I know the “math wars” are a dead issue by now, but interestingly, this morning Wiliam Bennett, former US Sec. of Education, was on Morning Joe talking about the shocking fact that the Chinese Education system has surpassed that of Singaore, according to today’s NYTimes.
Bennett is quoted below:
“I work with education textbook companies, Singapore math is this model, we want all our schools to have Singapore math, they get it right…”
Unfortunately, Ridgewood STILL doesn’t get it right!
>Lightgate: Despite numerous requests by neighbors of Ridgewood High School (RHS), the Board of Education will not ask the Planning Board for another courtesy review of the lighting plan
Ridgewood BOE will not seek another review of field lights Tuesday, December 7, 2010 BY KELLY EBBELS THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS Staff Writer
Despite numerous requests by neighbors of Ridgewood High School (RHS), the Board of Education will not ask the Planning Board for another courtesy review of the lighting plan for the school’s two athletic fields, first approved in July.
“We’ve been there, done that, thank you very much,” said Bob Hutton, a Board of Education (BOE) trustee, who introduced the motion at Monday’s BOE meeting to close the discussion. BOE members voted unanimously on the motion.
With nearly 20 residents in attendance, many detailed the indignities brought by the bright lights and increased field usage, particularly at Stevens Field, including unauthorized use by out-of-towners, urination by football players in the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, parking issues, and garbage, among others.
Jim Morgan, a Beverly Road resident who has spearheaded discussions on the lights and helped launch the RHS Neighborhood Association, also underscored that Superintendent Daniel Fishbein misled the Planning Board at its Oct. 5 courtesy review of the field lights, when Mayor Keith Killion asked Fishbein if he had alerted the residents about the meeting.
>Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose introduced A3147, a bill to repeal the Global Warming Response Act of 2007
RGGI – New Jersey’s Cap & Trade
Since 2008, New Jersey has been a part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has driven up electricity prices, transferred more than $66 million from the private to public sector and has contributed to the toxic business environment here in the Garden State.
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose introduced A3147, a bill to repeal the Global Warming Response Act of 2007. This is an important first step toward restoring New Jersey’s prosperity. Contact your State Representatives and ask them to support A3147.
Find your Legislator: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp
Read the Bill: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2010/Bills/A3500/3147_I1.HTM
>Teens in U.S. Rank 25th Globally on Math Test, Trail in Science, Reading
By John Hechinger – Dec 7, 2010
Fifteen-year-old students in the U.S. ranked 25th of 34 countries on an international math test and scored in the middle of the pack in science and reading, raising concerns the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy.
Teenagers from South Korea and Finland led in almost all academic categories on the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, according to the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents 34 countries. U.S. students ranked 17th in science and 14th in reading. The U.S. government considers the OECD test one of the most comprehensive measures of international achievement.
The results show that U.S. students must improve to compete in a global economy, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday in a telephone interview. The Obama administration is promoting national curriculum standards and a revamping of teacher pay that stresses performance, rather than credentials and seniority.
“The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are,” Duncan said. “This should be a massive wakeup call to the entire country.”
The OECD’s international test, first administered in 2000 and given every three years, aims to measure skills achieved near the end of compulsory schooling. In the U.S., 165 public and private schools and 5,233 students participated in the two- hour paper-and-pencil assessment, given in September and November 2009. It consisted of multiple-choice and open-response questions.
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Pearl Harbor survivors are hearing reassurances their sacrifice would be remembered by future generations as they gather to mark the 69th anniversary of the attack. National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis on Tuesday told about 120 survivors who traveled to Hawaii from around the country that the park service “will still be here telling their story” long after the last veteran of the war is gone.
Jarvis spoke before the dedication of a new $56 million visitors center for people paying their respects at the memorial for the USS Arizona, which was sunk during the attack and where the remains of nearly 1,000 sailors and Marines are entombed.
The event is being held across the harbor from the USS Arizona. Survivors are taking a boat out to the memorial that sits on top of the battleship.
>Ground Zero : St. Nicholas Church begins legal action against port authority
The leaders of St. Nicholas Church, the small whitewashed Greek Orthodox Church destroyed by falling debris on Sept. 11, 2001, have begun legal action against the Port Authority demanding that the church be rebuilt under the terms of a deal worked out several years ago. (Barbanel, The Wall Street Journal)
>Civil service rules are one of the biggest impediments for New Jersey towns looking to share services
Mayors urge change to civil service
Civil service rules are one of the biggest impediments for New Jersey towns looking to share services to save money, Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa told lawmakers Monday. (DeFalco, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Visitation: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 6–8 PM Funeral service: Wednesday, Dec. 8, 11 AM Both at: C. C. Van Emburgh Funeral Home 306 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood (corner of Maple Ave.) https://vanemburgh.com/obituary_view/77345
Ridgewood dance icon Irine Fokine, ballet school founder and owner, ballet teacher, choreographer, great-grandmother, and Graydon fan, died on Sunday.
The Irine Fokine School of Ballet was a Chestnut Street fixture for 60 years.
Swimming at Graydon twice a day was a cherished part of Irine’s summer routine. Her Graydon friends will remember her favored wardrobe not as a leotard or tutu but as a bathing suit, white bathing cap or large sun hat, and sweeping white robe.
Irine fervently supported the Coalition’s fight to preserve Graydon. In the summer of 2009, at the height of the Graydon uproar, she took a moment while introducing her ballet troupe’s annual performance at the Kasschau Shell (its last, as it happened) to repudiate the very idea of replacing Graydon’s sand with concrete.
