Ratings, Rankings and Dollars

Further Evidence that Berkeley Heights Needs to Re-Evaluate the Direction the District is Going

A community member provided us with a table containing the following information:

” all districts are included within an approximate 10-mile radius of Berkeley Heights, excluding North Plainfield, Plainfield, and South Plainfield. Data takes the average of all school buildings in each public school district that were included, rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. The data is organized from highest score to lowest score for summative ranking 2021-22″

I vetted a portion of the table against the Patch source and decided to merge this data with the information from the NJ Taxpayer Guide to Education Spending (Budgetary Per Pupil Cost, 2022)

Unlike Niche, the numbers above aren’t the result of polls or popularity contests.

As I wrote in my last post on the budget, the BOE needs to use this week’s Budget meeting to correct course. On top of the costs above, families are paying tutors to compensate for some bad decisions made by Central Administration. Now we are asking families to pay even more in the form of tax increases and increases to athletic and activity fees.

There need to be significant cuts to Central Administration and legal fees; there also needs to be greater oversight of legal spending if the BOE and this Administration are going to have a shred of legitimacy. Moving forward, the District must be deliberate and transparent in how “found money” is used.

Given our ratings and rankings, it is clear that teachers and supervisors are the last resources our District should be cutting.  If the number of teachers employed by the District are beyond what is needed (and I’m not convinced of that), we can repurpose these roles to address learning loss through in-school and after-school support. We can also use resources to help students negotiate the new approach to teaching Math in Middle School and High School. Given the information above, we should consider hiring more educators to support our students.

We can’t afford to allow superficial differences, petty politics, and historical vendettas to get in the way of what is essential. This is an opportunity for the Board and District Administration to show the public it understands the need for change.

This isn’t a gotcha moment. It’s not an I told you so. 

This is a call to action, an impassioned plea that we come together as a District and community to fix this.  

It’s an opportunity to give Families, Teachers, and Principals a meaningful seat at the table to decision-making on approach and resources moving forward.

Rankings Table Provided by Community Member:

NJ Tax Payers Data

Patch Article on NJ School Ratings and Rankings

Related Articles:

THE NEXT BUDGET MEETING NEEDS TO BE A COURSE CORRECTION

THIS ADMINISTRATION IS A DISASTER

WHY DO WE NEED A SUPERINTENDENT ANYWAY?