In what is a tradition at the beginning of every sailing season, the Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club sponsored a somber yet joyful and celebratory Blessing of the Fleet at the municipal Yacht Harbor Saturday afternoon, blessing the 22 boats that were in the parade of boats.
The Coast Guard stationed at Sandy Hook had its boat in the Blessing of the Fleet, in addition to Yacht Club members, guests, and all others who wished to participate.
The Rev. Nicole Hamilton, pastor of the United Methodist Church, and Yacht Club chaplains Peter and Carol Andrews, both members of the Yacht Club, blessed the crew and passengers on each of the passing ships, wishing fair winds and following seas who all who sailed on them now and in the future.
Each of the vessels, many decorated with flags for the parade, received a gun salute as crew members stood at attention facing the reviewing stand and acknowledging the ship’s blessing. Yacht Club Fleet Captain John DeFilippo shot the cannon for each of the vessels, and the NWS Earle Sea Cadets formed a guard of honor and stood at attention for the parade.
A wreath was laid at sea followed by “8 bells” and a cannon salute in memory of those who have died, including Helen Marchetti, former Atlantic Highlands Mayor and club members, Bob Casper, Madeline Muise, and Joel Braverman.
Eight bells is the traditional respect given to signify the passing of a mariner’s life. It signifies the changing of a watch, the poignant moment that one chapter is ending while a new on begins, similar to one ship’s crew standing watch while the other rests, the eight bells for the end of one watch and the beginning of another.
A gala ceremonies in the Yacht Club above the Shore Casino following the Fleet Blessing. T
The Aloha Spirit was presented the award for the best dressed boat and the Adagio, a vessel visiting from Keyport Yacht Club, earned the award for the Best Dressed Crew.
Prayers were also said at the club and sympathy offered for the passing of Yacht Club member Madeline Muise, whose funeral was also held Saturday. Yacht Club members were represented at her funeral as well as at the Fleet Blessing.
Post Rear Commodore John Flatley was host for the afternoon’s ceremonies and celebration.
The NWS Earle Sea Cadets who participated, led by Commanding Officer Laura Yih and Robin Goodrich, were Tyler Yih, Stephen Bianchi, Adam Fernandez, Brandon Dezuzio, Chase Koopman, Anthony Furment and Christian Bianchi.
When you stop to think of it, it really is the little things that make you happiest, and even happier when you come across folks that go way above and beyond what they are expected to do simply to make life easier for others.
There’s a state employee named Sharon Ryan from South Jersey who is a supervisor with the state Department of Human Services. When a very well trained and knowledgeable state employee under her, Sue, needed some assistance in a recent matter, Sharon not only came on line and aided the employee in a courteous and professional manner, but also made life a lot easier and more efficient for an elderly taxpayer.
She didn’t have to do it. Above and Beyond Above and Beyond
She could have simply said. Too bad, you don’t qualify. But she pursued it, made a three-way call, followed through, and helped the taxpayer save a bundle of money. A state employee who is worth far more than she’s paid with a dedication uncommonly high. Take the time to thank a helpful state employee.
Then there’s Saltwater Liquors in Bayshore Shopping Plaza in Atlantic Highlands. They have to be the most friendly, innovative, creative and helpful folks in the business. They were given a challenge to come up with a special gift for a special person for a special anniversary and given a price range to fill it. Not only were they inventive and came up with a really fun idea, but they put it together creatively and even threw in some extra help and ideas to make it perfect.
Going above and beyond. It makes others feel very special.
There appears to be a very strong possibility, because the three boards of education refused to let the public know the terms of the resolution they unanimously approved at a joint meeting, that Superintendent Tara Beams and the three Boards of Education entered into backroom agreements with the school regionalization adversaries, Oceanport and Shore Regional school districts. Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal Deal
Superintendent Tara Beams
Without knowing anything about the resolution board members of all three boards of education signed without even themselves seeing it in writing or making it known to the public, it could well be an agreement which all but blocks Sea Bright from ever entering the newly formed Henry Hudson PK-12 district.
