In what appears to be one last effort of the only non-elected interim board of education of Henry Hudson Regional, the board at its final meeting before being replaced by an elected board of education, unanimously adopted a resolution voting against any authorization to file a joint petition with Sea Bright for inclusion in the district at least until after statements concerning the certification of the district’s superintendent are resolved.
Action came after a 40-minute executive session at the end of the last regular meeting of the school board named among themselves earlier this year after voters approved the regionalization of the Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Henry Hudson schools into a single district. Voters in all three boroughs, including Sea Bright, had consistently been told that the regionalization of the three schools which have always been under a single superintendent was “the first step” towards allowing a vote in all three boroughs to include Sea Bright in order to expand their district and enable the cost of education to be split three, rather than two ways.
More than half of every tax dollar in each of the three districts is paid for education. Sea Bright had indicated bringing Sea Bright into the Hudson district and leaving Shore Regional and Oceanport districts in order to do so, would also bring $2 million into the new district, offsetting educational taxes paid there.
During the several years of negotiations which included three Appellate Courts ruling Sea Bright and district voters do have the right to put the question on the ballot, Shore Regional and Oceanport then made notification they plan to appeal the Appellate Court unanimous decision to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Currently Sea Bright students attend those two districts and are seeking to see if the voters want to leave those two districts to attend the new, closer district.
In Wednesday night’s action,, before the majority of members were recognized for their final meeting as board members, the board went into executive session with board attorney Jonathon Busch and came back to unanimously file the resolution.
In approving the resolution Busch stressed the decision was based on the September 22 action of the Acting Commissioner of Education in which he said the elementary school districts, Sea Bright and Henry Hudson, MAY file a joint request for an enlarged district. That request, the resolution continued “SHOULD “address state statues including a revised feasibility study if necessary.
However, the board’s recent resolution continued, Dr. Tara Beams submitted a certification….in which she identified a number of issues “that have yet to be resolved before proceeding to address the question of filing “the petition with Sea Bright. Beams’ issues were not identified at Wednesday’s meeting.
Further, this week’s resolution called for rejecting any right to authorize a petition to allow Sea Bright voters to join the district because of points raised by Sea Bright’s attorney, Vito Gagliardi In his letter last December to the Monmouth County Executive Superintendent, Dr. Lester Richens, the board’s resolution Days Gagliardi cited “unwarranted ad hominem attacks levied against Dr. Beams,” because she lives and is a taxpayer in Oceanport . The board resolution also cites” unwarranted accusations of false and misleading statements” of Dr. Beams. Neither board members nor the resolution identified any false or misleading statements to which they were alleging.
However, in expressing its confidence in “her unbiassed and competent leadership,” the board also was not specific in what is in error in the “unwarranted accusations of false and misleading statements.”
The board’s resolution unanimously indicated there will be no authorization for any joint petition with Sea Bright until there is a satisfactory resolution of items questioned in the superintendent’s certification, and authorizes the Busch Law Group to file the resolution, along with any other documentation it has and feels is necessary with the County Superintendent and the state Department of Education.
The long, expensive legal battle continues while the public is deprived of its right to vote, an outgoing unelected interim board attempts to hamper and financially encumber the new district’s first elected board, and no one questions what the false and misleading statements about Dr. Beams or her residency in Oceanport are.
Read the Resolution Resolution Sea Bright
