Ridgewood Police report that on May 28, 2015 a School Administrator at Benjamin Franklin Middle School reported a custodian at the school had inappropriate contact with a student during a after school program. The custodian Anthony E Griffiths 52 of Paterson was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The accused was remanded to the Bergen County Jail unable to post $30,000.00 Bail.
All defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
JUNE 2, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015, 9:59 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Like clockwork, placards marking the homes of new Ridgewood High School graduates are popping up on front lawns throughout the village. It’s a spring tradition embraced by the community, one signifying proud parents and reasons to celebrate.
The end-of-school rituals, namely proms and graduations, are always joyous events. In recent years, however, it’s become custom that those occasions are preceded with sobering advice and warnings about the dangers of over-celebrating, particularly if alcohol and drugs enter the equation.
Members of the Ridgewood Municipal Alliance Committee have taken the lead locally in spreading the word of those dangers, and they’ve initiated a campaign this season that delivers a message supplementing the drunken driving cautions that typically come at this time of year.
The “Parents Who Host, Lose the Most” program is directed primarily to adults who are hoping celebrate a child’s prom and graduation. Its tagline, “Don’t be a party to teenage drinking,” speaks directly to parents and guardians.
“Over the years, we know there have been parents who have hosted parties for their kids. This is a particularly good time to do it – it’s spring and you have graduations and proms,” explained committee chairwoman Sheila Brogan. “What we want to do through this campaign is enlighten parents about the liability and risks that are involved in serving alcohol to underage drinkers, kids in high school and college.”
The real damage stems from the fact that, subject by subject, the ideologues who designed the Common Core curricula changed what we had by brutally dumbing the content down to the lowest common denominator. They were bent on denuding K-12 instruction of educational content, re populating it with politically-correct claptrap, and refocusing the ‘learning experience’ on process, process, process… This is why you see shining examples of classic literature unaccountably being tossed from high school reading lists and replaced with mundane how-to manuals. Reform math, so reviled locally, is also comfortably piggybacking its way back into the Ridgewood schools by way of the broader push in favor of adoption of Common Core. How the ugly truth of all this can escape the attention or grasp of so many parents of affected students and their well-meaning teachers is itself a mystery. We simply cannot allow re-branded versions of the same curricula to replace the worthless original Common Core versions we are jettisonning. There are simply too many highly-educated and worldly-wise parents, taxpayers and citizens in New Jersey to justify this kind of bureaucratic snow job on our children’s future being pulled off twice in close succession. Wake up, Jersey!!
Ridgewood NJ, Open to the Community! Support the Crew team at “An Evening with Kevin Zraly,” a world-renowned sommelier & author, on Monday, June 1 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Chakra Restaurant, 144 West Route 4, Paramus. Explore new wines, sample delicious hors d’oeuvres, mingle with supporters of Ridgewood Crew, as well as fellow wine and food enthusiasts. Tickets are $100 per person. Seating is limited and all tickets are sold in advance. Please reserve early.Proceeds support Ridgewood Crew, a team comprised of 67 RHS students. For any questions, comments, or to order tickets personally, contact: Odila Galer-Noel at [email protected] or Liz Lavin at [email protected].
RHS Athletics Holds Night for Parents of Incoming Freshmen Athletes
Parents and guardians of incoming freshmen athletes are invited to a meeting on Thursday, June 4. RHS Director of Athletics Keith Cook will give a brief overview of high school athletics and all fall coaches will be on hand to answer any questions. The meeting will take place from 7-8 p.m. in Gym I at RHS. For more information, please contact Keith Cook (201-670-2800, ext. 20510 or [email protected]).
Concussion Awareness Program is June 1
Parents and guardians are invited to a special program on the topic of concussions in youth sports. RHS Head Athletic Trainer Nick Nicholaides and Gerard Gioia, Division Chief of Neuropsychology and Director of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education Program at Children’s National Health System, will be presenting information at Benjamin Franklin Middle School Auditorium on Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m.Click here for more information.
RIDGEWOOD BOE MEETS ON JUNE 1, 2015
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, June 1, 2015 at 7:30 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 for the June 1, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
Not so fast…Trenton’s Fred Flintstone is still enamored with PARCC testing. Does this have to do with the fact that the owner/operator of PARCC, Pearson Publishing, is headquartered in New Jersey?
