So Much for the Two Step
Whether you are a parent of children in school, a parent of children going to school in the future, a resident of Highlands, Atlantic Highlands or Sea Bright, or a taxpayer with or without children in the Highlands or Atlantic Highlands schools, it would be to your benefit to attend the Wednesday night, June 12 meeting of the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education and learn what the three boards of education are trying to do to you and to Sea Bright, voters in all three boroughs, and ultimately, the taxpayers.
Highlands Council President Joann Olszewski made it clear she’s upset because “things just can’t be done this way, it is not fair to residents”
Olszewski filed a Verified Complaint against the three boards of education in the two towns, the council president, acting both as a borough official and in her capacity as a private citizen, charging the boards violated several laws in the actions they took at a special meeting May 28.
Wednesday, June 12, the regional board meets at 7 p.m. but without knowing what might be happening at the transitional board meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., both of which will be held at Henry Hudson school, it might be worth it to attend both.
Highlands Council President Olszewski, as always, will be at the meeting to hear and see the final actions of the board, which, like Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, will simply be a piece of history July 1, 2024.
The new Henry Hudson Regional School Board will be an expansion of the present board, with newly elected board members in November, five from Highlands and four from Atlantic Highlands, representing the new preK-12 district approved by the voters. The transitional Boards will be the operative board between July 1 and January 1, when the first all -elected nine-member board will take over.
The Highlands councilwoman said the boards violated not one, but several laws in taking action. Action which has still not been revealed to the public and which is designed to impinge on the power of the board of education which will be seated after a vote in November’s election.
In short, Verified Complaint which in part requests an injunction, which is filed in the law division of the Monmouth County Superior Court, charges that the May 28 resolution adopted after an executive session and absent the details of specifically what was included, was actually giving the boards’ approval for its presidents to sign an agreement with Oceanport and Shore Regional Board of Education that would essentially make it prohibitive for Sea Bright to ever be a part of the new Henry Hudson regional School district. The suit points out the boards unanimously passed a resolution to “approve the concept of Settlement …” and further “authorized counsel and the Presidents of the Boards, to negotiate a resolution with attorneys for the Oceanport and Shore regional.”
Olszewski’s action said that it has been learned that sometime this past winter or spring Oceanport and Shore Regional, the two entities that had filed suit against the boroughs for entertaining Sea Bright become a part of the new regional district, began negotiations with the boards which would result in the boards’ agreement to a dismissal of Oceanport’s and Shore Regional’s appeal of the decision the Commissioner of Education made to uphold Sea Bright’s right to be included with a vote of the people.
However, according to the Verified Complaint , the agreement the boards agreed to make with Shore Regional and Oceanport came with the condition and stipulation that Sea Bright first become an operating school district on its own before they could be considered. Such an action could not happen under current law inasmuch as Sea Bright does not have any schools in the borough. Effectively making it next to impossible for Sea Bright to join the newly formed regional school system.
That resolution, the court papers said, was passed in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act and wrongfully delegates authority to the Boards’ respective Presidents and counsel to approve and execute a settlement agreement that does not yet exist and which may not come into effect until after two of the boards, Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, fail to exist. Advertisements for the meeting did not meet OPRA regulations for identifying the specific reason for the executive session. The boards also voted on a resolution without making it public, simply referring to the actions taken during the executive session, which were not disclosed.
Th court action said this agreement approved in the resolution would “make it nearly impossible for Sea Bright ever to join the new Henry Hudson Regional School District.” The suit further argues that “even perhaps more importantly,” it prevents “voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands from voting on a “referendum to consider this important issue.”
Apparently Olszewski’s Verified Complaint was made known to the school boards when it was filed in Superior Court, because Monday night, the Highlands Board , one of the two boards which will no longer be in existence July 1, at its last meeting before being dissolved, met in executive session for 15 minutes, and returned to unanimously pass a resolution to amend the May 28 resolution, but still not revealing the terms of the May 28 resolution. Beams said at that meeting she had just received the resolution 15 minutes before the meeting, presumably from Jonathon Busch, the three boards’ attorney for regionalization.
Similar action took place at tonight’s last meeting of the Atlantic Highlands Board of Education and Beams confirmed that a similar executive session and action is expected to take place at Wednesday’s Henry Hudson meeting.
Olszewski, who is a regular attendee at school board meetings, frequently asks questions. Both as a former department, department chairman, and District Supervisor in the Teaneck School District, as well as elected council member she is well aware of Roberts Rules of Order and requirements of school boards in taking action. In addition to the OPRA violations, the suit charges board actions would limit the rights of their successor board by making an agreement that would restrain future boards from further action.
At Tuesday’s meeting in Atlantic Highlands, while the Board Administrator confirmed in response to an e-mailed question that there would be an executive session at the meeting, both the agenda available online in advance of the meeting and the agenda made available to anyone attending the meeting still indicated there would be no executive session.
The Atlantic Highlands Board did go into a half hour long executive session at the end of the meeting, came out and adopted the same resolution Highlands had adopted the night previous and ended their meeting. It is that same action that is anticipated at the Wednesday meeting at Henry Hudson.
Olszewski’s action was filed by Vito Gagliardi, an attorney in the law firm which has been representing both Highlands and Sea Bright in the regionalization issue.
While terms of that May 28 resolution have not yet been made public with Busch saying at the May meeting, they would be part of the approved minutes, the Highlands board took no action at Monday’s meeting to approve the minutes either the special or executive May 28 meetings. Atlantic Highlands board approved the minutes for both the regular and the executive session at their meeting Tuesday, and both should be available Wednesday morning.
VeniVidiScripto will print the minutes as approved should they be available.
School board members from all three boards, together with Beams, have frequently and consistently said publicly they “want Sea Bright to come into the District,” saying only they would want it to happen after the regionalization of the boroughs’ three schools was in place first. “The Second Step,” they said.
Without Olszewski’s injunction, their behind-the-scenes actions appear to make that a virtual impossibility.
However, it appears, the resolutions adopted by the boards this week, again with details discussed in executive session, are designed revise a new Settlement Agreement on behalf of Oceanport and Shore Regional School Districts and once again authorize the Board Presidents to sign on behalf of the Boards. The new resolution further authorizes the Busch Law Group to take all action necessary to enter into a Stipulation of Dismissal of the matter with Oceanport and Shore Regional, apparently on their terms.
“It is clear that the conditions of the purported settlement agreement are designed to exclude Sea Bright from the new all-purpose Henry Hudson Regional School District and to prevent the voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands from ever considering adding Sea Bright as a constituent of Henry Hudson Regional,” Olszewski’s court action states.
Olszewski said she conferred with Mayor Carolyn Broullon, other Council-members along with Borough council who all felt she should exercise her personal right both as a resident and a representative of the residents of Highlands. The Councilwomen has their full support to take the action.
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Red the Verified Complaint
