The transitional Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education unanimously introduced a tentative budget for the Pre-K through 12 regional school district at its 6 p.m. meeting Monday night. The Board and Superintendent also made it clear the budget as presented is subject to change when the state Department of Education completes its work, makes its determinations and will enable the district to present an accurate budget by May.
Under current law, the regional board had to submit a budget to Monmouth County this month. Adopted at the meeting was a total calling for $19,424’429 to be raised by taxes for the 2024-2025 school budget of $26,470,070. Public hearing on the budget is planned for May 6 at 7 P.M.. at Henry Hudson School.
Currently, the new regional district has a total of 749 students in the Pre-K through 12 district. The percentage shared by the two boroughs would be 53.6 percent by Atlantic Highlands and 46 percent for Highlands.
Board members also indicated they received an additional $56,000 in state aid and are anticipating more at some point, but do not know in what amount.
Judging from Monday’s meeting, it does not appear the state has everything in place for the regionalization that was approved by both boroughs last year, partially, it is presumed, since there has been an acting Commissioner of Education and this is the first regionalization under the new laws. Superintendent Dr. Tara Beams indicated she has been in communication with various departments but has not been able to get conclusive answers to all the questions dealing with the new regional district.
The board confirmed it has received close to $800,000 for the two preschools, one in each borough, for the net school year. In addition to Atlantic Highlands receiving $300,000 for this year’s pre-school program. Highlands already had its funding in place for preschool for 2023.
In response to questions from Atlantic Highlands resident Mark Fisher, the board indicated it has no news on anything to do with regionalization with Sea Bright, including the status of any legal action by Oceanport or Shore Regional against Sea Bright, the status of the question of including Sea B right in the district being on the November ballot, or the updated feasibility studies which have been done to have the questions on the ballot. Nor has the board had any communication with Sea Bright officials concerning regionalization.
In other business, the board approved the curriculum and instruction for the next school year, which includes summer camps for 2024 in theater, band, STEAM and Strength & Conditioning, for two weeks each for the high school level, , as well as 11 summer camps in various sports, arts, and activities for K-fifth grade levels, for varying times and dates for K through 5th grades during the summer.
The Girls at The Girls Café on Bay Avenue in Highlands will be closed Easter Sunday, March 31, giving them time to enjoy colorful and fun filled eggs rather than the scrambled, fried, and all other kinds of eggs they cook up and serve so perfectly at the restaurant five days a week.
Stop in Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday of this week, anytime from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m., get your fill of delicious breakfast or lunch, and let them know you’ll be back after the holiday Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon to get back into that regular routine again!
Taxpayers and parents in Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Sea Bright should all start paying attention, attending meetings and asking a lot of questions about school regionalization, whether Sea Bright will ever be included and whether there will be a vote on the matter in the November election.
Highlands council President Joann Olszewski and Atlantic Highlands resident Mark Fisher brought the matter up before the new transitional Henry Hudson Regional Board at its meeting Monday evening. They were the only citizens to ask questions of the regional board which was introducing a budget totaling $26.47 million for the next school year.
That’s for educating a total of 749 boys and girls from pre-K through 12th grade, or roughly, $35,327 per child. Yet only two people, a council president and a taxpaying parent, asked questions.
And last November, voters rejected adding Sea Bright into the district in spite of their assurance of more than one million dollars to offset costs to the boroughs.
At Monday’s meeting of the new regional board, the budget that was introduced is clearly temporary, introduced only to meet law requirements for the district. But it is also apparent the state Department of Education doesn’t quite know how to handle everything that’s involved with establishing a new district. Ironically it would not have been any more difficult for the state to figure out what it needs to do and what the district needs to do if the voters had approved Sea Bright and it and its million dollars was included in this new district, a district that simply includes the same schools in the same two towns that have been coordinating and sharing a lot of their programs for years.
