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Jamie and Jolene from Ridgewood ,Jersey cook up some delicious scallops and veggies.
Tag: Ridgewood NJ
>Amber Alert Safety Centers
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>bring your own bottle
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Ridgewood Super Cellars
www.supercellars.com
32 S Broad St
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
(201) 444-0012
What to know about New Jersey’s laws governing bring-your-own restaurants:
* Only beer or wine is allowed — not hard liquor.
* BYOs cannot advertise that they are, in fact, a BYO.
* BYOs cannot charge customers any service or corkage fees.
* Restaurants have the right to prohibit diners from bringing in alcohol.
* Whether BYOs can legally pour wine for diners is ambiguous, says an attorney for the New Jersey Restaurant Association.
>Village Council Race
>
The five candidates running for the three seats are;
Jacques Harlow – RIDGEWOOD 2025
Paul Aronsohn – A NEW VOICE FOR RIDGEWOOD
Keith Killion – COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
Betty G. Wiest – RIDGEWOOD – PRIDE AND PROGRESS
Anne Zusy – REFRESH RIDGEWOOD A-Z. ELECT ANNE ZUSY.
Killion & Aronsohn are NOT running on the same ticket. The “Common Sense to Municipal Government” slogan is Killion’s, not Paul’s. Not sure where/who you got this information from, but it was also posted in errata on the “anti Blog.” Someone is trying to link them for some unknown reason.
>You Are Going to Put What in my front Yard?
>”
Reader says,”I believe this was supposed to go up by the Valley View water tank but was moved to my front yard after protests. We were never notified of this by the Village and only received a letter from Glen Rock to discuss it after both towns have approved it”.
>Question for Readers :
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Should this Blog publicize the where abouts of sex offenders living in our community?
>vote with their feet
>Notwithstanding the optimistic title of the following article, its author recommends that parents dissatisified with their district’s math program vote with their feet.
From https://www.gobiged.com/wfdata/frame164-1000/pressrel103.asp
How to Promote a Good Math Curriculum
Q. How can you tell if your school’s math curriculum is any good, and what can you do if it isn’t?
If you spend time on the website, www.mathematicallycorrect.com, you will see that there have been tremendous efforts in recent years to battle back “fuzzy math,” but not much progress has been made. “Fuzzy math” curricula are listed there. You can pass along that link to your child’s math teacher, but don’t expect anything to change.
One of the problems is that there are a lot of educators who have risen through the ranks who really don’t “do math” very well, yet they’re making decisions about curriculum and influencing policymakers, when they shouldn’t be. Even a well-regarded math teacher has little, or no, chance of changing those big decisions as long as the big money and big power is behind “fuzzy math.”
You can tell this is a problem, because the REAL math professionals – mathematicians and scientists who DON’T work for schools – hate the “fuzzy math” curriculum so many schools are using. If your district is using Everyday Mathematics, Connected Math, TERC, or one of the other math curricula blasted on that website, then you’re in the midst of a national controversy that doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.
If you really want your child to be good at math, you’d better run, not walk, to a private, after-school math tutor and keep your child there for years, or pull your child out of public school and into the best private school you can afford. Of course, that’s after you’ve made sure that the tutor or the private school aren’t blindly following the lead of the public schools in using ineffective math programs just because they’re “popular.”
Chances are, if your child attends a public school, your district’s selected curriculum has been recommended by the federal government because the National Science Foundation has funded its development. The problem is, the National Science Foundation, otherwise an excellent organization, has gone off the deep end toward “whole math,” and in so doing has ruined the course of math education in this country in recent years.
The basic problem is that it’s “in style” among educrats and policymakers to NOT teach the math basics. They honestly believe this is best, even though in the case of math curricula there has been a tidal wave of protest from parents, taxpayers, mathematicians and scientists against NOT teaching the basics. Because the “fuzzy math” curriculum marketing has been smart about targeting certain large, influential districts, and placing their curriculum in them, there’s a widespread “monkey see, monkey do” effect in which other districts copy what the Big Boys are doing – to the detriment of all the students.
