the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Public Schools, Federated Home and School Association and the Village of Ridgewood wants to keep pedestrians safe.
STOP – LOOK – WAVE – BE SAFE-BE SEEN is a campaign designed to keep everyone safe by reminding drivers and pedestrians to look out for each other. Please read and follow the tips below.
Continue reading STOP, LOOK AND WAVE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, There is a closely related story in the community that requires investigation and exposure.
Area schools, towns and public agencies have spent millions of dollars installing synthetic turf fields in recent years. A number of important class-action lawsuits have just been launched against the main supplier of synthetic turf fields in the suburbs of New Jersey.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood High is now ranked 27th in NJ and 554th in the country in this influential survey… note there are lots of non-selective schools ahead of RHS in NJ’s top twenty-five, including Jersey City, Elizabeth, Princeton, Chatham, Millburn, West Windsor-Plainsboro, Ridge, Glen Ridge, Mountain Lakes, Summit, and Tenafly.
In other similar rankings RHS ranked #26, #32, and one where it wasn’t even top fifty in the state. I think we ranked 23rd for SAT scores statewide in a NJ.com survey last year. Ridgewood only scores a 60.4/100 on the college readiness scale in this US News ranking.
Continue reading US News Best High Schools 2019 : Ridgewood High School Ranks 27th
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold its next Regular Public Meeting on Monday, April 29, 2019. The Board meets at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3 at 7:30 p.m.
The public is welcome to attend the meeting, or to watch from home on Fios channel 33 or Optimum channel 77. Meetings are also streamed via the “BOE Webcast” tab on the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Meeting webcasts are immediately available on the district website.
” Through various ways a select group of people took the BOE and Admin in their iron grip, running their own agenda over majority wish, the Budget vote has taken that privilege away and that’s why this frustration, One Vote’s target is taking away the Budget vote and additionally influencing the local politics of Ridgewood with the muddy national one. “
“It’s hard to assign a “good” or “bad” label on turnout levels. A few benchmarks though, for comparison, of total votes cast in Ridgewood:
– 2019 School election (Apr): 2,473 total votes cast (unofficial)
– 2018 Midterm election (Nov): 11,400 total votes cast for U.S. Senate
– 2018 Midterm election (Nov): 7,663 total votes cast for Ridgewood BOE
– 2016 Presidential election (Nov): 13,308
– 2016 BOE election (Nov): 8,650
So it seems clear that expecting 3x, perhaps even 4x, the turnout by moving the BOE vote (and Village Council vote) to November is a reasonable expectation.”
Continue reading Reader says ,”“It’s hard to assign a “good” or “bad” label on turnout levels”
Posted byswinogradApril 24, 2019
Last Tuesday, April 16, 2019, only fourteen percent of Ridgewood’s eligible voters participated in an off-cycle election (defined as any election not held in November) on the Ridgewood Public School budget for the 2019-2020 school year. This election cost Ridgewood taxpayers $50,000.
Continue reading New Ridgewood Group Set Up to Take Your Right to Vote Away
” Has identity politics come to this, where being a boy is now a special needs category? Yes classroom learning seems better suited to the female temperament and the disproportionate success of girls in K-12 proves that out. I was one of those boys who hated school, cut classes, treated it as a joke. I grew out of it. Most do. Let’s not dumb the system down any further to coddle to boys. “
” Too bad we’re not teaching any REAL financial literacy in the schools (not the cursory required HS financial literacy course)… especially in a “rich” town like Ridgewood.
RW kids should come out of RHS ready to run a business or manage a sophisiticated financial portfolio. Instead they learn how to use a checkbook (a dying financial tool).
.
If RW was actually still a top tier school district, RHS students would graduate with at minimum a 4 year plan to fund college and enough funds to at minimum pay for freshman year.
.
Instead we waste precious teaching hours on distribution of wealth, groupism over individualism, the importance of diversity over competency and so forth, not to mention pure time wasters like sleep in days, comfort dogs and the like. “
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean said representatives of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) should be prepared to answer questions about the agency’s operations and employment practices at upcoming Senate Budget Committee hearings following today’s resignation of chief executive officer Lizette Delgado-Polanco.
Continue reading State Senator Tom Kean Blast Murphy Administration after Delgado-Polanco’s Resigns from the New Jersey Schools Development Authority
“I am contemplating retirement in a few years.
I am not rich, but I saved a few bucks and have no mortgage .
I actually like it here and lived in NJ all my life.
For those of us who do not have children in public schools (and never did) the biggest expense is the schools portion of the real estate tax.
If you want to keep us here to subsidize your kids, you better figure out a way to limit our tax increase.
If we leave, you can be certain our home will be purchased by a young family with children requiring an education
In the old days, many long time Ridgewood families stayed here for generations (and thanks to them it’s a nice town – before the vinyl siding and and lawn sign crowd moved here from NYC)
There has always been a “turnover ” of residents but taxes will chase us out faster, and your taxes will go up exponentially .
Residents with no kids in school get NOTHING in return while SUBSIDIZING those who do. “
“The Ridgewood district has also chronically failed to adequately encourage and adequately develop students who early on demonstrate extremely very high academic potential, but also who have moderate emotional or behavioral challenges and/or ADHD, or who happen to be male. (Oops–was only thinking that last part, didn’t mean to blurt it out. How rude to admit the hard and naked truth of Nothern New Jersey public schools in 2019.)
Continue reading Reader says , “Ridgewood Schools Fail to Develop Male Students of High Academic Potential “
The rankings measure how well the competition does, as well as Ridgewood school district. Without proper analysis, one can’t assume the drop in Ridgewood rankings is due to declining quality. It could just be other schools started to deliver better performance than before.
I am concerned about indoctrination in the school system though. There’s too much talk about diversity and inclusion and less about discipline and competence.
Continue reading Reader says , “There’s too much talk about diversity and inclusion and less about discipline and competence”
Schooldigger, I’m afraid your list somewhat betrays you. I assumed you noticed in the last year summarized, Ridgewood is down 2 points. Little by little Ridgewood has consistently gone downwards. A main problem is the unfairness of ranking private schools and county Academies–all of which attract the top students in any school–against public schools which must educate every student who applies. It is the true “apples vs oranges” comparison. That alone would automatically force lowering of the ranks of any public school. But Ridgewood is no where near being at the top of the public school list. Ridgewood has always had problems–terrible tenured teachers and some other very strange teachers who bullied their students–but basically it provided a great education for self-starters. Lazy kids still did not work up to their educational level–and I’m sure that is true today. Another main difference is that the respect for teachers and authority figures has declined drastically. Too many students think the whole world revolves around them and rebel against anyone telling them what to do. We also have more parents who’ll rush to the school or school board to complain that ” their darling child could never do anything wrong”. Believe me, this is not a new problem, it’s just gotten worse. A friend, who retired at least 15 years ago from being a kindergarten teacher, said that “she never thought she’d be happy to retire, but the kids today…”
4 generations here and I do not agree with your subjective essay about Ridgewood schools declining compared to other public schools. Your observation about no child left behind being a negative is valid for all public schools not just Ridgewood. Private schools will likely continue to benefit from this advantage but truth is they always have.
Rank History for Ridgewood High School, does not show decline.
This graph shows how well Ridgewood High School is performing relative to other high schools in New Jersey.
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1383000764/school.aspx?t=tbRankings
