>The “fat” in the school system lies in 1 place…at the top! We have a fat head, so to speak! I work in the school system and I have lived here for 17 years.
My particular school JUST got a new phone system. My 1st day on the job, I walked into a time warp- an antiquated phone that I shared with 4 other teachers and no voice mail. This was 4 years ago.
We (the people responsible for my school’s physical plant) do the best job with the monies available. No squandering.
Where the money flies out the window is with the high salaries of the administrators. Do we need as many? (a guidance counselor per grade? the last school I came from had 1, albeit a smaller student population) TWO crisis intervention specialists? Does a secretary at the ed. center really warrant a 6-figure salary? I make slightly more than 1/2 that and I am in the trenches every day, responsible for teaching my subject matter, dealing with students, etc WHILE doing my paperwork (grade-keeping, providing input for parent/teacher team conferences, input for the child study team, implementing my LEGAL responsibilities in the classroom for my students on 504 plans and IEPs. Does a secretary really provide that much more of a useful service?
We have many, many caring, capable and superb teachers and administrators. I think any fat trimming needs to come from the top. My humble 2 cents.
This Friday Nov. 13 at 10:45 am a protest rally (with pending appointment) will be held in Newark at Senators Lautenberg’s & Menendez’s office at 1 Gateway Center Newark, NJ. If anyone is interested in attending please contact France Kennedy at [email protected] or 908-307-7879 France has volunteered to organize this event and is awaiting reply on a possible appointment with either Senator’s office or both.
If your schedule permits, please join her on Friday at 10:45 am. Please RSVP to France.
ALSO:
November 14, 2009 – Tea Party Against Amnesty 8:00AM to 10:00AM – Bergenfield/Dumont The NJ Tea Party Coalition invites you to attend this event sponsored by United Patriots of America. “Immigration Reform” is an issue that President Obama promises to tackle after completion of Healthcare Reform. We can be sure that the President’s vision of Immigration Reform includes amnesty. This is one of 43 Tea Parties Against Amnesty being held nationally. Info can be found at www.AgainstAmnesty.com
Lets see.. Teachers union: None of you will life a finger. BOE: None of you will run for a position. Action Committees in Local Gov: Zippo Stand up at a BOE meeting and raise the protest voice: Nope.
All hot air.
The problems are real and they need an immediate fix. As bad as it may be, there is FOUND MONEY in this plan, and we should grab it.
Voting YES. Blog away… you cannot stop anyone who has children in our schools and wants to see improvement NOW for our tax dollars.
YES !!!!!
10:34 AM Vote NO !!!!
Found money is the ticket, just like the SCC during the ethically-challenged McGreevey administration. They pissed away funds and bankrupted the SCC through corruption before all of the schools that needed work could get the funds. Does anyone remember that Willard project that was supposed to get SCC funds, hmm? And THAT was during relatively better times. Do you mean to tell me that the $9 mil we are supposed to get will actually make it here while an $8 bil deficit in this start looms next year?
Keep talking 1034 and continue to demean honest citizens of Ridgewood who are tired of paying for the mismanagement.
1039, you are not alone. Voting NO and mobilizing for 2010.
>Freight Container Remains Lodged In Ho-Ho-Kus Brook – Removal Expenses May Be BOE’s Responsibility
A freight container weighing in excess of 10,000 pounds remains lodged in the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook near Ridgewood High School after washing away during Sunday’s torrential downpour and striking the Ridgewood Avenue bridge. The bridge sustained minor structural damage, but was deemed safe for continued pedestrian and motor vehicle use by Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser.
Despite previous posts on this blog suggesting the container may have washed downstream from a point miles above, it is now believed to have been located on the property of Ridgewood High School. The Village’s engineering staff is currently evaluating methods for the container’s safe removal; unconfirmed reports are that it may be resting on top of a water main. If the container is confirmed to be the property of, or leased by, Ridgewood’s Board of Education, all costs associated with its removal will most likely be billed back to the BOE.
>This morning, Village officials declared RHS’ bleachers adjacent to the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook as being “unsafe.” It is believed that damage caused by Sunday’s flooding was the principal reason for this declaration. The bleachers are now completely cordoned off with caution tape and fencing. Appropriate signage was crafted and installed as well. No details concerning a timeline for repairs are available at this time.
During an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper today, President Obama said that penalties are appropriate for people who try to “free ride” the health care system but stopped short of endorsing the threat of jail time for those who refuse to pay a fine for not having insurance.
“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it’s affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there’s a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are — are burdened by because of the fact that people don’t have health insurance, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.”
