3 Towns, 1 School District

School District Resolution

It took an hour and a half in closed executive session reportedly spent entirely on discussing the matter with their attorney, but in the end the boards of education of Henry Hudson, Atlantic Highlands and Highlands schools unanimously passed a resolution approving The Busch Law Group, to expand its duties as special counsel on the question of School District regionalization of the three schools and Sea Bright.

Fight

The resolution states that the expansion of the firm’s duties includes a defense of the action filed by Oceanport and Shore Regional.  The two school districts who are opposing Sea Bright putting a question on the ballot to let voters decide whether students in that borough can be included in a tri-borough regional school district with Highlands and Atlantic Highlands.

The resolution agreed upon points out that the current three Boards of Education previously approved the Busch Law Group under a retainer agreement in any matters related to the proposed school district regionalization. Who are also are parties to a Hold Harmless Agreement with Sea Bright. That agreement, the resolution says,  calls for legal defense to be provided against actions by Oceanport or Shore Regional concerning school district regionalization.

Petition

The state Commissioner of Education had dismissed an earlier petition filed by the Oceanport and Shore Regional since there was no petition from the three towns before her. With that petition now under consideration by the state Commissioner, the petition from Oceanport and Shore Regional opposing the school district regionalization have taken their petition of the action before the Appellate Court.

It is that action that makes the three boards of education feel they must provide a separate defense to any Appellate Court action.

Who’s Involved?

Since the meeting of the three boards, as all meetings of the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education, are held in the gym with insufficient audio equipment to hear all the board members, Venividiscripto asked Superintendent Tara Beams for the names of the board members who were present, or absent, from this meeting. Since the resolution for the Busch Group indicated no amount of money to be paid for continuing, VeniVidiScripto also asked Dr. Beams, who was present at the meeting, if an OPRA request was necessary to get the figure.

Denied

Information to both queries was denied by the superintendent, who responded with the following e-mail “You may file an OPRA request for the minutes of the meeting which will indicate the attendance of all BOE members once those minutes have been Board approved. They will also be posted to the district websites after they have Board approval as are all of our meeting minutes. You may also file an OPRA request regarding the information you requested about The Busch Law Group. Please note that Mrs. Molly Murphy is conflicted in the regionalization matter and does not attend special meetings related to regionalization.”