Ridgewood NJ, Rising seniors can come find out at a FREE talk this Monday, June 5th at 7:30pm. Register through the Ridgewood Library to hold a space. The talk is being given by Lisa Bornemann Paterson , Director at Write This Way, LLC -Find your Voice-Find yourself-Find your essay .
What kids wear to school becomes more of an issue as the weather warms and we move closer to school’s end.
Students may opt for casual, but some districts discourage dress that is too casual — as in beach wear or revealing summer attire not deemed appropriate for class.
Janet Bamford of the New Jersey School Boards Association says there is no state-mandated school dress code, so it varies from district to district.
New Jersey law does allow for individual school dress codes on the local level.
“One kind of landmark addition was in 1996 when school dress codes were allowed to address what comes to ‘gang apparel,’ and also to permit school uniforms,” she said.
Bamford says there is a lot of variation from district to district in New Jersey, from no dress code at all to a few districts that mandate uniforms.
Updated on May 29, 2017 at 1:53 PMPosted on May 29, 2017 at 11:02 AM
BY TERRENCE T. MCDONALD
The Jersey Journal
A lawsuit between a conservative group and the Jersey City teachers union will proceed after a judge denied the union’s bid to dismiss the suit on Friday.
The legal spat focuses on “release time,” a provision in the union’s contract with the public-school district that allows two top union officials to devote all of their time to union activities while getting paid by the district.
Judge Barry Sarkisian dismissed the Jersey City Education Association’s efforts to derail the lawsuit during a roughly 30-minute hearing on Friday morning.
JCEA President Ron Greco declined to comment. Greco is one of the two officials permitted to work full time for the union. The JCEA has argued that freeing Greco of his teaching duties allows him to resolve “potentially disruptive disputes” between the 28,000-student district and its staff.
As New Jersey schools draw up their annual budgets, some are finding that revenues aren’t enough to support all their needs. As a result, a few are contemplating or have approved laying off teachers and other staff for the 2017-2018 school year.
Here are the districts who are facing those cuts, listed by those who are planning to lay off the fewest staff members to the districts that are facing the most severe cuts.
Trenton NJ , A group of Newark parents yesterday filed a formal request to appeal a trial court judge’s dismissal earlier this month of their lawsuit challenging the state’s “last in, first out” teacher layoff law. Filed last November, the parents’ lawsuit asserts that the LIFO statute violates students’ right to an education by unjustly requiring school districts to retain ineffective teachers while cutting other areas of education spending or laying off more effective teachers when faced with funding deficits.
Defendants from Newark Public Schools (NPS) and the State of New Jersey did not move to dismiss the case. Instead, NPS admitted nearly every allegation made about the impact of New Jersey’s LIFO law on children within NPS. The motions to dismiss the case granted earlier this month were raised by intervening defendants from local and national teachers unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), and the Newark Teachers Union (NTU).
If the parents’ request for appeal is granted, arguments from the Newark families and the teachers unions will be reviewed by a panel of four judges from the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court.
“Public schools are here to educate our children, first and foremost,” said Wendy Soto, plaintiff and mother of two Newark Public School students. “Everyone knows that many New Jersey school districts are in a serious funding crisis. Politicians have not protected our children’s right to a quality public education, and parents like me have nowhere to turn. The quality-blind LIFO law makes a difficult situation even worse for students in struggling schools. Enough is enough. It’s time to end this ridiculous law.”
“New Jersey’s LIFO law forces school districts like Newark to retain ineffective teachers and, in fact, put them back in the classroom while cutting spending to other critical areas of public education. Students are constitutionally entitled to more than this,” said Kathleen Reilly, attorney with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, one of the firms representing the Newark parents pro bono. “These decisions – made to evade application of the LIFO law – harm children. The negative impact of LIFO is pervasive today in Newark public schools and these families deserve to have their case heard in court.”