“The Governor did, however, [direct] DOE Commissioner Hespe to assemble a group of parents, teachers and educators to reevaluate the situation to come up with new state-centric standards, and he renewed his support for the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams. “We must continue to review and improve that test based on results, not fear or speculation,” Christie declared. “I will not permit New Jersey to risk losing vital federal education funds because some would prefer to let the perfect get in the way of the good.””
PARCC is neither perfect nor nor good. It is perfectly worthless and needs to be jettisoned along with Common Core. The two stem from the same rotten ideology.
MAY 29, 2015, 7:05 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015, 11:40 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Governor Christie’s declaration that he will drop Common Core education standards to create ones that are more suited to New Jersey left open the possibility of change. But if other states are a predictor, that change may not be so sweeping.
Several states have moved to replace Common Core and have ended up with standards that look mostly the same, according to education groups. And educators and administrators in New Jersey say the state has made such a huge investment to roll out standards that a total reversal is unlikely.
“It’s in the materials. It’s in the tests. It’s in the teacher training. It’s taught in professional development,” said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, an education non-profit that helped develop Common Core. “If standards change dramatically, you’d have to make those investments all over again.”
In 2010, New Jersey adopted Common Core along with more than 40 other states. The states repealing Common Core have done so largely in response to political backlash in the conservative GOP, which believes it infringes on states’ rights. Common Core was developed by state officials, with input from private education groups, but the federal government gives financial incentives for states to use the standards.
District wants to prevent situations that could affect students
Author: Daniel Dahm, Managing Editor of ClickOrlando.com, [email protected]
Published On: May 28 2015 09:26:53 AM EDT Updated On: May 29 2015 08:39:16 AM EDT
ORLANDO, Fla. -The Orange County school district is now monitoring students’ social media messages in an effort to curb cyberbullying, crime on campus and suicide.
Orange County Public Schools announced Thursday that it has acquired software to monitor social media “to proactively prevent, intervene and (watch) situations that may impact students and staff.” The district has obtained an annual license with SnapTrends, software that monitors Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
The district said it plans to use the software to conduct routine monitoring for the purposes of prevention or early intervention of potential issues in which students or staff could be at risk to themselves or to others.
OCPS said the company will assist district law enforcement and security personnel in monitoring publicly available social media communications that are relevant to school operations and personnel.
By Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on May 26, 2015 11:20 AM
School districts from Summit, West Essex Regional and Southern Regional — districts with well-established reputations for athletic excellence at the high school level — have been ranked the best in New Jersey and among the most highly rated in the nation, according to a study based on athletic statistics and hundreds of thousands of surveys.
Summit also checked in at No. 3 overall nationally, with West Essex (No. 21) and Southern Regional (No. 28) cracking the top 30 in America.
The study rated school district athletics as a whole, considering parent and student opinions, number of interscholastic sports offered, percentages of girls and boys participating in sports and the average athletic expense per student, among other factors.
A school district rated high by the study generally indicates sports and fitness plays a significant role in the student life; students actively participate in intervarsity sports; and the administration is invested in the athletic program.
The study ranked 4,951 districts after fielding more than 750,000 opinions from nearly 230,000 students and parents.
Also, some school districts such as Wayne — ranked No. 16 in New Jersey — include more than one high school.
Eight schools from New Jersey landed in the top 70 nationally: Summit, West Essex, Southern, River Dell, Ridgewood, Pascack Valley, New Providence andRandolph.
MAY 28, 2015, 11:52 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015, 12:55 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — George Washington Middle School was temporarily on lockdown Thursday morning after a prank phone threat village police are investigating as a “swatting” incident.
The call to the school on Ridgewood’s Washington Place was received by school official just before 10 a.m.
The caller, according to a number of sources, claimed that a shooter was on the school’s roof. School officials immediately ordered a lockdown of each classroom.
Police also notified officials at nearby West Side Presbyterian Church, which operates a nursery school that went into lockdown.
Responding officers from Ridgewood, Midland Park, Glen Rock and Wyckoff searched the middle school building, including the roof, and determined the call to be a hoax by 10:30 a.m.
