Education Reform : Putting the teacher evaluation pilot in perspective
NJ Spotlight on Saturday hosted the second in a series of roundtable discussions about New Jersey’s pilot teacher evaluation program, in which 10 districts and another 19 schools are testing new methods for how teachers are judged on both their own performance and that of their students.
Sitting on the panel were the director of the state program and four educators working with the system from Newark, Paterson and Elizabeth. More than 150 attended the two-hour discussion held in the City Council chambers of Jersey City’s City Hall. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
State education officials have announced 26 qualified charter school apply
State education officials have announced 26 qualified charter school applicants for 2012, including five candidates in Camden.
The state this year has sought applications from charter school operators from around the country in an attempt to encourage “successful and replicable” models.
Two of the Camden schools also would serve students from the Pennsauken district, according to a list released by the state Department of Education. (Staff, Gannett)
State’s junk food ban could take bite out of school fundraisers
By Laurel J. Sweet and Chris Cassidy
Monday, May 7, 2012 – Updated 1 minute ago
Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby cash-strapped classrooms, PTAs and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fundraisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.
At a minimum, the nosh clampdown targets so-called “competitive” foods — those sold or served during the school day in hallways, cafeterias, stores and vending machines outside the regular lunch program, including bake sales, holiday parties and treats dished out to reward academic achievement. But state officials are pushing schools to expand the ban 24/7 to include evening, weekend and community events such as banquets, door-to-door candy sales and football games.
Newcomers can only say what they WOULD do if elected. Incumbents ought to be able to say what they DID
Harshly and repeatedly criticizing one’s colleagues is not a convincing platform for reelection. Standard advice to job seekers is NOT to trash their former employers and co-workers because it would reflect badly on themselves and is hardly a strong argument for being hired. That should work here as well. Dirty politics has no place in a suburban council election.
The tax increase prematurely quoted in the press is very far from final. It was merely a first look at the budget. Many residents don’t realize that it would apply only to the small municipal government portion of the budget, which is mostly a blank check to the schools. They are mentally multiplying the number by their existing property taxes and panicking.
Raises: Aronsohn has voted for every police and fire union contract in the past 4 years. Employee contracts (not counting the current Village Manager’s) were approved by the former Council. Four reasonable council members voted for the village manager’s raise. Disagree? OK. But is their decision to give somebody a raise really a good enough reason to vote for somebody else? It was one thing, blasted out of proportion by Aronsohn when he (or White Horse Strategies) grabbed it as a key to reelection…because he has very little else to offer.
Besides the fact that a 0%-based budget is better as a soundbite than as a plan for municipal government, how can Aronsohn reduce taxes or keep them low, as he claims he will do, while fully funding the library, revitalizing downtown, and pressing for enormous so-called accessibility projects when more thought could have had the job done better and at far lower cost?
Take a look at the new sidewalk at the Stable. Who planned it–the designer of Candyland? Or maybe Chutes and Ladders. It takes you (that is, apparently everyone) up from the parking lot, turn left, turn right, turn left, go to the Maple Avenue regular sidewalk, then up to the door–it couldn’t be more circuitous, with hard 90-degree turns rather than rounded edges. The turn radius at each corner, and there are many, is sharp and not easily maneuvered.
Yes, a very gentle specific maximum slope is required for wheelchairs; on hills, that requires a twisty-turny path. But accessibility to a building is supposed to give everybody a fair shot at getting through the door, not make things harder for everybody else every day. Did a single accessibility engineer review the plans? Unless another path will be added, and it doesn’t look that way, people attending meetings at the Stable (there are many) will have to leave home 5 minutes earlier–no exaggeration–just to get from the parking lot to the main door.
That trip is entirely exposed to the elements, too. When it’s raining or snowing or windy, this will be a long, wet, cold trip for all. And it will have to be cleared routinely of ice, snow, and debris in order for ANYONE to get in.
People in wheelchairs are not the only population needing better access. Those with Parkinson’s, a cane, a walker, crutches, a small child in tow, etc.–far greater numbers–will be exhausted. It can be difficult, but it’s not impossible, to accommodate all, and that’s what it’s all about. Why didn’t Aronsohn find and consult an expert? These projects require care and expertise. But no–just having the concrete poured is good enough for Paul Aronsohn, and now, 6 figures later, we are stuck with it.
The State Development/Redevelopment Plan: This Plan is an extension of the UN Agenda 21 which is being pushed into local communities throughout the USA through local ‘sustainable development’ policies such as Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, and other “Green” or “Alternative” projects. This is a radical Plan which views the American way of life of private property ownership, single family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms, all destructive to the environment. There’s more …. please attend and learn firsthand the underlying harmful implications if this Plan is implemented and what we can do to stop it.
