OPINION
In Bridgewater-Raritan, the chain of command is not a suggestion. The superintendent reports to the Board of Education. The board hired Robert Beers. The board evaluates him. The board can remove him. Parents elect that board.
That is why these emails matter.
On the first day of school, parents were waiting for buses that did not come. Kids were late. Some were on the wrong routes. Families could not find their children. Board member Jeremy Li put those facts in writing and asked Beers the questions the public pays a superintendent to answer. What caused it. How many families were hit. What was the plan.
Board President Michael Pepe wrote, “It is the first day of school. Shut up.”
Beers wrote, “Here is my answer- call me. Otherwise, go f*** yourself.”
Ask yourself one question. Could you tell your boss to go f*** themselves and still have a job in the morning? Beers did it in district email, to a member of the board he reports to, on a day children were unaccounted for. That is not a heated hallway remark. That is the highest-paid employee in the district talking to his employer like the employer works for him.
How is he comfortable saying that? Because the board has let him get comfortable. When the person you report to will not enforce the reporting line, an employee starts talking like he is the one in charge.
This was not a one-off. Concerned parents filed OPRA requests because the lashing out kept happening.
January 19, 2026. Lucy Li, another elected board member, forwarded a state grant and asked if the district could use it. Beers thanked her on the chain. Then he wrote an assistant superintendent: “I just told her thanks. She is a f***ing moron.” That is the hired chief calling an employer a moron behind her back.
June 17, 2026. High school staff forwarded parent questions about senior parking. Beers told Principal Daniel Hemberger, “These people are f***ing idiots.” Those people are the families who fund the district and elect the board he answers to.
This is also the example he sets. Staff read those emails. Principals get copied. Students are told to show respect, use professional language, and follow the chain of command. Then they watch the superintendent curse out a board member, mock another board member, and call parents idiots on the official system. You cannot demand professionalism from teachers and kids while the superintendent models the opposite.
N.J.S.A. 18A:17-20.2 allows a superintendent to be removed for conduct unbecoming. New Jersey law describes that as conduct that destroys public respect and confidence in the office. Cursing out a board member, mocking another board member, and calling parents idiots in official mail is not a communication style. It is a superintendent who no longer acts like he reports to anyone, and no longer cares who is watching.
The board can keep treating this as tone. It is structure, and it is the standard he is teaching the district. Either Beers works for the board, or the board works for Beers. These emails show which version he believes. The only question left is whether the board still remembers which version is the law.
Kaity Passe is a parent in the Raritan-Bridgewater public schools.
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