“They Just Want to Tear Things Down”

Another thread of misinformation running from the very top of the BOE throughout the community is the lie that we seek to tear our schools down. So, let’s look at the facts of just the past few weeks:

Our most prolific contributors (in writing and helping with research) are coaches, are members of parent organizations that support our schools, and volunteers within our schools – they also do work within the community that is simply not mentioned.

All this in addition to HOURS EVERY DAY spent holding our District accountable. Let’s take a look at what the BHCW community has accomplished in the past few weeks, alone.

BHCW sent an email on the state of our school parking lots (a week or two ago) and the fact that the BOE Majority passed a budget that (among other issues) indicated shared services agreements with the town that would address these issues that did not exist as per an OPRA request we submitted to the town. We did not get answers to our questions, so we forwarded the emails to state agencies. Suddenly a shared services agreement with the town appeared on this week’s BOE agenda, and potholes were being filled in at least one elementary school, according to one parent. I have yet to confirm that last part, but it came from a parent at Hughes who has given us credible information in the past.

In that very same thread of work members of our community fought the State and finally received a commitment from State agencies to provide unredacted budgets that will allow the public to know exactly where their money is going. This was something that took weeks to accomplish.

We have been writing about our legal spending for some time, and BHCW uncovered another pile-on concerning OPRA issues (we will be writing about this eventually). Around the same time, we informed the District about the Shared Services agreement; we informed the BOE about what appears to be a pile-on of cases that are simply adding to our District’s costs in an unnecessary arena and exposed the amount of money one firm was receiving. This week we discovered an RFP connected for Legal services we hope will result in more reasonable and competent legal counsel.

While BOE Members sat quietly as school administrators trashed parents behind closed doors and then perpetuated the narrative in public meetings, we were the ONLY voices to counter the new narrative on BTC and stood up for families.

And for the first time I can remember, we finally have concrete measurable goals connected to academic performance that kind of makes sense. We’ve been writing about that last part for YEARS and we were called “misinformed” when we sounded the warning bell on proficiencies last year. How is the whole “misinformed about proficiencies” argument looking now? And while we have goals, they could stand to use a ton of improvement but at least it’s a step.

This is everything that’s happened in just the past few weeks on top of everything our contributors are doing as volunteers for other organizations in Berkeley Heights, as coaches, as employees, and as parents.
So no- we aren’t “tearing things down” – we appear to be the only voices speaking publicly about issues so that our community schools and the students and families they serve are protected.

There will come a time when most of us will get tired of putting this work in or our kids will move on from our schools (oh that’s right our kids go to the very schools we are trying to “tear down”). When that time comes you should hope someone else is there to do the work that’s being done today.