Please ignore Mrs. Brogan’s tacky form letter admonishing you for proposing a funding formula that does not deliver more money to Ridgewood.
Since in her mind (she is one of our 5 board members) Ridgewood is the only district in the State that is important, you can understand why she takes this proposed funding formula so personally as a slap in the face to Ridgewood.
Our Board uses money like a dripping faucet. We do not even have textbooks in our elementary schools, but we have lots of consultants to help our hapless administrators administrate.
We’ve recently instituted reform math, the worse possible form of math at great cost and absent any due diligence or input from parents. The board of ed just spent $9,000 on a consultant who left us a report that told us what we knew when she started: THAT MANY PARENTS WANT TRADITIONAL MATH IN THEIR SCHOOLS.
Our Board recently spent an entire year attempting to hire a superintendent. They chose to hire someone who wanted to commute from Long Island (at our expense!), who was a reform math constructivist in the face of intense parental opposition, and someone who had thrice bailed from the hiring process at other school districts.
I am but one parent, but I’ve seen enough of public school administration to determine the extent of wastefullness and single-mindedness that prevails. All one-party systems eventually fall to corruption.
The Ridgewood public school system, as currently run is but a one-party system for which corruption is systemic.
We do not need more money to be wasted in the public school system. I do not want to pay higher state taxes so that a little bit more comes back to Ridgewood.
>To all:
Please take the time this busy holiday season to e-mail your representatives in Trenton with concerns about the new funding formula. Even though there is a proposed funding increase for next year, we do not know where Trenton will find $532,000,000 to fund it. Remember the state already has a $3 billion deficit. In the long run the new formula for special education aid distribution will mean less money than what we would have received with the old formula if it had been properly funded. Finally rushing to enact legislation that the legislators have not even read, analyzed, or debated makes little sense. They will receive the legislation tomorrow and will have only a few legislative sessions during the holiday season before the January 7 vote.
You can cut and paste the letter below and e-mail it to the following legislators:
To: Assemblymen Russo, O’Toole, Roberts, and Stanley and
Senators McNamara, Turner, Lance, and Codey:
My children attend the Ridgewood Public Schools in Bergen County. I am a taxpayer. Ninety percent of our local school budget is funded through the property tax. I support our schools and the high quality instruction provided to my children. I am concerned about some aspects of the proposed school funding formula.
o The adequacy funding amount should be fairly and appropriately weighted for regional cost differences. It is more expensive to educate a child in northern New Jersey then in central or southern New Jersey. In 2006-07 our cost per student was $12,133. In the proposed formula adequacy per pupil spending is costed out at $11,289. What would we need to strip from our budget in order to meet the adequacy figure? Should be provide fewer AP courses, fewer honors level electives, make cuts to our visual and performing arts program, offer less support to our struggling students, or eliminate our extracurricular activities? Is it adequacy or excellence that we want for our children’s education?
o Do not use a wealth based formula to distribute any part of the special education aid. It should remain as Categorical Aid. This year our enrollment in special education increased by 56 students and there are twenty-four more students waiting for evaluations. Families are moving to Ridgewood for the quality of our special education programs. We are proud of this, but the costs are taking a toll on our budget. The unintended consequence of the proposed hybrid formula – part categorical/part wealth equalized – will pit special education and regular education parents against one another as they vie for precious budget dollars to insure their children receive the high quality instruction that they have come to expect in Ridgewood.
o Slow down the process and do not rush to enact a flawed formula. The legislature is being asked to rush approval of the proposed funding formula. The time between now and January 7, with the holidays in-between, is too short to do the due diligence required on such an important matter that will impact all of New Jersey’s public school students.
Ridgewood has a tradition of educational excellence. Our students benefit from a high quality instructional program offered cost effectively. A school district like Ridgewood should be the norm in New Jersey. The state should support the values of excellence and efficiency and align the public school funding formula with them.
MODERATE SLEET WILL GRADUALLY TRANSITION TO A MIXTURE OF SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN THIS MORNING…CHANGING TO PLAIN RAIN BY MID MORNING. UP TO AN INCH OF SLEET ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED BEFORE THE CHANGEOVER… AND THEN ONE TO TWO TENTHS OF ICE ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE BEFORE PRECIPITATION CHANGES TO PLAIN RAIN.
