Category: Ridgewood Schools

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Resolution for Adoption of the $111,000,000 2019-2020 Ridgewood School Budget for Submission to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools

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the staff of the Ridgewoodblog

Ridgewood NJ, Approval: Resolution for Adoption of the 2019-2020 Budget for Submission to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools The Ridgewood Board of Education, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, approves the following resolution: BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education approves the 2019-2020 school district budget, as follows, for submission to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools: Dr. Fishbein Budget Tax Levy General Fund $107,043,634 $96,014,943 Special Revenue Fund $ 1,467,567 $ 0 Debt Service Fund $ 3,138,550 $ 2,869,732 Total Budget $111,649,751 $98,884,675

The district has proposed programs and services in addition to the Core Curriculum Content Standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Information on this budget and the programs and services it provides is available from the school district.

There should be raised for the General Fund Tax Levy $96,014,943 for the ensuing School Year: (2019-2020). The General Fund includes $300,000 which is to be withdrawn from Emergency Reserve. CAPITAL RESERVE STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Included in budget line 620, Budgeted Withdrawal from Capital Reserve – Excess Cost & Other Capital Projects, is $1,300,000 for the following construction projects: • Renovation of Four Bathrooms at BFMS and GWMS • Replacement of Stadium Turf Field at RHS • Districtwide Parking Lot Paving • Repairs to the BFMS Track Pole Vault & Javelin Areas

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Reader points out , “It’s not like coaching people to get into schools is a new thing”

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“To summaries: wealthy parents spread the wealth among various service providers (tutors, essay Writers, etc.) to send their kids to school where they’ll spend another $300k on a bachelors degree. Sounds like they are the losers. A better question is, why is this investigation happening now? It’s not like coaching people to get into schools is a new thing. Wouldn’t the same investigators be better used to catch fentanyl distributors? Just a month ago billionaires were caught paying for sex (what a crime!) and now this. Who’s directing these investigations? “

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Ridgewood Schools Will See Big Jump in State Aid for 2020

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Governor Murphy today announced state school aid funding for his Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal that provides record levels of support for New Jersey schools.

The Governor’s proposed budget would provide $15.4 billion to support schools, a record level for New Jersey education funding.

Continue reading Ridgewood Schools Will See Big Jump in State Aid for 2020
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Reader Supports a “NO CONFIDENCE “VOTE Against the Ridgewood Board of Education

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I keep hoping people will stop swallowing — and repeating — the propaganda being fed them about “tradition of excellence”. It is easier and more comfortable to believe that, but they are being shortchanged. We can and should do better! The large and small examples of dysfunction that disprove the propaganda are out in the open. I support the “no-confidence” vote proposal you are putting forward, and I am a Ridgewood mom with kids in the system!

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Ridgewood Board of Education Meeting Tonight

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Board of Education Meets 
Monday, February 11, 2019
49 Cottage Place
7:30 p.m.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold its next Regular Public Meeting on Monday,February 11, 2019. The Board meets at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3 at 7:30 p.m. 

The public is welcome to attend the meeting, or to watch from home on Fios channel 33 or Optimum channel 77. Meetings are also streamed via the “BOE Webcast” tab on the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.

Meeting webcasts are immediately available on the district website.
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BFMS Music to the Ears

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, BFMS Choral ,Orchestra and Band have big news. Justine Kawash, BFMS Choral Director Grades 6-8 reports on the Region I auditions: Alexis Rosenfeld (Gr. 7, Alto) and Katarina Burton (Gr. 7, Alto) were selected as members of the Region I 2019 Chorus.

Carol Sharar, BFMS Orchestra Director, reports that five string players have won placement into the prestigious Region I Intermediate Orchestra for 2019. They are: Harin Jeong (Gr. 8, violin), Phillip Bang (Gr. 8, viola, 1st chair), Ania Skulskaia (Gr. 7, violin), Jenny Yang (Gr. 7, violin) and Jenny Jang (Gr. 7, violin), who in addition also won Silver in the Scholastic Writing Contest.

Jason Curcio, BFMS Director of Bands and the Jazz Machine, has announced the Region Band selectees for 2019: Annie Skulskaia (Gr. 7, flute), Seung He Rhew (Gr. 8, clarinet,) Jennifer Lee (Gr. 7, clarinet), Eojin Kikm (Gr. 8, clarinet) and Joelle Yoon (Gr. 7, trombone).

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Reader says ,” We don’t get leaders in BOE or Village Council. We get ‘nice’ folks with mediocre experience and certainly not people who will drive change or rock the boat”

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“Same old tune. We don’t get leaders in BOE or Village Council. We get ‘nice’ folks with mediocre experience and certainly not people who will drive change or rock the boat. Ask yourselves, have ever been in a room when a real leader who is innovative and problem solver speaks and takes control of the situation, deliverers what they say, confronts obstacles, and keeps moving forward. Do you get that when Kaufman speaks? Sedon? Fishbein? Gorman? Knudson? All nice folks who can not lead, drive change, or provide solutions. Imagine any of them entering a board room and trying to influence a $110M budget in a corporate environment. They would not last 5 minutes. let alone years of continued weak non existent leadership.

Wake up folks”

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Reader says , “maybe the kids don’t deserve the scholarships”

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“Just a thought- maybe the kids don’t deserve the scholarships. Maybe, and I’m sure you’ll all prove me wrong with a plethora of angry comments about the lazy, greedy teachers but maybe just maybe the kids are not worthy of the awards you feel they are entitled to. I know in Ridgewood entitlement is a tough concept for many but maybe, on some outside shot the kids are not trying as hard or missing too much class time out of school on weeklong skitrips or maybe their parents are just pushing them through and overcompensating for all of their failures by placing blame on everyone but the actual kids. Just a thought, and I’m probably wrong – sorry to interrupt the blamefest -carry on with the venemous posts.”

