Billed as “the greatest science extravaganza in northern New Jersey,” this year’s presentations will take place on Saturday, March 8 from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at RHS.
All district students are invited to present. It’s not too late to sign up to present! Student presenters are welcome to sign up until the day before the event – please do so atwww.supersciencesaturday.org.
2.24.14 Latest SSS flyer: Click here for more information about Super Science Saturday and the schedule of events.
Super Science Saturday is sponsored by the Ridgewood Education Foundation and The Valley Hospital.
TRAVELL SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON MARCH 6
All are welcome to Travell School on Thursday, March 6 from 7-8:30 p.m., to view the Travell School student science projects. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.
Smoking ban extends to Ridgewood sidewalks near school properties
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 11:06 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
For the second time in a nine-month period, the Village of Ridgewood has taken a proactive step in reducing residents’ exposure to second-hand smoke and promoting public health, particularly in children.
The Village Council last week officially extended the smoking ban in municipal parks to include all sidewalks adjacent to RidgewoodBoard of Education properties, including playing fields and schools. The council opted not to include sidewalks in front of The Valley Hospital, despite appeals by hospital officials and support from smoke-free advocates.
The Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy (GASP) have assisted Ridgewood in drafting its smoking ban ordinances. Alan Kantz, GASP program manager, appeared before the Village Council this year and pushed for the smoke-free sidewalks.
Ridgewood native brings art of lighting to Paper Mill show
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
BY VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Jen Schriever has a lot to keep track of with one set of eyes.
On Wednesday, hours before the latest opening night at Paper Mill Playhouse, Schriever — the Ridgewood-bred lighting designer for the musical “The Other Josh Cohen” — is simultaneously watching the actors onstage and the side-by-side computer monitors to her left. Seated at a long black table, midway back in the theater, she occasionally also glances down at her heavily notated script on the table in front of her. All this while quietly communicating with the show’s stage manager, lighting team and spot operators via a wireless intercom and a headset.
“It’s artistic. It’s technical,” Schriever says of the lighting designer’s job. “I think lighting completely supports the story in a way no other element can. … What I like to do has an emotional arc. … I think lighting really shapes the show in a way I think most people don’t recognize — which is good.”
The purpose of this “tech rehearsal” is to iron out the director’s last-minute tweaks of specific parts of scenes and songs.
“Our first run-through was last night, so we’re just reacting to a lot,” Schriever explains. “It’s like sifting everything and then it falls into place. It seems like chaos in the beginning. And then it all comes together.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/theater/247005651_Ridgewood_native_brings_art_of_lighting_to_Paper_Mill_show.html#sthash.3xqJb2aw.dpu
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RIDGEWOOD RESIDENTS – Saturday, March 1
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month from 9:00 a.m. to 12 Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall. The next session is Saturday, March 1st .
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 7:51 AM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Pascack Valley seeks state approval
The New Jersey Department of Education may not yet have officially granted the Pascack Valley Regional High School District credit for its “virtual school day” a week and a half ago – as it is still analyzing data from the day – but the district’s administration and students appear to already be viewing the day as a success.
Teachers and students from both the district’s high schools – Pascack Valley High School and Pascack Hills High School – worked from home one snow day about a week and a half ago instead of taking a day off.
The district already had exhausted its snow days, and allowing the students to work from home could be a future solution to having students make up the day later in the year.
However, while the state gave the district permission to go ahead with the “virtual school day” two days before a snowstorm closed schools, a ruling has yet to be made on whether the virtual day will count as one of the 180 mandatory school days.
Superintendent Erik Gundersen said in his report at a Board of Education meeting Monday night that the state’s Department of Education has yet to get back to the district about whether the day will count officially.
Others wonder since the youth overwhelming supported President Obama and every other scheme to have others pay for what they want , maybe they just deserve it ?
Perhaps the self entitled attitude has got them in this fix? The fisr even called them generation “Knuckle head ” claiming young people had an inability to make decisions .
The public sector unions have been conducting class warfare for decades now with full time lawyers and lobbyists
The public sector unions have been conducting class warfare for decades now with full time lawyers and lobbyists. They’ve clobbered property tax payers in NJ, which is why we have the highest taxes as a % of assessed value in the U.S. The median salary for Ridgewood FD was $118,290 in 2011, when the median for Ridgewood PD was $128,239. This compares with Ridgewood median household income at $136,231 as of the 2010 Census. However, those salary figures don’t include the multi-million dollar pensions and almost free healthcare for life we give retirees and their spouse – giveaways which have been made in exchange for little or no contribution from municipal employees until the current CBAs and NJ P.L. 2011 Chapter 78, which requires public employees (e.g. teachers, police, fire) to pay towards the cost of their health plans effective June 28, 2011. Given many high wage municipal employees retire when they reach 25 years of service, we have many years of pensions & healthcare coverage to pay for given the average life expectancy in the U.S of 78.7 years based on 2010 data. Class warfare has been waged by public sector unions, and they’re winning. So now taxpayers start questioning the cost of all of these promises we’ve made, and you call it class warfare ? Please.