Why else would these board members refuse to answer questions?
Why else would they not tell the public what ‘deal’ they were making in the back room that the taxpayers couldn’t know anything about?
Why else would the board members put their names and approvals on an official resolution without having the resolution made public?
Why else would they give their presidents the authority to sign a paper the taxpayers can’t even see until the deed is done?.
To add salt to the wound, the Superintendent, the Henry Hudson Regional boards and their attorney refused to take any questions on this critical issue Tuesday evening from concerned residents.
That alone should certainly cause alarm bells to ring loudly.
This action is in clear contrast to promises the boards and the superintendent made regarding seeking Sea Bright’s inclusion. Remember “Approve the two town regionalization as Step One. Step Two will follow to have another vote to include Sea Bright? ”
All that, even though every feasibility study…and there were many…recommended Sea Bright in the first place?
Instead, if their actions in that back room agreement last week block the ability to bring Sea Bright into the new district , it says goodbye to over $2 million of potential tax benefit to Atlantic Highlands and Highlands.
Those closely watching the series of events over the last few years have said it is clear all of this is due to heavy handed manipulation by Superintendent Beams. She has had the most to gain by regionalizing just Atlantic Highlands and Highlands and blocking Sea Bright: it both lightens her workload and helps keep her and her neighbors ‘property taxes lower in Oceanport where she lives.
This is the greatest disgrace of all and the present three boards of education in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands have sat by silently and given their approval by their silence as this has all unfolded. They never even questioned a possible conflict of interest. They sat back and didn’t say a word to the public.
Superintendent Beams and the boards have violated the trust of the residents, parents, and students of Atlantic Highlands and Highlands. They have set a course which will see declines in academic performance, continued departure of quality teachers and staff, declining enrollment, escalating property taxes for residents. It could also see the newly former Pre-K-12 district of the three Highlands and Atlantic Highlands schools most likely become the stepchild of the Middletown School system.
If residents of Atlantic Highlands and Highlands do not stand up and take action removing Superintendent Beams and the present board members, they will be looking back five years from now asking how did this all happen.
While scores of residents, customers and other businesses are looking forward to reveling and praising Bayshore Pharmacy as it celebrates 60 years at Bayshore Shopping Plaza in Atlantic Highlands Saturday, June 8, its founder Richard C. Stryker, is going through notes, letters, photographs, and memorabilia of the more than six decades since he first decided he wanted to be a pharmacist.
For Dick, it all started back in the 1940s when he was a kid in the Atlantic Highlands High School. There were three pharmacies in town at the time, all on First avenue. There was Whalen’s, Antinodies, and Shannon Rexall Pharmacy which was located at 98 First Avenue.
The Rexall pharmacy was the popular one. They had a soda fountain, a cigar display case AND a liquor license. You could get hot lunches at the soda fountain and Jane Logan ice cream.
Anna Hoffmann was the owner of the pharmacy, a friend of the Strykers and unique as one of the very few female pharmacists at the time. So Dick wanted a job summers and weekends during the school year and applied to Anna for a job. She hired him, at first to help out with the window displays; then he had to keep the humidor moist for the cigars, and he also had to work at the fountain, all of which interested him.
But Dick found out he was also most fascinated by the pharmaceutical compounds, and the prescriptions that were blended and mixed for the five local physicians in the area. Very few medicines were already made during the earlier part of the 20th century, and it was up to the pharmacist and his own mortar and pestle to mix the ingredients to the proper prescription. It enticed Dick. And that’s what led him to making his decision the last year of high school to attend St. John’s University in New York and go to their pharmacy college.
The next four years meant daily commutes to Brooklyn from Atlantic Highlands, starting with the train, then the ferry, and finally the subway to college.
But it resulted in a degree in pharmacy followed by a year interning in the field at Lloyd Pharmacy in East Keansburg.
