>“Tradition of Excellence” : Readers make to key observations about quality of schools debate
Based on the previous eight comments, it sounds like the high school parents don’t care if we have the best high school in the state and have no interest in figuring out how we can get there. Pretty good seems to be OK with them.
and
To a growing number in town, having the best high school is not as important as having everyone who doesn’t actually live in town think that RW has the best schools.
It’s all part of placing more importance on feeeling good rather than actually being good.
>73% Say Being a Father is Most Important Role for Men in Today’s World Sunday, June 19, 2011
Today is Father’s Day, and most adults will be doing something for their dad today.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 18% of American Adults consider Father’s Day one of the nation’s most important holidays, while 17% consider it one of the least important. Most (62%) say it is somewhere in between. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Interestingly, men downplay the importance of Father’s Day as a holiday more than women—women are more likely to say it is one of the most important holidays or somewhere in between, while men are more likely to say it is one of the least important holidays.
Seventy-three percent (73%) continue to believe that being a father is the most important role a man can fill in today’s world. This, too, has changed little over the past several years.
In an effort to feed the hungry New York City plans to send geese captured around its airports to a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse and then distribute them to food banks there.
The Department of Environmental Protection mad the decision following criticism that the gassed geese were dumped into landfills while the less fortunate go hungry.
A department spokesman told the The New York Times that it wanted its efforts to enhance public safety but also help the needy.
The Goose eradication was authorized after U.S. Airways Flight 1549 made a miraculous landing in the Hudson River in 2009 after a flock of geese got caught up in it’s engines causing an emergency landing.
If thinks work out the agency said that next year the geese will feed needy New Yorkers, but rumors swirl that many of New York’s finest gourmets are lining up to offer the fresh roadkill as a delicacy .
>A3242 bill would allow students to be surveyed “without” parental permission
In essence this bill would allow students to be surveyed “without” parental permission. The parents would only have to be “informed.”
As Art Gallagher wrote in his column:
Back in 2001 there was a bill passed and signed into law that prohibited school districts from gathering such information unless they had the informed written consent of the student’s parent or guardian. Now the legislature is on the verge of amending that law (P.L.2001, c.364) so that the school districts can gather the information from students so long as the parents have been notified in writing, NOT consented in writing.
Like the marketeers who assume you will be too busy or disinterested to cancel your book club or credit monitoring service, the Legislature and the school districts are assuming that parents are not giving consent to the schools asking about their political affiliation, sexual behavior or embarrassing mental illnesses because they are too busy, don’t care, or haven’t opened their mail.
Please call these members on the Education Committee:
Joan Voss – 201 346 6400 (Joan Voss is running for Freeholder in Bergen County – tell her you are watching her vote)) Scott Rumana – 973 237 1362
Against own party’s wishes, Sweeney pushes overhaul to pension system for N.J. public employees
Despite a rising chorus of opposition from fellow Democrats, the Senate president and Assembly speaker pressed forward Tuesday to overhaul health and pension benefits for the state’s 500,000 public employees.(Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
>66% Say Private Sector Employees Work Harder Than Government Workers Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Most Americans still believe government workers work less and make more money than those employed by private companies. Yet while the majority also thinks government workers enjoy more job security, they’re less convinced of that than they were a year ago.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that only 11% of Adults think those employed by the government work harder than workers in the private sector. Sixty-six percent (66%) say those employed by private companies work harder. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.
> Report: Pedestrian bridge at Ridgewood High School needs work
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011 BY KELLY EBBELS STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A pedestrian bridge that connects the two athletic fields at Ridgewood High School (RHS) – crossed by hundreds of students each day – has structural deficiencies that have yet to be addressed by the school district, and vehicles have been seen using the bridge despite a weight limit, according to a village resident who lives near RHS.
The pedestrian bridge connecting Stadium and Stevens fields at Ridgewood High School was closed following flooding in April. More than two years ago, the Ridgewood school district received an engineering report on the pedestrian bridge over the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook between athletics fields at Ridgewood High School (RHS), citing concerns with the bridge’s structural integrity.
The report, prepared by Mark Micucci of Micucci Engineering and delivered to the district in January 2009, notes that the exposed top side of the bridge is in “relatively good condition” and its underside in “fair condition,” but reveals problems with the structure of its abutments, particularly its southern abutment.
>VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL REGULAR PUBLIC MEETING
JUNE 8, 2011 8:00 P.M.
3300 – Amend Salary Ordinance for Management Personnel – Amends this salary ordinance to reflect that management personnel are receiving a 0% salary increase in 2010 and 2011. In addition, management personnel are eligible for an incentive increase of 0% – 4% over the two- year period, based on a performance evaluation, with one-half of the incentive increase being paid from January 1, 2010 and the other one-half of the incentive increase being paid from January 1, 2011.
3301 – Amend Salary Ordinance for Non-Union Personnel – Amends this salary ordinance to reflect that non-union personnel are receiving a 0% salary increase in 2010 and 2011. In addition, non- union personnel are eligible for an incentive increase of 0% – 4% over the two-year period, based on a performance evaluation, with one-half of the incentive increase being paid from January 1, 2010 and the other one-half of the incentive increase being paid from January 1, 2011.
