Ridgewood NJ, Yes. Believe it or not, the crybabies on Clinton Avenue got their way again.
The street was recently repaved, but without the concrete curbs and concrete driveway cuts that were promised.
Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser had told Village Council members concrete curbs and driveway cuts would be including in the repaving project so that the street would be “sidewalk ready.”
Reportedly, residents on the street did not want the concrete and told the Village Manager so.
AUGUST 30, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 30, 2015, 6:55 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
At Ped-Agree Shoes in Wyckoff, owners Catherine Mattei and Luanne Rush were busy last week helping parents outfit their children with new shoes for school.
In Westwood, at the Ginger Kids clothing store, owner Sue Bahng said she loves back-to-school season. “This is when the kids come in with renewed eagerness for the fresh new year.”
But Ped-Agree Shoes, Ginger Kids and other retailers in North Jersey and around the country are seeing a shift in the rhythms of this annual ritual. A Labor Day that falls late this year, on Sept. 7, compared to Sept. 1 last year, and changing shopping habits are pushing a lot of back-to-school shopping into September, after kids are already back at school.
Retail research firm The NPD Group this summer admonished retailers that they need to rethink their marketing to respond to a changing back-to-school season. A survey by the firm showed that a majority of shoppers don’t get serious about back-to-school shopping until August, with much of the spending occurring in September and even October.
A look at where the money goes
$68 billion: Total Americans will spend on back-to-school and back-to-college purchases this year
$630: average amount parents will spend for children in Grades K-12
$217.82: Average amount for clothes, K-12
$197.24: Average amount for electronics, K-12
$117.56: Average amount for shoes, K-12
$97.74: Average amount for school supplies, K-12
$899: Average amount parents will spend on college students
$126: Average amount for dorm or college apartment furnishings
29%: Portion of parents who plan to spend more for back to school this year.
30%: Parents who waited to start shopping until one to two weeks before school starts
42%: Amount that average back-to-school spending has risen over the past 10 years
Source: National Retail Federation
“When so many consumers are planning to do their back-to-school shopping in the months not traditionally considered part of the season by retailers, it’s time to break with tradition and change the way we market and measure this shopping season,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD, in reporting the findings.
AUGUST 29, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY LINH TAT
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
FORT LEE – A school trustee in the midst of his third term resigned this week, creating a vacancy on the board that, by law, must be filled before the end of October.
Yusang “Jimmy” Park, the only Asian-American ever to serve as school board president in Fort Lee, said he and his family are moving to a house they purchased in Ridgewood, leaving him no choice but to resign. Trustees are required to live in the town in which they hold office.
Park was the top vote-getter when he was elected in 2007, outperforming the three incumbents in that race. Fellow board members nominated him as president in 2012 after former trustee Arthur Levine resigned.
“Looking back, I ask myself, ‘Are we in a better place than we were seven years ago when I started?’ I would say yes,” Park said, reflecting on the state of the district.
When he was first elected, Park noted, the district was reeling from the fallout of a superintendent who plagiarized a speech delivered to honors students. That was followed in 2009 by a grade-altering scandal when officials found that a high school counselor had tampered with college transcripts, and widespread frustration in the community over an absentee superintendent during the 2012-13 school year. That superintendent eventually parted ways with the district.
Now, Park said, the district has voter-approved funding to build and expand classroom space, has adopted new campus security measures and has hired a new permanent superintendent
Board of Education Announces Vacancy, Seeks Applicants
The Ridgewood Board of Education is seeking qualified applicants to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Michele Lenhard on August 1. The application deadline is Tuesday, September 15 at 4 p.m
Mandatory Re-registration is Open for Parents and Guardians
Skyward Family Access is the district’s primary mode of communication with parents, so the district must have up-to-date email and phone numbers in the system at all times, especially for emergency situations. Beginning August 10 through midnight September 7, parents and guardians must logon to Family Access to complete the Mandatory Online Re-registration process.
Click here for details on Mandatory Re-registration
Lunch service is scheduled to begin on Thursday, September 3, the first full day of school. For information on children’s food service accounts and lunch ordering, please visit the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us and select the Fee Management and Lunch Info tab under the Parents label. Click here to go directly to that page.
