BOE Faces Scrutiny, Commissioners Oppose Gas Pipeline

On Monday’s Bloomfield Township Council meeting, Councilman Nick Joanow is slated to introduce a resolution concerning the Transco Pipeline running through Bloomfield near the Nutley border.

The pipeline’s owners want to build new pipe sections, a compressor station and modify existing compressor stations.

Residents are concerned about the effects increased pressure on the pipeline. Resident Jane Califf spoke against the pipeline’s expansion at last week’s Township Council Conference meeting, repeating concerns she expressed in an editorial for Bloomfield Life, saying the 50-year-old pipe couldn’t handle the increased capacity and that it could harm residents living nearby.

The Bloomfield School Board meets on Tuesday for their third meeting in May. The meeting follows the May 13 meeting where school officials said that either 37 or 38 teaching jobs would be lost in the coming term. Also at that meeting, members of the Bloomfield Education Associate announced they had held an overwhelming no confidence vote in the board and outgoing superintendent Jason Bing, according to a Bloomfield Life report 

Also last week, Bloomfield Board member Dan Anderson wrote an editorial for Patch decrying the rise of high stakes testing in America’s public school. Anderson, a retired Bloomfield teacher, spoke with Patch about the issue after the Bloomfield Board passed a resolution condemning the high stakes testing necessitated by federal education rulings such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top funding.