In 2010, Ridgewood ranked 3rd highest in Bergen County in employees making more than $100,000 with 70 employees or 24.4%
In 2010, Ridgewood ranked 3rd highest in Bergen County in employees making more than $100,000 with 70 employees or 24.4% of the Village workforce compared to our neighboring communities of Glen Rock at 12.6%, Midland Park at 2%, Ho-Ho-Kus at 1.6% and Westwood at 2.6%. Ridgewood is only one of four municipalities in Bergen County with a full-time Fire Department and 67% of Firefighters (28/42) had base salaries over $100,000 in 2011. The median for Ridgewood FD was $118,290. 80% of Ridgewood Police (33/41) had base salaries over $100,000 in 2011. The median for Ridgewood PD was $128,239. Annual vacation benefit for Ridgewood employees can grow up to a maximum of 31 days, excluding compensatory time off, sick days, and other forms of paid leave – this compares with 13 days for the median full-time worker in the U.S. in 2011. Qualified retirees (25 years of service for police & fire) are eligible for pension (65% of compensation prior to retirement) and medical benefits (at no cost) for life. Upon death, the pension and benefits accrue to the retirees spouse for his or her life. The number of public retirees in NJ receiving over $100,000 in pension payments increased 28% in 2011, including 6 retirees from Ridgewood Village departments receiving over $634,000 per year (an average of over $105,000 each), excluding health benefits, according to New Jersey
Phones for outsmarting snoopers get pitched to mass market
By Harro Ten Wolde 4 hours ago
By Harro Ten Wolde
BARCELONA (Reuters) – Following the U.S. snooping revelations, there is a growing interest in a range of mobile phone products with one central selling point: privacy.
The latest contender is the Blackphone, which runs on a customised version of Google’s Android software and encrypts texts, voice calls and video chats was launched in the Spanish Pavilion at the annual Mobile World Congress industry fair in Barcelona on Monday.
It aims to tap into the market for so-called mobile security management (MSM) products which was estimated to be worth $560 million in 2013 and is expected to nearly double in size to $1 billion a year by 2015, according to ABI Research.
AFP says New Jersey is at a crossroads. Our elected leaders in Trenton must work to put New Jersey back on a path to fiscal sanity now
AFP
According to Americans for Prosperity this state budget is an opportunity to turn our state around. No longer can Trenton spend and borrow with abandon. Elected leaders can no longer ignore reports like the one issued last week by Treasury showing that our state debt and unfunded liabilities continue to grow. They can no longer ignore warnings from ratings agencies like Fitch and Moody’s that the current path is unsustainable. They can no longer ignore that our state is in the worst fiscal condition of any state in the nation. And they can no longer ignore that our weak economy and high taxes are leading to economic malaise.
The state has committed itself to a $2.4B payment into the pension system–$1B more than last year. AFP believes making the full pension payment for FY 2015 is the right thing to do, but this should not be accompanied by more borrowing or higher taxes. Those in the Legislature who pushed to make this full payment now need to lay their cuts on the table. Those in the majority party cannot have their cake and eat it, too.
While AFP supports the pension payment, this is not pro-growth policy. New Jerseyans need and deserve tax relief to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. Voices in the majority party, beginning with Assembly Speaker Prieto, argue we cannot afford a tax cut. But we cannot afford NOT to have tax relief.
The fact of the matter is spending has risen almost 14% over the past four years. Our state budget for FY ’14 is $4.5B higher than it was in FY ’11. At the same time our economy has barely grown at a 1% clip. We must streamline the budget now in order to allow hard-working New Jersey families and job creators to keep more of what they earn. Families and businesses have had to do just that since the Great Recession hit and now it’s Trenton’s turn.
Members of the Legislature must also work with Gov. Christie to address the ticking time bomb that is our pension system. Gov. Christie and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together in 2010 to enact changes to public employee pension and benefits. This was a step in the right direction but not enough to fix the problem. Additional changes must be put in place to avoid a catastrophe in the future. The current path remains unsustainable and the status quo is unacceptable.
New Jersey is at a crossroads. Our elected leaders in Trenton must work to put New Jersey back on a path to fiscal sanity now.
Common Core’s Surprise Critic: Nation’s Largest Teachers Union (NEA) Calls Implementation ‘Completely Botched’
Rob Bluey
February 19, 2014 at 10:29 pm
The country’s largest teachers union is no longer a cheerleader for Common Core national education standards.
In a letter to the National Education Association’s 3 million members, President Dennis Van Roekel issued a sharp critique of Common Core. It marks the first time NEA has voiced concerns about the standards, a key initiative of the Obama Administration.
