What’s Important to Know About Berkeley Heights This Week….
In this week’s newsletter, we start with the $34,000 the District spent to avoid responding to one OPRA request as a means of protecting the former Superintendent and BOE Majority. This week, the District finally settled, and the documents requested by the parent were received.
We provide coverage of the 04/24/2024 meeting, where the BOE decided to end Courtesy Busing with a plan to reconsider more equitable rates for all families moving forward, cap legal spending, cap advertising spending, and reject a contract based on concerns communicated to them by the public. This also includes discussions among BHCW contributors with different opinions on the proposals and results from the first Budget survey of the District under Finance Chair Dipti Khanna and Acting Superintendent Robert Nixon.
We move on to a contentious Town Council Meeting that led to the appointment of the Town Administrator to CFO and the new US News and World Report Rankings that see Governor Livingston High School drop further.
A parent provides an update on one student’s efforts to bring the Tiger back to CMS- showing a video clip of the student who spearheaded a 300+ signature petition speaking at a BOE Meeting and convincing the District to put a pause on the Former Superintendents efforts to replace the mascot. It was great to see a middle schooler kick ass.
The newsletter also includes a survey (also available on outlets BHCW publishes) asking families about whether BHCW should keep going or whether it’s time to shut down.
As (almost) always, we end with news from around the state and our notes for the week.