Berkeley Heights BOE School Transportation

Berkeley Heights Resident Takes on State DOE to Unpeel BHPSNJ Busing Controversy….and Wins

Feb 19, 20242 Comments

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 for Subscription bussing while others received it for free through Courtesy Bussing.

Despite repeated demands for clarity, the District and the Penna-led BOE provided the public with no information on criteria or costs related to the program. Nearly a year later, with a new BOE in place, Ms. Penna attempted to quash Ms. Akiri’s request for more information during the January BOE Meetings.

As recently as this month, three BOE members requested the report to prepare before the presentation. However, they were denied and told it would only be made available via walkthrough with the business administrator.

In reading what the resident was requesting, we are left wondering why the NJ Department of Education used taxpayer dollars to prevent the disclosure of information, as there wasn’t any real risk of student information being disclosed.

Privacy has historically and improperly been used by our District as a reason to hide information from our community when the information being asked for poses no threat in this respect to students. It has also been used improperly under the guise of “staff” when “staff” referred to the Superintendent and high level of Administrators in connection to public funds and communications.

Excerpt from the Court’s Decision:

To be clear, in the instant case, once the personally identifiable information is removed, the record is considered “de-identified” and may be released under FERPA, as the Department, for the reasons discussed above, has not made “a reasonable determination” that doing so would be contrary to the Act. Furthermore, under N.J.A.C. 6A:32-7.5(g), the Department “shall adhere to the requirements pursuant to [OPRA]” and may release the records per N.J.S.A. 6A:32-7.5(g)1. Because the records are “de-identified” and the records are removed of all personally identifiable information, the documents are not student records, and no reasonable privacy interest exists under state law to withhold the remainder of the report.

We are also left wondering why the District has simply not cleared this up in a year – we don’t need a consultant to explain the historical decisions made in connection to this service – only the Superintendent and those connected to Courtesy Busing would have access to this information. Yes, lets figure out a path forward but the community deserves answers on how this program has been historically run – and no consultant is needed to explain this.

Why do residents have to engage in lawsuits and forensic science, yet again, in finding answers to what should be simple questions or obtaining readily available information? Seriously, what is wrong with this District?

Why do BOE Members have to deal with one deflection after another from Central Administration and hostile BOE Members in getting a report that has been hidden away somewhere for a month now?

A presentation on transportation is being held during this month’s BOE Meeting, and the hope is that residents can use the information that will be obtained from the DOE as a result of this win to vette whatever the District’s narrative on the transportation controversy ends up being.

Are we are having a presentation on this issue only because the District knew the State would lose and they needed time to spin whatever it is they wouldn’t tell us?

Given the circus this has turned into, this is a reasonable questions to ask.