7 pm, Tuesday, May 8th at the Larkin House
380 Godwin Avenue, Wyckoff (1/4 mile North of Stop & Shop on the right)
More Information: 201 891-5918 [email protected]
www.westbergenteaparty.com
Weak Economy Disappoints Again
Mike BrownfieldMay 4, 2012
Every day, America waits for a brighter future to arrive — the promise of change that President Barack Obama made in 2009 when he set a benchmark for his success on the economy, remarking, “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” More than three years later, very little has changed. As today’s jobs report shows, the U.S. economy only added 115,000 jobs in April — well below expectations and far, far below what is necessary to drive the economy back to full employment.
Lackluster employment results dominate today’s report. It’s been three years under the Obama policies, and 12.5 million Americans remain out of work. No demographic group except black workers saw an improvement in their unemployment rate, and 13 percent of black workers remain unemployed. What’s more, the labor force participation fell to the lowest level since 1981 at 63.6 percent. Americans are fleeing this economy when at this stage workers should be returning to the labor force.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. While little has changed with the economy, little has changed in President Obama’s failed policies. Rampant federal spending continues unchecked; the debt continues to grow; a monstrous tax hike is set to hit Americans on January 1, 2013, infecting the economy with renewed and debilitating uncertainty, and the country’s energy policy remains in shambles.
The latest example of the president’s recycling of his Administration’s failed ideas came in a speech this week to the Building and Construction Trades Department Conference. Obama used the opportunity to pander to his Big Labor allies and called for more federal spending on infrastructure as a panacea for job creation, claiming that his proposals would put “hundreds of thousands of construction workers back to work repairing our roads, our bridges, schools, transit systems.”
Christie says vouchers are needed to repair poor schools
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said school vouchers are needed to repair a public-education system that has left students unprepared for college and work.
New Jersey’s High School Graduation Rates Drop
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
By Colleen O’Dea : NJ Spotlight
The New Jersey Department of Education Tuesday released 2011 graduation rates for high schools that were largely lower, in some cases significantly lower, than prior years.
Statewide, the rate calculated using the “four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate” formula now required by the federal government was 83 percent for last spring’s high school seniors. For the Class of 2010, the graduation rate — largely self-reported by schools — was 94.7 percent for New Jersey.
Last year, nine of the state’s 392 schools had perfect graduation rates. That’s almost 90 percent fewer than the 82 schools that reported all seniors had graduated in 2010. Similarly, four schools reported that fewer than half of students graduated in 2010, while last year, that number had risen to a dozen.
Christie, rewriting rules for graduation, will fill in blanks later
After much talk since taking office, Gov. Chris Christie yesterday finally released his plans — some new, some old — to raise the requirements for gaining a high school diploma in New Jersey.
But it will be some time for the changes to take hold, if they get that far. The first students to face the requirements will be today’s fourth graders when they reach high school in 2016.
Christie and his top education staff yesterday used a visit to West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School North — one of the state’s higher performing schools — to unveil a much-anticipated list of proposed changes to what will be required to graduate from a New Jersey high school. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Due to budget constraints the Village of Ridgewood May day parade has been canceled
In many countries, May Day is also Labor Day. This originates with the United States labor movement in the late 19th Century. On May 1, 1886, unions across the country went on strike, demanding that the standard workday be shortened to eight hours. The organizers of these strikes included socialists, anarchists, and others in organized labor movements. Rioting in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4th including a bomb thrown by an anarchist led to the deaths of a dozen people (including several police officers) and the injury of over 100 more.
The protests were not immediately successful, but they proved effective down the line, as eight-hour work days eventually did become the norm. Labor leaders, socialists, and anarchists around the world took the American strikes and their fallout as a rallying point, choosing May Day as a day for demonstrations, parades, and speeches. It was a major state holiday in the Soviet Union and other communist countries.
Labor Day is still celebrated on May 1 in countries around the world, and it is still often a day for protests and rallies. In recent years, these have often been targeted against globalization.
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the unfarmable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations. As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint’s Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
As hundreds of thousands of New Jersey schoolchildren sit down for state testing over the course of the next month, NJ Spotlight came upon at least three families who are sitting this one out.
Particularly notable: They are teachers and administrators themselves, past and present. And each said that’s part of the reason they’ve decided to opt out their kids, having seen how pervasive testing has become in schools where they’ve worked. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
RIDEWOOD SCHOOL ANNUAL PARENT/GUARDIAN SURVEY COMES OUT IN MAY
The Ridgewood Public Schools will solicit user feedback on the district’s new student information system in its annual parent/guardian survey this May.This year’s survey focuses on the single topic of the Skyward Family Access software system.
The brief, seven-question survey is targeted for e-mail distribution on Monday, May 7. All parents and guardians with e-mail addresses on file with the school district will be sent a separate survey link for every school their children currently attend. Parents and guardians will have until Friday, May 18, to complete the surveys. All responses and comments are completely anonymous. A dedicated e-mail address has been set up to take questions or concerns at [email protected]
Gov. Bobby Jindal to attend school voucher summit in New Jersey
Gov. Bobby Jindal will travel to New Jersey next week to speak to a pro-voucher group, only two weeks after the Louisiana governor signed a bill that creates a statewide voucher program that will use tax dollars to send children to private schools.
