AUGUST 3, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2015, 11:10 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Al Annunziata, district representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association, presented his findings last month on a self-evaluation that Ridgewood Board of Education members undertook earlier this year.
The evaluation, which takes place once a year, includes categories like superintendent relations and board-staff relationships, with scores ranging from zero to a possible high of four. Any score below a 3.0 warrants extra attention, as that is an area that is clearly struggling, Annunziata said.
A look at Ridgewood’s scores showed that almost all of them were very high, exhibiting the high regard the board members have for the school system, and demonstrating their satisfaction with current arrangements, he said.
JULY 31, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Despite the start of the school year rapidly approaching, the Board of Education and Ridgewood Education Association (REA) have been unable to agree on a new contract.
The current contract, which began on July 1, 2012, expired at the end of June.
Mike Yannone, president of the REA, confirmed this week that the organization’s members are working without a new contract. The REA represents 550 teachers, secretaries and counselors in the Ridgewood school district.
“When our contract expires, we continue to work under the terms of the old contract,” Yannone said. “We will honor the contract, and the kids will be taught.”
However, the optimal result is for an agreement to be hammered out as quickly as possible.
“I would love to be able to talk to the other side,” Yannone said, adding that he understands that setting up a meeting can be difficult over the summer.
The main sticking point of the negotiations is a dispute over health insurance premium contributions.
$40 + Million for BOE Ridgewood Schools All renovations
$15 Million for VOR Parking Garage bonded by public funds
$5 Million for Ridgewood Library renovations (mix of private / public funds)
$ ? Millions ? Unknown for Performing arts center Building next to library/VOR
Running Total Estimates so far at $60 + MILLION
Estimates are just that, estimates, and tend to go over.
Lots of questions need to be asked about the funding of these Wish Lists projects. Detailed answers to specific financials, the percentages of NJ State funding/ VOR / public funding needed to be appropriated for these projects, as well as the County and NJ Transit in the case for the parking garage with the expected/ projected parking revenues. What would be the time line for all these debts to be paid off, and the breakdown on the taxpayers.
JULY 28, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015, 9:38 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Representatives of architecture firm EI Associates gave estimates on the cost of renovations to Ridgewood school buildings at last Monday’s Board of Education meeting.
“Over the past school year, we have been working with EI on some facility projects,” said Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein. “The focus of tonight is on the facility review of all our schools.”
Mike Wozney, the director of all educational projects at EI Associates, described the way in which the firm travels to schools, inspects buildings, and estimates how much it would cost to spruce them up. However, as Wozney made clear, the numbers are hypothetical, and subject to change.
“These numbers are conceptual in nature,” Wozney said. “Any time we do a project for a district, we first identify the deficiency; put a budgetary number to it. As you move that project along, the next step would be schematic design. The numbers would be more accurate, and obviously with a detailed design, very accurate.”
JULY 23, 2015, 10:33 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015, 10:36 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
New Jersey received a three-year pass to continue education programs and reforms put in place by the Christie administration, including a new educator evaluation system despised by the teachers union.
The U.S. Department of Education told seven states on Thursday that they had renewed their waivers, letting them continue practices that vary from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
New Jersey’s three-year waiver, approved without conditions, was described by state officials as an “affirmation” that what they’re doing is working.
“New Jersey can take pride knowing that our efforts are leading to real improvements in student learning,” New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe said in a news release.
State officials say education reforms are helping to close the achievement gap and give quality educational opportunities to all students. But the state’s largest teachers union, which has publicly sparred with the administration on such issues as pension, evaluations and testing, said the renewal was “pro-forma” and doesn’t mean schools are getting better.
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, July 20, 2015 at 4 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 July 20, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
07/07/157:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting 07/08/157:30PM Village Council Public Work Session Available 07/14/157:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting 07/15/158:00PM Village Council Public Meeting 07/21/157:30PM Planning Board Public Meeting 07/28/157:30PM Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, July 20, 2015 at 4 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 June 22, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
JUNE 29, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2015, 2:52 PM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood Schools Superintendent Daniel Fishbein sent out a letter last month in response to two incidents that took place in the district.
Incident at GW
The letter described the recent “swatting” incident that took place at George Washington Middle School, in which someone phoned in a false shooter threat that the school nonetheless took seriously for safety’s sake.
The incident forced the school into lockdown procedures, with the students hiding in classrooms and the teachers working with police officers to ensure safety.
“Unfortunate as the swatting incident was, it proved that our response plan is effective in this type of emergency,” Fishbein said. “The first Ridgewood police car arrived at GWMS within 39 seconds. Four municipalities responded swiftly in a coordinated effort. Some police were responsible to enter the building while others secured the area around the school.
“Our communication to parents and guardians went out as quickly as we had factual information to report,” he said.
Fishbein described the way that parents attempted to go to the school during the threat, and explained that they would be turned away until the threat had abated.
He also expounded upon the fact that the fire department’s phone lines were tied up by concerned parents inquiring about their children’s safety.
Fishbein expressed relief that Ridgewood police officers are trained in live-fire drills at the schools, allowing them to handle such situations with practiced ease.