Currently, of the 306 students in the 7 through 12 grades at Henry Hudson, 170 are from Atlantic Highlands and 124 from Highlands. There are 12 additional students who are in the district and paying tuition costs for the privilege. The totals represent nearly 58 per cent of the students are from Atlantic Highlands, and 42 percent from Highlands at the 7 to 12 level.
In addition, Highlands has 159 students at the PreK-6 level, or 36 percent of the total number of students from both towns who will eventually be at Henry Hudson. Atlantic Highlands has 284 students in PreK through 6, or 64 percent of the 443 Pre-K through 6th grade students in the two elementary schools.
Even with these figures, and the new board indicating it has had no communication with Sea Bright, nor knows anything about the status of the civil action brought by Shore regional and Oceanport because Sea Bright wants to join Henry Hudson, nor even of the status of the feasibility study update required to get the Sea Bright question on the ballot.
So where are the parents? Where are the taxpayers? Where are elected officials from Atlantic Highlands at the new board of education meetings?
It is necessary to ask questions in order to get answers. And it should be necessary to get all the answers, so people are aware of the high cost of education and the benefits of sharing costs with more than two towns, especially if a third town is not bringing in more students to offset any money that town brings in for paying the total bill.
It’s time for taxpayers to become better informed and better responsive to what’s going on in their towns.
The whole town turned out to surround the Ptak family with love, prayers and tears 56 years ago when word reached the Highlands family that their son, Tommy, had been killed in Vietnam.
Today, the Rev. Jarlath Quinn, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help-St. Agnes Church where the family worshiped, is offering a mass in his memory at the residential building on Shore Drive named after the borough’s only fatality during the Vietnam War.
Tommy’s funeral was held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church when his body was returned home with military honors, and the church was filled to overflowing, spilling out onto Route 36 as everyone wanted to honor the soldier. There wasn’t a person in town who didn’t know a Ptak, parents or children, either from OLPH school, which the kids all attended, from town where they had a soda at Katz, or at the movie theater before it closed, or from summers, when the bolder older ones jumped off the Highlands Sea Bright bridge in the borough tradition. Ben and Gerry were the smiling faces always ready to give a hand, active in the PTA, even starting bee hives in the yard of their Highland Avenue home after Ben helped one of the kids with a science project at school.
And even before the funeral, it was Tommy’s brother who climbed on the roof of the Ptak home and painted the chimney red, white and blue to honor the borough’s hero.
This is a story from The Courier about his funeral days later, and the impact Gerry and Ben Ptak and their entire family had on the town where they loved and lived.
Please, if you share anything on social media, share this story, the story of a small town kid, and unsung hero, a young man who was a bright shining star.
They buried Tommy Ptak Monday morning, the local newspaper in Highlands reported April 4, 1968.
It was Specialist Fourth class Thomas Ptak, 270 Highland Avenue, son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Ptak, to the very militarily correct Army sergeant who escorted the soldier’s body from the place where he died in Hue, Vietnam, back home to Highlands for the funeral, then on to Mt. Olivet Cemetery where he will rest forever.
It was Spec 4 Thomas Ptak to the six ramrod straight and Army-perfect soldiers who served as pallbearers at the military funeral at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church where Tommy and his family had worshiped all his life.
To all Americans, to all citizens of a free country, it was Spec 4 Thomas Ptak whose body lay in the plain casket under the American flag.
But to the hundreds of people who crowded into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church for a last goodbye and a funeral mass, to the dozens more who spilled out onto the steps of the Church that gave a spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean, it was just plain Tommy.
It was Tommy to young brothers and sisters, some of whom weren’t old enough to comprehend the ugly way in which he died.
It was Tommy to sorrowing parents who couldn’t begin to comprehend what wonderful parents they had been and how much love they received from all ten of their children.
It was Tommy, the son who would have been proud of their strength at his funeral.