The American Federation for Children said Monday that Jindal is participating in its 2012 national policy meeting, which is set for May 3 and 4. (Associated Press)
It was a privilege to serve this outstanding district for the last nine years. I will apologize to my four former colleagues for leaving you with unfinished business, but as we know all too well an artificial time constraint is not in anyone’s best interest especially in light of the financial crossroads that this district faces. It is that unfinished business I would like to talk about.
I hope you will indulge me.
We all have heard that our teachers have felt disrespected by the action this board took by not including any salary increase in our 2011-12 operating budget. I’d like to take a moment to outline the many steps this Board took to avoid that action.
60% of you were not board members 3 years ago when we requested that the REA make a minor concession to help us balance the budget and save some programs. They were not so inclined to honor that request. The sitting board made the necessary program cuts so that we could meet our contractual obligations of teacher salary increases despite an incredibly difficult recession.
60% of you were not board members 2 years ago when in light of budget issues exacerbated by the elimination of all of our state aid, the board again made a request of the REA for concessions. Again, the REA declined, instead directing that sitting board to make the tough decisions. That full board made those tough decisions which again resulted in program cuts. I believe it is very safe for me to say that all of us felt that those cuts began the dismantling of the Ridgewood Public Schools as our parents and students had come to know them. But again, we met our contractual obligations for annual teacher salary increases and health benefits.
60% of you were not board members in October 2010 when the sitting board commenced its preparation to enter negotiations with the REA, a full nine months before the contract would expire. The board, based on the previous two years I just described, desired to stop the dismantling of our school system and thus, our contractual obligations with the REA needed to be sustainable inside the 2% state-mandated cap. Plus from that same recent history we knew that the REA was not inclined to make concessions during the period of a contract, thusly we had one bite of the apple and it had to be fiscally responsible.
Just to digress for a moment – in light of the economic times during those two years, perhaps the taxpayers of Ridgewood felt somewhat disrespected by the REA. Families were making cuts, balancing tighter budgets, watching spending closely, and yet the REA would not make a single concession. Speaking from personal experience, my family was living that due to my own unemployment situation from June 2010 to April 2011. From my own networking, my situation was not the exception. One could said that there is simply a disconnect between what the majority of Ridgewood taxpayers face in their day-to-day employment and what the REA expects from this Board.
Back to the topic at hand. 60% of you did not have to work through those times, and to the best of our collective ability, the 2011 – 2012 budget presented to the public a stable, fiscally responsible budget which was balanced without any teacher salary increases, significantly helped by a partial restoration of state aid – otherwise program cuts would have been much worse. That budget reflects our current year of operations, 2011-2012. In response to the Union’s directive to make tough decisions, our Board made and implemented those tough decisions.
People have asked me why I refer to the REA as an association or a bargaining unit. My immediate response is, quite frankly, to be nice. Maybe I don’t have to be nice anymore, but at the very least, let’s be honest when we discuss these topics. The REA is a union. As with any union, it is there to fight for the best economic deal for its membership. That is its sole purpose, to the exclusion of all others. Their questioning of science kits, Ipad expenditures, roof replacement on this very structure and alike is simple — the union wants every dollar possible for its membership.
But the Board of Education does not serve the REA, it serves every stakeholder in our schools – from parents to students, administrators to taxpayers. The Board has a higher calling to be trustees of the total system. The two of you with whom I have had lengthy service and all the others over the last nine years have done that, and done it well. I have no reservation in making that statement.
For the three of you falling into the 60% category, I have a request of you. Listen to and learn from those of the 40% variety — nearly 20 years of experience and multiple past negotiations with the REA. I believe they have an invaluable background of knowledge to share. There may be an easier path, but it is not the one of a higher calling that serves all the different groups who have a stake in the success of Ridgewood Public Schools.
I suspect that if anyone has been listening they know I have now covered 100%. I have one more number to share before I close.
Most recently a chorus has been heard directly focused at the Board – settle with the teachers now. Rarely, if ever, is a chorus ever directed at the REA. Why is that? Are there not two sides to any negotiation?
Maybe my last number will shed some light on why that chorus is limited in its numbers. It happened to me prior to my tenure on the board. The number I wish to share is one.
I would hope that my family is the only one which has ever received a letter from a ranking member of the REA directed to and reprimanding my eldest son for his writing of a letter to the editor stating his ideas and opinions regarding teachers’ salaries and benefits which was contrary to the REA position during the turbulent negotiations of 2002. At that time my eldest son, the writer, had just completed his freshman year of college. This same letter included a veiled threat at my youngest son and I quote: “I also hope that as Tommy begins high school, the teachers will not associate him with your negative comments.” It made my family think twice about the good faith of the union, and whether they are acting to serve the students or merely their own membership.
I will leave you with that and simply say thank you for your service to this community and be on my way. It is my hope that all Board trustees, both now and into the future, understand the tradition, the trusteeship and responsibilities that are yours.