Making matters worse is that large, nongovernmental entities that are highly influential in K-12 education because they sprinkle around millions of dollars in grants – for example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – make those grants conditional on retaining the educrats who will favor the “progressive” curricula that the foundations prefer because they’re in “style.”
Why is this such a problem?
“Whole math” deemphasizes routine arithmetic and algebra as being “drill and kill” or “mindless symbol manipulation.” Instead of memorizing math facts and working increasingly difficult computation problems, the kids are given calculators. So they don’t get any practice or skill in the actual mathematics which they are supposedly being taught. Obviously, this dumbs them down.
Instead, they develop their own strategies for solving story problems, work in groups, write math journals, and do other nonsense work, without a competent adult teacher guiding their work, but their age peers. Obviously, this ingrains misinformation and bad habits.
They don’t do long addition problems, they don’t learn how to make change, they don’t learn how to subtract with borrowing, they don’t work with fractions, and certain other college-prep skills that are necessary for physics and calculus and other higher-level math and science courses go by the wayside. Obviously, then, they aren’t equipped to major in the “hard” sciences or math-related fields, and instead of going in to productive and highly-sought-after fields like technology, medicine and engineering, they major in “soft” fields like psychology and education. Actually, they aren’t even capable enough to work at a cashier in a retail store, because they can’t even make change for a simple cash transaction.
So how can a lowly parent influence curriculum selections? Well, you can sure write letters and make phone calls to your school board. But the best thing may well be to “vote with your feet.” Get your child out of a system that’s using a poor math curriculum, tell the district why, and go on with your life. If they lose enough money, they’ll eventually do the math – and make the correct change.
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Show ‘n’ Tell For Parents 110 • © 2006
>Someone asked for the Ridgewood Public Schools Survival Guide –
>Someone asked for the Ridgewood Public Schools Survival Guide –
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Saddle River Day (Saddle River, NJ)
Dwight Englewood(Englewood, NJ – Gifted Programs)
Elisabeth Morrow School(Englewood, NJ)
The Village School (Waldwick – Montessori)
Horace Mann(Riverdale, NY – Buses from Ridge Parking Lot)
Riverdale (Riverdale, NY)
Lawrenceville (Lawrenceville, NJ – Boarding School)
Peddie School((Hightstown, NJ – Boarding School)
RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
Eastern Christian School(Midland Park, Gifted Program)
Academy of Our Lady(Glen Rock)
St. Elizabeth’s(Wyckoff)
Don Bosco Prep(Ramsey, NJ)
Bergen Catholic High School(Oradell, NJ)
Del Barton (Morristown, NJ – buses from Ridgewood?)
Academy of Holy Angels(Demarest, NJ)
Immaculate Heart Academy(Washington Township, NJ)
>Well it is Over ….
>
“This election just goes to say that this blog does not run this town and math is not the only issue. Nice try….not “
“How could you not be angry? This board has misspent our tax dollars on consultants that told us what we knew anyway, search fees for a firm that didn’t do its homework, on curriculum materials that have been deemed insufficient by national experts, etc. When Sarah Kate and others asked politely and through proper channels for answers they were ignored or dismissed.
What has amazed me in all of this was how some viewed the Maskin and Lois platform as radical or in some way not in all of our best interests. In voting against them, were you opposed to higher academic standards, fiscal accountability, standardized curriculum, increased parental involvement, and more transparent communication?
I never thought I would be making comparisons to “High School Musical”, but I found myself humming the song, “Stick to the Status Quo” this morning (Sing with me!)
Stick to the stuff you know
If you wanna be cool
Follow one simple rule
Don’t mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo
Hopefully, we and our children won’t end up like the kids at East high – pretty and shiny on the outside, but a whole lot of nothing going on underneath. “
“This town is a joke.
Town services are cut,-idiots on the BOE get re-elected.
Everyone gripes on this blog but are no shows at the polls
Our house is on the market already.
We’re moving to Fardale in Mahwah,
5 miles from Ridgewood. Nice homes and churches.
Schools are good, taxes are less and they’re not arresting kids for carring weapons. Real grass on the playing fields.
