Residents and attendees on ZOOM got to see and hear both an alleged lie by the Superintendent of the tri-district schools wrote to the Commissioner of Education as well as apparent lies from their own governing body when they indicated they never saw the letter in which Dr. Tara Beams inferred that she represented not only them, but the mayors and councils of Highlands and Sea Bright before the state education commissioner.
In a meeting made even more dramatic when it had to be halted for a brief medical emergency, and a firm exchange of information between Sea Bright Councilman Erwin Bieber and this borough’s councilman Jon Crowley, residents also learned that in spite of the borough attorney’s declaration at previous meetings, the public does have the right to ask questions during public portions of the meeting.
In response to a question from a resident as to whether the governing body gave Beams authority to represent it in the ongoing discussions and actions on the question of school regionalization, Mayor Loretta Gluckstein said she had not seen the letter and no other member of the governing body admitted they had.
It was only after resident Mark Fisher said during the public portion, he had e-mailed each of them, as well as the borough clerk and administrator, the March 17 letter Beams sent to state Education Commissioner Allen-McMillan that the public learned their elected officials were either lying or did not read e-mails directed to their official e-mail addresses in spite of being at Borough Hall for several hours before the meeting.
After repeated questions, Council Member Jon Crowley eventually admitted that he did in fact receive the Beams letter.
Nor did council take any action on a request from another resident that the elected officials take immediate action with at least some sort of censure of the schools chief for lying to the commissioner when she sent a petition to the state Commissioner “submitted with full collaboration by the Boards of Education of Henry Hudson Regional School District, Atlantic Highlands School District, Highlands Borough School District and the Boroughs of Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Sea Bright.
Mayor Gluckstein said after the meeting that council members all had to be at borough hall from 4 p.m. the afternoon of the meeting to go over borough business and she had not had time to look at any e-mails addressed to her in her borough file. She did not say whether the clerk or the administrator had advised the elected officials they too received the letter.
Earlier in the day, Highlands Mayor Carolyn Beams confirmed she had received the letter Beams wrote to the state almost immediately after their attorney in the regionalization matter had received it from the state commissioner. Sea Bright Councilman Bieber confirmed at the meeting that Sea Bright’s officials had also received the letter the Atlantic Highlands council members denied knowing about and that the letter had been sent to all three boroughs.
Although Gluckstein refused to accept a copy of the letter during the meeting, she did say she would like a copy, which she received from a resident after the meeting. This was a bit strange. When another resident was speaking on another subject … not only did the new Borough Attorney want a copy of a document he was speaking from … she actually asked for the document.
VeniVidiScripto will also have separate and more complete stories on Councilman Bieber’s comprehensive and thorough comments to the governing body as well as the reversed opinion of the attorney that conceding the public does have the right to ask questions at a meeting
