Ridgewood NJ, according to multiple sources Governor Phil Murphy is expected to announce that all teachers including Ridgewood teachers will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine this school year.
Sommerville NJ, Jack Ciattarelli, Republican candidate for New Jersey Governor, released the following statement ahead of Phil Murphy’s announcement of a mask mandate for New Jersey’s public school students:
“Governor Phil Murphy has done it again. His decision to require masks for K-12 students is a bewildering reversal of his position of just a few weeks ago. Let me be clear, I oppose Governor Murphy’s mask mandate for students. The science is clear: nearly all children who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and wearing masks for children is terrible for their social and emotional development. Bottom line, whether a child wears a mask should be decided by parents, not government. If someone wants to have their child wear a mask, they should feel free to do so, but it’s not something that should be forced on children, nor should their learning be inhibited in any way. Finally, this feels like the first step towards another Murphy lockdown, which is something our children, businesses, and taxpayers cannot afford or are willing to accept.”
Ridgewood NJ, with more than half of educators reporting significant learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2021’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems, as well as accompanying videos and expert commentary.
Summit NJ, A retired drama teacher and theater director at a middle school in Summit has been arrested and charged with committing criminal offenses of a sexual nature against a student while on school grounds several years ago, acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo and Summit Police Chief Andrew Bartolotti announced Monday.
New Brunswick NJ, as vaccination rates increase and prospects of normal life return more than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, New Jerseyans differ on various aspects of this “new normal” and how comfortable they feel, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll.
Bergenfield NJ, Governor Phil Murphy and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona today visited Bergenfield High School to discuss the importance of in-person learning. While the pandemic led to a temporary statewide closure of schools in March 2020, public schools serving over 95% of New Jersey’s nearly 1.4 million students are now learning in-person either on a full-time or hybrid schedule. Governor Murphy has also required all schools to provide full-time, in-person instruction for the 2021-2022 school year, with no remote learning option available.
Ridgewood NJ, The Board of Education meets on May 24, 2021 at 6:00 PM for an Executive Session and 7:00 PM for the Regular Public Meeting at the Education Center.
Washington DC, the big Biden “infrastructure” proposal contains $100 billion for the teacher unions, er, sorry…for “education.” This is on top of the $112 billion for the teacher unions tucked in the 2020 COVID relief bills, and on top of another $170 billion in the $1.9 trillion Biden “stimulus” bill that passed in March.
Sommerville NJ, Successful small business owner, former assemblyman, and Republican frontrunner for Governor Jack Ciattarelli said he was disappointed, but not surprised, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) leadership refused his request for rank-and-file NJEA members to participate in a livestream of his endorsement screening interview.
Ridgewood NJ, The National Education Association (NEA) and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) have agreed to develop a dynamic partnership to grow a New Jersey-based program to introduce states and districts throughout New Jersey and the country to the benefits and processes of labor-management collaboration. NEA is providing NJEA with a $500,000 grant to help expand the New Jersey Public School Labor-Management Collaborative and additional funds to help other interested state and local affiliates to plan and launch partnerships that foster labor-management collaboration practices in districts and worksites. NEA has committed to invest more than $3 million over three years to fund and grow this initiative.
Paramus NJ, over 700 school faculty staff received single-dose Johnson & Johnson Janssen Vaccine on Saturday, March 13. The County of Bergen and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center recently hosted a COVID-19 vaccination day for school teachers and faculty at the Bergen County Technical School in Paramus. The one-day clinic took place on Saturday, March 13 and was coordinated in partnership with the Bergen County Education Association, the Executive County Superintendent’s Office, and the Bergen County Superintendent’s Association to provide access to K-12 staff now eligible for the vaccine under new NJ Department of Health guidance.
Ridgewood NJ, in USA Today that stops just short of accusing the CDC of scientific fraud. The CDC infamously met with teachers unions before coming out with shocking “school opening” guidance that, if followed would actually inhibit getting kids back in school.
“I agree that all teachers and staff should be vaccinated prior to opening the schools, especially with the uptick in cases in the Ridgewood schools over the last few weeks. Should students also have a negative test via the new in home, quick and accurate “in the box” testing kits our government is funding? I say yes and BOE should be all over this as other school districts have pushed to get students tested prior to returning to school.”
Ridgewood NJ, At Mondays Ridgewood Board of Education meeting , according to the New Jersey COVID-19 Activity Reports, our region is still at the high (orange) level. Bergen County saw an uptick in cases last week. Within the district, we had 14 positive cases last week, and another 16 cases the week before. Over the prior week, we saw a 1.3% increase of students returning to school from remote learning with the largest gains at Orchard, Travell, Willard, Benjamin Franklin Middle School, and George Washington Middle School.
Ridgewood NJ, Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) today announced that there is general agreement among government officials that vaccinating teachers should be a priority as soon as standards make them eligible.