Citing a “broken and unaffordable” education system and lengthy waiting lists for charter schools, Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday proposed sweeping reforms that he said would give charter schools greater flexibility in hiring staff and better access to high quality facilities. Adam Clark, NJ.com Read more
Superintendent and Board Host Coffee and Conversation on May 24
Ridgewood NJ , The Board of Education and Superintendent will host residents for Coffee and Conversation on Tuesday, May 24. The public is invited to drop in at the Education Center at 49 Cottage Place, floor 3 between 7 and 8:30 p.m. to ask questions and share suggestions and concerns.
2016-2017 School Budget Information
Click here to view the 2016-2017 User Friendly Budget.
Click here to look at a 2016-2017 budget summary sheet.
Click here to view the latest information on the budget, updated on May 2, 2016.
Dr. Fishbein Recommends Full-day Kindergarten
On March 7, Dr. Fishbein presented a recommendation to the Board on bringing full-day Kindergarten to Ridgewood. His proposal is to fund a full-day program through a tax increase approved by voters this November in a second question. The consensus of the Board is to proceed with this recommendation.
Click here to read the Ridgewood Board of Education’s Fact-Finding Presentation with The Ridgewood Education Association.
I have two young kids who will be affected by this. Please get your friends and neighbors out to vote NO!
I moved to Ridgewood, in part, because it has half-day kindergarten. I have a child who was in kindergarten last year–it was non-stop busywork and worksheets. No toys or play. No time for socialization. No recess. Teachers who wanted 5 year-olds to sit still. It was completely age-inappropriate and the curriculum (coupled with the stressed-out teacher) was the perfect recipe for making children hate school. I thanked God it was only half a day and did not make my daughter miserable! My wife and I both work (she-part time), but half day kindergarten enabled us to make sure our child had time to run around and play in the afternoon (and my wife got those precious afternoons with her on the days she was not working! You never get those back.)
We DO NOT want full-day kindergarten. And there are many other parents like us here whose voices are being drowned out (or who did not even know this issue was on the docket).
The parents I know who do want full-day have the ability to be with their child in the afternoon AND/OR have the financial ability to hire child care or send their kids to the afternoon program of their choice. They are annoyed they have to be bothered to do so, especially because mid-day pick-up/drop-off interrupts their day so!!! (And, yes, many, many of these parents complainig so bitterly are affluent mothers who are at the gym, playing tennis, having lunch, etc.)
Let these parents PAY to have their kids in school all day, if that is what they need so desperately. Their desire to play tennis or not hire childcare should NOT be more important than our desire to spend time with our child and let a 5 year-old do what ALL the research says is crucial at this age: have unstructured play and time for socialization.
Please vote NO! Help the poor kids who do not have a voice here. I am sure that if they were polled, THEY would all vote this terrible idea down! Give them one last gasp before the rat race, with its tutors and sports trainers engulfs them! They will be better-off, academically, socially, and psychologically, in the long run! Thank you!
May 23,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, When it comes time to apply to colleges, we may not be serving our children well.
That’s according to a growing chorus of voices who work with youth and their academic endeavors. For example, Malcolm Gladwell, one of the most recognizable public intellects, regularly asserts that brand prestige from an Ivy League name doesn’t necessarily suit the needs of individual students.
Jeffrey Leiken, CEO of Evolution Mentoring International, agrees. He provides mentoring for teens and young adults, going beyond the typical work of a therapist by building a relationship so that they come to see Leiken as a trusted confidant who answers their late-night text messages and isn’t quick to label them.
“We continue to be obsessed with being associated with the top 1 percent of anything, whether it’s wealth, looks, social media followers or achieving that Ivy League status,” says Leiken, author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood” (www.Leiken.com).
“Far more important is not the school’s brand and our cultural obsession with it. Rather, it’s helping to ensure that every student who attends any school gets closer to reaching their potential.”
What criteria should students and parents look for when determining where to apply for college? Leiken offers some crucial guidelines to keep in mind.
• Seek a college with programs that may help with lifelong skills. Self-awareness, self-leadership, self-actualization – those qualities are often overlooked when considering higher education. Learning the tangible skills for a future job is important. However, those requirements change over time. Coursework, professors and other programs that speak to a student’s ethical intuition, however, make up the educational gold that is enduring.
• Look beyond the typical menu of schools. There is a common denominator among millions of 17-year-olds: an anxious balance between their “reach” schools and their “safety” schools. It turns out that many college counselors guide these kids to a similar list of “reach” and “safety” schools – about 50 of them. Between public and private institutions, there arethousands of other schools to choose from!
• Ask yourself, “Where will I flourish?” Learn more about the culture of these institutions. There are two distinct stages for young adults in college life: the time where students adjust to a new environment and, later, when students realize they are becoming independent adults. A name-brand school isn’t necessarily the best place for millions of kids to best reach maturity.
