Sharing same passion for the Beach Haven School, public asks board members to ‘turn it around,’ cease ‘bickering’

Photo via Asbury Park Press
The school is more than 100 years old.

Discussion regarding the discontent surrounding the Beach Haven Board of Education took precedence during the group’s regular meeting, held Tuesday, Feb. 24. Richard Jeffries, a local resident who said he comes from a long line of relatives who attended the school, including his daughters and his father, expressed his concern with the way the board’s meetings have recently been conducted. Recounting memories of his time at the school, he said he has emotional ties to the education there.

“I think this is one of the most glorious schools anyone could have ever gone to, and I still think it is,” he stated. “… The bickering of the school board, the disagreements, I don’t like to hear that. … I’m hearing negative things here, which I haven’t heard in years, and I think we have to turn it around. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it doesn’t look good in the newspaper; it really doesn’t. This school needs to be protected.”

Jeffries compared the institution to the Beach Haven Library, describing it as “its own, individual entity,” a sentiment that caused many of the board members to nod their heads in agreement.

Board President Irene Hughes thanked Jeffries for “supporting our school.”

During public comment, student parent Shari Boehler also thanked him for speaking up.

“From somebody who sits in the audience, I think that’s why we’re all here – because we all care about this school,” she said.

Boehler’s husband, Joe, echoed the same sentiment and thanked the board for “having the best intentions” and for “doing a great job.”

After giving out his personal phone number, Jeffries urged the board to call him first if they have “anything negative to say.”

“I’m serious; I’m not kidding,” he said. “I don’t want to lose this school, and that’s what’s going to happen. Everybody’s reading all this negative stuff in the newspaper, and they’re going, ‘Well, everybody’s arguing, why don’t they just close it down?”

“We don’t want to close the school,” Kathy Kelly said, facing her fellow board members.

Also during public comment, Joe Boehler expressed his concern regarding an accumulation of snow and black ice in the back parking lot of the school, where the students board and exit the bus. Mentioning an incident in which a kindergarten student recently fell during dismissal, he said he wanted to know who was responsible for the snow removal and asked when it would be cleaned up.

Later in the meeting, the board approved the 2015 regular meeting schedule. The dates are Tuesdays, March 24, April 28, May 26, June 23, July 28, Aug. 25, Sept. 22, Oct. 27, Nov. 24 and Dec. 15.

A preliminary budget meeting was also approved for Tuesday, March 10, at 6 p.m. The public budget hearing will be held during April’s regular meeting.

All meetings will take place in the school gymnasium.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.