Substitutes are Needed
The district has put out a call for additional substitute teachers, nurses and secretaries for the 2015-2016 school year. Substitutes enjoy the freedom of selecting their dates of work according to their personal schedules through a self-scheduling online system. Pay rates for the 2015-2016 school year are as follows: teachers $92 to $125 per diem; nurses $130 per diem; secretaries $12.50 to $17 per hour.
Click here for full information on the requirements and process. For further information, please contact Eileen Rix at 201-670-2700, ext. 10542 or [email protected].
SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS
The Ridgewood Police Department is accepting applications for School Crossing Guard Positions. Applications are Available at the Police Desk located at 131 North Maple Avenue Ridgewood NJ. P/T position, 10 hours per week (2 hours per day) starting at $17.49/hr. Send application to Police Chief John Ward, Ridgewood Police Dept, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 or return the application to the Police Records Room. The Village of Ridgewood is an EOE and civil service community.
AUGUST 27, 2015, 11:55 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015, 2:23 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — An elementary school teacher has been allowed to keep his job even though he was late for work 111 times over a two-year period.
In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School to fire 15-year veteran Arnold Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline.
Anderson was late 46 times in the most recent school year through March 20 and 65 times in the previous school year, the arbitrator said. But the arbitrator criticized Anderson’s claim that the quality of his teaching outweighed his tardiness.
He relied on “micro-quibbles of a few unpersuasive explanations, with a macro-default position that even when he is late he nevertheless delivers a superb educational experience to his grateful students,” the arbitrator wrote.
AUGUST 22, 2015, 11:29 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015, 12:37 AM
BY PATRICIA ALEX
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
For a few hundred dollars a semester, some of the pricier private colleges in the United States have long offered tuition insurance — policies that protect families and schools if a student withdraws for medical reasons.
Starting this year, however, tuition insurance is available to any family in New Jersey — no matter where a student goes to school. The company selling it also is offering more expensive plans that cover other “unforeseen reasons” for midsemester withdrawals, including “poor grades or a crisis at home.”
But is it worth the money?
The top executive at Allianz Global Assistance, which won New Jersey’s approval to sell the policies, said the state is ripe for the insurance, given that its tuition costs — even for public colleges — are among the highest in the nation, topping $25,000 a year if a student lives on campus. He said it makes sense to insure what is likely a family’s largest investment, after a home.
“We insure risk, and we saw a market for this,” said Joe Mason, the company’s chief marketing officer. “College isn’t a small investment. You insure your house, your boat, why not college?”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/22/2015 11:43 -0400
Perhaps it’s all the talk about across-the-board debt forgiveness or maybe the total amount of outstanding student debt has simply grown so large ($1.3 trillion) that even those with no conception of how much money that actually is realize that it’s simply never going to paid back so there’s no point worrying about, but whatever the case, the general level of concern regarding America’s student debt bubble doesn’t seem to be at all commensurate with the size of the problem.
And it’s not just the sheer size of the debt pile that’s worrisome. There’s also the knock-on effects, such as delayed household formation and the attendant downward pressure on the homeownership rate, and of course hyperinflation in the rental market.
Of course one reason no one is panicking – yet – is that the severity of the problem is masked by artificially suppressed delinquency rates. As we’ve documented in excruciating detail, if one excludes loans in deferment and forbearance from the numerator in the delinquency calculation, but includes those loans in the denominator then the delinquency rate will be deceptively low. In any event, as WSJ reports, even if one looks at something very simple like, say, the number of borrowers who haven’t made a payment in a year, the picture is not pretty and it’s getting worse all the time. Here’s more:
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban says Hillary Clinton’s plan to curb growing student-loan debt will actually make attending college more expensive.
“[Hillary’s plan] stands a better chance of increasing the amount of money students owe than decreasing it,” Cuban said on his Cyber Dust app on Friday.
“Just as easy money led to the real estate bubble a few years ago, the easier it is to borrow money for college the easier it is for colleges to raise tuition. Tuition keeps going up because no matter how high they raise it, students can still borrow more to pay for it,” Cuban continued.
Cuban, who stars on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and owns the Dallas Mavericks, has for years warned of a “student loan bubble.”
“At some point, it’s going to pop,” Cuban told Business Insider in March.