It was Tommy to the dozens and dozens of high school students from the regional high school he attended, and the two local Catholic high schools where some of his friends attended. They all could remember happier days when Tommy was skillfully performing on a gym horse or tossing a ball with them in the middle of the street.
It was Tommy to the school principals who remembered Tommy as a “good boy, a typical boy, the kind you’d want in any class.”
It was Tommy to practically every neighbor along Highland Avenue and Valley St. where Tommy grew up, folks who remembered a friendly wave or a smile from a busy youth working on a motorcycle in the yard as they passed the always happy, always busy Ptak home. Neighbors who had broken all the rules of protocol and flew their American flags at half-staff even before Highlands Mayor John A. Bahrs ordered it for the entire town. The neighbors had all gone out to front yards to lower their flags the minute they heard of Tommy’s death.
It was Tommy to the three priests who concelebrated the funeral mass: the one who grew up in the parish and knew the whole Ptak family, the one who spent five years in the parish and knew and visited often with the family, and the one who just arrived in Highlands the year previous, not lucky enough to get closely acquainted with the young hero.
It was Tommy to the police chief and members of the police department who could remember he was ‘a nice kid, we ought to have more like him.”
It was Tommy to the altar boys who formed their own guard of honor as his body left the church. Boys who were classmates of Tommy’s younger brothers or sisters.
It was Tommy to the grammar schoolgirls who sorrowfully sang a very special funeral mass. It was a mass for the Tommy some of them had looked up to when they were very small, and he was a big eighth grader. It was Tommy, the big brother of their classmates, the big brother who looked so grown up and handsome in his army uniform.
It was Tommy to a neighbor who had served more than twenty years himself in the service of his country. Now retired as a Sergeant Major, Sal Giovenco attended the funeral in full dress uniform, perhaps to show the family of the young hero that he was proud of this particular soldier, proud to have known him, and proud to show that he too believes in the cause for which Tommy died. Sal knew, and showed, Tommy deserved the honor and respect of the American soldier’s uniform.
The official records refer to Tommy as Thomas John Ptak. Born Feb. 1, 1948, died March 22, 1968. The Army records indicate he was an E4, Specialist Fourth Class, ID # 11755688, a member of C Company, Second Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Infantry Regiment…Geronimo, as it was known. He had been promoted twice. He started his Vietnam tour on March 14, 1967, and he was in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, March 22, 1968, 98 days later, when he was killed in a hostile ground attack of multiple fragmentation wounds. Died outright, the records say. Body recovered. He did have many honors, though: the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal, Combat Infantry Badge and several Vietnam Campaign Medals presented by the South Vietnamese government in appreciation for our American forces.
They buried Tommy Ptak Monday morning; the newspaper continued. The nation lost a soldier, parents lost a son, and Highlands lost a very special youth.
Due to the pending coastal storm and at the recommendation of the Highlands Office of Emergency Management, the Highlands St. Patrick’s Day Parade is officially cancelled and is rescheduled for September 21st, halfway to St. Patrick’s Day 2025
The Highlands Business Partnership’s plans to paint the town green for the 20th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will now be celebrated Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 2:00 PM. The colorful festivities will highlight Irish culture with nearly 120 marching units including bagpipers, marching bands, Irish dancers, and beautifully decorated floats. The parade will begin at Waterwitch Avenue and extend along Bay Avenue. The 2023 Grand Marshal is Timothy Hill, Highlands, NJ, for borough recreation director and borough administrator.
The Blind Men’s Association at Camp Happiness has been around since 1910, more than a century of being the spot where people with little or no sight could count on having fun, being with others who understand their disability, and simple getting to do lots of things they thought they might never do again.
Today, now that it is the New Jersey Blind Citizens Association newly revitalized and led by a strong and experienced woman who serves as the Director, it still has the charm and cheerfulness of the original Camp Happiness. But is in a far better position with far more capabilities and assistance, to be of great service to people whose disability is often overlooked with many people not even aware of how it impacts daily life.
