>Americans Worse Now Than When Obama Inaugurated by 44%-34% Margin in Poll By Mike Dorning – Jun 22, 2011 12:00 AM ET
More than half of respondents say their children are destined to have a lower standard of living than they do, upending a traditional touchstone of the American Dream. Photographer: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images
June 22 (Bloomberg) — Americans are growing more dissatisfied with President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, and only 30 percent said they are certain to re-elect him, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20. Fewer than a quarter of respondents see signs of improvement in the economy, and two-thirds say they believe the country is on the wrong track overall. Hans Nichols reports on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)
> 07/05/117:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting 07/06/117:30PMVillage Council Work Session 07/12/117:30PMBoard of Adjustment Public Meeting 07/13/118:00PMVillage Council Public Meeting 07/19/117:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting
Ridgewood High School Graduation Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
Tomorrow is the last day of school .Today marks the last full-day. Thursday will be a part-day with High School Graduation starting at 5:00 p.m.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TODAY’S GRADUATION
The Class of 2011 graduation ceremony will be conducted on the front lawn of Ridgewood High School beginning at 5 p.m. The graduates will be seated at the top of the hill facing the west. They will proceed from the Little Theatre and move down the walkway to the circle by the front entrance. They will move up the steps to their seats. Please do not block walkway. Spectators can stand for an abbreviated ceremony in open lawn space, Heermance Place, and the visitor’s bleachers. The Iced Tea reception will be conducted in Gym 1.
Solar firms given reassurance by NJ environmental commissioner at conference in Franklin
The commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday sought to calm fears among some in the clean energy industry that small-scale solar projects are getting left behind in the state’s new energy master plan in favor of off-shore wind power and large-scale solar arrays. (Remaly, Gannett)
>Ridgewood Schools: I’ll feel like an idiot if I continue to pay for a product that is not as good as it should be.
I’ll conceded the technical schools (they were included for overall comparison as an RHS alternative as well as something we should strive for rather than settling for “well that’s pretty good”). But you must concede that we should be at least as good as Great Neck, Rye, Old Westbury, Syosset and Scarsdale. Those schools average about 30 points lower on their SATs so it’s not because they’re “smarter”.
Something else is wrong with RHS and while I don’t believe any rubric is 100%, this combined with these horrible numbers of RHS students going to top schools in the country (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, MIT all add up to ZERO) is incredibly troubling. So, no, I don’t feel like an idiot. I’ll feel like an idiot if I continue to pay for a product that is not as good as it should be.
>Sports costs are a flea on the property tax elephant. Bill
It is not the quest for sports fame that is driving taxes up. The drivers of our property taxes are less or level state revenue while the costs continue to grow. Property taxes are the only place to get the money. The majority of the school budget goes to pay teachers, the health benefits and pensions (which are underfunded).
Sports costs are a flea on the elephant.
“The problem is magnified in states where officials skipped billions of dollars of contributions.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, 48, a Republican who took office in January, withheld $3.1 billion of payments in his first budget to cope with a record $10.7 billion deficit. Since 2004, the state has made only $2.7 billion of the $11.9 billion in scheduled contributions, according to bond-sale documents.
New Jersey’s $68 billion retirement system had a funded ratio of 66.1 percent in the Bloomberg data, the 11th-lowest. The state in August settled Securities and Exchange Commission claims that it failed to disclose the extent of its underfunding in documents for $26 billion in bond sales from 2001 to 2007.
Benefit payments are projected at 11.4 percent of available pension assets during this budget year, even after a 14 percent investment gain in the fiscal period that ended June 30, New Jersey records show. Teachers Pension
Payouts by the New Jersey Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund, which serves about 236,000 working and retired educators, grew to $2.8 billion from $1 billion in the 10 years through 2009, an average annual increase of about 10.4 percent, its yearly reports show. Over the period, holdings returned an annualized 2.3 percent, according to the state”
Also
“New Jersey’s 31 Abbott districts received 59 percent, or $4.5 billion, of state education aid to schools in the current fiscal year, up from 36 percent in 1988, Christie said. Per- pupil spending in those districts averaged $16,138, compared to $2,895 in the other districts, which number about 550.
“We are paying for the failed legal theory of a bunch of lawyers in black robes,” he said yesterday.”
David Nicholson, Chairman has resigned from the Planning Board
11-152 Appoint Members to Planning Board – Appoints Richard Joel, Jr. as a Class IV regular member to fill an unexpired term until 6/30/14; and Jane Shinozuka as Alternate #1 to fill an unexpired term until 6/30/12
> NJ doctors group suing to block health reform law
Attorneys for a New Jersey physicians group are scheduled in court to argue that the recently enacted federal health care law is unconstitutional.
The suit by New Jersey Physicians Inc. challenges the health care law’s requirement that citizens purchase health care insurance. (The Associated Press)
>Field lights testing results released TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2011 THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Testing of the new field lights levels in Ridgewood has largely met specifications, Superintendent Daniel Fishbein reported to the Board of Education (BOE), although some light levels on Stevens Field and on adjoining North Irving Street were slightly elevated.
Musco Lighting will adjust the lights accordingly, Fishbein said last week, and the BOE will pay for the installation of 19 visors on the light poles – 12 at Stadium Field and seven at Stevens Field. In an interview, Fishbein said the visors could reduce light spillage between 25 and 30 percent. The total cost for the visors will be about $7,000, he said.
“They could correct the issue on the fields without the visors, but we’re doing the visors for the neighbors to decrease the spillage even more,” Fishbein said.
Students and schools hopeful, nervous about Choice program
When the New Jersey Department of Education announced in April that 56 additional districts — including 16 in the tri-county area — will join the state’s current 15 Interdistrict Public School Choice districts, there was a simple concept behind it. (Rothschild, Gannett)
Grant program to encourage new methods of teacher evaluation
The New Jersey Education Department has announced a $1.1 million grant program to encourage school districts to take part in a pilot program tying teacher evaluations to student performance. (Giordano, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The imposition option: Why Gov. Christie doesn’t have to negotiate
Already reeling from legislation that will require state workers to pay thousands of dollars more each year toward their pensions and healthcare coverage, union leaders fear that Gov. Chris Christie will be the first governor in state history to unilaterally impose contract terms on their members. (Magyar, NJ Spotlight)
Maple Field’s landscaping has been overrun by weeds and saplings. Just a few years ago, many in this village made donations for the installation of the turf field and the landscaping surrounding it. Now when one drives by, weeds as big as bushes grow wild. The main entrance walk is obscured, shallowed up by untrimmed plants. It is disgraceful that our Village Parks and Rec have allowed this happen. It is like spitting in the eye of all who live here and pay for the upkeep. If it is too much work for our village workers, then privatize the maintenance of the grounds. Jacobson’s does a wonderful job at our schools. It is time for the VC to either straighten out the Parks & Rec Dept or get someone else who will do the work.
>“Tradition of Excellence” : Readers make to key observations about quality of schools debate
Based on the previous eight comments, it sounds like the high school parents don’t care if we have the best high school in the state and have no interest in figuring out how we can get there. Pretty good seems to be OK with them.
and
To a growing number in town, having the best high school is not as important as having everyone who doesn’t actually live in town think that RW has the best schools.
It’s all part of placing more importance on feeeling good rather than actually being good.
