The enthusiasm is There! The team is fantastic! We’ve all worked hard, and we have it happening!
Those are the thoughts of Captain Lance Hubeny, after the Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council announced at its meeting this week that five squad members answered a 2 a.m. first aid call.
Hubeny was pleased to hear of the announcement and praised the squad for their enthusiasm. “Just think,” he said, “two years ago, we were lucky enough to get two people out for a call in the middle of the night. Now we have more than we need and they’re all eager to respond.”
Hubeny has been chief of the squad for the two years since the borough retained Meridian to answer calls during daylight hours. During those two years, in promoting the benefits of being a first aid volunteer, in urging more membership and in conducting outreach to encourage more members, the squad has grown, more volunteers are taking the necessary EMT classes and through their own fund raising recently purchased a used ambulance and is ordering a new one which takes two to three years to receive, the volunteers are now a far more effective, efficient, and enthusiastic group of volunteers able to serve the community.
“You know I’m always so proud of all these volunteers,” the captain said,” and the idea of more coming out for a middle of the night emergency call that we actually need is just one more reason why this borough has every right to feel so proud of all our volunteers.
At the final board meetings of the three boards of education that have been in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands for so many years, the Superintendent Tara Beams noted that in her three years here she has been part of the meetings for all three boards, a total of 26 members. Through those years, with board members changing, she has dealt with 44 different members, she said, noting how great each was, how wonderful it’s been and how bittersweet it is that now the Highlands and Atlantic Highlands boards will exist only in history and memory and Henry Hudson’s board is changed and expanded. sad
Each of the boards had little social hours just before their last meetings to ‘celebrate’ or say goodbye to each other and be thanked for all their volunteer time.
As well they should be. It isn’t easy being a Board of Education member. It isn’t easy giving up all that time, sitting in sometimes very dull meetings and making decisions in the expectation they are all for the good of the student, and all within the taxpayers’ ability.
What was missing among all these congratulations was any mention made of ALL the board members over ALL the years so many people have been serving these boards. Many of those former members are still living in the area and would have loved to be able to share their own bittersweet memories of boards that will no longer exist.
In Highlands alone, Joan Wicklund was a long time member of both the local school at one time and the Hudson board for a very long time, devoting her heart and soul to everything for the school and the kids. Pat Robertson brought experience and hard work to the board., always knew what she was doing, always had great input, and also has feelings about the change. But they weren’t invited to share. Neither were Karen Jarmusz, Pam Semmel, Dolores Monahan, and so many others. The list goes on of so many men and women who gave so much and would have liked to be recognized at the very end. But no invitations went out to them, even those living in town. How very sad.
Superintendent Beams has only been here a few years so understandably she doesn’t know or realize how close these people have been to the school and how much that board has meant to them. I’m sure it’s the same with Atlantic Highlands residents. I’d be certain the superintendent doesn’t even know how many generations of the same families have served, or how many spouses have served. Has she ever even heard of Sam Brown? Or wow, Florence Adair?
It was nice of the superintendent to thank all the bosses she has known and it was appreciated. But so many others before she came to Highlands, names and personalities, are part of the history of the boards of education which will soon be history. They should never be forgotten.
The Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council today formally presented an offer to the catholic diocese of Trenton to purchase the Mother Teresa School property with the assistance of Monmouth County recreational funds and indicated they are hopeful of acceptance of the offer and rapid movement in closure and sale.
The governing body took action during an executive session at the beginning of last night’s council meeting, noting the terms of the resolution, since they include the offer price, could not be made public until the matter is solved.
However, council members, who voted unanimously to approve the resolution made by Councilman Jon Crowley and seconded by Councilman James Murphy, were in agreement with borough attorney Peg Schaffer’s assessment that, if accepted, the closing would move swiftly and an ordinance to complete the matter could be introduced at the next meeting or in August. Principals involved in the negotiations requested the borough make ts offer formally in writing, she said, adding, “we don’t want to hold it up, this should turn around quickly.”
Historian and author Jack Grodeska will be the speaker this month in the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society’s Speaker Series accenting local history and little know facts about the Bayshore.
Grodeska will highlight little known local hero Captain Adam Hyler and his whaleboat the Revenge, on Wednesday, June 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Strauss Mansion Museum.
