Author: admin

>PJ – After the incident 2 years ago when a Ridgewood Emergency Services operated and Village owned Generator was sent to that Deli in Midland Park, how will the Valley Hospital reimburse the Village for its use of this equipment, in addition to the Communications vehicle, communications equipment, and nearly a dozen paid and volunteer personnel. Although Ridgewood Emergency Services, the RPD, and RFD do a great job in responding to all calls and handling all responses professionally… the Valley Hospital is strictly a TAKE ALL, and GIVE NONE business. Valley Hospital pays $0 in Taxes and Donates $0 to the RPD, RFD, and Emergency Services, or any other Ridgewoon Entity that would benefit its residents, and Village Residents recieve the same bills as non-residents from the hospital and its services. I strongly believe the Valley Hospital should be send a bill for the use of Village equipment and services today. The RFD responds on several calls a month to the Valley Hospital, and receives $0 compensation for the Tax Payer expenses to send them there. Ridgewood Emergency Services spend approximately 50 Man-hours on-site today to assist in the Power Failure – When Valley’s equipment failed after a transformer explosion on Linwood Ave. Valley is spending millions on their expansion, you think they could afford a few hundred thousand to install and maintain proper generators and communications equipment, or at least Donate to Ridgewood to compensate the use of Village equipment, services, and personnel? Somone on the counsil needs to stand up to these bullies!

>July 25, 2008

To residents of Ridgewood:

As you may have heard, PSE&G expects to raise prices about 20 percent this Fall, and may in fact raise prices even beyond that – in two 5 percent increments – in later months.

This is being done in spite of the fact that there is no shortage of natural gas but that rates have been bid up by speculators. The rate increase doesn’t give us any credit for the possibility that prices of natural gas might indeed come down.

There is a public hearing to discuss this matter before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities takes final action on whether or not to approve.

The public hearing is Aug. 18 at 7 pm. It will be held in Hackensack in the Bergen County Administration Building, Room 540, at 1 Bergen County Plaza.

It’s my hope that a group of Ridgewood citizens will be willing to attend this meeting to protest. Or at least contribute to a stack of Go Green emails that I may present to show them your views when I attend this meeting on your behalf.

I learned of this moments ago in reading papers in the weekly packet I get each Friday as a Council member. For the record please note that PSE&G took steps to minimalize the news by minimalizing the type – it’s about one quarter the size of lettering in other documents.

Anyway, I’m passing this on to you for your edification and, hopefully, your help.

Please join me in letting PSE&G know that how we in Ridgewood feel about this. Please pass this on to others whom you know will be concerned.

If it becomes necessary to pass along cost increases, PSE&G shouldn’t be given carte blanche to do that. Such actions should be scrutinized each time since such actions inflict real pain on everybody.

Best,

Annie

>

>Tuesday, July 22, 2008

BY BRENDAN PRUNTY
Star-Ledger Staff

After playing Ridgewood Country Club a number of times in preparation for The Barclays next month, Phil Mickelson believes the FedEx Cup will be getting off to a great start.

“I’ve done a couple of outings out there, so I’ve had a chance to see the golf course and play it,” Mickelson said yesterday while making an appearance in Jersey City. “With it being our first FedEx Cup event, it’s important to get off to a good start.”

Tiger Woods is out for the rest of this year after having surgery on his left knee last month, meaning Mickelson will be the top draw when the first event of the PGA Tour’s four-tournament playoff comes to New Jersey next month. With The Barclays moving from its longtime home at Westchester (N.Y.) Country Club to Ridgewood in Paramus last winter, players have expressed their enthusiasm for the classic course.

“It’s interesting. They’re both wonderful, historic sights,” Mickelson said. “But I think Ridgewood has a little bit more with the Ryder Cup (held there in 1935), as well as (other) championships. I think it will be a cool site.”

It’s a site Mickelson will be more familiar with because of his practice rounds at the course. With its tricky greens, thick rough and oak tree-lined fairways, Ridgewood will be a unique test for the field.

“I’m familiar with how the course will be set up, how the rough and the greens will be set up,” Mickelson said. “I did that because I hadn’t really played the course before.”

The Barclays, which will be played Aug. 21-24, will be the first professional tournament Mickelson will play in the Garden State since he won the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. He said he’s enthused to get back to playing in front of the crowds that supported him during that major win three summers ago.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “This is going to be a key tournament for the end of the year.”

Mickelson, on his way home from the British Open, where he finished tied for 19th at 14 over par, was at the Liberty Science Center with his wife Amy for the fourth annual Mickelson/ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. The program was developed to give teachers the opportunity to expand math and science skills.

It’s been a whirlwind 36 hours for Mickelson, who flew to New York after his final round at the British Open and then arrived in Jersey City. This morning, he and Amy will be in Washington testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee about the importance of math and science education.

Brendan Prunty may be reached at [email protected].

>Monday, July 21, 2008
Editorial
The Star-Ledger

A testing standard that says getting 33 percent of the questions right is a passing grade teaches all the wrong lessons to the kids — and to those who are supposed to be educating them.

Yet New Jersey has been setting the mark as low as that for the tests that are used to judge student proficiency and school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind program.

Fortunately, that is about to change.

Last week, the state Department of Education took a step toward setting the bar higher. We hope the move sends a signal that the focus of educational testing is not about the rank of a school or a district or the state.

