A Message from the Ridgewood Superintendent of Schools

Dr. Daniel Fishbein

“Summer is quickly coming to an end and the opening day of school, September 3, is nearly here.  We have all been working hard to ensure that our buildings and programs are ready for the first day of school.

Most importantly, on the instructional front our teachers and administrators have been busy writing new curriculum and improving existing curriculum at all grade levels. We have revised K-5 level curricula in English Language Arts, Social Studies and Health. At the Middle School level, we have revised our 6-8 Math, and Band and Orchestra programs. Finally, at Ridgewood High School we have revised 22 courses in the areas of Business, World Languages, Math, Fine and Applied Arts, and Wellness. We also have our new staff in place and are providing them with a four-day orientation so they are ready to go when students arrive.

As a reminder, our enhanced security system includes an exterior visitor management system at all of our schools. All visitors — including parents and guardians — are required to swipe their driver’s license through a reader prior to being buzzed in and reporting directly to the main office (or to the entry station at Ridgewood High School) to receive their visitor’s badge. Neglecting to follow these steps could result in a building lockdown. Please remember to bring your driver’s license when you come to your child’s school during the school year.

Mandatory re-registration through Skyward is now open and ongoing through the start of school on Tuesday, September 3.  Below you will find details on Skyward re-registration, as well as other useful information that will help ease your transition to the new school year.  The school year calendar, back-to-school night dates and save the dates for our first community outreach programs this school year – a viewing of the movie Angst about dealing with anxiety and a presentation about bullying by Mallory’s Army this fall — are also included. Please refer to our website and your individual school web pages for many other updates and news items .

Lastly, please remember that there may be traffic delays around the Village of Ridgewood due to the repair of our local roads, sidewalk replacements, and utility upgrades. Planning a little extra time to get safely to school is a temporary and minor inconvenience in exchange for these long-lasting improvements.

Please feel free to reach out to me at dfishbein@ridgewood.k12.nj.us with any suggestions, questions or concerns.

Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year! I hope it will be a great school year for everyone!”