Ridgewood NJ, a reader summed it up best,” Moving the school board election to November would not alter the public’s ability to vote for the best board candidates, which would happen whenever the election was held. It would in fact improve nothing and serve only to remove residents’ ability to approve or disapprove of the proposed budget. Our school budgets have become bizarrely bloated and represent moneys that are not appropriate for the size of the town. We deserve the right to vote for or against them.”
Ridgewood NJ, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is producing a 50th anniversary documentary that will include an excerpt of the performance video of the Ridgewood High School Percussion Ensemble from the 2019 Young Musicians New Jersey Regional Concert. The video will be used under a voice-over by Executive Director Suzanne Davidson describing the Young Musicians Program. The student performers, Percussion Ensemble Director Gary Fink, RHS Principal Dr. Gorman, and Ridgewood High School will be acknowledged in the video.
New Brunswick NJ, The ease of finding information on the internet is hurting students’ long-term retention and resulting in lower grades on exams, according to a Rutgers University–New Brunswick study.
The study, published in the journal Educational Psychology, found that smartphones seem to be the culprit. Students who received higher homework but lower exam scores — a half to a full letter grade lower on exams — were more likely to get their homework answers from the internet or another source rather than coming up with the answer themselves.
“Covid-19 is NOT a lethal virus, that is a fact. Lethal viruses do not spread, as they kill their victim, which stops the spread. People are not dying from covid19, they are dying from the one or more, known or unknown underlying diseases they have. It is a fact that children are not dying from covid19. It is okay for them to get the virus. They will not melt. If teachers are afraid to get the virus, for a valid or invalid reason, then they should be given these options:. Resign, retire early, take a leave of absence, go on unemployment or wear a hazmat suit. The teachers can easily be temporarily replaced by young, unemployed certified teacher, which are many, or college graduates. Why do so many teachers make everything about them, rather than about the children? The only reason teachers have their job is because of
the students. Students should always come first. Students need to be in school in person. Virtual school is not the same and is not what our taxes pay for. Lastly, how are young children supposed to do virtual learning at home, when both parents have to go out to work? Most parents are NOT teachers, who have the luxury of staying home just because they are in a strong union, that controls the politrickers. Many teachers are not living in the real world and need to be made to realize that the world does NOT revolve around them.”
Ridgewood NJ, The Ashby Award was established in 1966 to honor former Superintendent Lloyd W. Ashby and his wife, Lois, for their distinguished service to the community. The recipient is selected from nominees submitted by staff members and is someone who, in the opinion of his or her peers, has carried on our district’s long tradition of service and contribution. This is the highest honor that the Ridgewood Public Schools can bestow on a staff member.
The district names Dr. Jean Schoenlank, Principal of Ridge School, as the recipient of this year’s Ashby Award. Congratulations, Dr. Schoenlank!
Ridgewood NJ, The Tradition of Excellence Award recognizes a support staff member for extraordinary service to the district in five categories. Each year, the honoree is selected by a committee after careful review of all nominations.
This year’s Tradition of Excellence recipient is Annette Tucker, Classroom Aide at George Washington Middle School. Congratulations, Ms. Tucker!
One issue for many is having a poor vocabulary. It may be that a person had a poor education or struggled with learning. Let’s take a look at the issues this can create and the benefits of making a change in this area.
Ridgewood Nj, at the Friday August 28th Special Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board Education meeting the board focused on the reopening of Ridgewood public schools. Mr. Lembo shared that the Special Public Meeting was scheduled to get more information and to discuss questions pertaining to the reopening plan. Dr. Fishbein and Ms. Poelstra gave a reopening plan update presentation. Dr. Fishbein began by thanking the administrators and teachers for their hard work and creativity in making this reopening possible. A revised 2020-2021 school calendar will be approved at the August 31 Regular Public Meeting. To give teachers an extra day to prepare for the start of school, a Professional Development Day was added on August 31 and removed from October 12. Schools will be closed on October 12 for teachers and students. The district has worked very hard on logistics and operations, and the buildings are ready for the return of students. The Pandemic Response Teams have taken walkthroughs of the buildings, and the response from those teams was very positive. Our reopening plan was submitted to the state, and the three areas for revision (recess, cleaning manual, and technology services) were addressed. The cleaning manual is posted on the district website.
Ridgewood NJ, according to the NYTimes , “Economists, business leaders and labor experts have warned for years that a coming wave of automation and digital technology would upend the work force, destroying some jobs while altering how and where work is done for nearly everyone.
In the past four months, the coronavirus pandemic has transformed some of those predictions into reality. By May, half of Americans were working from home, tethered to their employers via laptops and Wi-Fi, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to a recent study.”
Ridgewood NJ, The Board of Education meets on Monday, August 31, 2020 at 6 PM for a Regular Public Meeting. Due to health concerns related to COVID-19, the public cannot attend this meeting.
“Even if we agree that teachers work as much as the average worker, they are only working 10 months out of the year and those are 6 hour days, not 8 hour days.
And lets not talk about “teacher prep time” done before and after their 6 hour day, that is canceled out by the “overtime” done by the average worker before and after their 8 hour day.”
Ridgewood NJ, As it continues addressing challenges unique to the coronavirus pandemic, the NJSIAA today released updated guidelines related to transfers and spectators attending games.
Regarding transfers, while NJSIAA will continue to prohibit students from transferring for athletic advantage, it has modified what it identifies as “athletic advantage.” For the 2020-21 school year, a transfer for athletic advantage will not include a transfer made because the student’s school cancels or postpones an athletic program due to the pandemic. However any student who transfers after September 1, regardless of the reason, will be required to sit for half of the fall season, or 30 days, whichever is shorter. Fuller details on this revision and others related to transfers are available online, HERE .
Statement from the Ridgewood Education Association August 29, 2020:
The Board of Education is responsible for the health and safety of the staff and students of the Ridgewood Public School System. Teachers and secretaries have told the Board they do not believe their buildings are safe and yesterday many staff members submitted specific questions – not comments – to the Ridgewood Board of Education. These were specific health and safety questions that we have already asked our principals. Our principals don’t know the answers. We had hoped that the Board would have asked those questions on our behalf yesterday. Instead they chose to ignore them and not have them even read aloud. This public disregard for our concerns regarding the health and safety of staff and students gives us less confidence in our District’s reopen plan and has left us now with new questions for the Board. It is our hope that these questions will be addressed at their next meeting on Monday.
Ridgewood NJ, on August 20, 2020 the REA posted a letter on Facebook asking for the postponement of in person learning for Ridgewood Schools due to various health related concerns:
Dear Members of the Ridgewood Board of Education,
On behalf of the 569 members of the Ridgewood Education Association (REA) I am writing to ask you to postpone in-person reopening of the Ridgewood Public Schools. The REA believes that it is unsafe at this time to open our school buildings and we ask that the school year begin in an all virtual format. In doing so we add our voice to that of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, the New Jersey State School Nurses Association, the New Jersey Education Association, and the Bergen County Education Association who have all called for a remote start to the school year. We wish this was not the case as no one wants to be back teaching in person more than the District’s teachers. We are also well aware of the hardship this may pose to parents, we are parents too. But the health and safety of staff, students, and the community at large must take precedence and right now the risk is simply too great.
Covid-19 is an airborne virus placing a greater importance on our aging buildings’ HVAC systems. We do not believe all of our buildings have adequate ventilation and the District’s 49 page plan submitted to the State contains only two paragraphs on the subject (RPS, Reopening & Operations Plan 2020-21, p.31). According to Executive Order 175 districts that cannot provide a plan for adequate ventilation may opt to begin the year remotely.