“Just as we don’t all wear the same size clothing,” Leiken says, “the intellectual development of young adults doesn’t always fit into the same small box of name-brand schools.”
About Jeffrey Leiken
Jeffery Leiken (www.Leiken.com) is the CEO of Evolution Mentoring International and is co-founder of HeroPath International. Leiken also is author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood.” He has presented at TED in Athens, Greece; guest lectured at Stanford University; and facilitated programs for teenagers on three continents and in seven countries, among other accomplishments. He has a master’s degree in educational counseling.
The over-developers paired with the Paul V.s of the village are playing the long game to draw families here to multi bedroom rentals with our schools as the magnetic force. It is very simple. Problem is, our schools are over capacity and our high school is well past capacity. So, how will our schools stay at the top? They can’t. That doesn’t concern the local developer, he’ll have sold by then. It will be someone else’s problem. It is simple and undeniably true. They lie about Brogan and Ken Smith parking spaces needing to be replaced, spots that are not a part of the public parking inventory. “Smiling faces with hidden agendas”.
The garage is the Trojan Horse. The village now admits, we don’t need more parking, we don’t even utilize what we have.
The full day kindergarten should be voted DOWN in Nov. When studies were presented for multifamily housing, the ‘expert’ assumed new staffing for full day kindergarten was already in place. If we vote the full day Kindergarten down, then the schools will not have funding for new teachers needed to serve newly built apartments. At that point hopefully the builders will be charged an impact fee, instead of sneaking the higher cost caused due to apartments in the name of the KG program.
$81,000 average salary for Ridgewood teacher. Glen Rock, Fairlawn, Wyckoff are around $72,000 average. A $102,000,000 budget for around 5,500 students is approx $18,000 per student. Ridgewood also ranks high for greater number of teachers making over $100,000. Easy commute, easy district, unlimited fundraising from parents to fund better technology, environment and resources, not to mention intelligent students served by private tutoring, parent involvement and less negative secondary factors. I love and respect our teachers and feel fortunate to have such a wonderful school district for my kids. But, I need either more information or stronger argument from teachers to be convinced they are getting a bad deal in these negotiations. Anyone?
These teachers need to understand the private sector reality – taxpayers cannot be subsidizing better benefits for teachers than they have themselves, it doesn’t work.
Sick and tired of hearing some the highest paid teachers in the State complain. Get a grip – the real world does not get automatic increases every year and in many case each year the contribution towards health insurance increases and coverage changes to economize. Let them strike and fire them. Lots of fresh new faces with lots of energy or teachers working in lower paying districts would love to have your jobs and be happy to work for a lot less
Teachers voted for Obamacare which is why health premiums are rising faster than wages. But now they want taxpayers to carry the extra cost so they can keep their Platinum health benefits? Give us all a break. Its great the REA can’t bully our BOE members as parents like they’ve done in the past with former BOE members. These are hard working volunteers trying to protect Ridgewood taxpayers from hostile and abusive REA/NJEA who has no interest in negotiating in good faith. They just want to keep screwing Ridgewood taxpayers as our school rankings keep declining. $102mn school budget for a town of 25,0000 and yet the REA wants more! This is abject greed.
NJEA and the REA is shameless trying to bully BOE members and their families. We can only guess the abuse the hard working volunteers have faced privately from the REA and NJEA thugs, and if they did have kids in the local schools what challenges that might present. If you don’t like your health benefit premiums, then downgrade to Bronze level coverage like the rest of us in the private sector. Remember, it was your union who supported Obamacare. So now accept that taxpayers are done subsidizing better health benefit plans for you elite teachers at everyone else’s expense. The rate of contribution is determined by your salary, simply the more money you make the more you are forced to contribute. Lower contribution levels don’t work for taxpayers, so suck it up like the rest of us and enjoy your paid summer vacation.
May 21,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood blog has posted verbatim from the Ridgewood Education Association’s Facebook page . We have also included a link to the BOE’s Fact finding Presentation .
Click here to read the Ridgewood Board of Education’s Fact-Finding Presentation with The Ridgewood Education Association.
Here is a summary of the issues surrounding the lack of contract for our association (REA).
“The REA has been working under the terms of an expired contract as of July 1, 2015, negotiations commenced in February 2015. The major issues in our negotiations remain the cost of health contributions teachers will pay, health coverage, and salary.
Employee health contributions are mandated by the state and can not be negotiated away. The law that covers contributions states that once teachers have contributed for four years, and are at the end of a contract, the rate of contribution is then negotiable. Ridgewood is one of the first districts in this position. The rate of contribution is determined by your salary, simply the more money you make the more you are forced to contribute. The average teacher pays 27% of the premium with our most senior teachers paying 35%. This is burdensome on our experienced staff as the increase in contribution is greater than any increase in salary. We are seeking to lower contribution levels.