Once he had his license, Dick was inducted into the army and spent the next two years at Fifth Army Medical Headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri.
By 1957, and married for five years, Dick had the opportunity purchase Modern Pharmacy on Carr Avenue in Keansburg. He spent a lot of time working with doctors, other pharmacies and hiring his own help for his store. Because of his own experience, he always sought out local youth and as it happened, many of them worked through their high school and college years and some still stop in to see him today, all with their own stories of how Dick Stryker impacted their lives and careers.
Three years after the East Keansburg pharmacy purchase, Dick had the opportunity to also buy the Sea Bright Pharmacy at 1090 Ocean Avenue, where Mr. Goldberg had his business. Shortly after, when the First Avenue pharmacies were closing in his own town, Dick achieved his ambition to open his own pharmacy in his own hometown.
It was also a time when the shopping center had just been built and the Food town was the focal point. There was a 20 by 80-foot store adjacent that Dick was able to lease. And Bayshore Pharmacy opened its doors.
With Dick and Pat, his wife whom he met on the train when both traveled to New York, married and raising four children, Dick opted to step down from the workload of the three pharmacies and devote his time to Bayshore. That was a wise move for family and business and made even better some years later when Pat’s brother, Joe McDonald, formed a partnership with Dick in a business that continued until Dick’s retirement.
Dick & Joe
Even in retirement, Dick kept Bayshore local. He sold his interest in the partnership to Scott Eagelton who had been a long-time employee.
When Joe retired a few years later, he sold his share to his nephew, Dick’s son, Richard P. Stryker. Rich, like his dad, had gone to pharmaceutical college, earned his degree and was in the family business. With Scott retiring several years ago, it’s Rich the son who owns the business started by his dad.
The store itself has expanded twice in its 60 years, the first time when Foodtown needed more room and spread further, then five years later, when Foodtown again expanded, and the pharmacy moved to the other side of the building to its present location.
But the senior Stryker’s memoires go back to the early days where there were no prepared medications, no antibiotics, just Sulfa drugs. Where each doctor had his own formula Dick compounded for the patients, where there were no insurance papers to worry about, where a pharmacist could make the prescription at hand, give it to his the patient and collect the $4 to $5 charge for the prescription, who practically always paid in cash and with a smile and thanks.
The pharmacy changed to keep up with the times, and while that included having to explain to customers what their insurance would and would not cover, it also meant purchasing a computer. In the 1970s, when Bayshore acquired its first one, Dick recalls “it was the size of a telephone booth!” and had to be backed up nightly with 52 discs before he could close.
There were so many satisfying times over the decades, Dick muses, but best was when he was able to tell a customer…they always came to him before going to a doctor…. they should see a doctor since he could sense and recognize a serious illness. Many times, residents came back and thanked him for the referral, saying it saved their lives.
Six decades of memories include seeing how so many of his employees over the years when out to their own successes in their own lives, in fields as diverse as nursing and law enforcement, education, tutors, NCAA referees, CPAs, and even pharmacists.
There have been the four marriages that came about after the couples met and worked together, including one of the funniest memories Dick has.
That was when a young lady who was eloping with her boyfriend and planned to be married. Dick was also the Mayor of Atlantic Highlands and was going to marry them. But he couldn’t close the store. So, the couple simply went up and got married at the pharmacy. Dick laughs when explaining it was truly a candle lit ceremony, too. It was the same when the lumber yard burned down.
There was also an armed robbery attempt, at gunpoint. The thief got away, only to have an accident getting on to the highway. He was captured, charged, tried and sentenced. No harm done at the pharmacy.
Looking back, Dick now says it was in those years he felt, and still feels, “the time of the local pharmacy is almost over. Residents will no longer have someone who they can confide in and get treatment and advice. The insurance industry who owns pharmacies is making it most difficult to survive.” But he adds grimly, “I hope not. As I look back, many memories and good times are all due to my career in pharmacy.”
