Posted on May 10, 2019May 11, 2019 by James — 3 Comments

Teacher Blamed for Trump Yearbook Controversy Claims Her Free Speech Rights are being Violated

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‘the staff of the Ridgewood blog

HOLMDEL NJ, The high school teacher who was blamed for a yearbook censorship controversy in Wall Township in 2017 filed a motion in the Superior Court in Monmouth County on Thursday, seeking immediate relief from a Board of Education (BOE) policy that has blocked her from being able to tell her full story to the media.

In her original lawsuit filed on May 6, 2019, Susan Parsons alleged she was framed by members of the school administration as the person responsible for digitally altering a student’s 2017 yearbook photo to remove a “Trump: Make America Great Again” logo from his shirt, a narrative she was unable to refute due to an ongoing BOE media gag order.

Posted on May 7, 2019May 7, 2019 by James — Leave a comment

Reader says , “Ridgewood residents deserve better than a campaign of misinformation”

Ridgewood Board of Education ,Unlawful election sign placement, election, vote

“Matt Lindenberg I’m not blocked by Winograd or Mom’s Dads on Facebook . Took a look at your post and it’s exactly as reported in original comment and not taken out of context. Is there a reason you didn’t include it in your response?
Here it the Facebook post as written by Matt Lindenberg, “I guess I see it as a choice between 50-60% (not positive about those numbers) electing good BOE members to get the budget work done right, or 14% voting to approve it. Given that choice, my opinion 50-60% representation is better. You may disagree.”

Matt Lindenberg, as someone participating in a campaign to take away a voting right, shouldn’t you know the facts? Don’t you have an obligation to tell people the truth? In this instance your 50-60% is completely inaccurate and even more so when considering lack of down-ballot participation.

Ridgewood residents deserve better than a campaign of misinformation.”

Posted on May 6, 2019May 5, 2019 by James — 1 Comment

Ridgewood Board of Education Meeting Monday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m.

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The next Regular Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board of Education will be held on Monday, May 6, 2019 at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3 at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be aired live on television, FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77, and streamed via the “Link in Live” tab on the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us. Meeting webcasts are generally posted immediately to the district website.

Posted on May 6, 2019May 6, 2019 by James — 2 Comments

Ridgewood Board of Education Updates Full day Kindergarten Implementation

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, at the Ridgewood Board of Education meeting the BOE presented what amounted to nothing more than an over priced baby sitting service. This should be interesting when all the new high density housing floods the schools with new students.

UPDATE ON SECOND YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION OF FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN
Supervisor of Elementary Education Jean Anne O’Neill and the elementary school principals provided an update on the full-day Kindergarten program, covering the topics of multi-sensory reading, social-emotional learning, purposeful play, learning centers for math and language arts, and lunch and recess. The gift of time through the extension of the day allows the teachers to develop the talents and interests of the Kindergarten students.

The slide portion of the presentation may be viewed here.

Posted on May 1, 2019June 27, 2021 by James — 6 Comments

Class-action Lawsuits have just been Launched against the main supplier of Synthetic Turf Fields in the Suburbs of New Jersey

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, There is a closely related story in the community that requires investigation and exposure.

Area schools, towns and public agencies have spent millions of dollars installing synthetic turf fields in recent years. A number of important class-action lawsuits have just been launched against the main supplier of synthetic turf fields in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Continue reading Class-action Lawsuits have just been Launched against the main supplier of Synthetic Turf Fields in the Suburbs of New Jersey

Posted on April 29, 2019April 28, 2019 by James — 7 Comments

Reader says the BOE is running its own agenda over the majority will

” Through various ways a select group of people took the BOE and Admin in their iron grip, running their own agenda over majority wish, the Budget vote has taken that privilege away and that’s why this frustration, One Vote’s target is taking away the Budget vote and additionally influencing the local politics of Ridgewood with the muddy national one. “

Posted on April 26, 2019April 26, 2019 by James — 9 Comments

New Ridgewood Group Set Up to Take Your Right to Vote Away

Dear Ridgewood Community

Posted byswinograd April 24, 2019

Last Tuesday, April 16, 2019, only fourteen percent of Ridgewood’s eligible voters participated in an off-cycle election (defined as any election not held in November) on the Ridgewood Public School budget for the 2019-2020 school year. This election cost Ridgewood taxpayers $50,000.

Posted on April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 by James — 4 Comments

Reader Takes a Long term View of Ridgewood Schools

“If you are a newish resident (anytime in the last 20 years) you would probably only notice a small decline in comparison with the forward motion of schools who used to be behind us and are now in front–often by many points. If you’ve lived here longer you will have noticed a fairly large increase of staff in the education supervisors. A department that either did not exist or only had at most one or two employees now has increased to an assistant to every assistant who works for a supervisor.