Salary. We are seeking the county average for salary increase.
Health Coverage. We wish to retain our current options within the state health plan, which is the plan the BOE bargained last round of negotiations. Our willingness to change to the state plan saved the district over a million dollars. It is our contention that Ridgewood’s teachers deserve stability in their health coverage. In addition, the savings achieved in the last round of negotiations combined with the several million dollars contributed by teachers towards that coverage is a significant amount – enough to settle this contract and continue programming.
These issues are not insurmountable and the REA has been willing to engage the BOE in creative means to address the needs of both parties. The larger issue is that the BOE keeps changing their needs. We believe this BOE has no desire to settle a contract:
-At the Sept. 21, 2015 BOE Meeting the Board set their goals for the school year. Goal #3 states: “The Board will continue to negotiate with the REA to settle a new contract.” Their goal is to merely “continue to negotiate”, not settle a contract. When this was brought up by the REA at the meeting BOE Member Vince Loncto stated he saw no problem with the language. Also, why is this the third goal of four? Shouldn’t it be a higher priority?
At the March 23, 2015 meeting the BOE passed a unanimous resolution asking the NJ State Legislature to remove collective bargaining rights for teachers.
-BOE Member Jim Morgan, a member of the Board’s negotiating team, stated in an email sent to the REA: “We can’t impose a contract and the teachers can’t strike. We are therefore left with either just giving up and living with the status quo forever or discussing the issues again. … Like a recalcitrant child, we need to repeat the mantra that ‘the District does not have the money to meet your demands without canceling other educational programs.’” This is their tactic in their own words – act recalcitrant.
-In next year’s school budget the district has allotted $1,592,255 for technology; as well as additional moneys for three new curriculum initiatives next year.
-The BOE keeps changing their position at the table making it impossible for the REA to ever meet them. On March 21, 2016 we presented the Board with a counter proposal. Our counter proposal would cost the Board, over three years, LESS than their proposal, but they refused.
-Ridgewood Board of Education has shown disrespect for the State appointed Fact Finder. They purposely violated procedures by including discussions not entered as evidence at the hearing and misrepresenting the REA’s position in their Fact Finding brief that was submitted to the Fact Finder. Their published brief does not represent their position from the formal Fact Finding hearing. They then doubled-down by making the highly unusual decision to make their report public before the Fact Finder had finished his report in an attempt to intimidate and influence his decision.
Why has this impasse gone on so long? Could it be because this impasse doesn’t affect the Ridgewood Board of Education? Four of the five BOE members do not have children in our schools. One member elects to send her youngest child to a private high school. What do they care if teachers feel disrespected by their actions, if morale is at an all-time low? Their children already graduated and went to great schools. They have nothing at stake – but hopefully the parents and residents of this community will tell this Board of Education that they have a job to do, they need to settle this contract.”
Dear Parent, Guardian or Staff member:
As you are aware, this school year the district did not have any weather-related emergency closings. Therefore, I am happy to announce that the Ridgewood school district will be closed on Friday, May 27, in accordance with the provisions of the official 2015-2016 school calendar.
Closing the district on May 27 will allow the Ridgewood Public Schools community to enjoy an extended Memorial Day holiday. I hope this news helps in planning your holiday weekend with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools
May 17,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, RHS junior Jamie Lim, has recently been named a finalist in the Facing History Together student essay contest Titled, Jam in a Jar, her essay was picked out of nearly 4,000 other student entries. The contest was based around the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and sponsored by the organization, Facing Our History and Ourselves.
Annual Wiffle for Cancer is June 12
May 15,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This year’s Wiffle for Cancer tournament, in memory of 2004 RHS grad Nick Currey, will take place at noon at RHS on Sunday, June 12, rain or shine. Participants are invited to put together a team of 3 to 5 players and register at www.wiffleforcancer.org . There is a $50 registration fee per team.
All proceeds benefit the Nick Currey Fund and are used to support research to find a cure for Ewing sarcoma. For 11 years running, proceeds from the tournament have benefited the Nick Currey Fund for Ewing Sarcoma Research.
Players of all ages are welcome. For further information about the tournament and the Nick Currey Fund, as well as online registration, visit www.wiffleforcancer.org . Any questions should be directed to Ralph Currey at [email protected]. Click here for additional details.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, N.J., Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) hosted young legislators from 35 New Jersey high schools in Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren counties at the third annual Model Congress Saturday in Ridgewood.
This years turnout was significantly larger than last year . Students were well informed and thoroughly debated the issues .There were clearly some future statesmen and women in the room .