Since at least 2012, NPS has avoided laying off effective teachers by paying millions of dollars per year to cover the salaries of ineffective – but more senior – teachers even when no school would agree to their placement in the school. This expensive work-around, which is costing the district $10 million dollars in 2016-17, diverts valuable resources from educational programming and other critical components of an adequate public education. Because NPS employs more than half of the state’s ineffective teachers, it also puts Newark students at significant risk of being assigned to an ineffective teacher.
After it was announced that New Jersey State education funding would remain essentially flat for the 2017-18 school year, NPS acknowledged a looming $30 million deficit because of rising costs. Facing similar budget gaps over the past three years, NPS administrators restricted hiring practices, forcing teachers previously without placement into schools without mutual consent from the teacher and the principal. Research shows that teacher quality is the most influential in-school factor when it comes to student learning. It also shows that student achievement improves when principals are allowed to hire school staff according to quality and fit, rather than restricted by seniority.
To learn more about the parent-led lawsuit to end LIFO in New Jersey, please go to edjustice.org/nj. All legal filings related to the lawsuit are available online here.
About Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ)
Founded in 2014, Partnership for Educational Justice is a nonprofit organization pursuing impact litigation that empowers families and communities to advocate for great public schools through the courts. In addition to supporting teacher layoff litigation in New Jersey, PEJ is currently working with parents and students in New York and Minnesota in support of legal challenges to unjust teacher employment statutes in those states.
Gold Medal and Lovey Farrell Cup Awardees Claire Callaghan and Jordan Wittmaack Girls Varsity Double Photo:Terry Wittmaack
May 24,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Crew girls dominate at Stotesbury, the largest high school rowing regatta in the world. Girls Varsity Double earned the Gold and the Lovey Farrell Cup, and the Girls Junior Varsity earned the Bronze.
This past weekend, Ridgewood Crew traveled to the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia for the legendary Stotesbury Cup Regatta. Stotesbury Cup is the largest scholastic regatta in the world and features approximately 5,000 high school athletes representing nearly 200 different schools in competition.
On Friday morning into the early afternoon, Ridgewood had 14 entries compete in time trials. Of the 14 crews, 11 advanced to the semi-final rounds held Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. To put the achievement in perspective, many crews were packing up their boats to leave after time trials on Friday.In the semi-final round, Ridgewood was able to advance 8 crews to the finals for Saturday afternoon.
Bronze Medalists Maddie Gibson and Alexandra Walton Roth Girls JV Double Photo: Nicole Gibson
Crews that made semi-finals and finals are listed below:
Girls Junior Double: Alexandra Walton Roth,Maddie Gibson – Semi-finals,
Finals (3rd) Boys Junior Double: Drew Johnson, Alex Melarti – Semi-finals
Boys Freshman Quad: Tommy Montgomery, Gabe Martinez, David Yang, Dylan Park
– Semi-finals, Finals (6th) Girls Varsity Lightweight Double: Maddy
Phillips, Emily Gilman – Semi-finals, Finals (5th) Boys Varsity Lightweight
Double: Sam Daspin, Spencer Campbell – Semi-finals, Finals (5th) Boys Junior
Quad: Ed Hida, Alex Saladucha, Joe O’Keefe, Henry Koontz – Semi-finals,
Finals (4th) Girls Varsity Double: Claire Callaghan, Jordan Wittmaack –
Semi-finals, Finals (1st) Boys Varsity Double: Patrick DuBois, Ian Soderlund
– Semi-finals Boys Varsity Single: Charlie Koontz – Semi-finals, Finals
(5th) Girls Varsity Quad: Isabella DeGregorio, Chloe Young, Amanda Perez,
Melissa Dexter – Semi-finals, Finals (4th) Boys Varsity Quad: Sebastian
Rivero, Andrew Felix, Matt Seiter, Walter Friedrich – Semi-finals
On Saturday afternoon showcased the fastest scholastic rowers from places as far away as Florida, Texas, and Canada. Ridgewood was able to place two boats in medaling position. Ridgewood started off their first final with the Girls Junior Double with Alexandra Walton Roth and Maddie Gibson getting bronze medals. They showed true grit in the last 300 meters of the race to pass a hard charging Springside-Chestnut Hill crew.
