Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Board of Education will have two regular board meetings this summer :
July 16 2018 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Education Center, 49 Cottage Place
August 27 2018 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Education Center, 49 Cottage Place
Ridgewood Board of Education Candidate Information:
Monday, July 30, 2018 at 4:00 PM is the deadline to file a nominating petition. The petition must be filed with the Bergen County Clerk’s Office, One Bergen County Plaza, Room 130,
Hackensack, NJ.
The candidate petition is for Ridgewood Board of Education Trustee ( School Board member) for the November election. Candidates must obtain at least 10 signatures on a petition to be nominated, one of which may be the candidate. Petition signatures must be registered to vote in Ridgewood. ***It is recommended to collect about 15 signatures. New Jersey School Boards Association has created a Candidate Kit with additional information and instructions for those interested in running for open seats. For more information and candidate kit: https://www.njsba.org/…/membership-…/school-board-candidacy/
Trenton NJ, Taking significant steps to begin the process of fully and fairly funding New Jersey school districts, the Murphy Administration today released new school funding distribution totals based on increased appropriations and modernizations made to the school funding formula. In total, almost $8.5 billion will be disbursed to the state’s 577 school districts, including an additional $68 million to bring aid in balance for underfunded districts.
“A stronger, fairer New Jersey means making sure that New Jersey’s schools are receiving the funds they need to advance academic excellence for our students,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “After years of neglect, we are turning the page to bring a balanced approach to school aid by removing the growth cap on funding increases and finally beginning the process of fully implementing the state’s school funding formula established in 2008. ”
Nearly every district in the state will receive at least 58 percent of the full uncapped aid as calculated according to the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA). Compared to FY 2018, an additional $351 million in K-12 school aid will be allocated to 391 districts. Another $32 million will be redistributed from 172 districts receiving more than their uncapped aid amounts to those districts that are underfunded.
“By providing additional resources to districts that have been significantly underfunded, this budget starts a path toward the Governor’s goal of a stronger and fairer school funding structure,” said Education Commissioner Lamont O. Repollet.
The Governor’s FY 2019 budget also includes the largest increase in preschool funding in more than a decade, totaling $688 million, $32.6 million over FY 2018 to support existing preschool programs. In addition, Governor Murphy’s commitment to expanding access to preschool includes a total of $50 million to fund high quality new preschool seats in districts ready to grow their programs.
Other education initiatives in the FY 2019 budget include:
$195 million in extraordinary special education aid that is provided through an application process to reimburse districts for eligible high-cost special education services;
$5.4 million for the nonpublic technology initiative, an increase of $2.4 million;
$2 million in funding for a new Secondary School Computer Science Education Initiative, which will be used to support approved applications for the expansion and support of advanced computer science course offerings;
$400,000 for STEM Dual Enrollment and Early College High Schools; and
$750,000 for a new High Poverty School District Minority Teacher Recruitment Program.
Dist District 2017-18 Total K-12 Aid : Ridgewood Village 2,453,765 2018-19 Governor’s Budget Message (GBM) Total K-12 Aid 2,586,693 2018-19 Approp. Act Revised Total K-12 Aid 3,477,429
Transportation Aid 620,535 Special Education Categorical Aid 2,409,152 Security Aid 447,742
2018-19 Approp. Act Revised Total K12 Aid2 3,477,429 One Year K-12 Aid Difference 1,023,664 Aid Percent Difference 41.72%
Face it, folks. The village council and Board of Ed are treating the residents of Ridgewood poorly. We are open checkbooks for them. They need to treat our money like they treat their own household budgets, very carefully. I do not spend money that I do not have, why are they paying for things that will never make sense, like a huge parking garage that they already know will lose money. On top of that, buying property so someone else doesn’t buy it and develop it? This is bad. How about creating zoning ordinances that help maintain Ridgewood’s character to made large development unattractive and too difficult that developers will be scared away. I grew up in a NJ town where they have never let in franchises and fast food. No DD, no Starbucks. It is a thriving town where they have kept development reasonable and well thought out. Why can’t we do that here?
It is imperative that I a Ridgewood resident for the past 40 years have the opportunity to CONTINUE to vote on the school budget. The cost of the election is insignificant compared to the millions of dollars the Ridgewood council spends on non NECESSITIES. . Voting on the school budget is a right and a necessity. I don’t care what other communities do. I don’t care what other individuals do. I do what is right, what is my right as a citizen of this country. It is my right to have a voice in deciding the school budget which makes up a majority of my property taxes and and and above all, determines HOW MONEY is spent for the education of children.
It’s great in theory, voting on the budget, but in practice it does nothing.
Learn from history, the few times the budget did not pass the law says it goes to the village council for a vote.