The focus must be on finding all the students who need help, not “dumbing down” the tests in order to hide the numbers who are floundering. Mississippi and some other states have been accused of doing that. Who knew New Jersey was in that company?

For students in grades 5 through 8, getting 33 to 46 percent of the questions right has been enough to earn the label “proficient” in math or language arts in New Jersey.

Now students must get 50 to 56 percent right — which is still not much to ask. The state plans to gradually enact higher standards for all grades. Why should any be lower than 50 percent?

The change may cost some schools their bragging rights about student performance, because the overall pass rates are expected to go down. Currently 76 percent of kids statewide pass the sixth-grade language arts examination. That is expected to drop to 54 percent. That will be a shocker.

The standards were approved last week, but will be used to grade tests that were taken in the spring. There will be howls from schools that say the retroactive application is unfair. In fact it is the best way to get an objective comparison of the old and the new.

The state Department of Education must to do a good job of explaining its changes and reinforcing the idea that true learning, not hollow test scores, is the only acceptable goal. If parents are not well prepared, they will be angry and confused as their children slide out of what was assumed to be the educational safety zone, even if the grading system made it a false assumption. Educators will be angry and frustrated, particularly those who have confused keeping up appearances with the obligation to teach children what they need to know.

Could this change put more schools in line for No Child Left Behind sanctions, from mandatory tutoring to a forced reorganization of some schools? That is a possibility, although expectations of harsh sanctions have so far proven more myth than reality.

If the ultimate goal is learning, as it must be, test scores should be used as a tool to help the students by identifying individual strengths and weaknesses and addressing them before those students enter the harsh reality of the world beyond 12th grade.

Schools should fear failing that mission more than they fear test scores or No Child Left Behind.

©2008 Star Ledger
© 2008 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.

>N.J. raises bar for pupil test scores

State Board of Education admits change could surprise parents

Thursday, July 17, 2008

BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger Staff
New Jersey made it harder yesterday for public school students to prove their proficiency on state exams — a change that could cause more schools to run afoul of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The action by the state Board of Education, which approved raising the scores for reading and math tests in grades 5 through 8, highlights how remarkably low the threshold for the scores had been. Students scoring as low as 33 percent correct had been deemed proficient.

The change raised the so-called “cut scores” for proficiency to at least 50 percent in the four affected grades, and also raised the requirements to be considered “advanced proficient.”

The new cut scores will be used to grade tests given last spring. Officials said similar moves are envisioned in the coming years for other grades’ tests, including the state’s high school exit exam. Some of those tests still have cut scores in the 30s.

“What we don’t want to do is mask our weaknesses,” said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. “The incentive may be to have the lowest standard we can, but that doesn’t serve the kids.”

Davy stressed that student performance still appeared to improve last spring in most of the tests. But with the changes, passing rates are likely to drop in a majority of tests, markedly in some cases, she said.

In sixth grade, for example, state estimates show the language arts passing rate would have risen from 76 percent to 80 percent this year using the old cut scores, but instead will drop to 54 percent.

For parents and teachers, it could be a jolt to see a child no longer deemed proficient or advanced, and officials acknowledged that the onus will be on the state and districts to explain the change in the coming months as final scores go out.

“Parents will need to understand we have raised the standards and their children may need more help,” said deputy commissioner Willa Spicer. “There are parents who will be surprised.”

In New Jersey and many other states, cut scores have been set notoriously low with the advent of increased testing, and especially No Child Left Behind, which requires schools to reach proficiency targets in reading and math or face possible sanctions.

To provide districts some short-term protection against the predicted drop in passage rates, state officials plan to reduce the proficiency requirements considered by No Child — but set by the state.

State board members yesterday were largely supportive of the change, but some voiced concern about how schools and teachers will react, noting it may further drive a “test prep” trend over which some educators are agonizing.

The detailed process of setting the cut scores had been quietly churning forward for almost a year with the advent of new, longer tests in grades 5 through 8.

“I know that when you start the year, you have a certain standard … and to change the standard at the very end is not the way to do it,” said member Kathleen Dietz, the lone dissenting vote. “There needs to be some warning.”

But all agreed the benchmark needed to be raised for students and schools, with one member citing his own fifth-grade child who took the tests last year.

“I realize this could impact where he’s placed,” said Arcelio Aponte, the board’s vice president. “But as a parent, I’d want to know if he’s not responding correctly.”

John Mooney may be reached at [email protected] or (973) 392-1548

The Fly wants to know what you think Mrs. Botsford (head of testing) will do now that NJ has “raised” its standards. Any suggestions for her?

>When they put in ramps for the disabled at buildings, they don’t take away the doors. Not the ones nearest the ramp. Not the ones fartherest from the ramp.

Let’s be clear. There is nothing in any of the laws, regulations, or court decisions requiring that access be made harder for the abled in order to make it easier for the disabled.

To quote from the ADA Web site:

“Public entities do not necessarily have to make each of their existing facilities accessible. They may provide program accessibility by a number of methods including alteration of existing facilities, acquisition or construction of additional facilities, relocation of a service or program to an accessible facility, or provision of services at alternate accessible sites.”

You’ll notice that nowhere does it say the disabled and abled have to have the same access. So NJ Transit’s position is bogus when it comes to legal requirements.

The next claim, that opening doors on both sides would slow down operations, is equally suspect. Opening both doors clears the cars faster and, by allowing the abled to file out one side, actually leaves the disabled with better access on the other!

Ridgewood should not cave in on this issue.