I’m fed up!: Regionalization & the Great Stall

 Ok, this time it’s gone too far. I’m fed up!. I really feel I’ve been nice long enough. I’ve tried doing things the nice way.

   Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked.

    Now I’ll get down to some cold hard facts and opinions based on the actions or inaction I was hoping would be resolved or made known to the public before I got to this point.

    But things have only gotten worse. 

    So this is the first in a series of articles intended to expose the moral corruption in our schools, in our towns, in our elected officials and the employees that work for us.  

   This series,  which unfortunately may never end because there is so much to expose, will go from the hallways of our schools to the hallways of our State house, and lots of hallways in between. 

   For those who don’t like what I have to say, save the threats.

Save the phone calls.

Save the nastiness on Facebook.

Simply look the other way, think that everything is hunky dory in your part of the world, and  don’t read my blog. The time will come when you think, “Hey, I wish I knew that because I could have done something about it.”  But by then, it might be too late. 

    It’s almost too late now.

Before disappointment, frustration, anger and a desire to get out of New Jersey overwhelm me, and before talking openly about my own personal problem and disability publicly, let me ask something of  you residents of Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, especially board of education members.

Why in God’s holy name are you allowing a taxpaying resident of Oceanport  be the person making the decisions on school regionalization in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands?

You are doing that. For certain. Because there is no doubt that the superintendent at Henry Hudson Regional School is apparently the person with all the power and authority to decide what each board of education is going to do.

She is the superintendent who supervises the elementary schools in both towns. That’s because the board of education of the three schools, Henry Hudson, Highlands Elementary and Atlantic Highlands Elementary, have a shared services agreement, as three separate and distinct boards because legally they are not a tri-district yet …  Although from the websites, the Email addresses, the letter head … that’s very hard to tell

And now I am wondering, because of delays and excuses, if regionalization of any kind will ever be. I wonder if the taxpayers will ever be able to realize the benefits of including Sea Bright in a regional district that would include that town and the three schools in the other two towns.  There is no school in Sea Bright so the two dozen or so kids from there are hauled off to West Long Branch and Oceanport for their education. Sea Bright wants to bring their kids closer to home, and wants to give the two towns all the money they’ll be saving by not going to Shore Regional or Oceanport.

Oceanport. Hmmmm. That’s the town that will lose a bunch of money if Sea Bright comes into a new Henry Hudson Regional Tri-District.

Oceanport.   Hmmmm. That’s the town where the superintendent of the three schools in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands  lives as a taxpaying resident.

So let me see. If she is a taxpayer in Oceanport, and Oceanport stands to lose money if Sea Bright comes to a new regional district, and that affects her family’s property taxes, why isn’t that a conflict?

Yet that same superintendent is calling the shots at Henry Hudson. As the paid employee of Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, she is making decisions, calling meetings, and doing all the talking for the three boards of education affected by the final decision. Does anybody see that as a conflict?

I say that because she makes an awful lot of decisions for the three boards of education and I don’t know whether it’s with their knowledge or not.

I do know for a fact she definitely makes decisions. And I do know that as a paid employee of the three school districts…she makes $180,000 plus a year… she makes major decisions without any one of the three boards advertising a special meeting for the purpose of granting her authority, ever having a meeting to openly authorize her right to make decisions and announce them,  or ever having a special or regular meeting to vote on decisions and keep the public informed.  I know that her shared services agreement doesn’t give her decision making authority.

What’s more, she also has some of the blatant rudeness and skill of at least the Atlantic Highlands Borough Council, and possibly, not sure yet, of the Highlands Borough Council,  in stalling matters until they suit her plans.

Stalling, the slowing or stopping of a process, obstructing, time-wasting, delaying, prevaricating, hedging and dithering.

A stall is also defined as the slowing or stopping of a process.

That’s what’s been happening with regionalization.  Slowing and stopping the process.

One comprehensive report wasn’t enough, the superintendent wanted the schools to have another one. When both came out with basically the same results. That is regionalization is a good idea here, including Sea Bright brings in money and eventually takes all the kids who live in that town out of the Oceanport school district.

So the Superintendent, the one who lives in Oceanport, called a meeting of the three boards of education  and she’s the one who did all the talking, all the explaining, all the details of a regionalization plan. She did a great job; she certainly knows what she’s talking about and has studied the issue. She was praised by everybody for being so open and making it easier to understand.

But no board members had anything to say. It was the paid employee from Oceanport who spoke on regionalization.  No board member has even mentioned this possible conflict in an open public meeting setting.

So there was more stalling, not all attributed to the superintendent, a lot of that credit goes to the governing body of Atlantic Highlands. The regionalization question didn’t make it in time to be on the ballot so the people could decide.

The superintendent appears to work better with the Atlantic Highlands Board of Education rather than the Highlands Board. When residents at a Highlands board meeting were told recently that they couldn’t ask any questions about regionalization at a meeting, the superintendent did not say a word.  It was the board attorney who directed that, it was said. But there was no e-mail or letter from the attorney, no explanation to the taxpayers why they could not question why regionalization was being stalled. Again. It was stalled.

For all of her knowledge on the regionalization subject … the superintendent is silent.

All stalls.

Many engineered by the primary spokesman for the school, the employed superintendent. The resident of Oceanport, the borough that stands to lose the tens of  thousands of Sea Bright dollars if Sea Bright is included in the brand new regionalization, the first in the state. Precedent setting. But stalled.

After all of this stalling … after all of these shenanigans … why bring this matters to the forefront now? It’s because these same tactics have been used against me in a very personal matter this week that I am finally writing about it.

My experience, which I will outline in the next several columns, has proven to me beyond a doubt that people like the Henry Hudson superintendent can  delay and delay, can make decisions without official board authority, and can continue to prevent a person with a disability from doing her job, enjoying her vocation, being an informed citizen, and, probably the thing that bugs many people the most, having her say about things that are important to her and to every disabled person in the state, country, or world.

Yes, the Superintendent of the regional school is a clever and intelligent woman. My own problem will take more time, money, and court action before it finally gets resolved.

But in the meantime, taxpayers and school board members, pay attention to what’s going on around you. Ask why you are not told what’s going on, why you can’t ask questions. Then try to find out why the superintendent has so much power without having been given the authority by the people you elected to make these decisions. Ask why an Oceanport taxpayer is not in conflict when she’s the one making decisions on actions in the Bayshore that definitely affect her own taxes in her own hometown.

You elect local residents, people who live in your town, to run the business of your town. You do it at the County level as well, and at the state level, too. Your obligation doesn’t end there. When they’re not doing their job, ask questions, get answers, and when you don’t get the answers, go higher up. Sure it hurts. But it’s your town, your county, your state. Keep it the way you love it. And hold those officials accountable!