Couple that with celebrating a 72nd wedding anniversary with Pat this year, raising four children and the dedication of all of them. Dick sits back, smiles and admits, “ without all of that, all those good times at the pharmacy “never could have happened.”
Mae Skrba, MAST Science Educator left and Samantha Moorzitz, MAST Technology Educator right
It was Teacher Appreciation Day throughout New Jersey earlier this month, and two teachers at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, well beloved teachers on their own, decided to do something so the MAST cadets could show their appreciation to all the faculty members in the 9 through 12 high school located on Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook. Apple
The teachers, Mae Skrba, the Science educator, and Samantha Moorzitz the technology educator, sent out a message and form to every student in the school, inviting them to respond. They explained they wanted to give students the opportunity to let the teachers know how much they appreciate each one of them. More than 100 students responded and followed directions for filling out the Google form. The message included the names of all 27 staff members names so students could pick and choose which teachers they wanted to describe with their own words.
Mae Skrba, MAST Science Educator left and Samantha Moorzitz, MAST Technology Educator right
The survey asked the students to write three words to describe each teacher they selected, explaining that the words would be used in a word cloud that would be presented to the teacher described.
The two educators were specific in their directions: all words had to be in lower case with no punctuation marks. And only three adjectives could be used for each description.
Skrba and Moorzitz than took each of the completed forms describing each specific teacher, creating the personalized word cloud s. They placed the adjectives in an APPLE, and in doing so, the adjective used the most to describe a teacher was printed in the largest print, with all of the adjectives used in varying sizes of letters, depending on how often it was used in descriptions from the students.
All of the images took about an hour in total to create due to jumping between the students form responses, copying the text, and then formatting the generated images. But both teachers said that hour was well worth being able to share with the staff how appreciated they are.
“Word Clouds are not our original idea and we have created them before. Word clouds are a wonderful digital tool to communicate a message through data visualization,” Skrba and Moorzitz said.
The completed Apple word clouds were met with cheers, appreciation and a deep sense of appreciation from each of the 27 teachers on staff, all of whom praised and thanked not only the students, but also the duo who created the idea and designed them.
Skrba and Moorzitz designed the apple cloud for each other, based on the adjectives the students used for each of them.
Moorzitz,is a graduate of the College of New Jersey with a Bachelor of Science degree from their School of Engineering in Technology and Engineering Education. In 2022 she completed her master’s also from TCNJ, in Integrative STEM Education and received her Supervisor Certification. She also completed international student teaching at Ambrit International School in Rome, Italy.
MAST is her first tenure track school, where she has been on staff since 2019 and is Technology Instructor and teaches freshmen CADD (Computer Aided Design and Drafting) and Systems Engineering II (the engineering senior capstone course).
A native of Middletown where she grew up, Moorzitz now lives in Freehold and is devoted to education and the students at MAST. The teacher’s belief is that “learning takes place everywhere and every day. Being at a school like MAST where we have an outdoor campus greatly supports my views as an educator and I am fortunate to be able to provide my students with unique learning opportunities where I can support their passions.”
Skrba earned her undergraduate degree in marine biology and conservation from UCNW, University College at Wilmington, NC, and her masters in Marine Conservation and Policy from Stony Brook University, as well as her teaching certificate from Rutgers.
She grew up on a farm in Hunterdon County but the family spent summers in Seaside Park. The conservationist has been teaching marine biology at MAST for five years, and also teaches two duel enrollment classes, Environmental Science and Sustainable Society.
She previously taught at the former Mater Dei Prep in New Monmouth where she instructed students in Marine Biology, Genetics, Bioethics, Anatomy and Physiology, AP Biology, and Biology. Currently she and Moorzitz run the freshmen class advisor position, and academic team at MAST. This very busy teacher also works summers “and in my spare time” as a marine ecologist and educator at NJ Fish and Wildlife. She and her husband Mackenzie and their two year old son, Thor, live in Millstone, along with their three rescue dogs.
