The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Ridgewood NJ, the Monday, April 29, 2024 Ridgewood Board of Education Meeting includes a resolution for the adoption of the 2024-2025 Final Budget for Ridgewood Public Schools.
Continue reading TONIGHT: Ridgewood Budget Vote for the 2024-2025 School Year of $138.5 MILLION
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Ridgewood NJ, on Monday evening, 03/07, Mr. Andrew Parente, a partner in the Fair Lawn based financial auditing firm of Lerch, Vinci & Higgins, LLP, informed BOE members that $729k in BOE funds were spent during the 2021-2022 school year without their required approval (expenditures in excess of the $44k bid threshold require BOE approval via resolution). Breakdown of the “without approval” expenditures was as follows:
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Ridgewood NJ, while Village residents voted to no longer vote on Ridgewood ‘s massive School Budget , budget discussions with the Ridgewood Board of Education have become merely a formality . On Monday Dr. Gorman, Mr. Bisig, Ms. Poelstra presented the 2022-2023 Preliminary Budget supports curriculum revisions and instructional resources; professional development aligned to the strategic plan goals and innovative programming, and staff/resources to support the academic program. The budget addresses the responsible maintenance of our buildings and grounds and stays within the guidelines of the New Jersey Statutory State caps. The presentation was followed by an opportunity for comments from the public on the preliminary budget. The final budget will be presented at the May 9, 2022 Board of Education Meeting.
Continue reading Ridgewood School Releases the 2022-2023 Preliminary Budget
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Continue reading Ridgewood Board of Education Survey Receives Only 20 Responses ?
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Ridgewood NJ, The 2021-2022 School Budget will be presented to the public on Monday, April 19 at 7:00 PM. This will be the first Ridgewood School Budget presentation since Village voters voted away their right to vote on the school budget .
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Ridgewood NJ, the League of Women Voters is attempting to weigh into the current legal fight over the legality of the ,“One Village One Vote” petition to consolidate election and forever raise your taxes with with less taxpayer oversight .In a massive blow to taxpayers ,the November “yes” vote effectively eliminated the Ridgewood School budget vote . The school budget make up 2/3 of the Village property tax bill and stands at a whopping $115 million dollars .
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Ridgewood NJ, “One Village One Vote”, is not the first to promote “the dangers of taxpayers voting in public schools”. School safety during voting is a false claim made for years by “educators” looking to hide from tax payers what is going on in public education. Recent protests demonstrate the need for more parent involvement in the education process not less. Administrators clearly do not want parents near schools so the lack of learning will not be challenged.
Continue reading False Claim #1: “Thousands of voters enter our schools on each election day.”
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Ridgewood NJ, the “One Village One Vote” campaign is filled with misinformation and if it passes, residents will lose their right to vote on BOE budgets. The “One Village One Vote” campaign is a blatant attempt to to remove taxpayer oversight form the school budgeting process . The $115 million school budget account for approximately 2/3 of the Village property tax bill.
The most offensive part of this claim is the idea that because many residents choise not to vote , that means no one should get that right .
Continue reading False Claim #2: “Ridgewood voter turnout is higher in November.”
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Ridgewood NJ, clearly there is no accountability for an infant toddler program ( ITDC ) at the Glen School site. It appears, Superintendent Fishbein and Business Administrator Kelley gave account on March 2019 and August 2020. However, statements seem to be a stark contradiction of each other.
Continue reading No Accountability for the Infant Toddler Program ITDC at Glen School
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Ridgewood NJ, a new group has been established to, ” support our local spring elections including our right to vote on our annual school budget. Our local elections empower our community.” The groups name is Keep Our Vote and has been established to combat the propaganda campaign promoted by the “One Village One Vote” euphemistically known as “One Village No Vote” .
Continue reading An Anti “One Village One Vote” Group is now Gone Live
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Ridgewood NJ, a reader summed it up best,” Moving the school board election to November would not alter the public’s ability to vote for the best board candidates, which would happen whenever the election was held. It would in fact improve nothing and serve only to remove residents’ ability to approve or disapprove of the proposed budget. Our school budgets have become bizarrely bloated and represent moneys that are not appropriate for the size of the town. We deserve the right to vote for or against them.”
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Ridgewood NJ, Judge De La Cruz ruled the vote to eliminate your vote on the $115 million school budget .
Continue reading Election consolidation to appear on November 3rd ballot!
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Ridgewood NJ, Late last week, we were made aware that 710 ballots in the May 12, 2020 Municipal and Board of Education Elections were rejected and, therefore, not counted in the results. There is not a lot of exact information available at this time as to why so many ballots were rejected. I can tell you that the Village Council and the Ridgewood Board of Education are exploring our legal options to determine why such a large number of ballots were rejected and determine if there is a remedy. Currently, based on the defeated budget, the Village Council required and the RBOE accepted a $630,000 cut from the proposed 2020/2021 budget due to its defeat. Additionally, we have been informed that we will have at least a $440,000 reduction in state aid for the 2020/2021 school year. We will work to make all necessary cuts to have the least impact on the student experience as possible.
Continue reading May 12, 2020 Municipal and Board of Education Elections Ballot Rejections