Shauna’s Notes on the 11/02/2023 Berkeley Heights BOE Meeting
At a special meeting on November 2nd, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education met to set goals for themselves as a governing body. Attending were all board members except Joy Young, the interim Business Administrator, and New Jersey School Board Association (NJSBA) representative Patricia Rees.
After an opening presentation by Ms. Rees, she asked if the board members found anything interesting in their initial self-evaluation. No one had anything to say. There is something I found interesting, which was that as a group the BOE members thought they were weak in areas, but that they all felt that individually they were doing a good job. They did not choose ‘improving self-evaluation skills’ as a goal.
Gale Bradford led off by saying that while attending the NJSBA conference she found that communication is not just a Berkeley Heights issue. She also made the suggestion that committee meetings be regularly scheduled. From previous boards, perhaps some will recall Ms. Akiri asking repeatedly for more or regular committee meetings, so this appears to be an ongoing issue and well worth being included as a BOE goal. This would fall under the general heading of Committee Planning and Governance.
A discussion ensued surrounding committee meeting minutes, and from that conversation we see that there are some misunderstandings by both board members and our interim Business Administrator over how those minutes are handled. Mrs. Bradford said committee meeting minutes are taken by administration and asked if they need to be reviewed for redactions “before they go out”. Committee meeting minutes do not go out to the public unless the public turns in an OPRA request for them, so maybe she meant ‘out’ to other BOE members. However, there would be no need to review for redactions when sending to the BOE. Rest assured. Mrs. Bradford, the habit has been to redact as much as possible before letting the public see anything. Dr. Foregger asked how committee meeting minutes are approved, since committees can’t vote or take action. (At least, they’re not supposed to take action. We’ve seen, with the recent decision made by the Finance and Facilities Committee on subscription busing, that the BOE doesn’t always adhere to that rule.) The Business Administrator appeared to indicate that he felt committee meeting minutes should not be published for the public as a matter of routine, as has been suggested as a way to limit OPRA requests, but it was hard to hear him at times. The content of committee minutes also arose, and rightly so. A comparison of former BA Julie Kot’s limited notes with the comprehensive minutes taken by Lisa McAdam perfectly illustrates the concern over accuracy and thoroughness.
Dr. Foregger also commented that he would like to see some kind of supporting documentation before voting on recommendations coming from the committees. The answer to that was ‘you need to trust your committees’. Given this board’s animus and behavior toward fellow members at times, it’s a stretch to ask for blind trust. In the interest of transparency and in making an effort to work together, it would make sense to share how a committee recommendation was reached. If an individual board member doesn’t feel the need to review a recommendation, they certainly don’t have to, but this would go a long way to establish lost trust.
Mrs. Stanley noted that committees don’t always meet every month, and said board members can and should write to the committee chair with questions. The Business Administrator cautioned that too many emails and conversations outside meetings could violate the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). Ms. Khanna asked that the purpose and role for each committee be clearly stated in writing. Several times Ms. Rees commented on the large number of committees that exist within our Board, and implied that the number should be lower. Ironically, when Mr. Hyman asked about how, exactly, the BOE was going to go about sharing their ideas on action plans for implementing the new goals, Ms. Rees suggested it be done by a committee. It was determined that each BOE member would email their suggestions to Board President Angela Penna, who would then compile and share the list.
Improving communication, both internally and externally, was listed as one of the first goals that should be worked on. Mr. Hyman suggested the Board have listening sessions. (Something that this writer wholeheartedly agrees with.) Mrs. Penna commented that Melissa (Varley) has listening sessions on her list of District goals, but on review of those goals there is no mention of listening sessions.
Other than a very brief suggestion about publishing committee meeting minutes (see above), it did not go unnoticed that there was very little communication during the meeting about improving communication – at least not as it concerns the public.
Also worth noting:
The much-praised timer, purchased for the purpose of stopping residents at that hard 3-minute mark, wasn’t able to be used. Somehow, the two residents who got up to speak were miraculously able to keep their remarks within the board-sanctioned time frame.
Ms. Rees mentioned, as an example when asked by Mr. Cianciulli what a “norm” is, the expectation that board members would treat each other with respect. Wonder if there was any self-reflection at that point?
Ms. Rees also said that it’s standard for boards to keep resident comments to three minutes and that there should not be a back-and-forth. Interesting comment, as the relations between our BOE and residents started to disintegrate with the reconfiguration that disallowed any public input, and went downhill exponentially at the same time the Board stopped allowing any level of exchange. Prior to that decision, back-and-forth not only happened, but was done with a level of respect that is currently missing.
Overall, it’s nice that the board was finally able to meet to get started on the process of setting goals, and we look forward to seeing the action plan for the achievement of those goals. And as a last reminder… get out and vote for both Natasha Joly and Sai Bhargavi Akiri.
Read More BOE Minutes and Meeting Summaries