It was Skrba who came up with the idea of designing the apples for each of the students, and she and Moorzitz each did the apple for the other. Skrba said the images took about an hour to complete, with most of the time spent jumping from the students responses to copying the text and formatting the generated images. “But the hour was well worth being able to share with all the staff how appreciated they are,” she said.
Skrba Apple
That the teachers enjoy working so well together comes as no surprise. Although they did not know each other until both started teaching at MAST, they have become close friends since then. In fact, they are extra busy with a very special celebration this fall.
Moorzitz is in the midst of preparing for her marriage in October to Christopher Kinzler, a financial planner with Creative Financial Group in Wall. The couple will be married at Saint Agnes Church in Atlantic Highlands and then celebrating at The Molly Pitcher Inn, where the bride’s parents were married 30 years ago! It’s this teacher’s ‘partner in crime” Mae Skrba, who will be the maid of honor at the wedding.
The 4th Annual Frank Thomas Memorial Fluke Tournament will be held at Baker’s Marina on the Bay, 1 Marina Bay Court Highlands, Saturday, June 15, from 6:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
Registration is $150 per boat for the event, sponsored by the Highlands Business Association Partnership, and each boat is limited to seven anglers.
The Kayak or Land Angler fee is $50, and $300 for Charter boats or boats with more than seven people. Fee includes a complimentary swag, Post Weigh in, BBQ Cook-Out, and one complimentary drink.
The Frank Thomas Memorial Fluke Tournament is in honor of Frank “Ozzie” Thomas, life-long resident, and generous supporter of the Highlands business community. Proceeds will benefit the Highlands Business Partnership 2025 Frank Thomas Memorial Scholarship in the Trades Program.
The Captain’s Meeting will take place Friday, June 14 at 6:00 PM at the Driftwood Liquor & Bar, 300 Bay Ave.
Prizes will be awarded, along with special youth prizes. Tickets can be purchased online at highlandsnj.com or at the Captain’s Meeting.
The Highlands Business Partnership is a non-profit commercial alliance dedicated to fostering economic growth in Highlands. Sponsors of the programs include Monmouth County Tourism, Montecalvo/Bayshore Family of Companies, Bahrs Landing, Farmacie, Feed & Seed, Dovetail Vintage Rentals, Hufnagel Tree Experts, In the Garden, Off the Hook, Proving Ground, Seafarer, Sandbox at Seastreak, Valley Bank and WRAT, 95.9.
Terming the Trump verdict outrageous and disgraceful, something that parallels what happens in countries like Nicaragua, Congressman Chris Smith said he feels confident the verdict will be overturned on an appeal.
The Congressman issued a brief statement shortly after a New York judge found Presidential candidate Donald Trump guilty of 34 counts in a trial that many feel was filled with flaws and illegalities.
Smith said “Today this wrongful conviction of President Trump, prosecuted by an absolutely biased Democrat district attorney and presided over by an equally politicized judge, tells all Americans and the world that justice in America can, and today has been, exploited in an attempt to destroy a political opponent…” The Congressman noted its similarities to Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega jailing all his presidential opponents on bogus charges and wondered whether President Biden or his Justice Department were complicit in any way in “this political witch hunt.”
Smith said while he feels confident Trump would win on an appeal, it would not occur before the November election, charging “that is precisely what the architects of this 11th hour abuse of power are hoping for.”
Celebrating Father’s Day a week early and changing the location from Our Lady of Perpetual Help School Hall in Highlands to St. Agnes Church hall in Atlantic Highlands, the Rev. Joseph Donnelly Council of the Knights of Columbus is promising a breakfast Sunday, June 9, that is guaranteed to bring out families and hungry individuals to enjoy the bountiful generosity of the Knights of Columbus.
Council Grand Knight Mike Napolitano confirmed that the Father’s Day Breakfast celebration will offer old favorites consisting of pancakes and sausage but will also offer “Dad” favorites including waffles and fried chicken, and sausage gravy. There will also be cheese and fresh fruit assortments, yogurt and granola and dried fruit for toppings, along with doughnuts, cornbread and coffee cake.
