Welcome to the Dysfunction of the 2024 Berkeley Heights BOE
I initially set out to write a re-cap of the February 26, 2024 Berkeley Heights Board of Education meeting, but assuming no one wants to read an article similar in length to War and Peace, instead I want to focus on the overarching problems and take-aways from this meeting. There are still quite a few, but let’s see how far it can be boiled down.
First and foremost, our new BOE President Gale Bradford appears rather like Benito Mussolini, determined to exert full dictatorial control and attempt to make those trains run on time. Evidence the way she not only cut off board members, but at one point even cut off the transportation consultant. Giving a preselected amount of time for discussion is ridiculous on its face, especially when you have presenters who are less-than-succinct. Mrs. Joly had to tell Mrs. Bradford twice “I’m not done yet” and the whole grade-school raising-of-hands and waiting to be called upon only reinforces Mrs. Bradford’s misplaced idea that she has full and sole control of anything that happens during a board meeting.
The full impact of Mrs. Bradford’s actions were on display as she refused to acknowledge certain board members who were waiting to speak, then cut them off and spoke over them when they did have the floor. On two separate occasions she went with the phrase “My ruling/decision stands”, and at one point referred to herself in the third person saying, “The President has decided…”
In her effort to race through the meeting, she stated, “There is no correspondence” only to be contradicted by the Business Administrator. He also had to stop her from moving to roll call on his report on when board members wanted to discuss questions prior to voting. For the New Jersey School Board presentation, she told board members they would be given the NJSBA handouts at the end of the meeting. Fortunately, board members and the NJSBA representative ignored that and distributed the materials to be viewed during the presentation, not after it was over.
Worst of all was the action taken at the end of the meeting. In true dictatorial fashion, Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. Stanley colluded to deny a motion brought to the floor. Mrs. Stanley, using her new favorite tactic supplied to her by our “wonderful” attorney, declared “point of order” giving Mrs. Bradford the tool she needed to give herself control after a tied vote. This method of shutting down other board members is alarming.
And on the subject of Mrs. Stanley… It was rather refreshing to hear the NJSBA representative inform Mrs. Stanley her assumptions about board conduct are not correct. Mrs. Stanley has stated multiple times that issues board members have should not be made public. Last night she said, “I feel like we have board members who have to bring issues to public meetings…” She has now been told directly by NJSBA that she is wrong that issues need to be handled in committee or executive session, with the representative telling her, “You (board members) are authorized to ask those hard questions”. We’ll see if it sinks in.
In addition to that clarification by the NJSBA rep, we also received advice on social media postings. During a relatively recent discussion on a Facebook post made by Mrs. Stanley, it was suggested her post was not fully compliant with NJSBA and BH BOE policy guidelines, a suggestion that was met with counter claims of no wrongdoing on Mrs. Stanley’s part. According to NJSBA, it is encouraged for disclaimers to always be used (this wasn’t done), and posts shouldn’t be made where “a reasonable person believes what you are posting is being made in your position as a board member.” I suppose now we will hear a skewed definition of what reasonable person means. (Hint: the definition will be sure to exclude anyone associated with BHCW.)
This next one was a biggie. It was asked whether one board member could file an ethics complaint against another. The representative cautioned that if members file against each other it affects their ability to work as a group, and she urged the board to look at the bigger picture to see how that action helps, or rather doesn’t help, students and the quality of their education. We are all aware that that particular horse is so far out of the barn that it’s on another continent at this point, but the issue of working together is crucial. Unfortunately, there are still three or four board members who don’t see this as an important facet of their jobs. This has been made abundantly clear since the beginning of the year, and it is worse under our new president than it was before.
Mr. Juskiewicz (whom it seems is commonly referred to as AJ at this point) needs to be more attentive to detail. There was discussion surrounding an organizational chart, with AJ not being able to commit to a date a corrected chart could be provided, nor was it clear why the chart wasn’t correct to start. Incorrect minutes from previous meetings were still an issue, as the corrections hadn’t been given to board members to view. The minutes from two meetings were lumped together. This led to wasted time as the board tried to figure out how to approve a single set.
There was another pause in the meeting to determine how to count an abstention to a vote. This has been counted in two different ways at two different meetings. The board attorney pointed, this time, to BOE policy 0165. This needs to be an entirely separate article, so we’ll just leave it by saying it would be beneficial for us to look at the policy in relation to Robert’s Rules and any relevant NJ statutes so that everyone is clear on how they are voting.
Other takeaways. Mrs. Bradford’s exchange with a resident who was new to BOE meetings was a sorry thing to witness. The resident, being unaware of the stupid requirement for all questions to be asked at one time, had to repeat her question three times before Mrs. Bradford finally clued in to what was happening.
Mr. Hopkins has the DEI survey results and has given them to Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kobliska. (Survey was given only to students in grades 6-12.) The results have not been shared with the public yet. Implementation of DEI is not being applied on a district-wide level, but rather is being handled by the building principals. While they may be doing a great job, we are left with no real insight into whether any meaningful change has occurred.
Last thoughts. It was frustrating to me to see that we have a board who can’t vote ‘yes’ on what seem to be minorly important items, like the minutes or having a correct organization chart. It’s crucial that we get past these kinds of issues, but that can’t happen until there is trust. You don’t build trust by acting like a dictator.
We’re in trouble here, and I don’t see it getting better or see Mrs. Bradford bringing any “positive change” with this type of leadership.
Related Notes on the 02/26/2024 Meeting:
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