>the fly wounders given the outrage over the leak of his high salary demands, a board member let it be known that Brooks will not get that kind of salary here. Brooks needs a job now and he will undercut his own earning power to get one. He lost out on the job of Superintendent of the Roslyn school district because he wanted $285,000. He went a little lower, but also lost out on the job of Jefferson County Public School Superintendent. Clearly, he had to leave his old neighborhood if he was going to be hired by anyone. So, he takes a pay cut, and adds hours to his commuting time. He’s willing to come to a district where parents have launched a pitched battle against his firebrand extremist math. Why?
So what will Ridgewood pay Martin Brooks? Remember, our District only has 5,640 students. The Philadelphia Inquirer explains how area superintendents are compensated: “In the region, the averages were $155,039 in Pennsylvania and $123,660 in New Jersey, according to data from the states’ Departments of Education. The highest salary in the region was paid to Paul Vallas, departing chief executive officer of Philadelphia’s schools, [which has 184,560 students!]. This year, the job pays $275,000, but he’s collecting $250,000 due to the district’s budget deficit. The highest-paid in South Jersey was Daniel Hicks of Lenape Regional in Burlington County, who received $196,639.” So what will Ridgewood pay Mr. Brooks?
>I can’t believe how easy it is to totally con our school board. Just a few weeks ago, the president, Mark Bombace, who, incidently is on the curriculum committee, didn’t know that we had reformist math in the district. He didn’t know!
>It’s time to look closely at the BOE board and assess if they are working for the good of the community.
They seem to be deaf to the opinions and concerns of the parents.
>Board members are isolated and are hostages to the educrats they hire. They think these people are smart because they, by comparison, don’t feel expert at anything.
What they don’t realize is that educrats have lower standards for intellectual achievement than virtually any other profession, save the oldest one. Our BOE thinks we should be impressed by their determination to make our children as smart as these educators. But parents, most of whom work in the real world, know the limits of our “highly qualified” educators. We don’t want our children to be as smart as they are, we want our children to be as smart as we are!
The Board, stuck within its own education establishment limits, just can’t comprehend that. There are math majors and then they are people who study “math” in order to be teachers. Microsoft knows the difference, but, alas, our Board does not.
>A current BOE member once told me that BOE members would never get anything accomplished if they listened to the public.
>One lesson for the BOE, both from the reform math issue and the superintendent issue is this:
They must do web research. In both cases, they would have found out what they needed, and likely would have taken a different road.
I hope they’re listening.
>No, they are not deaf, they just think they know better.
What they fail to realize is that parents in Ridgewood are highly educated and resent being talked down to or patronized.
Unfortunately, Ridgewood citizens are far to gentle in their manner of opposition.
If this were in a working class district, the BOE would have beer cans bounced off their heads for disrespecting the wishes of parents.
Do you think our BOE could get away with these kinds of antics in Lodi?
>Considering the interim superintendent was paid $185,000 for one year, I am guessing it will be at least $200,000
He better be a superstar!
>Why don’t more of these educated parents run for school board? There are NOT ENOUGH CANDIDATES; this year the election was uncontested.
Don’t complain if you don’t become part of the solution; run for school board, or at least VOTE!
>How about some tax relief—out of town school staff bring their children to our schools FREE of tuition charges. This used to be a perk to attract GOOD teachers.
Today it’s the setting and the student body and of course money that attracts the Good teachers.
How about we recover some of this Free education and charge the staff half the going rate.
For each student charged we can buy more books, baseballs, computers whatever.
Lets give the taxpayers a break for a change.
>Read the BOE agenda for Monday:
https://www.web2.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/www/edcenter/bdmeetings/bdagendas/may14.html
The superintendent issue could be a fait accompli…
>Superintendent will get paid $212,000, he gets to collect his pension from New York State, and the contract is for 5 years.
>Why is the BOE so secretive about the total package offered to our new superintendent? Isn’t that public information? Aren’t the taxpayers privy to that info?