Matthew Behne is a resident of Berkeley Heights NJ, Veteran and Graduate of BHPSNJ

During the last two BOE Meetings, Speakers publicly questioned Board Decisions on several HIB cases.  One Speaker was an officer of the PTO who was later interviewed to become a Board Member.  The other was a staff member.

I have two concerns:

(1) We all know how Berkeley Heights works: the children who are the subject of these investigations are being discussed in text groups throughout the community.

Look, while names and specifics weren’t mentioned, the argument that these cases should not have been overturned publicly in an arena where neither the Board nor the family has an equal platform is very unfair, not to forget to mention that, presents quite a dangerous precedent, as mentioned above. Create any scenario you like.

(2) It appears, from the staff members’ remarks, the only thing the BOE had to base a decision on at the time was a one-paragraph summary.  Wow! Really? Would anyone wish the nightmare of an impactful decision affecting a child’s education to rest on the full trust of a one-paragraph summary –  one that is hearsay at best?!

I have no idea whether the HIB decisions should have been overturned or not, but it is clear to me that something is very wrong with this process and the District needs to modify it so that BOE Members are given more information.  It is also concerning that speakers are cut off from speaking about BOE members but are allowed to speak at length in meetings about these issues. Nah! There is no balance there at all.

Further, this complex issue should not devolve into public campaigns on specific cases.  It should involve a more serious discussion on how the District approaches these cases and whether the current system works. Systems, after all, are developed for whatever reason, present at the time. It worked, so one would have to argue why is it not working now?

This brings me to Susan Poage’s letter.

As hard as I looked, I could not find any “social media group” claiming that teachers were happier. If there’s no evidence, there is no foundation. However,Ms. Poage is a teacher, but is also a Councilwoman for a party that spent thousands of dollars to secure two seats in a small town election and a member of a very political and very powerful labor organization.

In my opinion, she is clearly looking to influence the next BOE election, and it is my opinion that the interests are different from the areas she covers in her op-ed.  Clearly, People’s actions should match their statements. Last week we saw a letter from the former BHEA president that was incorrect on the basic facts the letter argued from.

Special interests?  Political philosophies?  Yes, Berkeley Heights residents should be mindful of these influences in our School District.

With our own eyes, we see community adults twisting narratives, saying the same untrue thing over & over again about neighbors. Yes! Make it stick! Over and over until it does. Relentless!

Common understanding is ‘mistakes are made by everyone.’ But hey! If one is in the popular and favored group, those mistakes are buried. Worse? Let’s shift responsibility to people they don’t like. Taking mistakes the people they favor make and attempting to shift responsibility to people they don’t like while thousands of people stare and do nothing?  How do we imagine this playing out with our youngsters? Seriously. Is this a good example for all of the youngsters, who look to adults as role models in this world?

To put these children’s cases on a flimsy public trial feels so wrong to me. What if your child has one bad day? A bad moment? Should we make them the next political campaign platform? Make that one bad moment the next thing they use on a 10,000 member forum in advocating for a mark on anyone’s child’s records that will follow them for years? The only one that would seem to benefit is their candidates, the labor union. Got to get that pet program through.

Yes, there are special interests in Berkeley Heights and they have no boundary or low that they wouldn’t sink to or exploit.

It’s also interesting to see Town Council members, who preach UNITY, start their articles with rumors they heard through the “grapevine” and play the “because one person may have said it, the whole group said it” game.

We now have 5 Board of Education Members who are independent of either political party in Berkeley Heights, and the sharks seem to be circling. Blood in the water yet?

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