Grodeska will speak on Hyler’s contributions to the Revolutionary War effort and how he helped the patriots overcome the British and the loyalists. He will speak on how the Revenge, under cover of darkness, was successful in capturing several British ships in the Raritan Bay.
There is no charge for the event, although donations are always welcome. Guests are urged, however, to bring some item non-perishable food or baby item to become a part of the Historic Society’s support of the local food pantry.
The Osprey bird, the only living species that can be found nearly all over the world, is a soaring bird, one frequently seen in the Bayshore and nesting near the ocean.
But at the Highlands Public School, the OSPREY is the award giving to the students who are selected for SOARing for the month.
SOARing stands for the student selected in each of grades kindergarten through sixth grade who has particularly exhibited ideal examples of SAFETY, OVERCOMING difficult challenges and motivation and positivity in school activities, ACCEPTANCE and being inclusive of others, motivated to achieve goals and having a positive attitude and mindset and RESPECT, treating peers and teachers with kindness, being punctual and great in attendance and being cooperative and helpful.
The award is given monthly at a Highlands Board of Education meeting and Highlands Mayor Carolyn Broullon is part of the ceremony that recognizes each of the recipients. Mayor Broullon also honors the students at the Highlands Borough Council meeting when she announces the activity at the Public School and her appreciation of being part of the award ceremony.
School Principal Dr. William Jacoutot, board secretary Christopher J. Mullins, and School district Superintendent Tara Beams also participated in the ceremony along with the board of education members.
Dr. William Jacoutot
SOARing OSPREYS at the Highlands School this week were kindergarten students Anyela Betancourt and Jenna Kurdes, first graders Charlie Pugh and Arianna Cervantes, second graders Luke Baker and Chase Savin, third grade students Arianna Brown, fourth grade student Robert Nonnemacher, fifth grade students Bryce Coleman and Dominique Baros and sixth grade student Mia Longo.
Each was selected by his teacher for the award and received a certificate from both the school district and the borough in recognition of his selection.
The new contract replaces the superintendent’s current contract with the Henry Hudson Regional School and the two elementary schools in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands which would have terminated her contract in 2026.
Terms of the contract were not included in the resolution, though a copy of the contract is maintained in the district’s business office.
At the same meeting, the board also unanimously adopted the same resolution (5-28-2024 – HHRS Board Cert of Resolution) the school boards in the district adopted this week amending the revised Settlement Agreement and authorizing principals to sign agreements with Oceanport and Shore Regional under specific conditions. This is the same settlement agreement first proposed and unanimously approved by the Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Henry Hudson Regional boards May 28 and revised after Superior Court injunction request (Verified Complaint) was filed by Highlands Councilwoman Joann Olszweski.
It was a busy night at Henry Hudson Wednesday with a variety of activities and actions: There was no mention of the court date set for June 24 on complaints filed by the Highlands municipal leader against the three boards of education. (Jo-Anne Olszewski-Letter brief in support of order to show cause(7728181.1))
Actions did include:
The public hearing on Beam’s five year contract and another for the business secretary,
A regular meeting and an annual meeting
A sports award ceremony for school athletic teams,
A regular and final meeting of the current Henry Hudson board of education which ceases to exist in hits current form July 1.
All of which took 42 pages in three separate documents for the public to see the agendas for the evening.
The public hearings on the proposed superintendent and business administrator board secretary contracts were early on on the agenda for the first meeting with board attorney Jonathon Busch explaining the contracts are necessary since the personnel will be operating under the expanded district board of education and encompasses duties for the three schools in the new regional district.
No one explained however, why the transitional board, which did not meet in executive session to discuss the matter, extended Beams’ current contract signed last year by many of the same board members ,rather than continue it for the two year period already approved.
That action would also enable the new board of education, the first to be comprised of elected members to the Prek-12 district, to act on a contract when they assume office in January.
Acting both as a member of the Highlands governing body where she is council president, and as a private citizen of the borough Olszewski filed a Verified Complaint seeking an injunction “preliminarily and permanently” of the resolution unanimously approved by the boards of education in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands from taking any action.
