The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, on Monday evening, 03/07, Mr. Andrew Parente, a partner in the Fair Lawn based financial auditing firm of Lerch, Vinci & Higgins, LLP, informed BOE members that $729k in BOE funds were spent during the 2021-2022 school year without their required approval (expenditures in excess of the $44k bid threshold require BOE approval via resolution). Breakdown of the “without approval” expenditures was as follows:
Ridgewood School Board Trustee Saurabh Dani
Continue reading Ridgewood School Board Trustee Examines the School Budget Vote
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the NJSIAA gave the following statement on off-field gatherings and parties surrounding student-athletes .
“The NJSIAA welcomes Governor Murphy’s stated support for a fall return of high school sports, and we’re delighted that our return-to-play plan is in full swing throughout New Jersey. Based on initial reports, we estimate that the majority of our 435 public and non-public, member high schools are running sanctioned workouts, and by next week many will already be in Phase 2. Overall, our student-athletes are currently engaged both in conditioning drills and off-season, simulated play – and initial reports from coaches and school officials are quite positive.”
Continue reading NJSIAA STATEMENT ON SUMMER WORKOUTS/FALL SPORTS AND OFF FIELD GATHERINGS
” Ridgewood school district is great, but recent increases in Budget driven by employee medical benefits and special ed. Meanwhile school rankings are dropping compared to competitors.
I know very little about educating kids except that it’s an extremely tough job. However I do know quite a bit about budgeting. It’s imperative to always question how $ is spent, otherwise it will be spent with less care than warranted. Voting no therefore makes sense in this case, as the board did not address concernes posed above.
Many parents defend the educators by questioning the no vote, but this is not a educators vs parents story. Rather it’s an action point for BoE to regain public trust by acknowledging raised issues and proposing solutions. I doubt there’s a resident who wishes bad upon our great educators, so let’s not confuse the issues. “
” I will vote NO not only because I am not convinced it is being allocated and spent wisely but also because is see some suspicious people with ties to past controversial VC who are pushing a YES in local FB pages and doing it very actively. They have their personal reasons for this which do not resonate with mine.
Somebody last night recommended a YES vote so that our property values remain high. If this is correct then we are living in a bubble which will burst with sh!t all over the place. “
file photo by Boyd Loving
” Ridgewood parents and taxpayers deserve world class administrators who can provide inspirational leadership for those 500 staff, 1,500 students and ten buildings. Think about this as well: the $110 million BOE budget implies $73,333 in budget per student per year. And yet how little of that actually goes towards educating our children for the challenges they will face as they go out and take on the world? You REA thugs have perverted what was once a “Tradition of Excellence.” You seem to think your mere presence means excellence, when in fact it takes creative, inspirational leadership and hard work.”
“Students should NEVER get the warm and fuzzy from adults when thinking about setting their own class schedule once the add/drop deadline has passed, regardless of what the political issue du jour happens to be. What if the students simply wanted to hold an ice cream social? Would the administration and the school board not have considered that unworthy and told them “cut class and suffer the consequences?”. No, it’s only when certain kool-aid drinking students scratch the sixties retreads’ special spot do their political hind legs go twitching and they become all luvvy duvvy and compliant like Gorman did. Absolutely pathetic and partisan.
Gorman only set about to scandalize and corrupt a much smaller group of naive second amendment supporters to similarly cut class and hold their own protest (inside the building and out of range of the videocameras of Gorman’s friends in the press, of course) to give himself the thinnest of a solomon-like veneer in the eyes of those of us who tend not to think too deeply about the menace of government-sponsored political action. Gorman should move to Chicago and be an Obama-style community organizer if that’s what floats his boat and leave the job of a high school principal to someone who actually wants to maintain or improve RHS’s academic performance and reputation.”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, a New Jersey Appellate court has handed the PARCC Refuseniks a major victory . New Jersey’s Department of Education rules that force students to pass PARCC tests before graduating from high school has been declared invalid.
A panel of state appellate court judges on Monday struck down the requirement that students must pass state exams in Algebra I and 10th grade English, saying that the rules put into place in 2016, don’t match a state law that requires students to pass just a single test in 11th grade in order to graduate.
The ruling will not take effect for 30 days, giving the state Department of Education time to appeal to the state Supreme Court if it wants, the judges wrote. If the decision holds, though, it will allow students to graduate without having passed the controversial and unpopular exams.
According to anti PARCC activist Carolee Adams the, “Set aside by the courts, and not by the Governor’s pre-election statement that he would “End PARCC Day One”, we still await a possible appeal from the NJDOE. If the Governor will now claim it his victory, that he might, he could still help by reining in his Secretary of Education to dismiss any appeal. What a terrible waste of precious time, money, and education this has caused. “
She also thanked the” Education Law Center and all of us who continued to fight this abominable, uber-expensive test that disrespected parental rights, ignored common sense, and dumbed down the education of New Jersey’s student . “
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Virtue signaling, spelled virtue signaling in the United States, is the conspicuous expression of moral values.[1] The term was first used in signaling theory, to describe any behavior that could be used to signal virtue—especially piety among the religious,[2] but more recently support of progressive political norms and social justice.
The real idea is that you are better or morally superior and Virtue-signalers aren’t in any way in doubt about their own virtue. What they really want to do is signal how depraved others are. In the NY Post columnist F.H. Buckley more aptly called it , “Vice signaling is a defense mechanism, meant to displace liberal guilt. There was a moment, shortly after the 2016 election, when liberals realized that ordinary Americans had turned against them, and that they had reason to do so.”
The reality is that “No Hate” signs seem to sow more division and promote an anti community . Often used by the most “Hateful” people pitting neighbor against neighbor ,squelching free speech and even worse free thought in an ever increasing mindless obedient conformity .
Fourteen Ridgewood Students Make Bergen County Honor Band
Ridgewood NJ, Eight BFMS students and six GWMS students were accepted into the Bergen County Honor Band. Those with media permission to be listed are: Benjamin Franklin Middle School: Andrew Song (7) – Mallet 1 (highest score); Christopher Morse (8) – Bari Saxophone (highest score); Tony An (7) – Clarinet; Teddy Moll (7) – Horn; Stefanie Haas (7) – Trombone (highest score) and Emma Matthews (7) – Trumpet (highest score). George Washington Middle School: Katlyn Tagliabue (8) – Bassoon (highest score); Kieran Corcoran (7) – Tenor Saxophone (highest score); Shalin Patel (8) – Euphonium (highest score); Annie Duffy (8) – Clarinet and Edward Li (8) – Clarinet.
The two middle schools have the most students from one district earning positions into the Honor Band. Brian Brown is the band director at GWMS and Jason Curcio at BFMS.