The Model Congress is an educational event for students where they will replicate a day in the life of a Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives. It gave an opportunity for naive idealism to met reality of negotiation and compromise. The Congressmen’s very able staff helped organized and run the event.
The Model Congress gives students a first-hand opportunity to learn how Congress works by allowing them to research legislation currently being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives, break into committees to further examine and debate the legislation, and finally bring the legislation to the House floor for a vote.
Students were assigned to represent different states, but not specific political parties. They stated their day by picking committee chairs and amending and voting on bills . Local boy scouts were brought in keep time and enforce time limits .
This is a nonpartisan event. Each school in New Jersey’s Fifth District sent two students for the Model Congress, and awards will be given for best debater, best consensus builder, best speaker, best research, best counterargument, and leadership at the end of the event. The congressmen made his usual low keyed entrance and keep the focus on the students ,letting his staff run the show .
Students from the Following Schools attended the event:
Bergen:
Bergen County Academies
Bergen County Technical High School
Bergenfield High School
Dumont High School
Fair Lawn High School
Glen Rock High School
Hackensack High School
Indian Hills High School
Lodi High School
Mahwah High School
Midland Park High School
Northern Highlands High School
Northern Valley Regional-Demarest
Paramus High School
Park Ridge High School
Pascack Hills High School
Pascack Valley High School
Ramapo High School
Ramsey High School
Ridgewood High School
River Dell High School
St. Joseph Regional High School
Teaneck High School
Waldwick High School
Westwood Regional High School
Passaic:
Lakeland Regional High School
West Milford High School
Sussex:
High Point High School
Kittatinny Regional High School
Newton High School
Pope John XXIII High School
Vernon Township High School
Wallkill Valley Regional High School
Warren:
North Warren High School
Warren Hills High School
“At RHS, we will continue to have educational discussions with our students about the effects of drugs and alcohol; assist in the emotional, psychological, and physical development of our teenagers; and teach about character and decision-making through academics, athletics, and the arts.” Dr. Thomas Gorman
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As usual, missing the mark.
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This has less (nothing?) to do with “educating” the students in proper behavior (they know right from wrong) and more to do with holding the students (children) responsible for their actions. From a very young age, poor parenting and a home and school environment that puts more emphasis on making children feel good about themselves and blaming others for their poor behavior, rather than having the children face consequences for their actions, is the cause..
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no amount of “reeducation” is going to change this behavior – but why start addressing the problem now when ignoring it has felt so good for so long.
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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Monday, May 23 7 – 9 pm, RHS Campus Center Presenter:
Ridgewood NJ, Dr. Tim Silvestri In conjunction with the Municipal Alliance of Ridgewood, the Ridgewood Public Schools will present a parent forum on underage drinking.
The Straight Shots program, featuring Dr. Tim Silvestri, Professor of Social Science at Lafayette University and licensed psychologist, will be held on Monday, May 23 from 7-9 p.m. in the Ridgewood High School Campus Center, 627 East Ridgewood Avenue.
RPS and Municipal Alliance Host Important Program on Underage DrinkingStraight Shots with Dr. Tim Silvestri
Monday, May 23
RHS Campus Center
7-9 p.m
Click here for details.
Click here for the flyer
May 12, 2016
Dear Parents/Guardians:
We are excited that our girls and boys lacrosse teams both won the Bergen County final round of competition at Mahwah High School on May 7. It was great to see so many people from our community support our teams during the games. We are extremely proud of our coaches and players.
Unfortunately, despite previous warnings and pleas for assistance in my November 30 and December 11 letters regarding the conduct of our fans at the MetLife Stadium football championship game, Ridgewood High School was again not portrayed in the best light in the stands or parking lot during the lacrosse tournament. Administrators from Mahwah High School have notified us that the parking lot parent tailgate in the Ridgewood section was left in a very poor state with trash and alcohol bottles strewn about. In addition, we had one Ridgewood adult fan verbally accost the referees after the game, which required police intervention.
Sadly, the incidents referenced above are not unique to this one weekend. Many of these negative behaviors are illegal, disruptive, and dangerous. Please note that the consumption of alcohol on school grounds, whether at RHS or another school, is illegal and will result in a summons. It can also place students and athletes attending the tailgates in potential jeopardy of accusations by others, resulting in an investigation of the incident. In addition, this type of behavior may result in the County and State athletic associations not allowing Ridgewood to host future events.
At RHS, we will continue to have educational discussions with our students about the effects of drugs and alcohol; assist in the emotional, psychological, and physical development of our teenagers; and teach about character and decision-making through academics, athletics, and the arts.
We ask for your help in being role models for our students and set the correct tone and image we want portrayed of the RHS community.
Respectfully,
Thomas A. Gorman, Ed.D.
Principal
