Shauna’s Notes on the 03/18/2024 BOE Agenda- The Lack of Clarity on Courtesy Busing Continues
Why is getting straight answers on Busing so difficult? Following the presentation of the transportation consultant at the last Berkeley Heights Board of Education meeting, Berkeley Heights Community Watch requested information from the district. The request was for 1) all reports and analysis provided by the transportation company, 2) the rubric (mentioned multiple times during the meeting), and 3) the...
Berkeley Heights Resident Takes on State DOE to Unpeel BHPSNJ Busing Controversy….and Wins
Another Win for Transparency In Court Cases Demanding information about BHPSNJ Practices In a massive win for transparency, Attorney Walter Luers represented a Berkeley Heights resident in an OPRA case connected to a request for information surrounding Berkeley Heights Public School Transportation services. School busing has been controversial in Berkeley Heights as residents discovered some parents were required to pay...
BOE Document Drop for December 2023: More Questions on Transportation
Berkeley Heights BOE Committee Meeting Minutes for December 2023 and Team Notes Questions and Comments on Finance and Facilities & Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes from the Team: Finance and Facilities: Why wasn’t the transportation report in the agenda on Jan 18th and why if it was to be ready for Jan 18th, is the public not able to see it?...
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...
BOE Document Drop for November 2023 & Notes from a Teacher on the October 2023 Drop
Teacher Feedback on October 2023 Drop: We received a response to our October Document drop from an educator in the community pertaining to our questions on whether the BOE interviewed candidates for the Director Position: Hi John, You state in this article that Dr. Varley did the interviewing for the Director of STEAM position (Kelly Curtiss). In one of my graduate-level classes, I...
Berkeley Heights BOE Document Drop for October 2023
Executive Session and Committee Meeting Minutes and Notes for October 2023 Notes: Policy Committee: Policy 164 was ostensibly revised to avoid surprises for board members. Guess what has been happening in the 2 meetings so far, and it has nothing to do with board members bringing surprises to the meeting. Only the Personnel Committee seems to have spent an extended...
Did Dr. Varley Get a Raise Without a Board Vote?
And why weren’t Berkeley Heights Residents Aware of it? Update on 01/14/2023: The BOE DID Vote on this Increase but there is more to the Story. It appears Dr. Varley got a 2% raise without a vote by the Board of Education. To walk through this, we need to first walk through her contract. If you recall, Dr. Varley...
Berkeley Heights BOE Document Drop – September 2023
Committee Meeting Minutes, Executive Session Minutes and Board Correspondence for September 2023 Here are the Committee Meeting minutes for September 2023 that we asked for on October 13, 2023. The time frame for OPRA is seven business days. It took two months for BHCW to receive these documents. Of note were the RFP’s approved by the Finance Committee that we...
Did Anyone Even Look At The $63 Million Berkeley Heights Public School Budget Before It Was Passed?
In September, BHCW finally received a copy of the Detailed Adopted budgets for the 2023-24 school year for BHPSNJ and several other Districts. In that process, the state agreed to stop redacting account numbers on school budgets. Our publication of that budget was the first opportunity some of our BOE Members had to see it – even though the entire...
10/12/2023 Bill List: More of Our School’s Dollars go to Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs
The link below is the bill list approved during the 10/12/2023 BOE. As expected, this month’s legal bills are lower; we suspect how bills are approved is a matter of optics. The first bill list of 2023 (January) totaled a whopping $31,467 spent on legal services– recall this was month one of two new BOE Members joining the Board, one...
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