IN ADDITION…NORTHEAST WINDS COULD GUST AS HIGH AS 40 MPH INTO THIS AFTERNOON. THE GUSTY WINDS COULD KNOCK DOWN SOME ICE COVERED POWER LINES AND OVERHANGING LIMBS…RESULTING IN POWER OUTAGES.
>…Is it just me or do all contractors hate doing business in Ridgewood because of the hoops they have to go through and the delays that are encountered?This issues continues to be brought to the fly over and over .I have heard many people complaining about the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get approval .This is seriously impacting business in town. I’ve heard stories about how an application stays on the bottom because others get bumped to the top, due to inside contacts at the Village Hall. The staff in the Building Dept. all appears to have gone to the DMV school of customer service. I’m all for maintaining high standards of construction in Ridgewood, but the time it takes to get approvals is absurd.
> URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY 1234 PM EST WED DEC 12 2007
PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL LIKELY FROM THURSDAY MORNING INTO THURSDAY EVENING…
FOR THE FOLLOWING FAIRFIELD-NORTHERN NEW HAVEN-NORTHERN MIDDLESEX- NORTHERN NEW LONDON-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN- SOUTHERN MIDDLESEX-SOUTHERN NEW LONDON-WESTERN PASSAIC-BERGEN- EASTERN PASSAIC-ORANGE-
SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST ACROSS THE WATCH AREA THURSDAY MORNING. PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW ARE THEN EXPECTED ACROSS THE ENTIRE WATCH AREA THURSDAY AFTERNOON.
TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS LIKELY WILL BE AT LEAST 6 INCHES ACROSS INTERIOR AREAS…WITH THE MIXING IN OF SLEET ACROSS AREAS NEARER NEW YORK CITY AND THE COAST LIMITING TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS TO AROUND 6 INCHES THERE.
A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW…SLEET…OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.
STAY TUNED TO NOAA ALL HAZARDS WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WEATHER.GOV/NYC FOR FURTHER DETAILS AND UPDATES.
The Fly has just received word that several tow trucks were summoned by Ridgewood Police this morning to remove as many as ten illegally parked automobiles from posted no-parking zones around Ridgewood High School.
Reportedly, fire zone parking violations at RHS are becoming a common occurrence. If towing is the only way to resolve this safety issue, The Fly says: “hook ‘em!”
December 7, 2007 — THE ISSUE: Whether new methods of teaching math provide sufficient education.
Congratulations to The Post for running Michelle Malkin’s “Fuzzy Math Isn’t Cuddly” (PostOpinion, Nov. 28).
It is a pleasure to read a description of the problems with fuzzy math written by someone who actually understands. I wish there were more written on the subject from Malkins’s accurate perspective.
Many readers are interested in this issue, and many of them are parents who are afraid to speak up to their school boards to protest the bad math programs being implemented for fear of retribution.
Columns such as Malkin’s help give people courage to fight this epidemic.
Thanks to The Post for its coverage – and courage.
Barry Garelick McLean, Va.
**** As a math teacher, I am deeply offended by educrats who use the word “math” to push a non-math curriculum.
The use of “new math” is nothing more than the politically correct practice of dumbing-down the curriculum, mostly to provide the illusion of success to parents and to make schools look good.
The “new math” lacks math. Neither my colleagues nor myself have seen these students obtain a deep understanding of mathematics.
Students who are exposed to the new math have an uphill battle when they reach high school, especially when they take the SATs.
The old computer term GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) is perfectly applicable.
Elio Valenti Brooklyn
****
I live in an Everyday Math district in Pennsylvania, and while scores on our state test, the PSSA, are rising, our SAT scores are dropping.
Our state standards and the PSSA are aligned with constructivist programs like Everyday Math. Even a perfect score on the PSSA does not ensure that a student knows the math that he should at his grade level.
A child could be getting straight As in Everyday Math and still be counting on his fingers.
I have heard Everyday Math referred to as “Every Night Math” because every night parents are teaching their children the math they should be learning in school or driving them to tutoring centers to supplement their education.