Under the House bill those who can afford to buy insurance and don’t’ pay a fine. If the refuse to pay that fine there’s a threat – as with a lot of tax fines – of jail time. The Senate removed that provision in the Senate Finance Committee.
Mr. Obama said penalties have to be high enough for people to not game the system, but it’s also important to not be “so punitive” that people who are having a hard time find themselves suddenly worse off, thus why hardship exemptions have been built in the legislation.
“I think the general broad principle is simply that people who are paying for their health insurance aren’t subsidizing folks who simply choose not to until they get sick and then suddenly they expect free health insurance. That’s — that’s basic concept of responsibility that I think most Americans abide by,” Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”
The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.
>Alleged Shooter Had “Unexplained Connections” to Others Besides Jihadist Cleric Awlaki By MARTHA RADDATZ, BRIAN ROSS, MARY-ROSE ABRAHAM, and REHAB EL-BURI Nov. 10, 2009 —
A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had “more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI” than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki. The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon.
Questions already surround Major Hasan’s contact with Awlaki, a radical cleric based in Yemen whom authorities consider a recruiter for al Qaeda. U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment.
The FBI said it turned over the information to the Army, but Defense Department officials today denied that. One military investigator on a joint terror task force with the FBI was shown the e-mails, but they were never forwarded in a formal way to more senior officials at the Pentagon, and the Army did not learn of the contacts until after the shootings.
In Texas, an hour before a memorial service for the Fort Hood victims, four FBI agents showed up at the Killeen mosque where Hasan prayed and searched a trash bin outside. The mosque president was clearly upset when he had to return from traveling to the service to sign a document handed to him by agents, apparently authorizing the search.
The FBI would not comment on what the agents were looking for at the mosque a full five days after the shooting, but motivation remains the focus.
“Obviously, the key is did he act alone,” former senior FBI official Brad Garrett told ABC News. “And secondarily is, what evidence might potentially be in the dumpsters or at the mosque.”
“We’re concerned any time a house of worship is searched in this fashion,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group. “And we would follow up to see if there was probable cause for the search and if it was carried out in the appropriate and legal manner.”
Agents had already seized Hasan’s computer in a search of this apartment last Thursday night, and all of his internet contacts and writings are under examination.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hasan gave a PowerPoint presentation to fellow Army doctors in 2007 in which he said, “It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.” He recommended that Muslim soldiers be given the option of being released from the military as conscientious objectors to decrease what he called “adverse events.” Under “comments,” he wrote, “We love death more than you love life.”
>My family and I are mid-timers, here for 15 years and 2 kids in school. Every year, we were asked to pass the budget, so we did. In the past 10 years, they floated tens of millions of bonds for expansion and renovations; some schools in the past 2-3 years, and we voted yes. Now, they’re back again for money, saying our schools are exploding with over 500 students in the past 10 years (they are shocked, SHOCKED!) and we need to expand again. They forgot to mention that 70% of the surge came in the first 5 years. Then the economy tanks, 3 dozen storefronts are vacant and they say, “by the way, we need 50 million more – do it for the kids”. Like with any spoiled kid, it’s time to say, you’ve burned through hundreds of millions of dollars so you have to make choices. The spoiled boe says “waaaahhh”. So, I ask you – continue to feed the id and just let the bond ref pass or stand your ground? You and your family are the future and will be stuck with the bills. My family is voting no because they have cried wolf too many times.
>PJ , I thought this was a lot of fun ,we visited the USS Ling in Hackensack in the past and I believe they have a lot going on for Veterans day
USS LING (SS-297)
USS Ling is the last of the fleet boats that patrolled American shores during World War II in response to U-Boat attacks off the coast of the United States. Ling made one Atlantic patrol before the war ended. Decommissioned in 1946, Ling became part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until reactivation as a submarine training vessel in 1960.
Ling was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association in 1971, arriving at her present home in New Jersey in January 1973. The boat is now displayed in the narrow headwaters of the Hackensack River, and is the official state naval museum for New Jersey. Ling continues in service as a training aid for high school ROTC students. The memorial also includes displays of Polaris, Terrier, and Talos missiles; and three small craft: a Japanese Kaiten, a German Seehund, and a PBR Mark II. Ling conducts youth group overnight encampments.
Sponsored by American Legion Post #53 All are invited to attend the Veteran’s Day ceremony, Wednesday, November 11 at 11AM at the War Memorial in the Park at Van Neste Square. Please bring chairs.
