Ridgewood NJ, Ms. Carol Sharar, Director of Orchestras, reports that the following Benjamin Franklin Middle School string players were accepted into the 2016 Region I Orchestra: Christy Chang (Violin), Daniel Son (Violin), Ryan Rhew (Violin), Eugene Park (Cello) and William Stewart (Bass).
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – An award-winning Ridgewood tradition, Super Science Saturday (SSS), is ready to educate and inspire community members of all ages.
The event, which is being held on Feb. 27 for the 28th straight year, will feature professional presenters and student projects, according to its website.
This popular village event received an award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame last October.
“SSS is an annual science exhibition that brings students at all grade levels and adults together to experience the wonder and excitement of science and technology in our daily lives,” said Mary Ann Copp, a member of the SSS Executive Committee. “Since its founding in 1988 by former Ben Franklin [Middle School] science teacher Jim Wallace, SSS is fun [makes science approachable and understandable], free [for anyone to attend] and non-competitive. Any student and adult can exhibit just by registering in advance.”
This year’s version of SSS will have a “special interactive show” featuring an actor playing Thomas Edison, Copp said, noting that the Edison show will begin at 9:30 a.m.
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – Willard Elementary School held its second annual service day last week, allowing students to participate in volunteer activities while meeting and interacting with adult volunteers from various charitable programs.
The event was organized by the school’s teachers and Home and School Association (HSA), according to Principal Caroline Hoffman, who called it “a positive and meaningful experience for Willard.”
“It puts into practice the most-important lessons we strive to teach our children – kindness, compassion and giving of ourselves to help others,” Hoffman said. “To take a couple of hours off from what we usually do to teach this important lesson and talk about what’s really important is very worthwhile.”
The HSA introduced Service Day for the first time last year, according to Christine Chanley, HSA president.
“We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Willard community and, based on that success, we expanded this year to include five organizations,” she said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/teaching-compassion-and-giving-1.1514595
February 17,2016
the staff of the Rkidgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, “Not As Good as You Think: Why Middle-Class Parents in New Jersey Should Be Concerned About Their Local Public Schools,” a report produced by the Pacific Research Institute analyzing academic performance at 1,170 Garden State public schools, says plenty of middle class suburban kids aren’t college ready!
https://www.pacificresearch.org/fileadmin/images/Studies_2016/NAGAYT_NewJersey_F_NewWeb.pdf
BOE-REA Negotiations
Click here to read a Letter to the Editor of The Ridgewood News, which appeared in the paper on February 12, 2016.
Click here to read the Ridgewood Board of Education’s Fact-Finding Presentation with the The Ridgewood Education Association.
BOE Meets on February 22 at 7:30 p.m.
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, February 22, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
Click here to view the agenda for the February 8, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the minutes of the January 25, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Are you seeing double in the hallways at Ridgewood High School?
BY DIANA OLIVEIRA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – The senior class at Ridgewood High School is probably accustomed to seeing double. Or it should be, given that there are 17 sets of twins and one set of triplets roaming the halls.
“I feel like every class that I’m in there’s always another twin,” said Kelly Dwyer, who is one half of a pair. “So I could always look around and go, ‘She’s a twin, he’s a twin.’ They’re everywhere, they’re actually taking over.”
But the idea that there could be so many multiples in a single graduating class was never deemed unusual, at least not by these classmates who grew up together. Jess and Amy Schlicht have recognized over time that this is a unique situation.
“Growing up, I’ve been kind of used to it,” said Jess. “But then realizing that not a lot of schools have this, it’s pretty cool.”
“It’s something that separates us from other high schools,” added Amy.
Erin Dwyer is also taking pride in this distinction. At first, she found people’s disbelief over the number of twins in her grade surprising. Words like “crazy” and “insane” were often used, and she’d reply, “Oh, is it? I don’t really know the average number of twins per class.” Now, Erin shares the tale without registering the shock, having already embraced what she has learned to be an unconventional situation.
And while it isn’t conventional, the twins at Ridgewood High School are noticing quite a few advantages to having a sibling in the same grade. For one, there’s always a homework helper nearby.
“Last year, I was in a few classes with Jess,” said Amy. “It was nice because when I needed to do homework and needed help, she was right there sitting next to me.”
Applying to college can always be stressful, but it’s less so when there’s someone to endure the stress with.
“Everybody goes through the whole college process, but we went through the college process of writing the essays and sending other college apps in as the two of us, which was great,” said Erin.
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/are-you-seeing-double-in-the-hallways-1.1510952
FEBRUARY 12, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
BOE highlights memorandum
Click here to read the Fact Finding Report between the Ridgewood Board of Education and the REA dated February 3, 2016.
To the Editor,
At our Feb. 8 Board of Education meeting, our teachers voiced concerns about the unsettled contract and the Board’s recent proposal. It was evident that the information they were given about the Board’s proposal was incorrect.