The court action names the Highlands, Atlantic Highlands, and Henry Hudson Regional boards of education as the defendants in the case which focuses on actions taken in connection with regionalization matters concerning Sea Bright’s and the two boroughs in the school district desire to have the people decide whether they can become a part of the new Pre-k-12 Henry Hudson Regional School District.
In that resolution, the boards had authorized their board presidents to enter an agreement with their adversaries, Oceanport and Shore Regional Board of Education. Those boards would dismiss the two towns from their appeal of a court order that would allow Sea Bright to join the two regional schools, the action opposed by the two districts where Sea Bright currently sends its students.
Although the terms of the concept of the agreement have not been released, Olszewski’s formal complaint asks for relief in that the concept of the agreement is for an agreement that is not yet in existence, and yet the resolution authorizes the presidents to sign the still to be developed agreement.
The complaint also charges a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act and the common law rule that public bodies cannot usurp the rights or responsibilities of their successors, something the resolution would do inasmuch as the school boards will be dissolved and cease to exist July 1 when the approved Pre K-12 Regional district for the two towns takes effect.
The Highlands borough council president’s action came after it appears the boards, without any public knowledge entered into discussions with Oceanport and Shore Regional which would include excluding Sea Bright from ever joining the new regional school district, taking the right of voters to make the decision themselves.
With the matter filed in Superior Court in Freehold Monday, Judge Acquaviva yesterday set the June 24 date, 12 days from now, to hear the oral arguments requested in the complaint against the Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Henry Hudson Regional boards of Education.
After receiving notification of Olszewski’s action, both Highlands and Atlantic Highlands boards of education at their meetings this past Monday and Tuesday evening, unanimously adopted resolutions which would approve a revised Settlement Agreement in the matter, with once again the terms of the original agreement nor the revised agreement, made public.
At Wednesday night’s meeting of the transitional board of education, that board also unanimously adopted the same resolution after going into a 15 minutes executive session. That nine-member board will be in control from July1 until Jan. 1, 2025. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, five residents from Highlands and four from Atlantic Highlands, who will be elected in November, will be the first nine member elected board of the new preK-12 Henry Hudson Regional School district.
Olszewski sought the court ordered injunction because the school board actions have been unfair not only to herself but to all residents and taxpayers because of the apparent violations of law.
Vito Gagliardi of the Porzio Law Firm is presenting Olszewski before Judge Acquaviva and Jonathon Busch is the attorney for the boards of education named as defendants in the case.
While it isn’t necessary to differentiate between male veterans from female veterans…they all put their lives on the line, it is nice to know that New Jersey is one of the states that designates June 12 as Women Veterans Appreciation Day. It was the late Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver who signed the legislation recognizing the special day for women’s recognition in 2019 and it has been observed ever since.
Whether you are a parent of children in school, a parent of children going to school in the future, a resident of Highlands, Atlantic Highlands or Sea Bright, or a taxpayer with or without children in the Highlands or Atlantic Highlands schools, it would be to your benefit to attend the Wednesday night, June 12 meeting of the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education and learn what the three boards of education are trying to do to you and to Sea Bright, voters in all three boroughs, and ultimately, the taxpayers.
Highlands Council President Joann Olszewski made it clear she’s upset because “things just can’t be done this way, it is not fair to residents”
Highlands Council President Joann Olszewski
Olszewski filed a Verified Complaint against the three boards of education in the two towns, the council president, acting both as a borough official and in her capacity as a private citizen, charging the boards violated several laws in the actions they took at a special meeting May 28.
Wednesday, June 12, the regional board meets at 7 p.m. but without knowing what might be happening at the transitional board meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., both of which will be held at Henry Hudson school, it might be worth it to attend both.
Highlands Council President Olszewski, as always, will be at the meeting to hear and see the final actions of the board, which, like Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, will simply be a piece of history July 1, 2024.
The new Henry Hudson Regional School Board will be an expansion of the present board, with newly elected board members in November, five from Highlands and four from Atlantic Highlands, representing the new preK-12 district approved by the voters. The transitional Boards will be the operative board between July 1 and January 1, when the first all -elected nine-member board will take over.
The Highlands councilwoman said the boards violated not one, but several laws in taking action. Action which has still not been revealed to the public and which is designed to impinge on the power of the board of education which will be seated after a vote in November’s election.