I am sure it won’t come as a surprise to hear that in far too many states, implementation has been completely botched. Seven of ten teachers believe that implementation of the standards is going poorly in their schools. Worse yet, teachers report that there has been little to no attempt to allow educators to share what’s needed to get [Common Core State Standards] implementation right. In fact, two thirds of all teachers report that they have not even been asked how to implement these new standards in their classrooms.
>>> Check Out: Is Common Core Leaving Students Unprepared in Math and Science?
The NEA once enthusiastically supported Common Core, making Van Roekel’s criticism noteworthy. POLITICO said it meant a “rocky road ahead for the Common Core standards” and would “give opponents of Common Core a boost.”
In his letter, Van Roekel stops short of completely abandoning Common Core, calling instead for a “course correction” to fix implementation.
“NEA members have a right to feel frustrated, upset, and angry about the poor commitment to implementing the standards correctly,” Van Roekel writes.
The National Education Association’s concerns come nearly a year after the American Federation of Teachers raised problems with implementation of the standards. AFT President Randi Weingarten said, “they simply don’t get it in Washington.” She also called the implementation of Common Core worse than HealthCare.gov..
Ridgewood first responders rush to aid 92 year old fall victim
Boyd A. Loving
4:42 PM
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police, Fire, and EMS units, and a paramedic team from The Valley Hospital, all rushed to the 300 block of South Van Dien Avenue on Monday afternoon in response to a 911 telephone call reporting a severely injured and semi-conscious man who was observed laying in the snow outside of a single family residence. It was initially believed that the man fell from an adjacent roof.
However, an investigation later determined that he’d slipped on ice when he went out to retrieve his mail and subsequently collapsed in the snow while trying to crawl to a neighboring home for help. Police were unable to determine how long the individual had been laying outside prior to someone noticing him and calling 911. The 92 year old victim was stabilized in a ambulance before being transported to the Trauma Center at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Ignore the Administration’s Inflated Obamacare Coverage Numbers
Peter Suderman|Feb. 24, 2014 12:24 pm
In a speech to the Democratic Governor’s Association last week, president Obama touted the success of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. “We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion,” he said.
That’s false.
We don’t know how exactly many people have gotten health coverage through Medicaid for the first time as a result of Obamacare, but the actual number is certainly much lower than the 7 million President Obama claimed.
As The Washington Post’s Fact Checker explains—again—the 7 million figure comes from reports counting the number of people who have enrolled in Medicaid since October 1 last year, when Obamacare’s online exchanges launched. But many of those enrollments are in states that did not participate in the law’s Medicaid expansion, and many of those who signed up in states that did participate were renewing existing coverage. Avalere Health, a health consulting firm that has been tracking Obamacare’s implementation, estimates that the number of new enrollees is somewhere in the range of 1.1 to 1.8 million. (And that number counts people who were previously eligible prior to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion but signed up after the fact.)
That’s Medicaid. What about private coverage? Once again, solid numbers are hard to pin down. But the true number of enrollees is virtually certain to be lower than the administration’s headline estimates.
The administration said earlier this month that, by the end of January, 3.3 million people had signed up for private coverage through the exchanges. But that figure leaves two important questions unanswered: How many people have paid the first premium, a requirement to actually be enrolled in coverage? And how many of those people were previously uninsured?
VILLAGE SANITATION COLLECTION IN SNOW OR ICY WEATHER
As a reminder on days when snow or ice is forecast, residents will be required to bring their garbage cans to the curb for collection. VOR staff will only pick up garbage and recycling at the curb in snow or ice conditions. Ice condition is when ice is present in driveways and sidewalks. Due to numerous slip and falls today by Sanitation staff (some requiring Hospital visits) if your driveway was not clear your garbage has not been collected and should be placed at the curb.
North Jersey bakeries say quality is the key ingredient for better business
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014
BY ANDREW WYRICH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
* To fend off supermarkets, local owners count on freshness, ingenuit
With more customers buying baked goods at the supermarket, North Jersey bakery owners say they are putting an emphasis on the quality of the ingredients used in their breads, cakes or cookies. They also are trying to provide a wider variety of specialty products to bring customers into their stores.
North Jersey bakers’ push toward fresher ingredients mirrors customer desires nationwide. In 2010, the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association said in its “Consumers in the Bakery” report that the freshness of products was one of the most important reasons why a customer would look to buy items at a local bakery rather than a larger chain store.
“A few years ago, every town used to have two or three little bakeries, but not anymore,” said Philip Chuck, the owner of Deb Pam Bakery in Totowa. “We try to keep things as fresh as humanly possible, and that’s what keeps us going.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/246821261_North_Jersey_bakeries_say_quality_is_the_key_ingredient_for_better_business_variety_in_bid_to_survive.html#sthash.FkNrAZ76.dp
