I doubt Board President John Rivera was doing much grinning today.
It seems he and Superintendent Helene Feldman might have had a rather uncomfortable meeting with the State of NJ today over in Newark.
Evidently they’ve been told to expect a little company as a state official joins the Board of Ed to oversee our, shall we say, “financial woes” here in the Belleville school district.
They will be joining us at tomorrow’s BOE Meeting at 6 PM, at the High School. Be there – this is your chance to finally have your voice heard!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the State of NJ for their decisive and timely intervention in our ongoing struggle with the Board of Education. Sorry about all the calls!
I’ll let Jeff Mattingly share the good news in a little more detail.
Today, our Board of Education President, Vice President and Superintendent were summoned to Newark to meet with NJ State Department of Education officials, including the County Superintendent and Administrator, to become acquainted with a state imposed monitor who will be present at Wednesday night’s meeting. The monitor will be looking into the state of our finances on site for a few weeks and will be overseeing the state of our finances. There will be a resolution to this effect.
This will be a “regularly scheduled open meeting” and it is important that we have exemplary attendance if at all possible, and speakers ready to make their cases to the board of mismanagement, and the need for transparency and cooperation.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:00. I know it is short notice and early for those of you who do not get home from work that early but, please, if at all possible, make this meeting!
Due to the state of our finances, it is my prayer that everything be on the table for cutting with contracts and administrative hires as a first priority. Let’s be ready to encourage the state to put our staff and classrooms back together again!
THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN BEGGING FOR, IT’S HERE!!!
Come and feel the love. May God bless Belleville!
Jeff Mattingly
PS – Please distribute this to as many people as possible!
Update:
The Star-Ledger finally decided to join the party. And still zero credit given to NutleyWatch or people like Jeff Mattingly for relentlessly pursuing the investigations and exposing them in the first place. No really, you’re welcome guys!
State assigns monitor to financially troubled Belleville school district
Updated Update:
Here is a copy of the letter from Commissioner David Hespe to Board President John Rivera and Superintendent Feldmen, introducing them to Thomas Egan, their new state monitor assigned to the school district.
I don’t think the BOE Trustees understand what just happened. This is just the start. You can’t run a school district into the ground for a number of years and expect it to be fixed in a month or two. Mr. Egan is here for at least a year. There will be jobs lost. Programs will be cut. You can ask, Camden, Newark, Jersey City…. ! http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/06/05/33nj.h32.html
Board Attorney Demeo doesn’t even show up for this first meeting with the State Monitor. He and Longo were no shows at the meeting because they took a trip to Atlantic City courtesy of the Belleville Taxpayer.
Our homes just went down 20% in value thanks to the Bad Boys of the Belleville Board of Ed, Longo, Freda, Zangari, and Rivera. Torres looked like a deer in the headlights the other night. I wonder if she really understands what she has done to a predominately Hispanic student body. We can only hope that Lombardi and Keubler are finally drawing a line in the sand. They need to protect our kids. Nobody seems to care.