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Ridgewood Schools 2019-2020 $111,646,751 Budget

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2019-2020 PROPOSED PRELIMINARY BUDGET
The slide portion of the presentation — reflecting Board-approved financial revisions — may be viewed here.

Following a presentation and discussion, the Board approved a Resolution for adoption of the 2019-2020 Proposed Preliminary Budget for Submission to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools. as follows:

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The General Fund Tax Levy is $96,014,943 for the ensuing School Year: (2019-2020).

Continue reading Ridgewood Schools 2019-2020 $111,646,751 Budget
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March 26 is the deadline for registering to vote in the 2019-20 $111 Million school budget Decision

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Are you registered to vote?

Ridgewood NJ, Tuesday, March 26 is the deadline for registering to vote in the April 16, 2019 school election for the 2019-20 school budget.

PLEASE NOTE: The annual school election on Tuesday, April 16 falls during Spring Recess for the Ridgewood Public Schools. Schools will be closed but polls will be open from 6 a.m.- 8 p.m. Or, VOTE BY MAIL! It’s easy! Just send in the application form to the Bergen County Clerk by Tuesday, April 9.

Links to vote-by-mail applications and voter registration forms in various languages may be found on our voter page on the district website at https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/…/distric…/voter_information.

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Reader says , “RHS’s acceptance is better than those schools advertise as the national rate”

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James, the person that keeps posting that our schools can’t produce statistically significant numbers of students gaining acceptance to the best colleges and universities and other unsupported bullS**T is “fake news”. Please have this CNN employee find some proof or evidence as we have asked for in the past.

This is what I see…. https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1383000764/school.aspx
And for the 4 generations of my family that have been here, nobody sees it as a decline over the decades either. He or she is free to hate the people running the schools but the facts show our kids perform great and are accepted to great schools (regardless of opinions about people teaching and running the schools). I previously also spot checked the acceptance rates at the Ivy’s (since he or she has also mentioned them frequently) and RHS’s acceptance is better than those schools advertise as the national rate. Which is pretty impressive given one would expect our kids to be up against a negative bias as the Ivies strive for both geographic and racial of diversity.
On top of all of that; if ranked against other public schools, (excluding the ones that are by acceptance such as Bergen Acad), RHS is top 10. Granted the goal is to be #1 but it is fake news to say it is declining or not getting kids into competitive schools at acceptable rates. This person must also be the the one that thinks downtown Ridgewood is lined with illicit massage parlors and gang members dealing drugs while patrolling with pit bulls. While it is humorous to the rest of us that live here and know the truth, but it is also harmful for us all to have such untruths posted as headlines. IF they produce anything other than some anecdotal BS it would be helpful to see it. Otherwise, it is just hurting all of us by making Ridgewood sound like Paterson. Which it is not. Is this person some kind of real estate developer trying to drive property values down so they can buy?

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Ridgewood Schools Director of Special Programs has Resigned

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News: Director of Special Programs submits resignation

Dear Parents, Guardians and Staff:

On Tuesday, February 26, 2019, Director of Special Programs Dr. Kim Buxenbaum submitted her letter of resignation. The Ridgewood Board of Education will accept her resignation at its next public meeting on March 11, 2019.

Dr. Buxenbaum is leaving the Ridgewood Public Schools to take the position of Director of Special Education with the New Jersey Department of Education. Dr. Buxenbaum is a very talented educator and I am confident that she will be very successful and have a positive impact at the State level.

Continue reading Ridgewood Schools Director of Special Programs has Resigned
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Reader agrees , “I, too, think we should definitely vote NO on the budget”

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“I, too, think we should definitely vote NO on the budget. They are just throwing money away. However, in the past we have rarely voted NO and when we did, the Council felt sorry for them and cut out almost nothing. The budget has now reached an unbelievable total so I would hope they can cut more than just “a few thousand”. Cut the frills and leave in anything that is clearly a positive educational function. We don’t need to have every Superintendent’s Aide have an aide and that Aide have yet another Aide. We currently seem to have a system over filled with Administration and not geared to the students at all. You are right when you say the parents don’t dare complain for fear their children will receive some form of retaliation. That is standard to all schools. However, the teachers bear a huge burden in not snapping at the parents who believe that “their child can do no wrong.” My favorite comment came from a kindergartner who refused to follow any rules. He finally got angry and used several rather extreme cuss words. His mother was called and she asked “Well, what did you do to——- to make him angry?” Our daughter -in-law got taken to court by a parent because she had been unable to force a child to take something home which was then thrown out. It suddenly became extremely valuable . Fortunately the Judge literally laughed it out of Court. Teachers are expected to teach an interesting class while ignoring the potential distractions going on. So it is usually our School Board causing problems. “

