3 Towns, 1 School

School … Pulling Us Apart, Again

Years and decades ago, there was always the feeling among Highlands kids that Atlantic Highlands kids didn’t think the Highlands kids were quite as good as they were.  They certainly didn’t like having to share a school.

The Highlands kids who took the bus to Mater Dei and Red Bank Catholic High school were used to Atlantic Highlands kids getting on and saying “Oh, those Highlands kids have all the seats!” or “Oh, do we have to sit with those Highlands kids?”

When Henry Hudson was first proposed, and the Kavookjian family was so generous with such a spectacular piece of land for the new school’s construction, numerous newspaper articles reported on how Atlantic Highlands taxpayers did not want the school built in Highlands, did not want the kids to have to be bussed to school up the hill in Highlands.

Understandable, since there had never been a high school in Highlands, and parents had the choice of sending their high schoolers to Atlantic Highlands or Leonardo High.

Older Highlands residents shrugged their shoulders saying that’s the way it’s always been. After all, they pointed out, one town was known as the luxurious summer retreat for wealthy New York businessmen who built their “cottages” on the hill; the other was made up of hard working clammers and lobstermen  who lived in their small, often unpainted and patched  houses on the water, got used to the tides coming and going through their lower floors, and helped each other out when clamming was bad or times were tough.

In later years, the Sea Bright kids would come over to Highlands, joining the brave in jumping off the bridge, playing baseball or tossing footballs at Kavookjian Field, and simply doing what kids to…have fun, like each other, feud, and become pals again.

All three towns have changed in recent years, with many of the older residents forced out of their homes by higher taxes, attracted to lucrative and enticing purchase offers, and new construction inviting couples rather than large families to come and live in the beauty that is the Bayshore.

Most have forgotten or do not know about the earlier years, people from the towns are friendly to each other, and it seems to many that all are adopting, both the new people moving into historic old towns and the old residents grudgingly accepting and lamenting over the good old days and how their towns have changed.

Peace, happiness, friendliness and acceptance have grown to be the norm.

But it appears the school regionalization question is bringing up that difference between the two boroughs once again.

Some Atlantic Highlands school board members, both some of those in office now as well as many who formerly served on school boards, seem to be starting up a disparity again. The irony of it is they themselves have created some disparity.

For instance:  Records show there is a difference in school rankings between Atlantic Highlands and Highlands, with Highlands elementary school kids coming out lower than their neighbors.

But did any of these former board members, from either town, do anything about it during their terms in office?

They talked about it, as do current members.

But where was any action?

Instead, this year, they renewed the contract for the Superintendent of Schools for the three schools who let it happen.

It appears that now, comfortable with a renewal of her contract, the superintendent is doing something about the disparity, but already there is wonder if she’s going about it the right way.

Finally, after two years here, presumably equipped with all the facts, she is focusing a little bit on Highlands. For a while there, she was taking away from the neighboring school…remember when there was not a full year of science for kids in Atlantic Highlands? That’s back now, and it seems there is more math this year for some grades.

But that’s at the cost of art classes. They’ve been cut to once a week instead of two.

What happened to the Challenge programs of a few years back?

What happened to all the great resources for Special Education classes and what happened to five different teachers at the higher grade levels to enable youngsters to acclimate to move on to high school?

What happened to a teacher dedicated strictly to teaching science?

There are those in Atlantic Highlands who now feel the curriculum is being changed, not to keep their children at a higher level, but rather to bring the Highlands school youngsters more in line with their new educational practices.  There are many who say that simply isn’t fair to children in either school and does not meet their educational needs.

If that’s what is happening now, what will be different with the same schools under the same superintendent just with a different official name?

It would appear the superintendent would be doing a better job for her $180,000 plus a year if she concentrated on the job she was hired to do….oversee education in three schools. Instead she has been leading the charge on how taxpayers’ dollars should be spent. At first agreed Sea Bright is a great idea to be included, then changed her mind when her home town of Oceanport objected . Now she is leading the charge to forge ahead without Sea Bright, spend more money, and regionalize the three schools she is already overseeing.

The question has been asked, but never answered….is it because her home town of Oceanport is challenging the right of Sea Bright to leave that district under the new law created for just that purpose.?  Have any of these board members ever asked their attorneys to render an opinion on whether leading the crowd to exclude Sea Bright could have a very personal effect on her own taxes in Oceanport. Those taxes would indeed be dramatically affected without Sea Bright’s millions continuing to pour in there.