>TheStreet.com What Happens When a Brokerage Fails Monday December 10, 6:20 am ET ByPhilip van Doorn, TheStreet.com Ratings Bank Analyst
When headlines were screaming about problems at E*Trade’s bank unit, depositors weren’t the only ones unnerved. Word of the S&L’s home-equity loan exposure and writedown of asset-backed securities also sparked a run on E*Trade’s discount brokerage accounts. E*Trade stated that investors pulled a net $7 billion from both bank and brokerage accounts month to date, through Nov. 27. Judging from reader questions, there’s a lot of confusion about what the bank’s problems mean for E*Trade’s brokerage customers and the risks associated with the failure of a brokerage firm.
Bank Failures If a broker-held bank were in danger of failing, its regulator would probably try to help avoid a failure by encouraging a sale to a larger, strongly capitalized institution. This would avoid a failure, so no depositors (insured or otherwise) would be hurt.
If the regulator were forced to close down the bank, the FDIC would then immediately pay off insured deposits, usually by transferring the balances to another bank overnight. Uninsured depositors would later be paid a “dividend” to recover a portion of their uninsured deposits.
For example, when NetBank failed, depositors were immediately paid a dividend of 50 cents on the dollar for their uninsured balances, with the possibility of additional dividends as the FDIC sold off NetBank’s remaining assets.
Brokerage Firm Failures and SIPC Coverage
If a brokerage firm fails and securities are missing from customer accounts, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC, will ask a federal judge to appoint a trustee to oversee the liquidation of the firm’s assets and orderly transfer of customer accounts to other brokerage companies. The day of the SIPC’s request is called the “filing date.”
Investors may simply have their accounts transferred to another broker with no loss. In the event that securities or cash are missing from a brokerage account, investors have some protection from SIPC.
There are major differences between SIPC protection and FDIC protection. Unlike the FDIC, SIPC does not provide blanket protection for losses. The purpose of SIPC protection is to replace securities that are missing when a brokerage firm fails. It does not make up missing value for securities that may have lost market value while missing or for investments that the customer may feel he or she was ill-advised to make.
If you are missing 100 shares of IBM when your brokerage firm fails, SIPC will simply replace the 100 missing shares, regardless of whether they have gone up or down in value since they went missing.
Eligibility and Coverage Limits It is important to make sure that your broker is a member of SIPC. The words “Member Securities Investor Protection Corporation,” or “Member SIPC” will appear on signs at brokerage offices and on websites or advertisements for most brokers. If you are not sure, go to SIPC’s Web site to check.
Both cash and securities are covered, with a limit of $500,000 in value as of the filing date, including a $100,000 limit for missing cash. However, some types of investments are not covered, including commodity and currency futures contracts, unregistered investment contracts and annuity contracts.
Most investors are eligible for SIPC protection. Those that are ineligible include officers, general partners and directors of a failed brokerage firm, and brokers, dealers or banks acting on their own behalf, rather than for their customers. You should visit SIPC’s Web site for a full list of the rules on eligibility and coverage.
SIPC Coverage for Money Market Funds This is an area that can easily cause confusion. Many investors consider money market balances held at brokerage accounts as “cash.” But a money market fund is actually a mutual fund that seeks to keep its share price fixed at $1.
The companies that manage these funds may or may not be affiliated with your brokerage. Money market funds hold short-term debt instruments, such as Treasury bills, commercial paper, certificates of deposit and other securities with maturities usually averaging about 90 days.
Because of the short maturities and generally liquid nature of these securities, it is very rare for a money market funds to “break the buck,” or fall below $1 a share, which could lead to investor losses. When this has happened, fund managers have usually stepped in and supported the $1 price with their own money, but this has not always been the case.
So while investors often think of money market funds as safe alternatives to bank accounts, they are not insured by the FDIC or any other entity.
