Friday, January 11, 2013
Planned refinancing of debt from 2005 bond issuance expected to save between $2 to $3-million, along with previous savings.
The Bernards Township school district's bond counsel gave a brief report on Monday that outlined how township schools expects to save about $2.7 million — or $185,000 per year — by refinancing bonds still outstanding from the last major school reconstruction project in 2005. That savings would be on top of about another $797,000 that the school district had saved by refinancing another $8.4 million during 2012, said Rod McLaughlin, business administrator for the school distict. The bonds being refinanced cover the school district's share of a $51 million schools construction project in 2005, according to figures from school officials. This latest round, with $24,385,000 worth of bonds, would cover the remainder of the school district's …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Parent approaches Bernards Board of Education as school officials prepare to re-examine future school calendars.
For more than a year, parents and some students who are Indian-American have attended Board of Education meetings with the persistent request that school officials make Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, into a day off from school so that their children might fully partake of the holiday. Monday's meeting, the annual reorganization of the school board, was no exception. One parent, Rippi Karda, told the board about how her daughters' enjoyment of a family-oriented day was hampered by their worry about showing up at school the next day without having completed the work that their classmates have done. Karda said she explained that the school does not require students to do homework on the day of a religious holiday. Diwali this year …
Monday, January 7, 2013
Bernards Board of Education reorganizes following first November election.
For the first time, the Bernards Township Board of Education held its annual reorganization meeting in January, swearing in three members who had won re-election in November for additional terms and re-appointing Susan McGowan as board president. Robin McKeon, Audrey Cohen Sherwyn, and Beverly Darvin Cwerner, who ran as incumbents last November against challenger Louis D'Autorio, were sworn in for new three-year terms for each on the board. The board also voted unanimously to re-elect McGowan as board president. Sherwyn was then voted in as the board vice-president. McGowan had started last year board vice-president but stepped into the role of president when Susan Carlsson, who previously had been board president. Carlsson resigned in the…
40.68256
-74.563269
William Annin Middle School
70 Quincy Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/bernards-school-board-swears-in-3-members-re-elects-president
62485
/locations/8550758
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Move of school election to November means Board of Education meeting now is held in early January.
The Bernards Township Board of Education will meet this week to swear in three members who were re-elected and to vote for a board president and vice-president for the year — steps that formerly were taken after the April school elections. However, school elections this year have been moved to the November general election — and the board's annual reorganization moved to January, the same as the municipality's. The school board's reorganization is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday at the William Annin Middle School, 70 Quincy Road, in Basking Ridge. On Tuesday, the Bernards Township Planning Board — which faces a busy year ahead with the continuation of long-running applications about a proposed mosque in Liberty Corner and deliberations on …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Bernards Parents for Exceptional Children present check to be used for van to transport special services students.
The Bernards Parents for Exceptional Children (PEC) presented a donation of $20,000 to the Bernards Board of Education on Monday night with one request — that the funds be used for used for something really needed by the school district's special services program. The funds, based on the answer received from the district, will be used to purchase a van to transport special education students to vocational training and community-based instruction, according to the PEC. Officers from the parent group officially presented a check for $20,000 to the board at this week's board meeting. The money was raised by the PEC's annual Precious Pearl Gala, held this past June at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster. When thanked by school officials …
40.68256
-74.563269
William Annin Middle School
70 Quincy Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/exceptional-children-parents-donate-20k-to-bernards-schools
62485
/locations/8416265
New lockdown procedure was already in the works, further security review being conducted.
After both Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian and Bernards Township Police Chief Brian Bobowicz agreed that police and school officials work together closely on school security, the chief said at Monday's school board meeting that effort includes an updated lockdown procedure at township schools. In fact, Bobowicz said that "plan B," the additional lockdown response, had just been finished on Tuesday last week, prior to Friday's shooting of 20 elementary school children and six adults on a rampage in a school in Newtown, Conn. The first day that students returned to township schools since then, both Bobowicz and school officials said police were a visible presence at arrival and dismissal times at township schools. Along with thanking …
40.68256
-74.563269
William Annin Middle School
70 Quincy Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/bernards-township-police-working-on-new-school-security-plans
62485
/locations/8430233
Friday, November 9, 2012
Oak Street Elementary School and Cedar Hill Elementary School remained without power midday Friday.
Bernards School Superintendent Nick Markarian said township schools will reopen on Monday even if split sessions are necessary, but he would like to avoid that scenario. As of Friday mid-day, the Oak Street and Cedar Hill elementary schools remained without power, Markarian reported at another emergency management meeting held at the police station late Friday morning. Township officials said they will ask JCP&L to give priority to getting those schools online, along with the remaining 2,500 or so other customers who were still without power at that time. Power had been restored at Ridge High School on Friday night. The William Annin Middle School and the Liberty Corner Elementary School were the first two schools to have power restored, …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Challenger Louis D'Autorio doesn't manage to unseat incumbents.
The membership of the Bernards Township Board of Education will remain the same come January, according to unofficial results in Tuesday's vote, the first November election for the school board. Incumbent School Board members Robin McKeon, Beverly Darvin Cwerner and Audrey Cohen Sherwyn were opposed by Louis D'Autorio, but D'Autorio was defeated by the three sitting board members, who now have been given the green light by a majority of voters to continue on the board for another three years. Cwerner had previously been voted off the board in 2011 in a crowded election field of nine candidates competing for three seats. However, she was chosen by the board to fill the final months of Board President Susan Carlsson's term after Carlsson's …
Monday, October 1, 2012
Four candidates seek three positions on the Board of Education in Bernards Township.
Four candidates are seeking three three-year seats on the Board of Education. They are incumbents Robin McKeon, Audrey Cohen Sherwyn and Beverly Cwerner, and challenger Louis D'Autorio. Voters no longer vote on the school budget as a result of the school election being moved to November, and as long as the increase stays under 2 percent.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Disagreement continues as school board looks to widened South Finley Avenue for turn through health department.
With the question of how to approach a long-term solution to Ridge High School's traffic flow problem still unresolved, township and school officials are scheduled to meet again next Tuesday to consider the options. "We will be going over all options," Township Deputy Mayor Carolyn Gaziano told residents at Tuesday's Township Committee meeting. However, after the meeting she, along with Township Committeeman John Carpenter, who also expects to attend the next session of the school board's facilities committee on Oct. 2, both said they would continue to oppose the school board's request to pave over a gravel driveway leading from the municipal complex into the back parking lots of the high school. "The municipal complex is a non-starter, …
40.695126
-74.549054
Ridge High School
268 S Finley Ave, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/school-and-township-officials-to-again-discuss-ridge-traffic
61036
/locations/7915458
Linda
9:22 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
This is a very slippery slope... after Diwali is added, then Chinese New Year, then Halloween.... you are right it will be Squirrel Appreciation Day! They have the numbers and apparently that is most important. This is a PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM people! You want YOUR religious days off? Go to a Religious School! Let's get back to Separation of Church & State... what America is founded in.. you have … more ›