The BERKELEY Times Vol. 25 - No. 37
Pages 10-13
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Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 16
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Inside The Law Page 19
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Enter Sandman:
In This Week’s Edition
Community News!
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
Officials Renew Call For School Aid
Local Boxer Rising Up
By Chris Lundy BEACHWOOD – If you’re getting in the ring with Chris “Sandman” Thomas, make sure you’ve got your head on straight. The local up-and-coming boxer’s current record is 15-1-1. If you want to know why they call him “Sandman,” it’s because 10 of those victories were knockouts. The last two knockouts were in the first round. He won the NJ Middleweight and USBF Light Heavy titles. When asked how much of the fight is mental versus physical, he said its 60 percent mental. “You can win or lose a fight before you even get in the ring,” Thomas said. Sometimes, he’ll know all he needs to know about an opponent before the first punch is thrown. When the two boxers face off, and stare each other down before the match, he can tell just by his opponent’s eyes what kind of fight it’s going to be. If his opponent’s
−Photos by Kenny Ludwig Ch r i s “ Sand man” Thomas wins in the ring. head isn’t in the game, he can’t win. He’s been doing this a while – since before he was even a teenager. His parents were trying to find a sport to get him involved in. “I had never played a sport in my life,” he said. “I saw boxing and got bit by the bug.” Ever since he was 12, he was an amateur boxer. He went pro in his senior year of high school.
People’s perception of boxing is much different than reality, he said.
People get a lot of their ideas from movies. And (Boxer - See Page 4)
Investigation Into Teacher’s Slavery Lesson Concludes No Harm To Students
By Chris Lundy TOMS RIVER – Did a teacher abuse student like slaves, or did social media blow things out of proportion again? That’s the question that kept people talking on Facebook and Instagram recently after a student said that an Intermediate East teacher’s lesson on slavery included kicking students and making them pick cotton.
After initial tempers flared with people blaming the teacher and the district for this, a backlash returned fire, defending the teacher. At the center of it is a slavery lesson taught by Lawrence Cuneo, who is also the mayor and a long-time member of the governing body of Pine Beach. An Instagram post by a student claimed that he had students lie down and he
February 22, 2020
kicked their shoes. Also, the lesson involved having them pick seeds and sticks out of cotton. In response, social media posts published by The Patch came from parents and former students of Cuneo’s coming to his defense. They said that his lesson was eye-opening and an inventive way to learn the lesson. Students that were (Lesson - See Page 4)
By Chris Lundy BERKELEY – As a lot of towns are fighting cuts in state funding for school districts, Berkeley officials are mounting a case for aid they never get. The issue comes up from time to time in town, but the controversial S-2 law has brought this to the forefront again. S-2 has cut millions of dollars from local towns including Toms River, Brick and Jackson. As these districts lose students, they lose funding to districts that have increasing enrollments. Councilman James Byrnes opened up a discussion about it at a recent Township Council meeting. He said Trenton has been unfair in how it doles out aid for years, and S-2 is just a small segment. In Berkeley, half their taxes go to school districts, but in some cities it’s closer to 3 percent, he said. This is because some districts are designated as Abbott districts. This stems from a lawsuit, Abbott vs. Burke, where the state courts declared that the way schools were funded was unfair. In essence, poor towns couldn’t afford a “thorough and efficient” education for their kids, which is required by law. So, state funding had to fill in the gaps. Now, there are 31 districts throughout New Jersey that qualify for such assistance. However, times change and some of those districts are not poor anymore, Berkeley officials said. For example, Hoboken has become gentrified. According to 2018 census data, the median household income is $136,402. Mayor Carmen Amato said Berkeley’s median income is $43,588. He also said that according to census data, 11 of the 31 Abbott districts had a higher average income than Berkeley. A half-joking discussion came up about why not petition to make Berkeley an Abbott district. Officials said the case had been made before, but being an Abbott district gives a connotation that it’s a bad neighborhood. Resident Fred Bekiarian came up to the microphone during the public portion of the meeting and talked about some of the research he’s done. He said the money is allocated by political strength. It appears (School - See Page 4)
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