See SCHOOLS

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Shortly after Hertell and Horn made a number of accusations and raised a series of seemingly consequential issues, Pemberton Board Member Carmen Bivins indicated that the Pemberton district staff should “change their attitude” to be positive, just like she has had to do amid the challenges faced in her own teaching job, as well as recommended Pemberton district staffers “get a humidifier and lamp” for their rooms to alleviate the stresses and make the environment in which they work feel more like “home.”

Pemberton Board Member Sherry Scull, however, discussed her recent attendance at a New Jersey School Boards Association workshop, and noted that it highlighted how a school board should deal with the “negatives” as well as “should deal with some of these issues” such as the ones coming before the local school board.

Lionel Lee, a former corrections officer who sits on the Pemberton school board, appeared to be well-versed in that latter approach, declaring in the wake of the remarks by Hertell and Horn, “Hopefully, some of our situations can be worked out.”

“It is not that we are not trying to get it right,” he added. “We want the public to know that we are not up here trying to get things wrong, and not trying to run people out of the district. That is not our mission. We are here to try to get it right. Everybody on this board is here for a reason – to try to make this thing better.

“It is not our intention to make people run away. … We will continue to try to work together and fix some of the situations we have. Everybody knows our budget struggle is real. None of it is easy. All these decisions are tough. But we are going to try to make the best decisions that we can, that will benefit the kids. That is the bottom-line, that is at least why I am here.”

As of Sept. 18, even though the school year is now underway, the Pemberton district has more than 50 job openings listed online.

According to Hertell, there was a recent “glitch in the system” discovered in which district school bus drivers “are getting paid for work they aren’t doing – $34,000 worth.”

“That is a problem when we are in a budget crunch,” she quipped.

At the same time, Hertell said, school bus drivers are “doing” extra runs but are “not getting paid for them.”

Hertell, who raised the issue last month that Pemberton administrators were acting behind the scenes to do away with a Burlington County Institute of Technology (BCIT) late bus run, explained that for one of the regular school day pickup routes to the tech-ed school, the Pemberton district decided to merge it with a route to Garfield Academy, meaning that the K-12 special education students from the Pemberton area that attend Garfield are now riding the same school bus as the BCIT students, the latter whom are tech-ed high schoolers.

“You have parents complaining, coming in to (the) Transportation (Office) and transportation is walking out on them,” Hertell declared. “… You really should not have the BCIT kids mixed in with them. They are compensating by putting three aides on the bus, but it really shouldn’t be that way.”

Hertell revealed that the school bus she is referring to is the one that “had a situation during the summer,” with this newspaper previously reporting that a Pemberton school bus aide (who has since been fired) is facing charges for strangling a student riding the bus during the summer, with the driver of the bus at the time (who has since resigned) later charged with neglect for reportedly failing to intervene to stop the incident, rather allegedly shaking the hand of the bus aide after it was over and sharing a laugh.

But this newspaper was previously unable to confirm the circumstances surrounding why a school bus was in operation during the summer.

However, a high-level district source, a couple days following Hertell’s revelation, confirmed that the summertime incident the bus driver association president was referring to happened on the Pemberton district bus assigned to Garfield. That source explained the Garfield students riding it have “special needs,” have a “history of throwing things across the bus and hurting each other,” often being “defiant,” which led to the summertime altercation, and that now the district has added high-school age girls attending BCIT on the bus, mixing them with the Garfield students, who are all boys, compounding an already serious issue.

In another apparent gaffe to start the school year, according to Hertell, the Pemberton district is paying a private bus company, Sheppard Bus, some $16,000 “to do the same thing,” or several high school bus runs that she says the district’s bus drivers are also getting paid to do.

“We have seven high school drivers getting paid to do high school runs and they are not doing them because you have Sheppard buses doing high school runs,” she explained to the Pemberton school board.

Additionally, she maintained, “you also had a big violation of the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)” take place when the school year commenced, with a child’s medical paperwork “laid on the table” in the transportation garage for everyone to see instead of being placed in the appropriate mailbox because “whoever put it downstairs could not find the box.”

Hertell asserted to the school board that “thank goodness” another bus driver found it, gave it to her and she was able to get it to the Pemberton district’s human resource officer.

“That is big no-no,” said Hertell of what transpired with the confidential medical paperwork left out, unattended. “You cannot be doing that.”