The Board and the Ridgewood Education Association Negotiations committees have met 12 times since February 2015. Unfortunately, we have failed to settle the contract. On Wednesday, Feb. 3, a hearing was held before the state-appointed Fact-finder. At the hearing, the Board summarized its position and the current proposal in a memorandum. The bullet points below highlight the key areas discussed in our memorandum. The full memorandum can be found on the District’s website at ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Key areas in the Board’s Fact-finding memorandum:
The Board has based its negotiating position on the realities of a state law, Chapter 44, which limits local school boards to annual property tax increases of no more than two percent over the previous year’s dollar amounts, with some limited exceptions.
Ridgewood teacher salaries are at, or near the top of, salaries paid for similarly qualified staff in other Bergen County school districts.
The Board currently spends over $7 million per year, or approximately 74 percent of the premium bill, for REA health benefits. The Board has not proposed to increase the teachers’ share of the health benefit premiums.
Health benefit premiums have increased on average by 10 percent annually for the past 10 years.
The Board has proposed changing the health benefits plan within the current provider program (the School Employees Health Benefits Plan) to one with higher co-pays — $10 doctor visit co-pay in the current plan rising to $15 per primary care doctor visit and $25 for specialists — as a way to save both the District and teachers on premium costs.
Breakage, or any savings due to retirements, is not a reasonable way to fund a settlement. Historically, the Board has spent any such savings on new hires or on salary increases for existing teachers as they complete graduate courses and higher education degrees.
State aid for rapidly rising special education costs has decreased in the last three years.
The District’s architect and engineering firm completed a facility review and recommended facility upgrades/repairs of approximately $40 million. The capital reserve account balance as of June 30, 2015 was $1,018,989, far short of what is needed to update our 11 buildings constructed between 1894 and 1965.
Many of the comments from teachers were critical of the Board and mischaracterized us as uncaring and indifferent. The Board values our staff. We would never see our teachers as “numbers on a spreadsheet.” We are well aware of the work our staff does and that it is this work that makes Ridgewood the excellent district that it is. The Board is committed to negotiating a fair contract with the REA that can be funded within the District’s financial ability.
Sheila Brogan
Jim Morgan
Vince Loncto
Christina Krauss
Jennie Smith Wilson
Ridgewood Board of Education
FEBRUARY 12, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – Members of Ridgewood High School’s (RHS) Project Interact (PI) group showed a video on Feb. 9 of former student Julia Leonard requesting to meet talk-show host Ellen Degeneres and hoping to get a new wheelchair.
A graduate of RHS, Class of 2015, Leonard has gone through a lot in her relatively short life, surviving a rare form of spinal cancer and adapting to an ordinary life as best she can.
Despite the trials and tribulations that come with dealing with such health complications, Leonard retained her sense of happiness by watching her favorite television shows, including “The Ellen Degeneres Show.”
It was by watching the television program that Leonard regained her desire to dance, thanks to seeing Ellen Degeneres cavorting around her set during her shows.
“Cancer almost took away my love for dancing, until I saw your show,” Leonard said in the video. “You inspired me to dance every day when you shake down the stage. I love to dance in my wheelchair.”
Leonard initially made her own video for Degeneres, but decided to accept the help of PI when it offered.
Nancy Reilly, a science teacher and one of the staff involved with PI, explained that while she was impressed with Leonard’s original video, she thought the student group could help make an even better one.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/students-faculty-rally-behind-teen-with-video-1.1510921
FEBRUARY 12, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – A large number of teachers once again took the stand during Monday’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting, enumerating the various reasons why they feel a fair contract must be reached between the BOE and Ridgewood Education Association (REA).
Despite protracted negotiations, an agreement still has yet to be hammered out, causing much concern on both sides.
Although the BOE has continuously said that it values its educators and recognizes the necessity of their work, many teachers remain unconvinced.
Some, like Kim Casey, of Travell Elementary School, said they still feel like they are only figures on a spreadsheet.
“To you, I am merely a number,” she stated. “To you I am merely … the numbers of years I have before retirement, when you can fill my position with a younger teacher who won’t cost the taxpayers as much money.”
Others, like teacher Andrea Petron, of Ridge Elementary School, said they feel like teachers are an indispensible part of Ridgewood schools, and that the BOE has not treated them fairly.
“After pouring our hearts and souls into the district, it is important to know that we are appreciated and respected for the work we do,” she said. “Education is not a business, and it should not be treated as such.
“Teachers literally create every profession in the world,” she continued. “Teaching is the fundamental basis of every facet of society. It is time for you to start treating us like the rest of the world could not go on without us, including Ridgewood.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/voices-heard-at-podium-during-boe-meeting-1.1510977
FEBRUARY 10, 2016, 6:49 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016, 6:57 PM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The Board of Education and the Ridgewood Education Association remain locked in their inability to come to terms on a new teachers’ contract, despite the efforts of a state-appointed fact finder.