“We love our monthly breakfasts for how they bring families and friends together,” Napolitano said. “We’re happy to be able to offer these monthly breakfasts at no admission fee, but we always accept donations so we can continue to offer it.” The Grand Knight added that people are very generous and that enables the breakfasts to be the success they are.
The Buffet breakfast at St. Agnes also includes a choice of juice, coffee and tea, along with bottled water, and all the condiments that are the icing on the cake of great entrees.
The general public is always invited to attend and enjoy breakfast, Napolitano continued, with the buffet served from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
For further information, or for men to learn reasons why they would enjoy becoming members of the Knights of Columbus, call Napolitano at 862-368-0801.
The Knights meet the first Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the Knights room at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School.
Father’s Day Father’s Day Father’s Day Father’s Day Father’s Day Father’s Day
His great grandfather served in the 28th Infantry Division, US Army during World War II. His grandparents lived during the Korean War. His parents remember the Iraq War and certainly September 11, 2001, when the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda carried out those suicide attacks in New York, Washington, DC, and the crash in Shanksville, Pa. that prevented even more death and destruction from an enemy. Cadet Lieutenant Commander Cadet Lieutenant Commander
Tommy Clark can cite historic accounts of all those times. To him, they are all history indeed.
)Lt.Cdr. Thomas Clark, and the Rev. Jarlath Quinn, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help St Agnes Parish, who gave the invocation and benediction at the World War II Memorial park, Atlantic Highlands, on Memorial Day. Lt.Cdr. Clark gave a talk on how important it is for students to learn the history has has created the nation before they were born, up to and including 9/11
Clark, more properly recognized as Cadet Lieutenant Commander Thomas Clark, told a captive audience that story at the Memorial Service at Veterans Park across from Atlantic Highlands Borough Hall Monday.
The ceremony was presented by the American Legion, Post 141, and its commander, Peter Doyle, had asked Clark, the Battalion Commander for MAST NJROTC, to say a few words at a ceremony marked with reverence and appreciation for local military from all wars.
“Education is the most critical part of remembrance,” Clark told the crowd. Since he was not yet born on Sept 11, 2001, the cadet said a history class trip to the 9/11 memorial and museum in New York “was an eye opening experience.”
“I did not live through that day,” the cadet said, “however, the museum educated me in a way I will never forget.”
He reminded the crowd they were all gathered there “in solemn remembrance of the heroes who gave their lives so we may be free…..men and women who gave up friends, families and dreams to answer the call to serve.” That was then, he reminded a solemn and quiet crowd, but now, he continued, “with all we have going on in our country today, remembering and celebrating the lives and sacrifices of our nation’s past is more crucial than ever.”
Cadet Lieutenant Commander Thomas Clark
But it should not end there, he reminded his listeners telling them it should not stop at “placing flags on one’s lawn.” Adults have to also think, he continued, “kids younger than myself are constantly being inundated with information about the world. It becomes difficult to know what to believe in.”
For himself, it isn’t difficult, because “I say that the younger generation should believe in that flag and all that it stands for, and all who have given their lives to ensure it stays, flying proudly across the nation.”
The audience nodded assent, and applauded.
But this MAST honor student, class treasurer and former legislative intern for Senator Vin Gopal did not stop there. He gave his spellbound audience his own beliefs. “The best way to pass along information is through stories, sharing history and preserving knowledge in doing so,” he explained, adding had his parents and grandparents not passed along the stories, he would not have even known the heroics of his own great grandfather.
“The most valuable gift you can give someone else is time,” he reminded the Memorial Day gathering, pleading, “if you have a story to share, please share it. Not only that, but just to be sure he addressed everyone, Clark added, “If you are privileged enough to hear a story, please listen.”