How are these results positive? They were discovered during a false alarm, mitigating their potential for disaster and allowing the school to make the appropriate responses and adjustments for the next time such an event should occur, if one ever does, Fishbein said.
Incident at BF
The next portion of the letter focused on the recent incident between a former janitor and student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
In the Ridgewood News today ther is a story about a large turnout at the BOE meeting, complaining about class size.
In the same meeting someone complained that we do not have full day kindergarten. ( They somehow ignore the fact that the district will need more space and have to hire more teachers. One complains about the needs of working parents. I do not want to permanently share in the child care expenses of working parents. They work so they should pay for kindergarten enrichment classes if they think that their children need this to get into college)
We pay very high taxes, mostly for the schools. People keep moving to Ridgewood for the schools. There is a disincentive for people without children in the schools to stay in town – and the cycle of postgraduation home selling continues. This issue has been discussed on this blog but I think that it deserves as much attention as the high density housing and parking.
The council and BOE should get together and do some master planning for the schools. We can’t keep up with the wants and needs of the parents, the town does not exist to please the parents of school children. Something has to give!
The council should consider a tax incentive for residents who have lived in Ridgewood X number of years and no longer have dependents in the schools. The spiral of selling homes after graduation needs to end. I will probably sell my 5 bedroom home in the next few years. A family with 4 children would love to have this house and pay my taxes for the schools. At a cost of $17,000 per student the town will start losing money immediately. I will not stay and spend my savings to help prop up this system.
Where is the Master Plan for Ridgewood Public Schools?
Study shows ‘maths mastery’ experiment improved children’s scores in English schools after just one year
Schools in England experimenting with east Asian teaching methods have seen an improvement in children’s mathematics skills after just one year, according to a study.
The research, published on Thursday, which represents the first hard evidence that introducing a Singaporean “maths mastery” approach into English classrooms can influence results, found a “relatively small but welcome improvement” in children’s performance.
The report’s lead author warned however that the mastery programme should not be seen as “a silver bullet” and called for it to be tested over a longer period in a greater number of schools in order to build a fuller picture.
Policymakers have been studying teaching methods in east Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea, which dominate the Pisa international league tables measuring children’s academic achievement. Children there are on average more than one year ahead of their western peers in maths.
The mastery programme differs radically from current maths teaching in England, with fewer topics covered in greater depth, and every child expected to master the topic before the class moves on. Teachers hold weekly hour-long workshops to discuss lesson planning.
The study, led by UCL Institute of Education and the University of Cambridge, evaluated the impact of a Singaporean-inspired teaching programme in 90 English primary schools and 50 secondaries where it was taught to more than 10,000 pupils in year 1 (aged 5-6) and year 7 (11-12).
After a year they saw a small increase in children’s maths test scores compared with pupils in other schools which was roughly equivalent to one additional month of progress over the academic year. The programme is designed to have a cumulative effect, with the full benefit evident after five years.
But what happens when a UAV filming a sporting event or wedding loses control and hits bystanders? Who is at fault, legally speaking? Fast Company reached out to experts in order to find out—and the consensus is, at the very least, the pilot will have a lot of explaining to do. https://www.fastcompany.com/3028781/what-happens-when-a-drone-crashes
Gerald C. Sterns, a California-based aviation and personal injury lawyer, says that common law offered the best precedents. “My analogy and best estimate would be a common law and a judge would find if you bang someone in the head, [such as with] a non-domesticated animal who caused damage to another,” Sterns said. “The owner claimed he wasn’t negligent, the animal got out. The judge said it didn’t matter. If you keep a wild animal you do so at your peril. A judge might view drones causing damage as no different than the non-domesticated animal causing damage.” https://www.fastcompany.com/3028781/what-happens-when-a-drone-crashes
Negligence was also broached with Florida aviation attorney Timothy Ravich. He said the operator of a small UAV that loses control and accidentally injures an individual could be named as a defendant in a trial. Though the question of liability is up to a judge and jury, the vehicle’s loss of control could lead to charges of negligence—charges that, depending on the specifics of the situation, could also lead to the UAV’s manufacturer and event organizers being named as defendants as well. In addition, intentionally injuring bystanders with a UAV brings up separate issues of criminal law. https://www.fastcompany.com/3028781/what-happens-when-a-drone-crashes
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, June 22, 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 and addendum for the June 1, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
Spanish Student Achieve
Forty-eight RHS Spanish students received medals and 100 students received an honorable mention on the National Spanish Exam sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
Three Students Place in Poetry Contest
On May 14, 10 Ridgewood High School students accompanied their teachers to William Paterson University for the Annual Orlando Saa Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest. Three RHS students placed in the competitions. Thria Bernabe came in third place in Advanced French, Ken Marshall came in third place in Advanced German and Jeff Zachem placed first in Advanced Latin.
Help Fill the Social Services Food Pantry June 8-12
Ridgewood’s elementary and middle schools will be collection sites for non-perishable breakfast food items from Monday, June 8 through Friday, June 12. Click here for details.
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 kcook@ridgewood.k12.nj.us).
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.
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.
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