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Reader asks , “how could we only have 4, National Merritt Scholars”

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Many of our teachers are excellent and among the best in the nation. They are truly trying their best to properly educate our students. Many others are like one of my daughter’s teachers who said, “I really don’t have to do anything but fill a chair until I retire. I HAVE TENURE!” Or another daughter who constantly cut class and was in danger of not graduating because she had not filled her Physical Education requirements. I said “summer school for the educational classes she cut.” They said, “Oh, no. She has health problems so we’re only double upping on her PE.” And this went on while we were still highly ranked! At that time, however, we had 12 or more National Merit Scholars and around 35 National Merit Awarded Students. And they ALL got tons of offers including Ivy and other highly ranked colleges. Even as bad as the schools have gotten, how could we only have 4? Nowadays Ridgewood parents tutor their kids for everything so are the tutors that bad as well? It’s really an unreal situation to be that badly thought of by colleges. And I personally know many of the current great teachers. What is happening to the schools?

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Ridgewood Schools Strike Back at Residents

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, once again we are reminded why so many parents and residents passively and some would say blindly support the Ridgewood Board of Education.  Despite the many missteps , declining rankings, fighting,bullying, drug dealing ,bigots and ballooning budget the BOE continues to hold on to significant support by Village residents .

The ugly reality once again is fear by residents of retribution by the BOE,school administrators , teachers and coaches on their childern and the implosion of property values tied to school performance .Not suprisingly  recent criticism of the Boards move to use taxpayer money to launch a lawsuit to extend trustee terms with no tangible benefit to students and taxpayers has been primarily spearheaded residents who no longer have children in Ridgewood public schools or never had children in Ridgewood Schools. 

Continue reading Ridgewood Schools Strike Back at Residents
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2018-2019 Ridgewood Board of Education Goals

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  1. Complete negotiations on the REA and RAA contracts.
  2. Identify the capital projects to be included in a Bond Referendum and design a communications plan.
  3. Schedule a Board presentation on the 2nd year implementation of the full day kindergarten program.
  4. Monitor progress made to address the Special Education Department study recommendations with reports to the Board in January and June of 2019.
  5. Plan and facilitate a community meeting with representation from a wide range of stakeholder groups to develop our next 3-year Strategic Plan (2019 – 2022).
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The Public Education System is Failing Our Kids

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the nation’s “report card,”  was released last April and its was filled with some very sobering facts on public education. As we head into 2019 the Ridgewood thought it was time to restate some of the findings.

According to the report only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.

The atrocious National Assessment of Educational Progress performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math.

For black students, the news is even worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level.

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PARCC Refuseniks Win Major Court Victory

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, a New Jersey Appellate court has handed the PARCC Refuseniks a major victory . New Jersey’s Department of Education rules that force students to pass PARCC tests before graduating from high school has been declared invalid.

A panel of state appellate court judges on Monday struck down the requirement that students must pass state exams in Algebra I and 10th grade English, saying that the rules put into place in 2016, don’t match a state law that requires students to pass just a single test in 11th grade in order to graduate.

The ruling will not take effect for 30 days, giving the state Department of Education time to appeal to the state Supreme Court if it wants, the judges wrote. If the decision holds, though, it will allow students to graduate without having passed the controversial and unpopular exams.

According to anti PARCC activist Carolee Adams the, “Set aside by the courts, and not by the Governor’s pre-election statement that he would “End PARCC Day One”, we still await a possible appeal from the NJDOE. If the Governor will now claim it his victory, that he might, he could still help by reining in his Secretary of Education to dismiss any appeal. What a terrible waste of precious time, money, and education this has caused. “

 She also thanked the” Education Law Center and all of us who continued to fight this abominable, uber-expensive test that disrespected parental rights, ignored common sense, and dumbed down the education of New Jersey’s student . “

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Ridgewood Board of Education Public Meeting tonight December 17, 2018 7:30 PM

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Board of Education Public Meeting   will be tonight December 17, 2018 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place .

At all regular meetings, two opportunities are provided for citizens to make comments. The public comment periods will be scheduled after presentations. or just prior to the end of the meeting, whichever occurs first. The first opportunity may be limited by the presiding officer . in order for the Board to continue with its scheduled agenda. The second opportunity will occur at the discretion of the presiding officer taking into consideration a break point in the agenda.

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Anti-Semitic, Racist Graffiti Found at Schools Throughout Bergen and Union Counties

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file photo by Boyd Loving

the staff of the Ridgewod blog

Ridgewood NJ, Several schools in Bergen and Union counties have recently been vandalized with graffiti containing hateful messages and symbols. In Bergen County, a student at Ridgewood High School alerted officials on December 4 of a swastika alongside a Star of David carved into a bathroom stall.

On November 30, swastikas and racial slurs were found on a bathroom wall at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale. That incident follows several others since September in which anti-Semitic and racist graffiti had been drawn at nearby Pascack Valley High School in Hillside. In Union County, students reported on November 30 that swastikas had been scrawled inside bathrooms at Summit High School.

The symbol and other offensive drawings had been discovered a day earlier on bathroom walls at Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School. Superintendent of Summit Public Schools June Chang told parents that swastikas were also seen at the middle school before the Thanksgiving holiday break.

On November 29, Edison Intermediate School Principal Matthew Bolton told families a student at the Westfield school “defaced school property with messages of hate directed at various groups.” Similar incidents in the area occurred over the past two months, as a swastika was drawn in a bathroom at Franklin Elementary School and misogynistic, racist, and anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on exterior walls of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.