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The Ridgewood educational system

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, In Ridgewood schools, 52-percent of students are male while only 48 percent are female. The minority enrolment is only 28 percent. Ridgewood public schools are a tremendous comprehensive community in public institution district. They are loved because they serve students from kindergarten to twelfth grade in Ridgewood areas in New Jersey. There are 10 schools in the district that actually enrolled 5,772 students in 2014-2015 academic year. The student-teacher ratio is 13:5:1 so sometimes you need to buy custom essays to make up with the workload

Continue reading The Ridgewood educational system
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Time for a “NO ” Vote on the Ridgewood School Budget

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, after filing a lawsuit that offered no tangible benefit to Ridgewood taxpayers or school children . The Judge ruled that the terms of a board of education member cannot be shortened, thereby extending the term of some increasingly unpopular Board of Education members .

Since the Village is currently stuck with these “trustees” for a longer duration , the next best thing would be to vote “NO” on the school budget as a “NO CONFIDENCE” vote against current board members.

If past precedence is any indication there is limited risk to the school system . Time for residents to put their “Resistance” to a better more productive use and none better than improving a child’s education . Resist the BOE and just say NO to the gigantic $111,000,000 budget.

Contact The BoardContact the Board

Ms. Jennie Smith Wilson, Board President
jswilson@ridgewood.k12.nj.us

Mr. James Morgan, Vice President
jmorgan@ridgewood.k12.nj.us

Ms. Sheila Brogan
sbrogan@ridgewood.k12.nj.us 

Mr. Cristopher Kaufman
ckaufman@ridgewood.k12.nj.us

Ms. Christina Krauss
ckrauss@ridgewood.k12.nj.us

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Ridgewood School Board Reviews 2019-2020 Proposed Preliminary Budget of $111 Million

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Dr. Fishbein reviewed the schedule for the state aid numbers from Trenton, which will follow the governor’s budget address on March 5. Accordingly, the March 4 Board meeting will be moved to March 11, with an additional meeting on March 8 at 5 p.m. if needed.

Business Administrator Antoinette Kelly reviewed the basics of budgeting and the big-picture areas of the RPS budget (Special Programs, healthcare costs, staffing, security/technology, capital projects, revenue, appropriations). The slide portion of the presentation, which is posted on the district website, may be viewed here

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Reader says , “Only ONE student was selected to go on to a military academy! That’s just as bad as only 4 merit scholars”

Ridgewood High School class of 2016


“Only ONE student was selected to go on to a military academy! That’s just as bad as only 4 merit scholars. If people don’t want to believe the ratings published in other sources, just look at a TRUE statistic–the total lack of colleges and other such sources who leap to grab a promising Ridgewood student before someone else grabs him/her. That basically means that it doesn’t mean a darn thing to anyone who counts if you graduated from Ridgewood. Colleges used to race each other to get an out-standing student. Our own daughter had a giant box filled with applications sent to her. How many students can say that now? (now it’s probably e-mails but I’m willing to bet that even they lack in both quantity and quality.) A student used to be told to apply to at least 4 schools–now even 10 isn’t enough.”

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Reader says , ” those who hesitate to post on FB are the ones who fear that the BOE would go after their kids”

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just as some people hesitate to post on Facebook because of “various reasons,” on the flip side some people post planted information on FB even if they don’t believe it. If you work for an organization, for example, you might hate every person who supervises you, but still you would post praise in order to keep your job.

In the case of this BOE mess, I think those who hesitate to post on FB are the ones who fear that the BOE would go after their kids in some way if negative postings came from the parents. And if you think this is a stretch, you are wrong, it has happened many times.

So the BLOG is the one place where everyone can be honest. I am betting that HASA president or whatever she is might be posting completely different opinions here on The BLOG.

LONG LIVE THE BLOG

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Ridgewood Board of Education Reorganization Summary

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photo courtesy of Boyd Loving

BOARD REORGANIZATION

OFFICIAL RESULTS OF SCHOOL ELECTION (November 2018)
Candidates for Board – Three Year Term
Cristopher Kaufman: 4,579
B. Vincent Loncto: 3,055
Personal Choice: 29      

Total November Election Votes Cast: 11,400

SWEARING IN, NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS OF BOARD OFFICERS
Newly elected Board member Cristopher Kaufman was sworn in, followed by a roll call of the Board and nominations and election of a new Board president and vice president. Jennie Smith Wilson was elected President. James Morgan was elected Vice President.