It was the fifth such incident in North Jersey since March of what has become known as swatting, in which false reports are made to elicit the response of police swat units.
Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward confirmed Thursday’s call was a “swatting,” but would not discuss the specific nature of the threat made against the school.
Texas’ Flower Mound HS opens news fronts on the war on students and on photography.
Nick Gillespie|May. 26, 2015 9:28 am
For centuries now, school has produced an ever-enlarging literature of contempt and hate by those of us (read: all of us) unlucky enough to attend K-12 education. I’m betting that Socrates outdoor classrooms were kind of a drag, but certainly from Herman Hesse’s Beneath the Wheel to Catcher in the Rye to Blood and Guts in High School to Pink Floyd’s The Wall to Frank Portman’s King Dorkbooks, the message that school is filled with petty tyrants (both adult and student variety) is based on many people’s everyday experience.
Here’s a good example of why so many of us disliked school even if we dig edumication.
Via the Twitter feed of Lizbuddie comes the story of Anthony Mazur, a 16-year-old student at Texas’ Flower Mound High School. A photographer for the yearbook, Mazur took pictures of athletes and other students and then posted them on a Flickr account where he sold some of them to parents. As it happens, according to his school district’s policy, there’s no issue with that and Mazur apparently owns the the copyright to work he produces.
Effect of ban on phones adds up to equivalent of extra week of classes over a pupil’s school year
It is a question that keeps some parents awake at night. Should children be allowed to take mobile phones to school? Now economists claim to have an answer. For parents who want to boost their children’s academic prospects, it is no.
The effect of banning mobile phones from school premises adds up to the equivalent of an extra week’s schooling over a pupil’s academic year, according to research by Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy, published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
“Ill Communication: The Impact of Mobile Phones on Student Performance”found that after schools banned mobile phones, the test scores of students aged 16 improved by 6.4%. The economists reckon that this is the “equivalent of adding five days to the school year”.
The findings will feed into the ongoing debate about children’s access to mobile phones. In the UK, more than 90% of teenagers own a mobile phone; in the US, just under three quarters have one. The prevalence of the devices poses problems for head teachers, whose attitude towards the technology has hardened as it has become ubiquitous.
MAY 21, 2015, 11:46 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015, 7:26 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Students will spend less time taking standardized tests next year in New Jersey and 10 other states, a response to complaints from teachers, parents and school officials that the exams took up too much instruction time and overwhelmed local schools.
The governing board of the tests, called PARCC, voted to cut down total testing time by about 90 minutes, the officials said in a statement released Thursday.
“The changes will improve and simplify test administration for schools, teachers and students, without diminishing the goal of the assessment,” the statement said.
Locally, testing critics said that, while they were glad state officials were responding to their concerns, the changes do not go far enough. Too much time still will be spent preparing for the tests, they said, because of the high stakes attached to them. The results are used to evaluate the performance of teachers, administrators and schools and will become a graduation requirement in 2019
Ridgewood NJ, The event will open to the public on Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center at RHS with music and dance performances. Sharing the Arts will perform A Whole New World from Aladdin, and the advanced dance class will perform to a piece played by the Symphonic Band. Guests will have an opportunity to explore the artwork and displays throughout the first floor before moving to the Little Theatre for a concert of small ensembles.
On Friday, the festivities will continue as high school staff, faculty, and students are immersed in over 1000 pieces of artwork. They may also attend various performances and demonstrations throughout the day. This two-day extravaganza is truly one of the feature events of the Fine and Applied Arts Department.
Thursday evening’s gala is open to the public and free of charge.
MAY 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 10:00 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood Board of Education members voted at a May 4 meeting to keep a treasurer of school monies on the district’s books and leave the post open until a qualified candidate is hired.
The position comes with a 2015-16 pay rate of $5,000, a salary amount that remains unchanged from the current year.
The board’s decision, settled by a 4-1 vote, comes on the heels of a recent financial supervision breakdown that essentially led to the theft of nearly $1 million in parking meter coins from the Village of Ridgewood.
“We’re all mindful that our village suffered an incident … we all want to have proper oversight,” said BOE Vice President Vince Loncto.
