The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
file photo by Boyd Loving
by Alejandro J Ramos
Cliffside Park NJ, Will snow days be a desire of the past? The year 2020 has been like nothing we have ever seen before. It has been the year of struggle, uncertainty, and fear. In this time of unprecedented events, aside from small businesses, education has been severely impacted. I am a college student that attends a public institution here in New Jersey. Results from the pandemic, like budget cuts, have just been unfathomable.
Too many regulations are overloading New Jersey’s schools: Opinion
By Patrick J. Fletcher
and Daniel Fishbein
It’s an unsettling question, but we’re obliged to ask it. Has the rapidly accelerating pace of public education-related government mandates now become utterly unsustainable?
In just the past few years, New Jersey legislators have chosen to burden local school districts with the umbrella of AchieveNJ, which includes the recent TeachNJ tenure reform act that imposes upon us a new teacher and administrator evaluation system, with student achievement data included as part of the process.
And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also the new computer-based student evaluation system known as PARCC, as well as updated curriculum programs and textbooks related to the implementation of the Common Core Standards.
https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/08/too_many_regulations_are_overloading_new_jerseys_schools_opinion.html#incart_river
School district sees virtual day as a success
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.
But Gundersen said he is optimistic.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/247041201_School_district_sees_virtual_day_as_a_success.html#sthash.iy8PW3He.dpu
