial email) that demonstrated BHPS carried the highest per pupil with the lowest performance and most significant declines post-COVID. This...

BHPSNJ 2024 Budget Prep Part 2: ACFR 7-District Dashboard
In order to further inform the public in preparation for the 2024 Berkeley Heights Public School District Budget Discussions, we created a spread sheet comparing all seven districts on the dashboard on areas within the ACFR. The ACFR is a document that Districts submit to the state with information on enrollment, revenue and spending in various areas and other information....

Why Does the State of NJ Have Our Audit Report Before The Presentation to Our Community & BOE ?
The disregard BHPSNJ Administration has for our Community Continues…. On January 18th, Shauna informed the community that the District was late on its Audit. She also cited N.J.A.C. 18A:23-5 which states: Within 30 days following the receipt of the report of the annual Audit the board of education of the district shall, at a regularly scheduled public meeting, cause the recommendations of the auditor...

Letter supporting Dipti Khanna for BOE President
The following is an email received from Helen Gabara, Berkeley Heights Resident and Parent, to the County Superintendent Daryl Palmieri in Support of Ms. Khanna for BOE President. Mr. Palmieri’s email address is [email protected] The majority of Berkeley Heights citizens who voted for BOE members in November have chosen new board members who vote mostly opposite of how Ms Penna ...

BHPSNJ 2024 Budget Prep Part 1:Enrollment, Cost PP, Administration, Instruction and Legal Spending
ACFR Analysis on the Seven District Dashboard There are some pleasant surprises in connection to the District’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for 2022-2023 and some areas of concern. It is important to take this summary with a grain of salt as the taxpayers guide has not yet reported on actuals for 2023 and they are another definitive source. This article is...

11/23 Executive Session Minutes: Columbia Field, OPRA Custodian Training
Notes and Thoughts from the Team on Executive Session Minutes for November 2023 Along with an Update on a few Budget Items Related to Administration On the CMS Field So the township has gone silent on the Columbia field discussions and instead has launched the initiative to create an all inclusive playground at Columbia. Given the contention on land boundaries...