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This Week in Teaneck -

Public Input Rules CLARIFICATION


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

1/3/2024

Contents:

This Week in Teaneck: Public Input Rules CLARIFICATION

·        Teaneck Board of Education 1/3

·        Board of Adjustment 1/4


What Occurred Over the Holiday Break?

·        Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission 12/19

·        Environmental Commission 12/20

·        Board of Education Special Meeting 12/21


Announcements:


MLK Remembrance: Our Shared Humanity 1/15

This Week in Teaneck - January 2 to 8, 2024

Just two public meetings are listed for this first week of 2024. The public needs to be aware of what procedures will govern how the public will be permitted to provide public input to each meeting!


Clarification: Voices originally misinterpreted the Teaneck Schools website announcement of how public input would be managed at its 1/3 reorganization meeting. And the language that led to that misinterpretation has now been changed. Here is the key sentence in the website announcement (Click Here) that was revised this (Wednesday) morning:

"Public Comments can be made in person and virtually via the Zoom Link"

A Schools official has apologized to us for the confusion – and we, in turn, apologize to our readers.


Board of Education Reorganization Meeting – Wednesday January 3, 2024 at 8:00 pm will occur in-person at the Cheryl Miller-Porter Student Center at Teaneck High School and virtually via the Zoom link (Click Here) Again, as revised, here is the key statement about public comment: Public Comments can be made in person and virtually via the Zoom Link. Further, the School’s website stresses that procedures for how public commentary is managed are now set forth in the Board’s “public comment guidelines” which may be found on the Teaneck Schools website or at Click Here.

For the agenda of the Board’s reorganization meeting Click Here. It describes when the 3 newly-elected Board members (Gerald Kirshenbaum, David Gruber and James Wolff) will be sworn in and the new Board officers will be elected. 


Board of Adjustment – Thursday January 4. 2024 at 7:00 pm in person in Council Chambers at Town Hall. That meeting will be simulcast on zoom (Click Here) and add passcode 857551. HOWEVER, no public may comment or question from internet locations will be permitted; a member of the public must be present at the meeting itself to do so. The Agenda for the Board of Adjustment meeting may be found if you Click Here.


Note again: The Board of Adjustment’s Thursday evening meeting will be in-person in Council Chambers for the first time since the pandemic in the Spring of 2020. But only members of the public who actually attend in-person at Town hall will have an opportunity for public input (to ask questions, comment on agenda applications or make statements in Good & Welfare).


·       As of Tuesday, 1/2/2024, the minutes for eighteen (18) BofA meetings held during 2022 and 2023 are still missing from the Town website. And the Thursday agenda as published on the Town website does not include the vote to approve/disapprove the long- delayed change of use application for part of the 60 Bergen facility that at the BofA December meeting was rescheduled for this January 2024 meeting.


Upcoming: The Martin Luther King Day remembrance (“Our Shared Humanity”) is Monday evening January 15 at 6:30 at Temple Emeth. Would that again remembering King’s words and life could serve to help this troubled town! (See Flyer in Announcement Section).

What Occurred over the Holiday Break?

Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission – Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at 7:00 pm. As is its custom, the Commission met and moved through a well-defined agenda (Click Here) to review the status of the Commission’s historical marker efforts, any possible developments on the Armory and discuss the consistency of the County’s with the Commission’s own historic places lists. The 38 minutes of actual meeting begins at minute 17 of the video (Click Here). The Commission will continue to meet by zoom in 2024.


The Environmental Commission – Scheduled for Wednesday December 20, 2023 by zoom. Unfortunately, some mix-up in providing the public with adequate zoom access was judged by the Town Attorney to make this meeting not legitimate. And it was never called to order. The agenda was to have included discussion of the oft-rescheduled but finally held Cleanup Day on Sunday December 17. This newly-reconstituted Comission next meets on Wednesday, January 17.


Board of Education Special Meeting – Thursday December 21, 2023 at 8:00 pm. The meeting had been announced to be primarily held in closed session to address personnel matters. The public comment session that preceded the meeting’s closed session provided divided and sometimes starkly stated opinions. The closed session personnel issue itself addressed whether to appoint a new high school principal. That question was then publicly discussed by the Board – and when requested by the Superintendent - in the final 22 minutes of the video (Click Here from 1hr22min). In the final 3 minutes of the meeting, the Board publicly voted 5-3 (with only Chair Rodriguez not in attendance) to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to appoint a new high school principal. Whether the reason for the change in high school leadership was occasioned only by the District’s concern to improve math and English language competence on the decisive state test among at-risk graduating seniors is now a matter of Town discussion. Several Board members did indicate that when law and policy allow the public will be given additional information about the personnel change in the future. 


Voices believes that its readers would be best served by watching/listening either to the entire 1hr and 45min video of this Board Meeting or at least the final 22 minutes.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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