Ridgewood NJ, BOE Members Jeannette Wilson and James Morgan will be running uncontested for Ridgewood School Board Seats. Two incumbents are seeking reelection to the Ridgewood Board of Education.
Despite efforts by the REA to run union members and pro union people for Ridgewood BOE seats no one stepped up.
Click here to read an updated statement on REA – BOE contract negotiations, issued by the Ridgewood Board of Education on July 22, 2016.
The two incumbents, Jeannette Wilson and James Morgan were the only two candidates to file petitions to run this year. Monday July 25th at 4 p.m. was the deadline to file petitions for the school board to be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The November 8th election ballot will include a question for residents about implementing full-day Kindergarten in Ridgewood. To learn more about full-day Kindergarten, please click here for a FAQ sheet.
Ridgewood school board trustees question adding administrators
MAY 16, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
Administrative work is rising, but so are district costs and taxes.
Because of this Catch-22, some Board of Education (BOE) members are at odds over a proposal, made by Superintendent Daniel Fishbein at last Monday’s BOE meeting, to hire two new administrators to supervise science and special education.
Ultimately, Fishbein wants to reinstate all seven administrative positions lost during budget cuts several years ago. This would include the two positions proposed for next year, two that would be proposed for 2015-2016 and the three administrators hired last year: Ryan Kenny, the new technology manager; Dara Gronau, supervisor of English for grades 6-12; and Jean-Anne O’Neill, supervisor of elementary education. All three receive a salary of $130,000.
BOE trustee Jim Morgan said he believes that the district is operating successfully without the additional administrators, who would add fixed costs to the already-tight budget. Morgan noted that in recent years, when the superintendent has presented the district’s proposed budgets, he has highlighted Ridgewood’s relatively high number of students per administrator while emphasizing Ridgewood’s relatively low costs per student, in comparison to other similar districts’ costs.
“I have serious reservations about the proposal,” Morgan said. “First is the funding. These two positions, which were envisioned last year, were not included in the budget. We’ve spent no time explaining to the community why we want to expand the administrative ranks by two people, which will cost us in excess of $300,000 a year.
“I don’t really fully understand the need,” he said. “We’re continuing to highly perform.”
Fishbein, who proposed to pay for the positions with “breakage” (the differential between the costs of a more highly paid retiring employee and a new hire), justified the positions by pointing to rising administrative work.