PRESENTATIONS

BOARD GOALS UPDATE
Dr. Fishbein provided an update on the status of the Board goals at this mid-point in the school year, as follows: 

1) Negotiations with the REA have been completed with an approved REA contract; RAA negotiations will be starting;

 2) Identification of capital projects for a bond referendum will be starting with meeting with LAN Associates; 

3) Full-Day Kindergarten update will be presented to the Board at the April 29 meeting; 

4) Special Education Department study to be reported on this spring; 


5) Community Strategic Planning consultants are being interviewed at this time.

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Somerville Neighbors press Village hall to end weekend baseball at school

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Somerville Neighbors press Village hall to end weekend baseball at school

…the fly has learned that a well organized effort is underway by a group of neighbors to shame the Council into forbidding use of fields at Somerville fields . Lots of unsubstantiated charges are being thrown around including one that players and umpires have been peeing in the bushes.Neighbors even told the BOE and Mayor that people shouldn’t park on her street if they have games at Somerville.

Attacks have been particularly harsh on the Church League  that plays on Sundays .
and while many sympathize with the homeowners their expectation do seem a bit out of line given the fact that they purchased property adjacent a school and to public sports field . 

Is it just a case of a small band of neighbors looking enforce their will and bully other taxpayers Or is there something far more sinister at play against the Church League? Or maybe a secret plot to ad turf fields west of 17?  Lawyers are suiting up  and port a potties have been dispatched .
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Reader says Turf fields looks nice , but way too much money

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Reader says Turf fields looks nice , but way too much money

They only got 7 years out of Maple…not sure what the life expectancy range is for turf but I would’ve thought that it would’ve lasted longer than 7 years….

I don’t think the plan in place for the Schedler (sp?) property calls for artificial turf, but I could be wrong.

You can thank the voters in the Willard district that voted for the expanded bond that removed 2 usable baseball/softball fields at BF (specifically the second 90 foot baseball field) when they redid the track and field.

If that vote doesn’t get approved, there would be less of a push by RBSA to get a second 90 foot baseball field somewhere in town.

No doubt that the Willard parents tipped the scales and set this whole entitlement sentiment currently embraced by the sports groups.

Time to take the town back and vote for Sedon and Knudsen…or the “newbies” as one of the “townie” posters wrote last week.

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SCHOOLS CLOSED ON MONDAY, JANUARY 16 FOR MLK DAY: COMMUNITY OBSERVANCE IS AT 10 A.M.

>SCHOOLS CLOSED ON MONDAY, JANUARY 16 FOR MLK DAY: COMMUNITY OBSERVANCE IS AT 10 A.M.

 The Ridgewood Public Schools will be closed on Monday, January 16 in observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Ridgewood community will celebrate Dr. King’s birthday with an interfaith service at 10 a.m. at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church, 100 Dayton Street. This year’s theme is “The Power of One, the Strength of Many.”

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Board of Ed is not listening

>Board of Ed is not listening

Board of Ed is not listening. They turfed fields and installed stadium lights. Many of us did not want this and many neighbors fought this. They did it anyway because they think that they know better then the taxpayers.

There is a bit of a shake up in the math department, but it is too little too late. The HS freshmen are sweating the Algebra exam. It is May and the parents are scrambling to find tutors. Everyone is worried about failing the state test. The HS math department is now telling the middle school math teachers what to do. IT is all TOO LATE! It’s May for God’s sake – where have they been all year? Our children will pay the price for this educational malpractice.

Did I mention that they spent time & money fighting residents over the turf fields?

There are employees who do virtually nothing, but they have been working for the schools for so long they can’t be fired. School Principals don’t know anything about managing staff. They act like teachers who accidentally got promoted, they need to be managers. If office staff is uncooperative and does not work 7 hours a day, a good manager would document this and issue a warning. In six weeks they would look for improvement. If no progress has been made then they should begin termination proceedings. In our schools the principal just ignores the nonworkers and allows the overpaid assistant principals to pick up the slack.

The Skyward system could be improved. Why is Blackboard even on the website. Pick something and stick with it.

Fix your phone system and teach the staff how to pick up messages.

Stop hiding important information and leaving the same old information on the home page for the schools. The BOE election results don’t need to be on the middle school home page. And I am sure that the handful of parents sending to private schools have contacted the school for transcripts. Why is this info on the home page for the school? Maybe they could have notified the parents that 8th graders that the kids would be taking the NJ HS Algebra test. This is information that should have been front and center. An email was sent out this week, less than two weeks to prepare. Connected math will not help them with the test, but a good tutor will.

Did I mention that they fought the taxpayers over stadium lights for the fields?

The Board of Ed members need some Ritlin. I voted NO because they have not focused on education. They spend time and money on noneducational projects. They made bad choices with my money.

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