For SIPC purposes, shares in a money market fund are considered securities. SIPC protection may or may not apply to investments in money market mutual funds within your brokerage account. Whether or not your money market shares are covered depends on how your relationship with the money market fund is set up. There are two possibilities:
While the broker helped place your money in a money market fund, you have a separate relationship with the money market fund manager. This means you have your own money market fund account number and probably a checkbook and separate statement for the money fund. The company managing the money market fund “knows you.” In this case, if your broker fails, SIPC coverage does not apply to your money market fund, and is not even necessary, as you can contact the money fund manager directly to access your shares. The broker has placed your cash in the money market fund on your behalf. This means that the money market fund “does not know you,” and that the broker is supposed to keep track of each of its customers’ shares in the money fund. In this case, if any of your money market shares are missing from your account when the broker fails, SIPC covers the money market shares as part of your coverage for missing securities, up to $500,000. Filing Claims
If your broker fails and securities are missing from customer accounts, the trustee will send you a claim form and instructions with a deadline for placing a claim, which is usually 30 to 60 days from the filing date. You will need to supply proof of what the broker owes you, which shows how important it is to save your statements. If you receive or have access to electronic statements, save the electronic files and maintain printed copies as well. Most customers receive their property back within one to three months.
Again, you should visit the SIPC Web site for further information. There’s a much more detailed summary of how SIPC protection works. Among the other highlights is the Investor Survival Quiz. Take it. You may be surprised at your score!
Twas the month before Christmas When all through our land, Not a Christian was praying Nor taking a stand. Why the Politically Correct Police had taken away, The reason for Christmas – no one could say. The children were told by their schools not to sing, About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things. It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say December 25th is just a “Holiday”. Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it! CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod Something was changing, something quite odd! Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda. As Targets were hanging their trees upside down At Lowe’s the word Christmas – was no where to be found. At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears. Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty Are words that were used to intimidate me. Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton! At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter. And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace. The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded The reason for the season, stopped before it started. So as you celebrate “Winter Break” under your “Dream Tree” Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me. Choose your words carefully, choose what you say Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!
>Overwhelming attendance at VC meetings is an inefficient and, often, unproductive way to convey a group’s position. It is a visable show of force from those who attend, which may be 50-100 people, at the most. That looks like a “landslide” at a public meeting. But, what if those are are the ONLY 50-100 people who support a particular view in a village with over 8,000 households? Not very substantial support!
No…trying to create the perception of support by stuffing the room at a VC meeting is a crude, unsophisticated and brutish attempt to intimidate the village into the group’s way of thinking. Occasionally, this leads to rude and inappropriate shouting matches. It ALWAYS leads to an inefficient use of everyone’s time, as a long parade of the “usual suspects” take more than their allotted time at the podium, often with outdated or incorrect so-called “facts” to support their case. Without supporting or criticizing their positions, I point to the residents who oppose the Master Plan proposals at Grove Park or the “anti-turf” residents, like Linda & Katie McNamara, as notable examples, in the past year, of members of groups who have repeatedly shown up en masse to meetings and often attempt to “shout down” opposition. Because one or two members of the VC are concerned about being “politically correct”, this tactic is sometimes effective with those VC members.
Ironically, groups with logic and the facts on their side generally do not feel the need to resort to these tactics and are typically more persuasive, as a result of their less antagonistic approach. Thus, a far more effective method of communication is to have thoughtful, factual and, sometimes, lengthy direct conversations with individual members of the VC and other community leaders on a frequent basis and long before a public meeting takes place. If it is necessary to demonstrate widespread community support for or against a project, then petitions with names and addresses of supporters can be presented and highlighted at meetings and in the press.
I am not saying that deals should get done in “shady back room negotiations”, as the conspiracy theorists on this blog incorrectly suggested happens so often. I am simply saying that, in my experience, if groups and individuals are willing to engage in thoughtful discourse with appropriate village leaders and can present factual and compelling rationale for their case, there is no need to make a “spectacle” at public meetings. It is an issue of building consensus among the VC members, who will ultimately cast the votes. This might actually lead to far more productive and effective village governance, since things might actually get accomplished without the need for multiple meetings to rehash the same topics month after month.
This post will not be popular with those on this blog who like to “stir the pot” of public emotion for the sake of a reaction. But, it is sage advice that might help to improve our democratic process of government in Ridgewood.
