While the towns of Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, are still hashing it out over whether a K-12 regional district with or without Sea Bright is the best thing for education and economics, let’s get a definite and positive answer to the question:
Is there such a thing as the Henry Hudson Regional Tri District right now?
According to the attorneys, there is not … Or maybe there is …
Even that highly respected Kean University report that had to be completed in spite of another report already having been done, shows an awful lot of confusion over the question.
And when it comes to court matters, respondents make it clear. There is no Henry Hudson Regional School Tri District.
It is far more accurate to say that the Henry Hudson Regional School district, comprised of a nine member Board of Education with members from both towns, and the Highlands School district, with all seven of its board members coming from Highlands, and the Atlantic Highlands school district with its nine members coming from Atlantic Highlands, have many shared agreements as three independent school districts.
But shared agreements do not a tri-district make.
One of those shared agreements is the superintendent of the three school districts. The taxes from each of those three districts pay her $180,000 a year salary plus expenses.
Another of those shared agreements is just with two of the districts, excluding Highlands. Atlantic Highlands and Henry Hudson boards of education have a shared agreement and retain the same business administrator.
Highlands has someone else.
Presumably, the shared administrator’s salary is shared by Henry Hudson and Atlantic Highlands, but not Highlands.
In at least one court matter, Highlands and Atlantic Highlands school districts are sharing one attorney. Henry Hudson Regional school district has retained another.
So the question remains: if currently there is a Henry Hudson Regional School Tri District, why do the schools not all have the same set of standards and policies?
And if there is no such thing as a Henry Hudson Regional Tri-District, why do some stationery and some e-mails refer to a Tri-District?
Why do other e-mails and stationery cite only one of the three school districts?
According to the Kean University report, the Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP) drawn up by Governor Phil Murphy and the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) was created to “advance the efforts of Shared Services in all local governments.”
Henry Hudson Regional School, not the Tri-District or the Highlands or Atlantic Highlands schools, was awarded a $65,000 Implementation Grant to provide for reimbursement of costs associated with school consolidation as well as countywide school district studies that support the creation of meaningful and implementable regionalization plans.
The regionalization plans of Henry Hudson Regional include the consolidation of three school districts, according to the report: Atlantic Highlands Elementary (“Atlantic”), Highland Elementary (“Highlands”), and the limited purpose Henry Hudson Regional (“Hudson”), collectively referred to as “Tri-District”.
But they are not a tri-district and should not be referred to as such if the money was spent to study the consolidation of the three separate school districts into a tri-district.
So, if we are truly a Tri-District now as the report refers to the three schools, why are the three schools mentioned as separate and distinct? And if we are not a tri-district, why do some personnel connected with the schools have a variety of e-mail addresses?
Why is stationery referred to as Henry Hudson Regional Tri-District?
For instance, google Highlands Board of Education. It comes up http:// HES.tridistrict.org. But there is no tri-district, according to attorneys. There are shared service agreements. So does Highlands, for instance, pay for yet another separate e-mail address for their principal, board president and PTO president? Their e-mail addresses end with HESk6.US. That’s correct. It is kindergarten through 6th grade.
Then google Atlantic Highlands Board of Education. You get www.ahes.k12.nj.us/cms. That is incorrect. They are not Kindergarten through 12th grade. Nor are they a regional board. They’re only the Board of Education for the k-6 school in Atlantic Highlands.
Is that a shared services agreement and with whom?
Only Atlantic Highlands of the three school districts includes k12.nj.us. when you google the school.
Google Henry Hudson Regional School. You get HHRS.tridistrict.org. Well, that’s incorrect, too. it’s the 7-12 school the students from both elementary schools attend after completing the school in either Highlands or Atlantic Highlands.
Attorneys said there is no Tri district. So, if we are listening to attorneys, there should be no tridistrict.org in their address.
But now look at the Henry Hudson Board of Education president and principal’s e-mails. They both end with Henry Hudson Region.k.12 NJ.US. That’s not correct either. This Henry Hudson Board of Education is not in charge or better than the two other towns with their K-6 students any more than the Atlantic Highlands Board of Education is in spite of their k12,nj.us identification. The Henry Hudson Board should simply be, HHRS7-12.us. org.
The superintendent’s e-mail addresses have consistency in their inconsistencies. She is tbeams@henryhudsonreg. k12.nj.us, the superintendent overseeing the two K-6 schools and one 7-12 school through a shared agreement with the boards of education of the three schools. Yet, in some correspondence, she uses a different e-mail, aligning herself with just the Highlands school district.
Just for fun, Google the Henry Hudson Tri District Foundation, and that should be an easy one. That site is www.HHTDEF.org which probably stands for Henry Hudson Tri District Education Foundation. The President of that Foundation also has a similar e-mail identifying him as president of a Foundation that apparently works for all three schools. But if there is no Henry Hudson Tri-District, how can it have an Education Foundation?
Do you really think people are going to go through all the different possibilities and really know what is regionalized, what isn’t, and who’s running the show?
Excellent
Comments are closed.