TONIGHT, IS CRITICAL!!!!

Community- Thank you all for supporting this petition for our children in Berkeley Heights. 

The Board of Education meeting is tonight at 7:30PM. 

Please plan to attend on Zoom or in person.

It is TIME for your Voice to be heard. The Board needs to hear from YOU!

402- We are excited to share this petition was submitted with 402 signatures on Tuesday to the Board.  This number represents likeminded community members. You are not alone in your concerns, frustration, and desire to do what's right for your children.

Here are a few meeting details for tonight:

The Board intends to share their plan(s) as it relates to Full Day Kindergarten. - Don’t be fooled there have been a significant amount of mixed message from the Board.

1-     Please note they are conflating Full Day Kindergarten with Redistricting.

2-     Their INTENT is Redistricting.

3-     Parents have asked questions and found out that to offer Full Day Kindergarten, they only need 4 classrooms. (Confirmed by BOE President on a call with parents.) – So why the Redistricting…??? They claim inequity (Numbers are not balanced in schools- but they also claim enrollment year on year is down…Yet again mixed message.)

4-     Full Day Kindergarten has NEVER been approved by the board- (Please read the Tap Article recently posted title: The Fact of the Matter by a resident.)  - In Summary the Board stated in October of 2020 FDK would be postponed until Sept 2022..so why now without prior approval or pubic knowledge?

5-     They sent 4 plan options in an email from Superintendent Varley Option 4 is the plan they intend on moving ahead with which translates into Redistricting…don’t be fooled by the other plans, they are using these to dampen the message of what is really going to happen.

Parents- this Petition was started due to the lack of communication and transparency; they are going to try to make up for that this evening.

Ask direct questions, provide suggestions to what options you would like for them to consider, we cannot just sit quiet and listen to only their suggestions.  They have not been forthcoming, and with only a short time left in the school year, this plan has been slowly executed already by the district.  Teachers have already been informed and given a survey.

The teachers survey had 2 questions:

1-     Do you prefer your current school or current grade?

2-     Which 3 grades would you like to teach?

This clearly shows a plan in motion to Re-District.

What do we hope for:

We want them to PAUSE, engage the community over a substantial time with dialogue and debate and not Redistrict our children following the year where children and adults alike just want normal.  Let us focus on getting kids back to a full day of school before changing their school.

PLEASE PLEASE- Be ready to Speak! It MATTERS, we know it’s hard for some, do it for your kids!

We know this can be awkward, difficult for some, but please now is the time use your voice.

Not sure what to say here is a tip:

“I am against the timing of this decision and moving our kids to new schools following the year we have had PLEASE PAUSE THIS EFFORT!” If you want mention the 402 signatures in support of pausing.

The more individuals that speak up and voice concerns the better we can let them know the community at large is concerned and united.

If there was ever a time you felt compelled to do the right thig, for your children now is that time! 

Again, this effort is truly grassroots, and we are having great success and numbers continue to increase daily, your support matters.

The petition will continue after tonight’s meeting and we anticipate a significant increase in support following what people hear this evening.

Thank you BH for your support of our children we are all doing this together!

We need to get more SIGNS into yards- please send your address and a team member will stop by.

Please send your address to:

EMAIL: parentsofberkeleyheights@gmail.com

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING TONIGHT- 7:30pm!!