Today my dad, Tony Napier, went Home to be with the Lord. He was the Father of Ridgewood gymnastics, bringing his expertise of the sport to the schools in 1962. He was a gymnast for almost all of his 78 years,a PE teacher for 29 years, a coach for more than 30 years, and a judge for 59 years. He touched many many lives in the Ridgewood school system. Arrangements are Mon, Aug. 17 from 2-4 and 7-9 at Spearing Funeral Home in Park Ridge and Tues, Aug 18 at 10:30 at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Wash Twp for the church service. Bernadette Napier Orso
Today is a very very sad day for me and for many others. I lost my High School Gymnastics coach Tony Napier yesterday. I dont know what prompted me to call him yesterday but I did. I didn’t get that last chance to talk with him as he had passed.I remember all the great times with my coach and mentor.He has a beautiful family that I also love. He taught me persistence,dedication, and instilled in me my hard work ethic. He was a marvelous motivator and loved our great sport of gymnastics.I will miss him every day . God Bless you coach and your wonderful family . Heaven will be even a better place now that your there! Geoff Stoner
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, August 24 2015 at 5 p.m.
The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda and addendum for the July 20, 2015 Regular Public Meeting
Re-registration is Open for Parents and Guardians
Skyward Family Access is the district’s primary mode of communication with parents, so the district must have up-to-date email and phone numbers in the system at all times, especially for emergency situations. Beginning August 10 through midnight September 7, parents and guardians must logon to Family Access to complete the Mandatory Online Re-registration process.
Click here for details on Mandatory Re-registration.
Board of Education Announces Vacancy, Seeks Applicants
The Ridgewood Board of Education is seeking qualified applicants to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Michele Lenhard on August 1. The application deadline is Tuesday, September 15 at 4 p.m. Click here for details..
Back-to-School Night Schedule is Out
Click here to view the 2015-2016 Back-To-School Night schedule.
Substitutes Teachers are Needed
The district has put out a call for additional substitute teachers, nurses and secretaries for the 2015-2016 school year. Substitutes enjoy the freedom of selecting their dates of work according to their personal schedules through a self-scheduling online system. Pay rates for the 2015-2016 school year are as follows: teachers $92 to $125 per diem; nurses $130 per diem; secretaries $12.50 to $17 per hour.
Click here for full information on the requirements and process. For further information, please contact Eileen Rix at 201-670-2700, ext. 10542 or [email protected].
School Calendars are Approved Click here to view the 2015-2016 school calendar. Click here to view the 2016-2017 school calendar.
AUGUST 14, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood education leaders this week expressed disappointment with the recently released AchieveNJ Teacher Evaluation chart, saying the scoring system doesn’t tell the entire story.
Village teachers scored collectively low in the evaluation, a tool used by the state to gauge which educators and schools are the most effective. Specifically, the chart showed which teachers fall into the “effective” and “highly effective” categories, and gave a percentage of the total number of teachers in the school who were highly effective.
The highest-ranking Ridgewood school was Benjamin Franklin Middle School, with a 46.15 percent highly-effective rating (24 highly effective teachers out of 52). George Washington Middle School scored 25 percent highly-effective, or 14 highly-effective teachers out of 56.
Ridgewood NJ, RHS Class of 2001, Michael Aaron Flicker will receive recognition at the 2015 New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame Awards Banquet this October.James Wallace and Michael Aaron Flicker are to receive the ADVANCEMENT OF INVENTION & PROCESS AWARDThey are being acknowledged for creating and sustaining the “Super Science Saturday” extravaganza, and for exposing children to the marvels of science.
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, August 24 2015 at 5 p.m.
The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda and addendum for the July 20, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
AUGUST 8, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
New Jersey middle and high schools start their day on average at 8 a.m. — on par with other schools in the nation but too early for students to get a good night’s sleep, according to medical experts.
And that, in turn, can contribute to a host of health problems for adolescents, those experts say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a state-by-state analysis this week showing that school start times for 2012, the most recently available data, averaged 8:03 a.m.
The report came less than a year after the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that middle and high schools begin their days no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Only 17.7 percent of schools — and 14.9 percent in New Jersey — started at 8:30 a.m. or later.
“Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance,” said Anne Wheaton, lead author and epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of Population Health. “Early school start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need.”
Students should get 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep, according to the CDC. Insufficient sleep is common among high school students and is associated with such health risks as being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs — as well as poor grades, the agency said in its report.
In New Jersey, school start times have been debated for years, but the debate intensified after the pediatrics academy released its 2014 policy paper.