The mission of the New Jersey Blind Citizens Association is to “enhance the quality of life for the blind and visually impaired through education, socialization and fostering an environment of hope and purpose.”
One visit to their current meeting place, across Burlington Avenue from the original Camp Happiness house in Leonardo, is enough to prove the New Jersey Blind Citizens Association is accomplishing its mission on an everyday basis which is delighting the men and women of all ages who look forward to the socialization each one says is “special, necessary, and something to look forward to.”
So meet Sarah Thoma, the dynamite, enthusiastic and hardworking Director who sets a high standard both in her programming for the group, as well as in ensuring everyone spends the day chatting, creating., laughing, sharing a meal, learning, and simply having fun. And while the guests are all busy doing all of the above, with a formidable group of volunteers who say they get more from the experience than they give, Sarah is busy working on researching grants, coordinating volunteers, running fund raisers and anything else that will make every day’s experience just a little better for each of the people she obviously loves.
Sara has been with the Association for less than three years, working hard and long on a “rebirth” of the agency had had been closed for two years but looked like it had been neglected many years before. Her first job, she felt, was to transform the house and property to ensure safety and comfort for the members. Looking back, she laughs, “Little did I know that was the tip of the iceberg.”
After getting that handled, including creating lovely grounds filled with comfortable chairs and tables for outdoor days overlooking the bay, she set about writing manuals for both the Board overseeing the Association as well as volunteers, setting protocols and policies to create an infrastructure. It also included exchanging board members who had lost the vision of the original founders and replacing them with eager new volunteers ready to uplift Camp Happiness and the Association spiritually, financially, and enthusiastically.
That part of the job is behind her now. And Sarah wanted to set up regular activities members could count on and look forward to.
Because they also depend on the support and assistance of other nonprofit organizations, it’s on Wednesday mornings now two of the trio of daily employees, Sarah and Kat Gramas, Operations Manager, with the help of Martha Sapaio, a part time bookkeeper, visit Lunchbreak to pick up their generous supplies of lunch for the members, as well as fresh fruit to take home and enjoy later. There are other days when generous friends call to see if they can donate lunches or gifts for the members as well.
A routine has also been established. The members arrive, usually by one of two busses supplied by the Association, coming into the building around 10:30, enjoy a morning snack and greeting, then take on hearty conversation a lot of laughs, and camaraderie, before starting the activities planned for the rest of the day.
Sometimes it’s someone coming in to give a talk or a demonstration, other times it’s an artist coming to show works of art and lead residents in unusual artistic projects. As a result, the meeting room includes an entire wall of paintings and crafts, some of which have won honors at the Monmouth County Fair and some are simply creative, just as art designed with paints while the novice artist is moving his brush or fingers in touch with music he’s listening to.
It’s late afternoon when the members say last minute goodbyes and share final stories with their friends then head to the bus for their trip home.
The 26 campers in Camp Happiness range in age from 21 to 96, each with varying degrees of visual impairment, but all with huge smiles, hearty laughs and sheer happiness at their Wednesday and Thursday meetings.
But they go home thinking about the next events they have in store…be it a trip to a concert, or the beach, a museum or a speaker at a meeting, an exercise to learn or a new challenge they want to take on. The Association takes the members to restaurants, and parks, and partners with other groups, including the Colts Neck Lions Club and the Monmouth County Park System for an even broader spectrum of activities.
It was called Camp Happiness in the first place because the men who started it looked at their special camp as a place where they were all happy. Those who are part of the New Jersey Blind Citizens Association today cherish the title and epitomize it with great smiles, deep laughter and happy faces. But they’ve added their own name to show the many things they’re now able to do. These Blind Citizens are better known among themselves as “Blinds on the Go.”
Volunteers and donations are always welcome for this non-profit organization. To find out more about it, contact the Director Sarah Thoma at 732-291-0878. See firsthand how helping someone with your own talent makes you feel better about yourself.