Posted on April 19, 2019April 18, 2019 by James — 4 Comments

Reader gives Performance Rundown for Ridgewood Schools

Ridgewood Schools are great and performance is not declining in comparison to Tenefly and Summit and other schools. I really wish this person would stop with the fake news. By nthe way, all these school districts are great and all our taxes are high. Ridgewood is not some kind of outlier and we are not declining. Be upset about high taxes but stop with the BS that we are somehow worse than we are. The problem is with the STATE of NJ, and NY and CT and Mass, and the entire northeast.
Tenefly=20,920 per student Ridgewood= 20,481 Summit=20,529 Princeton= 25,194 Glen Rock= 21,009
Tenefly:
2016-17 Total Spending: $77,250,029
2016-17 Costs Amount per Pupil: $20,920
Ridgewood:
2016-17 Total Spending: $117,443,609
2016-17 Costs Amount per Pupil: $20,481
Summit:
2016-17 Total Spending: $84,530,788
2016-17 Costs Amount per Pupil: $20,529
Princeton:
2016-17 Total Spending: $94,715,589
2016-17 Costs Amount per Pupil: $25,194
Glen Rock:
2016-17 Total Spending: $52,944,004
2016-17 Costs Amount per Pupil: $21,099

cost per student by STATE: NY is highest followed by Washington DC, Connecticut and then NJ
https://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html

in NJ the forth highest in the country we are not unusual yet we are one of the best school districts
https://www.state.nj.us/education/guide/

Posted on April 16, 2019April 15, 2019 by James — Leave a comment

New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to investigate the hiring practices and allegations of employee file tampering at the state’s Schools Development Authority

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Parsippany NJ, Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce is applauding the reported action by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to investigate the hiring practices and recent allegations of employee file tampering at the state’s Schools Development Authority.

DeCroce was among a group of legislators last week demanding an investigation of the authority following numerous reports of mismanagement of the agency under the chief executive Lizette Delgado-Polanco, who has allegedly turned the SDA into a patronage pit by hiring political allies and dismissing experienced staff members. Besides working as the CEO of the schools authority, at a salary of $225,000, Delgado-Polanco also serves in a leadership capacity at the Democratic State Committee.

Posted on April 13, 2019April 13, 2019 by James — Leave a comment

Reader says , “It’s imperative to always question how $ is spent, otherwise it will be spent with less care than warranted”

” Ridgewood school district is great, but recent increases in Budget driven by employee medical benefits and special ed. Meanwhile school rankings are dropping compared to competitors.
I know very little about educating kids except that it’s an extremely tough job. However I do know quite a bit about budgeting. It’s imperative to always question how $ is spent, otherwise it will be spent with less care than warranted. Voting no therefore makes sense in this case, as the board did not address concernes posed above.
Many parents defend the educators by questioning the no vote, but this is not a educators vs parents story. Rather it’s an action point for BoE to regain public trust by acknowledging raised issues and proposing solutions. I doubt there’s a resident who wishes bad upon our great educators, so let’s not confuse the issues. “

Posted on April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 by James — 8 Comments

Ridgewood Board of Education Sends Errant Voter Times on Sample Ballot

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Board of Education puts the wrong voter times (2-8 pm)on the sample ballot for the April 16th $111 million budget vote (More like 6am to 8pm).

Sources say the BOE claims it was just a ,”wink wink” miss print ?

The vote on the 2019-2020 $111 million school budget is Tuesday, April 16, during Spring Recess for the Ridgewood Public Schools.

Posted on April 6, 2019April 6, 2019 by James — 4 Comments

Senate President Steve Sweeney Continues Push for State Health Benefits Plan for all School Employees

New_Jersey_State_Senator_Stephen_Sweeney

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, Senate President Steve Sweeney joined in a panel discussion sponsored by the League of Municipalities for its 27^th Annual Mayors Legislative Day where he discussed the cost-cutting reforms in the “Path to Progress” report, including those that will produce savings and efficiencies for municipalities, school districts and their employees. Senator Sweeney participated as a member of the “Meet the Legislative Leaders” panel discussion.

“The proposals developed by the study commission will deliver savings for state and local government alike,” said Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “Municipalities, local school districts and the taxpayers will realize the benefits of the proposals to address soaring pension and benefit costs, hold down property taxes, make government and school districts more efficient, and leverage state assets.”

Posted on April 5, 2019April 5, 2019 by James — Leave a comment

Ridgewood Schools Strategic Planning Initiative 2019-2024 Survey Closes April 8th

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The staff of the Ridgewood Blog

Ridgewood NJ, Community survey closes on Monday, April 8! Strategic Planning Initiative 2019-2024 .The Ridgewood Public Schools is embarking upon a strategic planning initiative to examine its strengths, challenges and opportunities. A community survey has been created that can be accessed through the home page of the district website. The survey deadline is Monday, April 8. Go to www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.

Dear Ridgewood Community

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