FYI the school budget passed at $48,000,000.”
” “the Travell crowd”…
I live in the Travell school district. I was disappointed in the results of the election. Then to read this kind of language…I really don’t know what to say.
It really hurts to think that this is what some of your neighbors think of you. “
“I am sick to my stomach. While Sheila has been on the board our curriculum is going to pot, our buildings are falling apart and meanwhile they use our tax dollars to partner with a university to get information we already have at hand. I am disgusted. When Sheila attended the Travell HSA meeting she still feigned surprise that there were issues with the math! Somehow she got all of her old friends to vote for her even though they really no longer have any vested interest in our children’s education. It is time to move. For Sheila, this is just a vanity project. How long can she stay on the BOE? “
“If it wasn’t so clear that they had an agenda, and if it wasn’t so clear that they were angry, angry, angry, they would have won. However, every non angry parent in the town – which is obviously the majority – voted against them as much as they voted for them. I can’t tell you how many people said, “I’m not voting for those kooks.” THAT was their major problem. In a district where there are definitely some issues that need to be addressed, they catered to the Travell crowd and took it too far. To most people in town, they were way too militant – and they were associated with this blog (“Are they the blog people? I’m not voting for THEM!”).
It is all in the packaging. “
“Sarah-Kate and Greg ran a very good campaign and put up a good fight. The mortal mistake was to be silent about the nasty attacks on this blog and to have a link to it on their website.
Voters are not stupid- they can see. Yesterday they saw and spoke loudly.(Here is where all the attacks referring to this post will happen…)
Now, let’s reconcile for the sake of this town, otherwise you, all of you will become irrelevant.”
“This is a lesson. The “math” issue has no import to the people of Ridgewood. The un-equal education (depending on where you live in town) does not matter to the people of Ridgewood. The lack of books is OK, too.
The people have spoken. The fight is over. “
“Laurie Goodman was the best candidate running and the voters agreed. “
“well PJ like I have been saying with the internet who needs public education?”
“so what do you think PJ Ridgewood without schools ? Interesting future for the town dont you think ..I see a clifton like school system in your future ,as all the serious parents who need to live hear send there kids to private schools ,nope not the same old Ridgewood at all kinda sad … “
“First one to find a tutor wins.
get cracking Travell parents – you will need tutors for grades 1 through 12.
ka-ching “
>Admininistration Expenses
>From numerous sources the fly has learned that the BOE hides administrator’s salaries by having an administrator teach one class there by shifting that salary to the teacher’s line item. This artificially lowers and misrepresents administration expenses.
>From today’s The Villadom Times… No Ordinary Election
>Today is election day for the Ridgewood Board of Education, and we are respectfully asking community members, including those who don’t usually vote, to take heed—this is no ordinary school board election. Our property values and quality of life are more at stake than ever before.
Our school district is at a threshold. To enter the 21st century means a substantive, adaptive change in the way we—as a nation of citizens—do business with our schools. Because of the technology explosion, districts are forced to open up communication with taxpayers exponentially.
There is no turning back. Yet thus far, there has been resistance from some administrators and school board members. Resistance leads to discord, and as many of you know, there has been great discord in this town concerning our schools, made public for all the world to see by the New York Times and NBC Nightly News, among other media.
As candidates, we, Sarah-Kate Maskin and Greg Lois, seek to: uncover underlying issues, question previous assumptions, raise the bar for our kids, unify the district, and heal the discord. Above all, we’re committed to helping guide our district onto a new path where honesty, full disclosure and transparency become the norm. We want a board where parents engage in two-way communication and where they are invited to step on the heretofore sacred soil of curriculum decisions. These are necessary changes that will allow taxpayers to gain assurance that Ridgewood’s sterling reputation will remain true.
The promise of transparency is an especially tall order, to be sure, but that’s because, as mundane as the word “communication” may sound, a two-way dialogue between school and community will mark a departure from the past and will empower taxpayers. Booker T. Washington said it best: “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
We humbly seek your vote today. Allow us to serve our taxpayers with integrity, intellect, and hard work.
