A Loud Voice for Police in Schools
by John Leo & Laura Kapuscinski We support Police. Moreover, we support having an appropriately trained officer in each school with the primary responsibility of keeping our students and staff safe. The officers placed in schools are very specific and special for the school environment. A SRO (School Resource Officer) is a full-time police officer who is responsible for teaching...
Loud Voice Against Police In Schools
I will remain one of the “loud voices” against additional police in schools. One can support more police in schools, but to wonder out loud why anyone would be against it demonstrates a concerning lack of research on the topic. So here is going to be an unusual article coming from me. I support Dr. Varley’s decision not to make...
Unpopular Opinion on School Safety
I sent the following email to the BOE this morning and wanted to share it here as well. Good Afternoon, Schools are safe- the community-wide and national conversation on school safety is not based on any evidence. Lockdown drills do not have any evidence of doing anything but traumatize children. Adding police in schools doesn’t do anything to prevent school shootings; the...
Incident at CMS Continues to Prompt More Questions
If you have a child who attends CMS then you received a letter addressing the incident that occurred on Friday. And, unless you live under a rock, by now you have seen this letter and heard the shockwaves by parents in this community. As adults, it’s not easy to speak up and even we struggle with making the right choices. ...
Policy 0167 – Don’t Allow Them To Silence Your Voice
Sai Akiri Everyone attending a Berkeley Heights Board of Education meeting has fundamental rights, mainly the freedom of speech. Every resident or parent wanting to express their opinions, concerns, or questions is entitled to do so under the OPMA – Open public meetings act. There are two segments during the board meeting for residents to speak. The first is during...
“Teaching is an Art”
We’ve heard this from our Superintendent recently in conjunction with parent concerns over Building Thinking Classroom methods and the impact it is having on students. Our administration, across the district, has declined to intervene on behalf of students who are failing, whose families have to turn to tutors or outside math classes, or who have come to realize their best...
BTC – The Struggle is Real
It’s been just over a month since the November 1st information session on Building Thinking Classroom. It was at this session that I became aware of this approach to teaching math and that there were parents who were very upset over the implementation of this approach. Since then: 1. The administration took less than one day to re-evaluate and moved to a more...
Berkeley Heights Public Schools BTC Parent Survey Final Results
The BTC Math Survey has reached 107 responses. Here are the FINAL results. 107 responses for 135 Children 82 Parents (77%) Agreed or Completely Agreed with the Statement:“My child has expressed feeling more confused in math classes. 82 Parents (77%) Disagreed or Completely Disagreed with the Statement:“My child has maintained or improved their math grade without having to complete extra assignments since...
Co-Teaching 2 different sections of Italian to 28 students IS acceptable…according to the district!
I received a response to my email regarding the unfavorable conditions being endured by 8th grade students (and single teacher) in Italian. You can read it in full below. Reasons provided why this practice IS reasonable and acceptable are: It’s been happening like this for over 23 years; It’s the only way to keep Italian (like French, or, it seems,...
The Berkeley HeightS Public School District’s 12-month Path to Less Input and Engagement
This article was originally published on TapInto. Over the past 12 months, residents, especially parents, have witnessed the removal of avenues available to them to communicate with District leadership and influence policy decisions. This article is intended to serve as a timeline of events surrounding the removal of these avenues. After a reconfiguration process (April 2021) that led to an...
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