Each time the village council passed the vote, under pressure from parents AND because the state mandates a budget must be passed by a certain date……. a date that is impossible to meet if 5 people who have lots of other responsibilities are now going to begin the budget process over all over again.
In other words — your vote is meaningless, that is why several years ago the vote was taken away from the citizens so that at least we could salvage the $$$$ spent on the meaningless vote.
The pressure from the teachers and the parents will be even stronger on the village council in this age or facebook rants and threats.
I caution newcomers….. nothing is as simple as it sounds, the state, the feds and all of the unions have all of the local boards and councils in NJ tied up so that they can achieve very little meaningful change……. if they wanted to.
Keep that in mind the next time you vote for a big government, free wheeling spending politician.
Hold on to your wallet. —- there’s a lot more coming with Murphy
Ridgewood schools are already busting at the seams. Add the several hundred students who will arrive with the developments and several new schools will need to be built. Remember, the census of how many students live in the apartments was taken only at the high rise at Franklin and Maple. No count was ever taken in any of the garden apartments on Oak and on the other side of the tracks. Why wasn’t it taken in buildings that do accommodate children? One good thing could probably occur. There will be many fewer houses w/graduation and sale signs together. It would be much cheaper to rent one of our new apartments and just leave when their children graduate. That is what many of current apartment dwellers do when their last child graduates now.
Hope you are enjoying a pleasant summer! On July 10 the Board of Ed sent the following letter to the community regarding the Annual School Election:
Dear Community Members,
On July 3rd, Heather Mailander, Village Manager, notified us by e-mail that the Village Council would be discussing moving the Board of Education election from November to April at their July 11th meeting and at their July 18th meeting they may consider adoption of a resolution to change the election date effective April, 2019.
The Board of Education supports the idea of engaging the public in discussions on moving the Board elections from November to April. However, we believe that it is a discussion that should take place at our Board of Education meetings this Fall, after our residents have returned from summer vacation.
In order to move a School Board election from November to April, notice must be given to the county clerk no less than 85 days prior to the third Tuesday in April to take effect for that year’s election. That would be January 21, 2019. Therefore, there is sufficient time for us to thoughtfully consider this change and to provide adequate time to collect input from our residents.
By way of background:
In the past, School Board elections and budget approvals were conducted in April every year.
On January 17, 2012 Governor Christie signed legislation that permitted communities to move the April annual school board member election to November, while, at the same time eliminating the vote on a district’s proposed budget so long as that is at or below the tax levy cap, including defined allowable waivers. School districts that voted to move their elections to November were prohibited from moving the election back to April until four November School elections had occurred. In 2016, the state extended that moratorium by two years. That moratorium expired May 31, 2018.
The Ridgewood Board of Education originally refrained from moving our election to November until almost two years after the law permitting us to do so had passed, preferring to observe the impact of this law across the state. After discussing this issue at several public meetings during 2013, and after publishing multiple articles in The Ridgewood News encouraging the public to provide feedback, we elected, in a 4-1 vote, to move the election in our public meeting of November 18, 2013.
Currently, a total of 528 or 97% of the New Jersey school districts have moved their annual school election from April to November, and only15, or 3% hold their annual school election in April. Only 5 of Bergen County’s 76 districts vote in April.
The major reasons considered by the Board for moving the election to November were as follows:
● Declining voter participation rate in the April elections. In April 2013, voter turnout hit an historic low with fewer than thirteen percent of voters casting a ballot. We believed that voter participation would increase if the school election were combined with the general election.
● Election costs. The district has saved over $43,000 per annum by combining the school election with the general election in the Fall. The Board has not been assessed any costs associated with the November elections.
● During the period in which we held our public discussions, we received a small number of emails and only eight members of the public spoke at public comment on the issue of moving the election. Three favored moving the election to November, four did not, and one was non-commital.
● And finally, moving the election to November brought the budget approval process in line with the way all New Jersey municipalities, counties, and the state decide on their budgets.
We on the Board look forward to speaking further with the public about this important issue this Fall.
Well, rejecting PARCC is and has been an absolute imperative for years now. Don’t interrupt the iron triangle comprising the craven teachers union, the unabashedly corrupt educational establishment, and the paleoliberal progressive state government apparatchiks, when the same is doing something right for a change (even if by mistake).
Ridgewood NJ, while the Ridgewood Board of Education has turned a deaf ear to residents , the debate raged at the Village council meeting on Wednesday night.
An extremely impassioned Steven Kim said , “in order Ridgewood tax payers , to exercise their right to vote on the school budget , school board elections must be returned to April.”
The school budget of $110,000,000 is 2/3 of the Village of Ridgewood’s spending . Keeping School Board Elections in November takes away Ridgewood voters right to vote for or against the budget .
Others debated over the small cost of $25,000 to hold an election and worried over low voter turnout .