In short, Verified Complaintwhich in part requests an injunction, which is filed in the law division of the Monmouth County Superior Court, charges that the May 28 resolution adopted after an executive session and absent the details of specifically what was included, was actually giving the boards’ approval for its presidents to sign an agreement with Oceanport and Shore Regional Board of Education that would essentially make it prohibitive for Sea Bright to ever be a part of the new Henry Hudson regional School district. The suit points out the boards unanimously passed a resolution to “approve the concept of Settlement …” and further “authorized counsel and the Presidents of the Boards, to negotiate a resolution with attorneys for the Oceanport and Shore regional.”
Olszewski’s action said that it has been learned that sometime this past winter or spring Oceanport and Shore Regional, the two entities that had filed suit against the boroughs for entertaining Sea Bright become a part of the new regional district, began negotiations with the boards which would result in the boards’ agreement to a dismissal of Oceanport’s and Shore Regional’s appeal of the decision the Commissioner of Education made to uphold Sea Bright’s right to be included with a vote of the people.
However, according to the Verified Complaint , the agreement the boards agreed to make with Shore Regional and Oceanport came with the condition and stipulation that Sea Bright first become an operating school district on its own before they could be considered. Such an action could not happen under current law inasmuch as Sea Bright does not have any schools in the borough. Effectively making it next to impossible for Sea Bright to join the newly formed regional school system.
That resolution, the court papers said, was passed in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act and wrongfully delegates authority to the Boards’ respective Presidents and counsel to approve and execute a settlement agreement that does not yet exist and which may not come into effect until after two of the boards, Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, fail to exist. Advertisements for the meeting did not meet OPRA regulations for identifying the specific reason for the executive session. The boards also voted on a resolution without making it public, simply referring to the actions taken during the executive session, which were not disclosed.
Th court action said this agreement approved in the resolution would “make it nearly impossible for Sea Bright ever to join the new Henry Hudson Regional School District.” The suit further argues that “even perhaps more importantly,” it prevents “voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands from voting on a “referendum to consider this important issue.”
Apparently Olszewski’s Verified Complaint was made known to the school boards when it was filed in Superior Court, because Monday night, the Highlands Board , one of the two boards which will no longer be in existence July 1, at its last meeting before being dissolved, met in executive session for 15 minutes, and returned to unanimously pass a resolution to amend the May 28 resolution, but still not revealing the terms of the May 28 resolution. Beams said at that meeting she had just received the resolution 15 minutes before the meeting, presumably from Jonathon Busch, the three boards’ attorney for regionalization.
Tara Beams
Similar action took place at tonight’s last meeting of the Atlantic Highlands Board of Education and Beams confirmed that a similar executive session and action is expected to take place at Wednesday’s Henry Hudson meeting.
Olszewski, who is a regular attendee at school board meetings, frequently asks questions. Both as a former department, department chairman, and District Supervisor in the Teaneck School District, as well as elected council member she is well aware of Roberts Rules of Order and requirements of school boards in taking action. In addition to the OPRA violations, the suit charges board actions would limit the rights of their successor board by making an agreement that would restrain future boards from further action.
At Tuesday’s meeting in Atlantic Highlands, while the Board Administrator confirmed in response to an e-mailed question that there would be an executive session at the meeting, both the agenda available online in advance of the meeting and the agenda made available to anyone attending the meeting still indicated there would be no executive session.
The Atlantic Highlands Board did go into a half hour long executive session at the end of the meeting, came out and adopted the same resolution Highlands had adopted the night previous and ended their meeting. It is that same action that is anticipated at the Wednesday meeting at Henry Hudson.
Olszewski’s action was filed by Vito Gagliardi, an attorney in the law firm which has been representing both Highlands and Sea Bright in the regionalization issue.
While terms of that May 28 resolution have not yet been made public with Busch saying at the May meeting, they would be part of the approved minutes, the Highlands board took no action at Monday’s meeting to approve the minutes either the special or executive May 28 meetings. Atlantic Highlands board approved the minutes for both the regular and the executive session at their meeting Tuesday, and both should be available Wednesday morning.
VeniVidiScripto will print the minutes as approved should they be available.