Sarah-Kate Maskin
Greg Lois
Candidates for The Ridgewood School Board
www.ourridgewoodschools.com
Ridgewood Athletics Foundation to Fund Artificial Turf & Lights at Two BOE Owned Properties
>The Fly has just received word that the Ridgewood Athletics Foundation has applied to turf and light athletic fields at Hawes School and Ridgewood High School.
Both projects will be managed by Conklin Associates, a consulting engineering firm based in Ramsey. Reportedly, applications for NJDEP stream encroachment permits were signed off on by BOE Administrator Angelo DeSimone.
The stream encroachment permit application, by the way, says it is for “in kind” replacement, but does say it is artificial turf.
So much for the publically announced plan that Lower Hawes would not be touched.
>Judgment Day
>
GO OUT AND VOTE !
POLLS ARE OPEN TILL 9PM
Three Artificial Turf Fields Shut Down Due To Lead Levels
>Posted: 4:28 pm EDT April 14, 2008
Updated: 6:52 pm EDT April 14, 2008
TRENTON, N.J. — Three athletic fields in New Jersey used by thousands of people have been shut down because officials say elevated lead levels in the turf pose a health risk.
The fields are in Newark, Ewing and Hoboken. In Newark, workers in hazmat suits rolled up the turf and put it into Dumpsters to be hauled away.
In Hoboken, soccer players were turned away from Frank Sinatra Park because of concerns about lead in the fibers of its turf.
New Jersey officials are urging owners of these types of fields to make sure their turf is lead-free.
State health officials said they found lead levels eight to 10 times higher than allowed in soil when they randomly tested two-dozen turf fields around the state. The state’s epidemiologist is asking the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate.
Health Commissioner Heather Howard said the New Jersey findings could have national implications.
It’s not known how easily lead from turf is absorbed by the body. Specialized tests on the high-lead turf samples are expected early next month.
>The debate over mathematics curricula is prominent as we vote on April 15th for two seats on the Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE).
>
The debate over mathematics curricula is prominent as we vote on April 15th for two seats on the Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE). That’s why I’m voting for Sarah-Kate Maskin and Greg Lois . They are the only two candidates that are flatly against the BOE’s march toward reform math. This march continues even as evidence mounts that reform math curricula including TERC, Everyday Math, and CMP2 are worsening the broken system of mathematics education in the U.S.
Reform math was dealt a major blow in September 2006 when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) reversed its 1989 call for students to ‘discover’ free-flowing solutions to mathematical problems. Instead, the NCTM called for a return to fluency in basic arithmetic for grades K-5. Yet our BOE responded last year by continuing to tout the 1989 standards, and expanding Everyday Mathematics in our elementary schools, and introducing CMP2 to our middle schools.
Hundreds of Mathematicians have dealt additional blows by signing petitions against reform math. Notable was Alan Greenspan ’s comment in his recent autobiography: “I always wondered how you can learn math unless you have a thorough grounding in the basics and concentrate on a very few subjects at a time. Asking children to use their imagination before they know what they are imagining about seemed vacuous to me.”
Parents who brought these concerns to the BOE were met with condescension.
Greenspan’s view was reinforced in the long-awaited report by President Bush ’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP). The report calls for fluency and automatic recall of basic arithmetic in K-5, and for concentration on fewer subjects to allow mastery. But reform curricula in our schools, including TERC, Everyday Math, and CMP2 don’t value or teach fluency, and they quickly skip over many subjects, not allowing time for mastery.
The NMAP report should have dealt the final blow to reform math, but not for the Ridgewood BOE. Instead of honestly comparing current curricula to the NMAP recommendations, they trolled the report for sound-bites that justify their actions.
It’s time for a change in the Ridgewood BOE. That’s why I’m voting for Maskin & Lois. While there are many other issues, curriculum choice is paramount. Votes for Maskin & Lois are against clinging to the pendulum as it swings to the extreme of the next education fad. Votes for Maskin & Lois are for critical thinking and sound curricula.
John G. Sheehan , Ph.D.
Ridgewood