Later on Saturday, the Girls Varsity Double of Claire Callaghan and Jordan Wittmaack blitzed the final 500 meters of the race going from 3rd or 4th place to first place for a gold medal finish. Seniors, both girls hadm received silver medals at Stotesbury Cup as Freshman and Sophomores, and were ecstatic to stand on the medal dock to receive their gold medals and the Lovey Farrell Cup Award for the category. Bridget Callaghan, Claire Callaghan’s older sister won the same award two years ago with her partner, Julia Hefferon.
In all, Ridgewood Crew posted excellent results. As Head Coach Boris Roque-Alvarez said, “It was amazing that we were able to get so many crews into the semi-finals and finals, and we are proud of all of our athletes.”
The RHS History Bowl Team earned the title of Varsity Middle Bracket Group Champions at the National History Bowl and Bee Championship in Washington D.C. Team members with media permission to be named are Ben Amos, Kumail Raza, Bruce Zhang and Philip Terman.
Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA TodayPublished 9:04 a.m. ET May 21, 2017 | Updated 17 hours ago
f your teen has a smartphone, chances are they spend several hours a day on text and social media. If you ever look at what they’re actually doing on there, you’ll likely see a lot of innocent “Snapstreaking,” some funny Buzzfeed videos and a bunch of letters and numbers that look like some kind of modern-day shorthand.
photos courtesy of Ridgewood High School Alumni Association
May 21,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood High School gathered under this beautiful tent at Veterans Field to celebrate 125 years of excellence on the 19th of May.
The party featured the one and only DJ Nick Cannon. Ridgewood High School ,125 years of excellence. A total and complete celebration of a place that has educated thousands (myself included-class of 1980).
The public is invited to attend the meeting, or watch it live on Fios channel 33, Optimum channel 77, or on the “Link in Live” tab of the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
photo courtesy of the Ridgewood High School Alumni Association
May 19,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, So it safe to say this is really happening!, hundreds of people who love and support Ridgewood High School will gather under this beautiful tent on Veterans Field to celebrate 125 years of excellence. It will be a total and complete celebration of a place that has educated thousands .
Food stations, hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine and speciality drinks — along with musical entertainment — will help celebrate Ridgewood High School’s 125th anniversary at the “Party in the Park” on May 19
Word is they are dangerously close to selling out, there is still room for a few more. Same day registration will be open. Party in the Park 2017.
As an RHS student- these numbers are completely false. This survey was given on a volunteer-only basis, and to participate, your parent needed to sign a consent form. I didn’t take this survey, and I have never met a single student who did. I believe it was also administered in the RHS campus center with teachers all around. This year, the student editors of the RHS High Times gave their own version of the survey that had much more accurate results (these were only published in print and are not on the website). Every student in RHS and many teachers make fun of the social norms survey and the attempts by the school to push all of the drug/alcohol problems under the rug.
As someone who conducts many surveys as part of my job in communications, a survey like this is questionable. To start with the people most likely to respond to a survey, take the time out to thoughtfully and honestly do so, are the ones most likely to report positive behaviors. I dont have data on it, but my experience says that those students who are engaging in the less than optimal behaviors arent going to wast their time on a survey or answering honestly. I didnt notice, did it say what % of students responded? Would have been interesting to have also had them gather additional data such as which Elementary school they went to (neighborhood data) and if possible average GPA. If this data was true, we wouldnt be seeing and hearing about it so much. Very concerning. I’d like to figure out how we can actively address this!
Ridgewood NJ, The Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Daniel Fishbein will host residents for coffee and casual conversation on Wednesday, May 17. The casual meeting will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, Ridgewood. All residents are invited to drop in to share their thoughts, questions, suggestions and concerns.