The high-level district source, in providing further context, explained that the mailboxes in the bus garage comprise of wooden slots, and that confidential paperwork meant for district bus drivers is often left in them, and that the method of disseminating the paperwork is creating an unsecure “situation where anybody can grab it.”

Dan Smith, the Pemberton district’s business administrator that oversaw transportation, was due to leave the Pemberton district by the end of this week to assume a similar post in the Egg Harbor Township School District.

Hertell described to the Pemberton school board that the “famous words” often spoken at the Pemberton bus garage have been “‘Dan said,’” but now that he is leaving, “lately it has not been ‘Dan said,’” or that there is no direction being given to Pemberton Supervisor of Transportation Edmund Treadaway, further describing that Smith would often tell Treadaway what to do, but now the latter is reportedly saying he doesn’t have to do things, “so, he’s not doing them.”

“You need someone over at the bus garage to make clarifications to the supervisor,” Hertell asserted.

The bus driver association president noted she has filed 12 grievances since February and “three more are about to be filed.”

“I should not have to do that,” she declared. “We should all get along.”

Pemberton Superintendent of Schools Jeff Havers, in responding to Hertell during the board session, said that “in terms of contract violations,” including “people being paid and unpaid,” there is a “contractual process to be followed.”

“In terms of transportation,” the superintendent added, Sheppard was contracted “because we need the flexibility in case that we need to add runs.”

This newspaper reported on the Pemberton Transportation Department’s “catastrophic breakdown” in the previous school year, in which at one point school buses were reported to be overcrowded, while others were running hours behind. More recently, there has been controversy over the elimination of courtesy busing and the transition to consolidated bus stops in some neighborhoods.

“We have a driver shortage,” Havers declared. “We know we sometimes have attendance problems with the drivers, or there are other issues or reasons why we don’t have enough drivers. So, we need that flexibility.”

Smith concurred with the superintendent, maintaining the Pemberton district wanted “to start the school year off” with “extra runs” by “making sure we have enough coverage.”

“Mr. Treadaway and I are working with Sheppard on what our options are to possibly move things around, so that they can still assist us, but in a different tier,” Smith said.

Hertell, in calling on the Pemberton district to cancel its contract with Sheppard, contended its services are unnecessary. She pointed to Smith’s previous remarks at a Pemberton school board meeting that the contract can be canceled with simply “30 days’ notice,” but contended that Treadaway is now informing concerned transportation staff that it can only be canceled with a “years’ notice.”

Hertell described a situation that has become so dire in the district’s Transportation Department that “five drivers quit” and “four more are getting ready to walk out the door.”

“You have to treat employees with respect, and they’ll respect you back,” she declared in making a plea to the Pemberton Board of Education. “We need help. If someone could come over and take a look at the Transportation Department, that would be lovely.”

It was last year, Horn pointed out, that he “rang the alarm bell” about a predicted “national” teacher shortage and how that could be felt locally, especially, amid “the detrimental impact of ignoring concerns about school climate reported by our staff.”

There are now reports of a nationwide teacher shortage.

“It gives me no pleasure to report that these concerns are now coming to fruition, and we are losing talented, dedicated educators,” Horn declared. “I am not talking about retirements. I am talking about teachers early in their careers who we hired, mentored and trained, only for them to become so exasperated with the toxic climate in Pemberton, they left for greener pastures.”

Their “exodus from Pemberton,” Horn maintained, “hurts our students,” maintaining the latter “will no longer benefit” from “their talent, devotion and creativity.”

The PTEA president demanded to know from Havers whether the superintendent conducted “exit interviews” with the departing staffers and if the top leader asked about what he could “have done different to retain them.”

“If so, what did they say?” he asked of the superintendent. “I know if I was in charge of a company, where talented employees are resigning after five to 10 years, I would want to know why.”

Horn maintained, however, he did his own “exit interviews,” asking some of the departing Pemberton Schools staffers why they are leaving.

“‘Being abused and overworked,’ ‘being expected to work long hours outside my contractual hours,’ ‘getting dissected and picked apart,’ ‘do more with less,’ ‘unstainable workload,’ and ‘ridiculous expectations for staff and none for students,’” are just some of the reasons for departing the Pemberton district that Horn said he had compiled.