Marcia Ringel and Alan Seiden Co-Chairs, The Preserve Graydon Coalition [email protected] www.preservegraydon.org It’s clear—we love Graydon
>Lightgate: Plans for the fields and being informed, the discussions and plans were available
This has nothing to do with the “Inside” or the “Outside” or being disinteresed, it has to do with being informed and being informed works both ways. You have to keep yourself informed as much as if not more than someone needs to inform you. In regards to the plans for the fields and being informed, the discussions and plans were available and relayed to the “outside” for a very long period of time.
During the planning of the Parks and Fields Master Plan in addition to numerous open forums and press coverage there was a mailing that went to every home in Ridgewood explaining what was being planned and looking for input on the plan as well as priorities from residents. That plan was/is the basis for the fields and gymnasium upgrades as well as upgrades/renovations for parks and other recreation facilities in Ridgewood. It didn’t happen over night, there were years of planning and discussions and numerous notices and reports. The pro’s and con’s of artificial turf and lights were discussed extensively and the turf was even a topic at a Village Council meeting which was televised and reported on by both the Ridgewood News and the Record as the plan was reaching it’s final stage.
In addition to that the BOE had (and still has) the plans for each of the projects both at the BOE office and on their website. Each plan was described in detail with the scope of the plan and projected costs outlined. There were mailings sent out with information on the plans as the BOE was trying to generate interest in the bond referendum. The BOE and Administration spent numerous hours at coffees, meetings with residents, open forums at schools as well as being available at Starbuck’s to discuss the plans leading up to the voting on the referendum. The vast majority of the negative feedback on the referendum dealt with the upgrade to the athletic facilities. The Ridgewood News ran a cover story seemingly every week for a year on the topic and the different facets of the referendum.
A couple of the immediate neighbors of RHS were incessant in their criticism of putting turf on Stevens and the RHS Field. The detail they went into at numerous meetings including the hearing with the DEP left no stone unturned, yet now they are claiming they didn’t know that lights were going to be installed? C’mon, do you really think anyone believes that they could dissect the plans to the point of knowing the physical characteristics of the pellets that fill the turf and not know that there were light stantions in the plans? That is hard to believe.
You can put all the “Outside” people you want on a committee and what will you accomplish? Are you going to put one person from every elementary school, one from each middle school and one from the HS on each and every committee in town? How unweildy would that be? What would you accomplish? Nine new committee members who would only bring their personal view to a problem with no concept or concern for the greater good. The Ridge representative fighting with the Somerville rep getting interupted by the GW rep arguing with the BF rep, I doubt that would be a positive for anyone. And the idea of requiring someone from each elementary district to sit on the BOE isn’t going to work either as we can’t get quality people to run for the few seats we have now. Who in their right mind would want to sit on the BOE and spend the time involved dealing with the Federal Gov’t, the State Gov’t, Bergen County, and listen to the non stop complaining from residents every time they make a decision?
As many people have said before; if you think you have better ideas and can make some changes; run, but don’t claim there was some conspiracy or you were uninformed or the information wasn’t available. The information was available and it was dessiminated. There was no conspiracy. Maybe some missed what was going to happen but they’ve got to accept some responsiblity for that.
>PSE&G to Lower Residential Natural Gas Bills by Additional 5 Percent Reduction is on top of 5 percent decrease in July and 6.8 percent decrease in September
Gas bills down 31 percent – or about $500 annually – since Jan. 2009
(December 6, 2010 – Newark, NJ) – PSE&G announced today that it has lowered residential gas bills by an additional 5 percent, or nearly $10 per month for the typical residential customer. This latest reduction for supply costs follows a 5 percent reduction in July and a 6.8 percent reduction in September for residential gas customers.
Including this most recent reduction, PSE&G has lowered gas bills a total of approximately 31 percent – or about $500 annually — since January 2009, when wholesale prices started to drop. PSE&G customers today are paying the same supply rate per therm of gas as they did in January 2003.
Under the new gas supply rates, a residential gas heating customer who uses 160 therms in a winter month, or 1,050 therms per year, will see a bill decrease of $64.68 on an annual basis, for a total bill of $1,221.08. This customer’s monthly winter bill will be $184.91, or $9.86 less.
PSE&G makes no profit on the sale of natural gas and passes along what it pays to customers. If the price of natural gas increases, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities allows the state’s natural gas utilities, including PSE&G, to recover those costs. Conversely, reductions in the gas supply price may be implemented at any time if market conditions warrant
PARSIPPANY – This afternoon, Gov. Chris Christie headed to the center of the storm and in his unique style, he took on all comers.
The confrontation-comfortable Sicilian-Irish governor is trending higher than Tom Brady’s hair right now, and he had several interchanges today that could turn the upward curve vertical.
His school superintendent pay cap is a hot issue in town – a few speakers spoke passionately about the issue – but it the last man in a long line of questioners that riled the governor up to the point that he called the man on stage to give him a what-for over municipal aid
more : https://www.politickernj.com/43279/christie-goes-after-super-pay-town-hall
>NJ school boards overflowing with conflicts of interest
New Jersey is a state where routine business would be viewed as serious conflicts of interests elsewhere, and nowhere is it more apparent than in local government, especially the school boards — of which there are about 600, and which have a big say in how much property taxes are paid. (Ingle, Daily Record)
>Marlboro to take affordable housing issue to N.J. Supreme Court
The township is taking the fight over its affordable housing obligation to the state Supreme Court.
Township officials say the state is saddling the already overdeveloped municipality with a housing burden it cannot handle. (Williams Boyd, Asbury Park Press)
The State of Illinois is still paying off billions in bills that it got from schools and social service providers last year. Arizona recently stopped paying for certain organ transplants for people in its Medicaid program. (Cooper and Walsh, The New York Times)