Memorial Day may be one day in the year, Clark continued, but “we must live it every day, From their sacrifice we must remember that freedom is not free. For people my age, it is more important than ever to recognize the heroism of the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Let us not be overcome with sadness in their remembrance, but rather honor their sacrifice by living each day the best we can.”
A resident of Little Silver, and the son of Joseph Clark and Megan Kelly, Cadet Lieutenant Commander Clark graduated from Markham Place Middle School before going to MAST. He was named Color Guard Commander in April of last year for the top NJROTC Color Guard unit in Area Four which spans states from Maine to Maryland, as well as Spain and Italy.
He serves as a fire cadet on the Little Silver Fire Department Station 23-1 and participates in mock drills to ensure readiness in responding to real-life emergencies as well as training and responding with police and firefighters to aid in running hoses, hydrant s and assisting where requested. As an intern under Senator Gopal, he worked on projects pertaining to pertinent bills in a team environment to accomplish specific common goals, and providing public outreach through aid with the Senator’s constituent services.
At MAST, Clark was Cadet of the Quarter in 2021-2022 and has a 4.0 GPA. He is also a member of the National Honor Society, the Drill Team, Orienteering Team, Academics, Team, Key Club, with more than 150 service hours, and Joint Leadership Academics Bowl. He also completed the NJROTC Area Four Leadership Academy on board Naval Station Newport, RI last July.
Describing himself as a highly motivated individual who hopes to become a US Naval officer, Cadet Clark’s goal is to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduate with a degree in engineering and pursue higher education towards a masters and doctorate degrees while serving his country and keeping its history and heroes known and respected.
At a special meeting not advertised on any of the three boards of education websites, but which one board attorney said was legally advertised in all the correct places, members of the three local boards of education unanimously approved a resolution approving an agreement with Shore Regional High School and Oceanport schools but failing to let the public know the terms of the agreement.
Henry Hudson Regional Board President Ms. Claire KozicAtlantic Highlands Elementary School Board President Karin MasinaHighlands Board of Education President Rebecca Kane-Wells
Following the routine agenda of meeting opening procedures and a public comment period in which, in response to questions a board administrator said the meeting was advertised in Saturday’s Asbury Park Press and Star Ledger, the board went into executive session, excusing the four residents present for the meeting from the room.
Henry Hudson Board attorney Jonathan Busch responded during the public portion that state law on legal advertising indicates that a board only has to notify a newspaper, but there is no obligation for publication of that notice . However, the administrator confirmed the meeting was advertised in the newspapers three days previous. It was not posted on any of the three board of education website pages nor on any of the school pages.
Board members present at the opening of the executive session, in addition to Highlands board member Rebecca Kane-Wells, who came in after the executive session began, remained in the executive session for an hour and 20 minutes, before opening the public portion and passing the resolution based on, the resolution reads, “in accordance with the options discussed in closed session with legal counsel….”
Board members would not discuss what the options were after Busch read the resolution publicly and the meeting was adjourned minutes later.
The resolution approved without the options discussed which the residents are not permitted to know until after the resolution is made part of the official minutes of the meeting and approved at the next board meetings, is attached Below.
The resolution, which was made available to a resident’s request by the administrator, gives the history of the legal battle being waged by Shore Regional and Oceanport , both of whom object to Sea Bright leaving their district and joining the Henry Hudson Regional District.
Currently, Sea Bright, which does not have a board of education, sends its fewer than 55 students to those two districts and requested to join Highlands and Atlantic Highlands as a tri-town regional board, indicating their inclusion would mean an additional $2 million to offset school taxes for taxpayers, without adding additional costs to the district.
Because of the litigation, voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands approved a regional school that eliminates the three boards of education currently running the three schools in the two towns, with the understanding Sea Bright could be included by another vote “as soon as possible.”
The three boards will have their final meetings in June, and are no longer in existence as of July 1, in accordance with the new regionalization plan. A transitional board selected by themselves from members of the three boards, is the official board of education until 2025. A new nine member Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education will be elected in November and assume office Jan. 1, 2025.