Then, in offering a recently departed staffer’s description of her “new working conditions,” Horn appeared to deliver a scathing rebuke of the Pemberton district administration under Havers’ leadership, which caused the latter to ultimately publicly lash out at the PTEA president.

“This is a situation she is now experiencing in a new district,” Horn said. “Quote — ‘We had a staff meeting on Monday. Teachers raised concerns about something. Admin fixed it the next day and sent out an email to let everyone know. They walk around delivering supplies to us. The custodians, techs and secretaries all run around happily, helping us all, asking us if we need anything. I have not had one issue go unaddressed by the end of my teaching day by an admin personally or whomever. The superintendent comes to every meeting just to encourage us or tell us how happy he is to support us. He spends his time praising the teachers. He greets every teacher by name, walks into classrooms just to say ‘hi,’ and the atmosphere is insanely upbeat and positive. I feel 10 years younger.’—End quote.”

In telling the Pemberton school board “this is a teacher that worked for us last year, who now works in another district,” Horn asked the public body to think about the “epic difference” in “climate” the “former teacher is reporting.”

“We may not be able to do anything about the budget cuts,” Horn declared. “But we can do a lot to promote a positive climate for our dedicated staff members – to nurture them, to support them and to retain them. The actions this teacher reported don’t cost a cent – it is about respect, support and morale. It is about developing an authentic, positive culture.”

The Pemberton school board, Horn maintained, “has to remember” that with a national shortage of teachers, “they aren’t stuck here” and “have options” to leave the local district and go elsewhere “where they will get the respect they deserve.”

“With that in mind, I hope the administration will stop with the aggressive micromanaging and start taking things off the plates of our stressed out, overworked educators,” Horn quipped. “You have to try much harder to make our staff feel welcome here so that they will stay. See SCHOOLS/ Page 13

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SAFETY

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new slate of board members having been swept into office and taking control of the board’s leadership positions earlier this year) “submitted a rather substantial document” that he contended “requested line delineations, not bike lanes.”

The request, he maintained, “had nothing to do with parking, or impeding the flow of traffic.”

“It would psychologically drive home the fact that people who are making a right turn off Retreat Road, entering LeisureTowne (from the back entrance), will have to focus in on the lane that they are driving in.”

Mikulski termed what Tom Haluszczak was alluding to as a “shoulder line,” which the former trustee acknowledged is correct. Both men are attorneys.

The former trustee noted that a “person was killed on Westminster,” contending that individual was in a wheelchair when the incident transpired.

Mikulski replied that he “doesn’t disagree” with the premise of the request, but that because there is a “community association” in LeisureTowne, “I am very hesitant for the township to put lines in without the current administration approving, because they are elected.”

Haluszczak maintained that the submitted document had “some good ideas in there” and suggested that “perhaps someone can look at it and breathe new life in it,” as well as “cherry pick the good ideas” or even do a “mix or match.” He urged the township committee, however, to “come to some sort of an informed decision or conclusion.”

“We should not be hung up on this administration or that administration,” Haluszczak declared. “If it is a good idea, it is a good idea.”

Longtime LeisureTowne and township political activist, Evelyn “Evie” Doherty, asserted that “a lot of things are done in the township that are never told to the community” and that she is only aware of what is happening “because I come here” to the township committee meetings. In her opinion, she added, the LeisureTowne Association should speak to the community “about what it is discussing with the township.”

“That needs to happen,” declared Doherty, with it pointed out that the current trustees were in attendance at the township committee meeting.

Mikulski, however, maintained in response that “we honor, and we respect, the dully-elected board of LeisureTowne, as we will any homeowner’s association in the township.”

Kevin Boyd, who is one of the trustees that attended the township committee meeting, did remark that Buckingham Drive has “not been striped” since it was paved earlier this year, adding, “As you know, the mature drivers in LeisureTowne have spatial-relation problems.” He asked if Buckingham Drive could be striped (previously having double-yellow lines before the paving project).

Hoffman replied that the paving contractor was planning to return to Buckingham Drive at the conclusion of paving other roads in the township. This newspaper, in visiting Buckingham Drive on Sept. 14, found that the road still lacked road striping, but crosswalks had just been painted in the area of Buckingham and Huntington drives.

In prepared remarks, Boyd reminded the township committee that in November 2021, “the board authorized me to do an inventory of stop and street signs in LeisureTowne,” See SAFETY/ Page 15

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