Local military veterans groups will be holding services and other events this week to commemorate Veterans Day.Originally called Armistice Day, created to honor veterans of World War I. The armistice effectively ending the war was signed on Nov. 11,1918. In 1954, Congress passed legislation setting Nov. 11 as a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
>To protect the health of patients, staff, and the community during this flu season, The Valley Hospital has enacted temporary restrictions on visitors to the hospital.
Effective Wednesday, November 18, no one under the age of 18 who is not a patient will be allowed to visit any Valley Hospital location where patient care is provided. This includes the Luckow Pavilion and Kraft Center in Paramus, as well as the hospital’s main campus in Ridgewood. These restrictions will remain in place through the duration of the flu season.
In addition, anyone who is ill with symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should refrain from visiting.
“As we continue to see an increase in patients with the flu being seen in the Emergency Department, we thought it prudent to reduce the spread of infection to our patients, staff and the public by restricting visitor access to both inpatient and outpatient areas of the hospital,” said Mitchell Rubinstein, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs. “We understand that these temporary changes to our visitation policy may be difficult for some families, and ask your understanding that it is truly in the best interest of everyone’s health to limit exposure.”
To reduce the spread of flu, Valley reminds the public to follow the same measures that are effective in reducing the risk of spreading any infectious disease: • Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently. • Cover coughs and sneezes. Dispose of used tissues properly. • Stay home if you are sick.
To help answer your questions about H1N1 flu, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) has established a toll-free, 24-hour H1N1 influenza line. The number is 1-866-321-9571.
For inquiries about the vaccine for the H1N1 virus, please call the Bergen County Health Department’s Health Topics Information Line at 201-225-7000. A listing of flu clinics can also be found on the Department of Health’s web site at www.bergenhealth.org.
Gov.-elect Chris Christie ran as no pushover to organized labor — pledging to be an “adversary” to unions and publicly fending off chances for endorsements.
And labor did everything it could to keep the Republican out of the governor’s office, deploying thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and work phone banks in hopes of re-electing outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine, widely viewed as a champion of labor.
Christie’s win, unions are hoping the heated rhetoric of the campaign will be left on the trail. There is a lot at stake for unions — particularly for state workers vulnerable in a tough budget year — and they’re scrambling to play nice with a new governor who might not need their support at all.
“They hit him with everything but the kitchen sink — or everything and the kitchen sink — and he won,” said state Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), an ironworker who has said the state needs concessions from workers. “They can’t threaten him (by saying) ‘We’re going to beat you next time.’”
Christie inherits a state with a budget already $8 billion in the hole and looking worse by the week. On the campaign trail, he pledged to be a tough negotiator, pushing for workers to pay a part of their health care and saying only full-time employees should be eligible for health benefits and pensions. He also railed against the size of state government.
Union leaders want Christie to realize workers’ value to the state.
“We hope he’s going to give up his anti-state-worker rhetoric that he used throughout the campaign and realize that slashing jobs and services would be bad for the state’s economy,” said Hetty Rosenstein, director of the Communications Workers of America of New Jersey, which represents about 55,000 government workers.
Unions worry Christie might try to reverse some of what Corzine crowed about, such as paid family leave, which allows paid time off for workers caring for a new baby or sick relative. Although Corzine over the summer reached a no-layoff agreement with state workers that the CWA says is irreversible, Christie said he is not bound to honor it.
Other issues, such as raising the minimum wage, might not see the light of day, Sweeney said.
The depth of antagonism remains to be seen, but Christie turned his first post-election public appearance into a rallying cry for urban students he said had been failed by a spendthrift school system.
“I’m not going to continue to allow urban children to be failed and cheated by failing public schools,” he said Wednesday at Newark’s Robert Treat Academy charter school. “If you think I’m kidding about this issue, then you haven’t learned a thing about me over the last eight years.”
Christie said the New Jersey Education Association, which spent millions on ads against him, proved to be less effective than union leaders hoped, though he said the foes of his brand of education reform — which includes school vouchers — are “significant and powerful.”
“Change will come,” he said. “What form that change will take is going to be a product of how well we make our case.”
NJEA spokesman Steven Baker said it was too soon to judge Christie.
“I’m hesitant to begin ranking him,” he said. “Certainly we’re going to be watching, we’re going to be monitoring.”
The agenda of construction unions might be closer in line with a pro-business Christie administration, said Bill Mullen, president of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council.
“We need the state to grow and expand to put our people to work,” he said.
Mullen said he was wary of some of Christie’s positions, including a pledge to do away with so-called “project labor agreements” that extend existing contracts during a fight with management for the length of the job.
But he said unions have a powerful ally in the Democratic Legislature.
“Without the control of the Legislature, he probably can’t do anything,” Mullen said.