School board members from all three boards, together with Beams, have frequently and consistently said publicly they “want Sea Bright to come into the District,” saying only they would want it to happen after the regionalization of the boroughs’ three schools was in place first. “The Second Step,” they said.
Without Olszewski’s injunction, their behind-the-scenes actions appear to make that a virtual impossibility.
However, it appears, the resolutions adopted by the boards this week, again with details discussed in executive session, are designed revise a new Settlement Agreement on behalf of Oceanport and Shore Regional School Districts and once again authorize the Board Presidents to sign on behalf of the Boards. The new resolution further authorizes the Busch Law Group to take all action necessary to enter into a Stipulation of Dismissal of the matter with Oceanport and Shore Regional, apparently on their terms.
“It is clear that the conditions of the purported settlement agreement are designed to exclude Sea Bright from the new all-purpose Henry Hudson Regional School District and to prevent the voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands from ever considering adding Sea Bright as a constituent of Henry Hudson Regional,” Olszewski’s court action states.
Olszewski said she conferred with Mayor Carolyn Broullon, other Council-members along with Borough council who all felt she should exercise her personal right both as a resident and a representative of the residents of Highlands. The Councilwomen has their full support to take the action.
Grandma, Dad, Aunt Gert South Bay Ave Beach Next to King Boat Works Highlands NJ 1924 Highlands NJ 1923
Grandma, Dad, Aunt Gert South Bay Ave Beach Next to King Boat Works Highlands NJ 1924
It isn’t unusual for the Guenther family to get together every summer, generations of the family coming from states across the nation to celebrate their family, their successes, their events and their history.
But this year, the Guenthers will mark a special occasion as they can trace these annual get-togethers back 100 years.
And the celebration as always, will be held in Highlands where Bruno and Mary Guenther first brought their three children for a summer holiday in 1924. The Guenthers had come from Germany and settled in New York and had taken their family on camping trips every summer. But in 1920, when there was illness in the family, the camping trips had to stop.
However, the family lived between 9th and 10th streets in New York and knew about a ferry they knew went to Highlands. So they decided to see what the little New Jersey town was like for a summer.
The couple packed up their young ones and took the ferry to Highlands, staying first at the Blair House on Navesink Avenue, a hotel which was across Route 36 from the current Off the Hook Restaurant.
The family had a boat that first year and knew from the onset that Highlands was where they wanted to spend every summer.
After that first year at the Blair House, the family rented a bungalow in The Grove, a group of bungalows on Portland Road. By 1938, as the youngsters grew and enjoyed swimming in the Shrewsbury River as well as across the bridge in the ocean, the Guenthers bought their first house here. It was obvious they loved Highlands, as they made their purchases three days after the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Five yeas later, the couple moved from that house and purchased another, this one at 4 Marine Place in the Water Witch section of the borough. It was September, 1943, and the Guenthers now owned a “Kit House,” a type of bungalow popular at the time and made by Montgomery Ward or Sears and put together on the site.
Those houses and much of Highlands underwent considerable damage in the next big hurricane that ravaged the area in 1944. Undaunted, sons Arthur and Walter rebuilt their summer home facing the Shrewsbury River and it has survived many storms since then, the most damaging through those years, Hurricane Donna in September, 1960.
But it was the next Guenther generation, the generation of Walter, Kurt, Eric and Janet who once again rebuilt the Guenther Summer residence. Superstorm Sandy ravaged the entire lower level of Highlands in 2010, and the family, still devoted to summers in Highlands, rebuilt the Marine Place sanctuary and raised it in anticipation of possible future storms. Through it all, their motto has always been “Living right on the river is sometimes tough, but always wonderful.”
Nor has the family simply come to town summers and enjoyed all that Highlands has to offer. They became involved not only in the borough but in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church as well, where they are summer parishioners. Walter is recognized as one of the historians of the borough and has given walking tours identifying the families, stores, and other businesses that earlier Guenthers frequented during their summers at the shore.
Now, a century after Bruno and Mary brought their three children for a summer holiday by the sea, there are five generations of the family, together with extended family and the scores of friends the family has met through the years, who have shared memories, laughter, unique experiences, comfort in sad times, and summer recreation and relaxation in Highlands, with plans and hopes to continue the family tradition for another century or more.