Saurabh Dani, pointed out that “Clifton voted 7-1 in favor of changing the election back to April. “
Carolee Adams from the Stop Common Core in New Jersey.
Ridgewood NJ, Moving Away From PARCC in Jersey could take years.
From my perspective, the only positive of PARCC was that it mobilized the formerly silent majority of parents to actively voice their imperative opposition to the dumbing down of their children’s education; disrespect to parental rights; and at a huge, needless, wasteful cost to taxpayers.
Further, in my humble opinion, impediments like these continue to delay our desired move away from PARCC:
1. A Pearson contract already signed.
2. The less than cooperative pushback from NJ State Senator Theresa Ruiz (D), Chair, Senate Education Committee and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D). Why? Only a guess. Pearson Education is located in Hoboken – a Democratic stronghold. Hoboken would not want to risk losing one of its key, tax-paying corporations.
3. The unnecessary interference of FedEd via ESSA. Why do we even need the USDOE when NJ is a donor state sending far more money to DC/USDOE than we receive in return?!
At a roundtable discussion. our group’s suggestions were 2 tests in K-8 (i.e. 2nd or 3rd and 7th), and 1 test in the sophomore year of high school. Regarding tests, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills was the one most mentioned for K-8. ACT/SAT seemed less popular than ever before regarding high school testing. Fair Test is usually a good resource for test information.
Trenton NJ, The Murphy Administration today announced the first steps in transitioning away from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and toward a new generation of statewide testing by issuing a report, detailing proposals for draft regulations and other upcoming changes in the 2018-19 school year.
At a press conference in Atlantic City, Governor Murphy said he wants to take NJ out of PARCC student assessment testing.“PARCC’s high-stakes, high-stress system has been, I believe, a detriment to our students and our educators,” Murphy said.
Recommendations were collected by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) during a two-month, 21-county tour in which the Commissioner and staff traveled over 5,700 miles, held approximately 75 in-person sessions, three live webinars, and heard from more than 2,300 students, teachers, school administrators, education advocates and community leaders.
Speaker Coughlin lauded the move in a statement: “This is a step in the right direction. From the moment it was introduced, the PARCC was widely criticized by teachers, school administrators, parents and students for being overly confusing and taking up too much instructional time. We cannot evaluate student proficiency and base a student’s ability to graduate on a flawed system. Students should have to prove that they are ready for graduation, but not through an assessment as inadequate and problematic as the PARCC. I’m glad Gov. Murphy is reversing course on this, and clearing the way for a more effective and responsible approach to measuring student learning.”
“Because of a focused, concentrated effort to reach out to New Jersey residents and to give them a voice at the table, we are on a clear path away from PARCC,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “By making the transition in phases, we can ensure a smooth implementation in schools across the state and maintain compliance with current state and federal requirements.”
“A stronger, fairer New Jersey means one that prioritizes outreach and collaboration when making policy decisions,” said Education Commissioner Lamont O. Repollet. “My staff and I went on a listening tour across the state to ensure that we understood the scope of interest, and we moved forward having considered the needs of students, educators, and broader community members in building the next generation assessment system by New Jersey, for New Jersey.”
The transition will be made in multiple phases. The first phase began with stakeholder outreach and culminates with the report and proposed short-term changes. The report provides an overview of the feedback received from interested stakeholders and the process used to achieve it.
The proposed changes for State Board review include:
Streamlining graduation requirements by reducing the number of required tests in high school from six to two.
Ensuring that educators and parents receive test data in a timely manner.
Providing flexibility for first-year English learners on the English language proficiency test.
Additional changes not requiring State Board approval include:
Reducing the length of testing for all grades by approximately 25 percent.
Reducing the weight of the assessment on teacher evaluations.
More details regarding the changes can be found in the report and draft regulations.
Beginning this summer and occurring over the course of the 2018-19 school year, the NJDOE will be launching the second phase of assessment outreach in New Jersey, focusing on the more complicated questions and issues with implementation that we encountered during the listening tour. More information about Phase 2 will be made available over the next few months.
Ridgewood NJ, Monday, July 30, 2018, at 4:00 PM, is the deadline to file a nominating petition at the:
Bergen County Clerk’s Office
One Bergen County Plaza, Room 130
Hackensack, NJ
for the Ridgewood Board of Education’s November election. Candidates must obtain at least 10 signatures on a petition to be nominated, one of which maybe the candidate. New Jersey School Boards Association has created a Candidate Kit with additional information and instructions for those interested in running for open seats.
For Bergen County specific questions, please visit the Bergen County Clerk website for nominating petitions or Bergen County Election Board website.
Ridgewood schools currently have a $110,000,000 budget that makes up over 60% of property taxes .
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Board of Education has many “Board Committees” , here is a list of committees and committee responsibilities .