Looking forward to retirement from the US Navy after 32 years of service and scores of commendations and medals for excellence, Command Master Chief Eric Hubert still looks back on his first stepping stone that led to his Navy life.
The Keansburg native still says it is the teamwork, and the importance of setting goals and communication he learned at MAST that has enabled him to live a successful and happy life.
Now living in Lemoore, California, CMDCM Hubert enlisted in the Navy in September, 1992, after graduating from MAST. He went through basic training in Orlando, Florida, before reporting to Millington, Tennessee, where he attended and graduated from the Aviation Electronics Technician “A” School. His first duty assignment was at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, where he started with VF-101, a fighter squadron more familiarly known as the Grim Reapers, a unit that has evolved with several challenges and technologies during its years of service.
Hubert was with VFA-195 at Atsugi, Japan where he was a team member on the Integrated Weapons Team, and then transferred to VFA-147 at NAS Lemoore. He served as Quality Assurance supervisor and Maintenance Control Senior Chief, then served with VFA 147 as Maintenance Master Chief Petty Officer. Over the years, he also served with Naval Strike & Air Warfare Cenger in Fallon, Nevada and Strike Fight Weapons School Pacific in Lemoore, as well as serving as the Command Senior Enlisted Advisor at the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit Lemoore.
Hubert was selected for the Command Master Chief Program in 2016 and transferred to another squadron, VFA-113, the Stingers, again at Lemoore. Three years later he transferred to El Centro, California as the Installation Command Master Chief. Since 2021, he has been with the Flying Eagles of Strike Fighter Squadron 122 as Command Master Chief in Lemoore.
During his Navy years, Hubert also earned an associate’s degree from Coastline Community College and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, with minors in teaching and business management. He graduated from the Senior Enlisted Academy and the Command Master Chief/Chief of the Boat Course in Newport, RI.
The Keansburg native holds two Meritorious Service Medals, five Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, seven Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals, and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Medal, in addition to also receiving numerous unit and campaign awards. He also earned the Enlisted Aviation Warfare, Enlisted Surface Warfare, and Master Training Specialist qualifications during his three decades with the Navy.
Hubert and his wife Christine have been married 24 years and have one daughter, Hannah, who is a senior at CSU in Monterey, Calif.
Although retiring from active-duty Navy, Hubert plans on working another five years in the employee relations field.
It all started with a solid foundation laid at MAST.
Classmates from his high school alma mater who want to share their own stories with their former classmate can contact CMDCM Eric G. Hubert at Strike Fighter Squadron One Two Two, 210 Reeves Blvd., Hgr. 1, NAS Lemoore, Cal. 93246.
At Fort Hancock, anosprey nest that has been the subject of plenty of talk and interest, lots of money, and changes in expensive drawings and plans is gone. One day it was there, the next … BOOM! it had mysteriously disappeared.
The day after that, a huge boom, bright blue against the drab brown buildings on the historic former army base, appeared on the side of the building. The purpose of such an expensive piece of construction equipment is to enable workers to get to the top, presumably to see what’s going on.
Certainly things that have drawn the attention of so many who are eagerly awaiting the day MAST cadets can do their drills and practice their skills indoors any time, but especially in inclement weather, rather than out on Pershing Field or on the roads as they have been doing for years.
MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, is one of the five highly acclaimed specialty high schools in the Monmouth County Vocational School District. Each year, its students consistently receive numerous college scholarships to the highest ranked colleges and universities in the nation. Each year, one or more students earn acceptances to any or all of the nation’s military academies. Each year, every graduate leaves that school armed with an education deemed one of the absolute best in the state. Each year, every students gets an education on what it means to be an American, and how much pride each can take in the history of the nation. And Monmouth County taxpayers and the United States Navy pay for all that education, experience and professionalism.
So why is there so much secrecy surrounding so many things about restoring another building to make an outstanding program even better?