Members of the REA, cloaked in red to show solidarity, crowded into a school board meeting Monday night for the second time this month to decry the lack of progress in negotiations. Although there are numerous points of contention, the sharpest disagreement has come over how much REA members must contribute to their health-insurance premiums.
REA President Michael Yannone, a 19-year veteran of Ridgewood High School, said Monday the board’s position in a Feb. 3 fact-finding meeting was reduced to two points: The district had no additional money to spend on teacher salaries, and no other New Jersey school district had agreed to a reduction in healthcare contributions, because that would be “unaffordable.”
Yannone said neither was true. A number of districts had negotiated reductions in healthcare contributions, he said, and an influx of state aid and health contribution money — combined with under-budgeting in certain areas — had led to a sizable surplus in the local school budget.
February 9,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, RIDGEWOOD A CAPELLA The Maroon Men and the AcaBellas recently competed in the International Competition of High School A Cappella. In the Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals, where the groups won the following titles:
1st Place – The RHS Maroon Men
3rd Place – The RHS AcaBellas
Outstanding Percussion – Aaqib Hassan (Maroon Men)
I hope it was free.. otherwise a total self-indulgent feel good waste of money.
This dogs should be made available for Ridgewod residents after they speak at the council meetings
Is this parody? It is not April 1st is it? Therapy dogs for midterms?????? We cant pay the teachers but we have therapy dogs for midterms?
We are dropping in the academic standings, but it’s OK… we have stress relief dogs..Of course the worst part of it all is the abundance of back slapping and self-congratulating that the teachers and school admins are giving themselves over this leading edge educational breakthrough.
It really is a silly, feel-good thing. Thank goodness they will be eliminating midterm exams next year. Colleges are going SAT optional.
Wait till they realize that colleges still have some standards. The students will be stressing over the professional curating of their short lives. What were your accomplishments in elementary school? Did you start a business, a blog or save an endangered species. There will be competition to get in on paid trips to the Dominican Republic so they can play soccer with the kids. Competition for these alternate resume building events will be intense.Get ready for a therapy kennel on campus, the competition is only changing not going away.
but some readers were far more forgiving ….
Did anyone actually bother to read the article? “The nice thing is that Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs is a non-profit organization, so it’s completely free to the district,” . . . “It doesn’t cost us a thing.” So I don’t think we have to worry about how it will impact the teacher’s salaries
Your comments just prove why these kids are under so much pressure and riddled with anxiety. This was a FREE event, no classes were missed, and the students loved it. Can’t they just have a minute to smile? Read the studies about therapy dogs and anxiety. What are you as parents doing to help with the anxiety and stress? Medicating them?
As a matter of fact, several students asked about how to become trainers; not to pad their resumes, but because they felt it would be a meaningful way to give to the community. The teachers- who really care about their students- were very grateful to have the dogs there.
February 9,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewoood NJ, On January 26, six RHS students received the Maroon Award at a breakfast ceremony. The six award recipients for 2016 are Jack Simpson, Maggie Rapaport, Kathryn Kearney, Olivia Sullivan, Thomas Carmona and Aiden Gibney. Students are nominated for this award by teachers who know them best and observe the little things that they do every day to help out the school community or their fellow students. The Maroon Award was created to recognize students who do the little things right when no one is looking and help make RHS a better place.
FEBRUARY 8, 2016, 10:01 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 6:33 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
When a junior at Fair Lawn High School with pro-Palestinian views was accused of bullying after celebrating that a pro-Israeli classmate had stopped following her on Twitter, many believed she was being silenced because of her opinions. Why else, they wondered, would the school want to investigate her?
While it may have been baffling to outsiders, the bullying probe was hardly a surprise in New Jersey, where insults and conflicts, even isolated ones, often result in formal inquiries. That’s because New Jersey’s anti-bullying law put tough requirements on schools to take swift action to report on accusations of bullying, intimidation and harassment.
When the law was signed in 2011 after the suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, it was considered a landmark piece of legislation to protect students from harm and a model for the country. By nearly all accounts, the law has made schools safer. But critics say that it goes too far, pushing schools to investigate all or most allegations and sometimes hurting the very students it was designed to help.
A state anti-bullying task force has recommended changes to the state code that would give principals discretion in handling cases. It also said that there should be an investigation whenever a case involves a power imbalance, such as when one student is perceived to be weaker or less popular. The state has not taken action on those recommendations, although the state education commissioner is expected to discuss the task force’s findings at a Board of Education meeting Wednesday.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-anti-bullying-law-draws-fresh-scrutiny-1.1508225
February 5,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood High School Alumni Association is pleased to announce the revitalization of the Distinguished Alumni Event.
We look forward to celebrating this wonderful event with all of you.