>57% of Likely U.S. Voters see the president as more liberal than they are
Most voters still believe President Obama is more liberal than they are, while just one-out-of-four say they share the same ideological views as the president.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters think Obama is more ideologically liberal than they are, while only 13% view him as more conservative. Twenty-four percent (24%) say their political views are about the same as the president’s. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The number who see the president as more liberal than they are stayed at 57% in three-out-of-four previous surveys conducted since August of last year. That number climbed to 61% in late February. The number who view the president as more conservative ranged from nine percent (9%) to 12% in that same period.
The Annual Village home owner flight is upon us the Staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ – So its that time of the year again when a new generation of High School seniors graduates and looks forward to reshaping the world in their own image . The Future looks bright and there are nothing but an endless horizon of possibilities for as far as the eye can see .
But wait whats this , hundreds of homes for sale in the Village well timed for sellers to coincidentally skate just in the nick of time for the diplomas to be passed to the next generation of leaders. Amazing how those moving trucks line up in the driveways so neatly of so many now former Ridgewood residents their bags packed
Now the empty Nester’s take flight ,yes flight from bills due for turf fields, stadium lights , and assorted other amenities that’s useful life has now been fulfilled and long term liabilities must be avoided at all cost for over extended families.Leaving those left with ever higher property taxes , declining maintenance, quality of life and lower educational standards .
>Firms to cut health plans as reform starts: survey 30% of companies say they’ll stop offering Health Insurance coverage due to Obamacare
By Russ Britt, MarketWatch LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Once provisions of the Affordable Care Act start to kick in during 2014, at least three of every 10 employers will probably stop offering health coverage, a survey released Monday shows.
While only 7% of employees will be forced to switch to subsidized-exchange programs, at least 30% of companies say they will “definitely or probably” stop offering employer-sponsored coverage, according to the study published in McKinsey Quarterly.
The survey of 1,300 employers says those who are keenly aware of the health-reform measure probably are more likely to consider an alternative to employer-sponsored plans, with 50% to 60% in this group expected to make a change. It also found that for some, it makes more sense to switch.
>Hackensack University Medical Center formally applied for state permission to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital
Hackensack formally applies to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY JUNE 1, 2011, 8:47 PM BY LINDY WASHBURN AND MARY JO LAYTON STAFF WRITERS THE RECORD
Hackensack University Medical Center formally applied for state permission Wednesday to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood as a 128-bed full-service community hospital. If approved, the for-profit hospital would open late next year.
The Westwood hospital closed due to bankruptcy in November 2007. The new plan aims to address the state’s looming physician shortage as well as provide patient care to the northeastern part of Bergen County, which has been underserved since Pascack closed due to bankruptcy in November 2007, said Robert C. Garrett, Hackensack’s president and chief executive officer.
The application is “the next phase of restoring much needed healthcare services to the Pascack Valley and Northern Valley,” Garrett said.
Although a final decision on the application is not expected until November, Hackensack’s joint-venture partner appears confident enough of the application’s success to have named a chief executive officer for the new facility.
There are seven seats on the state Supreme Court. Four votes are normally required to issue a binding opinion and order action. The ruling of the court last week on public school funding, mandating a half-billion-dollar increase in state aid for poor districts, was written by Justice Jaynee LaVecchia. (Ahearn, The Record)
>New Jersey Choral Society Concert Benefits Center for Food Action
Experience the passion, spirituality, and richly diverse musical legacies of Antonin Dvorák and Leonard Bernstein as the New Jersey Choral Society presents “Legacy” on Friday, June 3 at 8:00 pm in Ridgewood’s West Side Presbyterian Church and on Saturday, June 4 at 8:00 pm in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Montclair. Under the direction of dynamic conductor Eric Dale Knapp, the New Jersey Choral Society concludes its 30th Anniversary Season with a reflective and uplifting program featuring Antonin Dvorák’s lyrical meditation Mass in D Major with its tuneful, folk-like melodies and Leonard Bernstein’s famous Chichester Psalms(Ridgewood performance only), a rhythmic, dramatic, yet fundamentally spiritual choral work of a number of Hebrew psalm texts. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ romantic and transcendentalToward the Unknown Region, based on the poetry of Walt Whitman, will conclude the program. Linda Sweetman-Waters will be featured on the organ. Solists for this event are Katie DeLavega, soprano, Alicia Luick, mezzo-soprano, Daniel Lynch Jr., tenor, Bruce Cain, bass, and Jake Lucas, boy soprano. Come one hour prior to concert times for The Inside Line, a complimentary lecture for all ticket holders. Hosted by the NJCS Board of Trustees (Emily Hewetson, President) and friends, the lecture will feature “A New Jersey Choral Society 30th Anniversary Retrospective: where we have been and the exciting future of NJCS.” In support of the Center for Food Action, the New Jersey Choral Society will be collecting nonperishable food items at each concert. Donated food items can be deposited in one of the receptacles in the lobby.
The Center for Food Action is a non-profit organization that provides emergency food, rental and utility assistance, counseling and advocacy for people in need. Advance tickets are $20.00 for general admission, $17.00 for students, seniors, and patrons with disabilities, and $12 for children 12 and under (Add $5.00 at the door). Season subscriptions and group discounts are available. The West Side Presbyterian Church and the Church of the Immaculate Conception are wheelchair accessible and large print and Braille programs are available with two weeks notice. For reservations or more information, call the New Jersey Choral Society at (201) 379-7719 or visithttps://www.njcs.org. Funding has been made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, through grant funds administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.
