Questions … I have a few
Let’s hope this new Henry Hudson Regional School District PreK-12 gets off to a good start and improves so many things within the educational areas of instruction for the children of Highlands and Atlantic Highlands. At the onset, however, it isn’t looking too good.
While it doesn’t appear anything has been released officially, on Facebook there was a copy of a letter, release, announcement, addressed to the Education Community of Henry Hudson. If you were waiting with baited breath, you could have been checking the Tri-District Website and seen the letter there. Without even reading it, the page brought up any number of questions and points of interest.
By law, it is apparently happening today. The stationery is probably correct now, though it’s been used for some time, as has the superintendent’s e-mail address. And who exactly is the Education Community?
More Questions …
Also, what exactly is the name of the new regional district? Is it the Henry Hudson Regional School district? Or is it the Highlands and Atlantic Highlands School District? Has it already been decided, and by whom, or is it going to be decided tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday night at the three board meetings?
Of course, if it’s a regional school district as of today, it won’t have a board of education, it will just be a new school district with nobody in charge..for a few days.
That’s because, again, learning from Facebook, the three school boards are each meeting this week to select who among them will serve on this very first board. They will go into executive session during their regularly scheduled meetings week to find out who is even interested in being on the transition board.
That’s according to law. It’s a good thing. There has to be a transition board to be sure there are folks at the helm who know something about what they’re doing. So each board selects three of its members to serve until the first elected board is selected in November of next year. Each board makes its own choice for its three reps, then they’ll all get together and vote on which nine will comprise the transition board for the new regional district.
See, under the law, the transition board and the three boards will all be around until June 30 of next year….unless they decide the transition board, the one made up of three members each from the current boards….can take control earlier. Then that board is at the helm until the November election of 2024. That’s the first time the new board of education will be decided by the people. Still, the transition board stays in place until January 2025, the first date when the people’s choice of board members will take control of the new regional district.
Are you still with me?
At the Atlantic Highlands Council meeting held the same night that Facebook had all this school information, the question was asked of the governing body about the status of when the people could vote on whether Sea Bright can be part of this new district. One would think the governing body would know that, given the fact they adopted a resolution many months ago urging Sea Bright be included, they sent it to the Commissioner, the Commissioner said Sea Bright should be included as quickly as possible, all the experts said it’s the best thing to do, both financially and academically, so one would think the elected officials would be kept aware or at least interested enough to ask questions.
But if they knew about this Oct. 16 date making the new district official, they sure didn’t let it be known at their meeting. The response to the question came from the administrator and he explained that the attorney this Council retained is conferring with all the other attorneys and he’ll have the attorney give a report at the next meeting in two weeks. There was no mention of the fact that the district itself is actually official three days from the council meeting.This week, the borou9gh administrator confirmed he governing body never received any letter from the boards of education advising it of the Oct. 16 official date for the new regional school district.
On top of that, another resident at the council meeting cited some statistics that showed how poorly high school students at Henry Hudson are being educated compared to students in other schools in the areas of math and language. If his figures are correct, and no one questioned him on that, and if female students are doing so poorly in particular as he said, one does wonder why the boards were so eager to extend the contract of the superintendent for another two years when this contract expires next year.
Education, not forming a new regional school district with or without Sea Bright, should be the sole or at least primary duty and obligation of the superintendent. Not using that stationery over the printed names of the three board presidents to send a notice to the “Education community.”
The questions remain…
With all the attorneys involved together with experts in this new field and the Commissioner…., should be answered….when can the people vote on whether Sea Bright can be included? Can it be in a special election after Oct. 16 when the district is official? Or does it have to wait until the Transition Board is seated next month?
Still more Questions …
Or until the three boards are gone and the Transition Board is running the district sometime before next June or possibly before? Or worse, does it have to wait until after the first board elected by the people is elected in November of next year? Could it be done at that same election? Or does it have to wait until that new board is seated and in charge in January, 2025?.
Let’s hope the “Education Community” is listening to the State Commissioner’s recommendation that Sea Bright be included and it should be done as quickly as possible.