Why are there so many who do not feel the public has the right to know what’s going on?
The business administrator for the school district is an intelligent, hardworking, personable and very adept woman certainly capable of all the many duties of her position. She does her job well.
However, when asked why a huge boom is being financed to stand up against a wall where once an osprey nest rested, or what it’s costing to have it there, or how the nest got taken down, her response is “I am unable to answer some of your questions.”
And then it was presented to the Monmouth County Business Administrator, another very bright woman so adept at her job. That answer has also not yet arrived.
When will personnel who work for Monmouth County, or any other governmental agency recognize that they are in reality, working for the taxpayer?
When will governmental leaders at all levels realize, accept and practice that the public indeed does have the right to know what is going on with their resources, their taxes, and their ideas?
The employees, including brilliant business administrators, take their orders from the leaders the people elect. It doesn’t appear that the elected officials care whether their employees respond to those who pay their salaries, the taxpayers.
The matter at MAST is just one incident. While boards of education are notorious for making it difficult to know what’s going on, municipal and county leaders also are so often reluctant to keep the public informed.
All this is going to get worse. This week, the state legislature is zooming through a bill which will make it more difficult and more expensive for the public to practice their right to know. The new OPRA bill, most likely gaining broad approval by our elected leaders, gives them and their employees more ways to hide things they do not want, or think, the public has the right to know.
We in Monmouth County, in New Jersey, in the United States, and in every municipality with government being paid by the people, need to be more aware, ask more questions and take more action to protect what our forefathers fought so long and hard for.
The Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club certainly celebrated St. Patrick’s Day like the Irish and in style with plenty of great music, a catered corned beef dinner and the old-fashioned but ever present charm and efficiency of Christine and crew at the bar and table. In addition to a great bagpiper who set the mood for the crowd, a special treat was the music of Rob Heren, the handsome young man who appeared in his American Kilts garb and sang a couple of great Irish tunes.
Rob is up from his Texas home and spending some time with his uncle, past Commodore Ed Newins, who certainly seemed a bit proud….as he should be….of Rob’s talent and friendship!
A recent story from the past in VeniVidiScripto brought numerous questions from readers as to what happened when Richard Stryker was elected Mayor and vowed to get rid of the smutty movies offered at the First Avenue theater.
With so many questions about how successful the former Mayor was in shutting down X-rated movies when he became Mayor in 1972, VeniVidiScripto contacted the former Mayor for an update on the story.
“It took two weeks of discussions and persuasion,” the former Mayor, now a resident of Middletown said, declining to identify what kinds of persuasion they used.
“But Lenny was very cooperative, and very happy to halt the dirty movies,” Stryker said.
Edwards, who owned a theater in Keyport, had purchased the Atlantic Theater from Maurice Parks before Stryker was sworn in as Mayor in 1972. The theater owner was showing what many referred to as dirty or obscene movies in both theaters, and Stryker objected to his borough being known as a town where people went to see dirty movies.
When he was sworn in at the reorganization meeting Jan. 1, 1972, the new mayor set as one of his eight goals a cessation to adult movies. He accomplished that goal in two weeks, he recalls now.
Stryker said shortly after the reorganization, he called Edwards in for a meeting, explaining to the theater owner their dislike for the films that were drawing people into the borough. Council assured the businessman of support and approval if he would eliminate those movies and instead focus on films that were more proper for both adults and children. The governing body also suggested an accent on family movies of all kinds, encouraging families to recreate together.
“Lenny agreed and we worked it all out,” Stryker recalls, “within a couple of weeks he had changed his choices from those that we all thought were unsavory to more entertaining and family-oriented films, from Hitchcock to Disney. It just took a matter of convincing him, which was not difficult to do, that Atlantic Highlands was a family town and encouraged others to visit and enjoy everything we had to offer, but not smut, filth, or anything that would continue the reputation the town had gotten from those X-rated movies.