Communications Committee
Discusses district communications policy and practice, including the district website, eNews, Newsline, staff communications, etc.
Members: Christina Krauss, Jennie Smith Wilson
Curriculum Committee
Acts as a forum to review current instructional materials and future options for updating those materials at all levels. Textbooks and other materials are discussed and examined for course relevance and appropriateness before being presented to the Board for approval.
Members: Sheila Brogan, Vince Loncto
Facilities Committee and Joint Review Committee
The Facilities Committee discusses issues relating to district buildings and fields, including capital projects, maintenance and repairs and construction. The Joint Review Committee reviews custodial and maintenance services in each of the district’s schools on a monthly basis. Goals and action plans for the custodial and maintenance services are established quarterly.
Members: Sheila Brogan, Christina Krauss
Finance Committee
Discusses issues relating to the funding of the district. Responsible for the initial presentation of the budget and continual monthly review of budget transfers for the current fiscal year.
Members: Vince Loncto, Jim Morgan
Policy Committee
Reviews, revises, and drafts district policy. The committee brings recommendations to add or change policies to the full Board for discussion and adoption. Board policy requires that new or revised policies have two readings before adoption.
Members: Jim Morgan, Jennie Smith Wilson
Federated Home and School Association *
Provides information about the Board and district to, and collects feedback from, the Home and School Associations’ presidents at their monthly meeting. To learn more about Federated HSA click here.
Liaison: Christina Krauss, Vince Loncto
Fields Committee
The Joint Village/Board Fields Committee manages the upkeep and scheduling of athletic field throughout the Village.
Member: Vince Loncto
Parks and Recreation
Comprised of select village employees and citizen volunteers appointed by the Village Council to address the recreational and open space needs and activities of the community, balancing recreational interests with environmental and financial issues.
Members: Jim Morgan
REAC – Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee
Assists the Village of Ridgewood with respect to environmental concerns by formulating, adopting, and implementing practices and policies which protect the environment, respect the ecosystem, promote sustainability, reduce climate change and support earth-friendly cost reductions within the municipality and the community at large.
Member: Jennie Smith Wilson
Safety
Member: Sheila Brogan
Ridgewood Education Foundation
The mission of the REF is to enhance the quality of education in the Ridgewood Public Schools. Since 1989 it has awarded more than $400,000 in grants for special projects created by forward-thinking teachers, parents, students and alumni(ae). The Board representative offers the perspective of the BOE by providing information, asking questions, and participating in discussions that assist in the final decisions about how to distribute funds raised. Click here for more information about the Ridgewood Education Foundation.
Representative: Jim Morgan
Ridgewood Academy for Health Professions (RAHP)
The Academy is a partnership between RHS, Valley Hospital and Bergen Community College.
Member: Sheila Brogan
Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey School Boards Association NOVEMBER ELECTIONS: IMPORTANT DATES 2018 School Board Candidacy & Election Dates
DATE – ACTION
May 16
Term begins for newly appointed board members in Type I districts (those with appointed boards) other than cities of the first class (those with a population of more than 150,000). July 30 4 p.m. is the deadline for candidates to file nominating petitions with the county clerk. Aug 13 Deadline for filing in Superior Court to Protect School Election Candidate’s Rights. Aug 3 Deadline for filing objections to Nomination Petitions for School Election Candidates with the county clerk. Sept 7 Last day for a candidate to withdraw from the election. A signed, written notice must be filed with the county clerk Aug 9 Deadline for Determination of Petition Challenge for School Election Candidates by the county clerk.
Aug 9
Last day to amend a defective petition. The candidate may amend the petition to remedy the defect at any time before the date, but generally may not add signatures. The candidate may add his or her own signature if necessary to provide verification of the signatures on the petition, but only if the petition already contains ten valid signatures.
Aug 13
Date for Drawing of Ballot Position for School Election Candidates by the County Clerk.
Nov 6
Annual School Election NOTE: Board members must undergo criminal history record checks through the New Jersey Department of Education within 30 days of election or appointment.
Jan 1-7
Newly elected board members are sworn in at annual board organizational meetings
Feb 1-7
Last day to file Personal-Relative and Financial Disclosure forms with the Executive County Superintendent and Board Secretary. For newly elected or newly appointed school board members, the deadline is 30 days after taking office
“What are the best ways to communicate with the Board of Education?” For district parents, these further instructions also apply:
1. The best way to communicate with the Board of Education is to butt out and leave everything up to us, your betters.
2. If you must communicate with us, say something nice or don’t say anything at all.
3. Get over yourself. We don’t care how well-educated you are.
4. You scared off notorious constructivist education theory gurus (junkies, really) Martin Brooks and Jacqueline Grennon Brooks when we had almost succeed in handing the district over to them, lock, stock and barrel. We will never forgive you.
