>Disko Associates kickback story pulled form the Ridgewood News Ridgewood News Tuesday, March 22, 2011 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY MARCH 23, 2011, 1:20 PM BY KELLY EBBELS THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS Staff Writer
There was another story that you can still find that talks about the bid rigging but doesn’t link it to Ridgewood schools and doesn’t have the comments from the Ridgewood BOE superintendant (I think that’s who it was) that recommended they remain on the project (apparently he made those comments Monday evening at a meeting).
We also noticed this story :
Head of Disko Associates charged with taking kickbacks in three other school districts
Full story: Leonia Life
The head of the Ridgewood School District’s architect of record, Disko Associates, has been charged with taking more than $80,000 in kickbacks from three other school districts for construction projects.
>RHS phone-a-thon gets a challenge grant Wednesday, March 23, 2011 THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Education Foundation (REF) has offered a $6,000 challenge grant to Ridgewood High School (RHS) parents and alumni who will hold a phone-a-thon next week, seeking donations to help RHS administrators purchase much-needed items.
The REF will match the first $6,000 raised in the phone-a-thon. Foundation board members “felt it was important to support this effort to address important and immediate academic needs at RHS,” said foundation President Elizabeth Gordon.
>Clinic to be named for Ridgewood Philanthropist David F. Bolger
Clinic to be named for donor Staff Report
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 4:04 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 4:04 p.m.
SARASOTA COUNTY – When Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s new walk-in clinic opens in Gulf Gate this summer, replacing an existing facility just down the Tamiami Trail, it will be named after Longboat Key philanthropist David F. Bolger, who is paying the full $2.6 million cost.
The Gulf Gate clinic is one of three operated by the hospital system, and will be the first one named after a donor. Alexandra Quarles, CEO of Sarasota Memorial’s fundraising Healthcare Foundation, said Bolger, a retired New Jersey real estate executive, was motivated by a desire to support medical care for children.
Dear Peter (Coti), While I’ll defend your right to free speech, I take umbrage at your dismissal of parents’ concerns, portraying them as unenlightened as to the mores of the day. This of course, is exactly what concerns them. You see for some of us, we believe that certain topics are best left to the family. Just because some families choose not to discuss sexuality and its consequences with their children, does not give moral license for the state to do so. Reproductive education based on biology is one thing. Discussing and illustrating ways to have “safe sex” to young teens offends many in our community no matter how well intentioned. One can not simply dismiss out of hand this concern.
More helpful might be an emphasis on abstinence and the social stigma attached to early sexual behavior along with the economic consequences of out of wed-lock births for both the mother and her child. As for the promiscuity heaped upon our culture by the media in the name of free speech, well let me say this, nothing is free and the havoc this coarsening of our culture has caused is very costly to our society both spiritually and monetarily.
No one is advocating that older teens shouldn’t be aware of birth control. However, there is no denying that since the “sexual revolution” of the 1960’s, when the “pill” came on the market, thus “liberating” women to have sex with men, confident that they would not get pregnant, out of wed-lock births have sky-rocketed in our society. Until that time, if a girl got pregnant, it was expected by our society that the boy marry her and care for she and the child. With the advent of women’s liberation, the only persons liberated where men from having to take responsibility for impregnating a woman. Like I said before, nothing is for free. This is the price women, children and society have paid and will continue to pay for the sexual liberation we so cherish. So, if parents are pushing back here in Ridgewood, maybe they have a point. Is it really necessary to have teen boys go the drug store to become familiar with condoms? The only purpose is to make them feel comfortable in doing so, thus promoting the use of condoms ie: sex. And if the state (school) is promoting condoms use, then what pray tell could be wrong with teens having sex? You do understand the logic of this? Regardless of the mantra from the, “they will have sex anyways” chorus, this is not a proven fact but rather an opinion. And opinions have consequences when they become accepted reality.
>SNORE: Judge is critical of cuts in aid for New Jersey schools
New Jersey’s cuts in school financing violate the State Constitution’s mandate to provide “a thorough and efficient” education system and hit poor districts especially hard, a judge reported to the State Supreme Court on Tuesday. (Pérez-Peña, The New York Times)
>CWA to Christie: Let’s negotiate on health benefits
Representatives of the Communications Workers of America accused Gov. Chris Christie of “talking out of both sides of his mouth” when it comes to his support for public workers’ right to collectively bargain. (Racz, Gannett)
>Parsippany school budget rejected by state over superintendent contract
Executive County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino has rejected the school board’s proposed budget, citing its ongoing refusal to rescind Superintendent Lee Seitz’s disputed contract extension. (Jennings, Daily Record)
>The Digital Divide and the Knowledge Deficit By Peter Meyer 03/22/2011
“Anthony Orsini, a middle school principal from Ridgewood, NJ, talked about the media frenzy surrounding his memo to parents advising them to keep their kids away from social-networking sites.”
To walk from a conversation about the need for a common core curriculum to one about turning schools into digital gaming parlors modeled after Grand Theft Auto – well, it’s what we in the business call a head jerk. But the good thing about the recently concluded marathon conference at the Hechinger Institute (sponsored by theMacAruthur Foundation, which has a major digital learning initiative) was that you didn’t have to walk anywhere.
>Family of Tyler Clementi, Rutgers student who committed suicide, plans to establish foundation
The parents of Tyler Clementi plan to establish a foundation in their son’s nameto raise public awareness of bullying, the family said in a statement.
The Tyler Clementi Foundation will be launched in the next month or two, said Jane and Joseph Clementi.Tyler Clementi in September jumped off the George Washington Bridge after an alleged webcam broadcast of his intimate encounter with another man.
>Students for a Democratic Society at Montclair State are hosting former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers on Education &; The New Activism , Thursday, March 24th 2011, 8:15 pm – 10:30 pm at the University Hall, Room: 1030. The event Sponsored By: Students for a Democratic Society.
“Ayers named one of his three children after Zayd Shakur (Tupac’s uncle), the Black Panther who was killed during the infamous JoAnne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur) shootout on the NJ Turnpike that killed State Trooper Werner Foerster and wounded State Trooper James Harper.”
In June 1969, the Weatherman took control of the SDS at its national convention, where Ayers was elected Education Secretary. Later in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket affair confrontation between labor supporters and the Chicago police.
Ayers participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago in October 1969, and in December was at the “War Council” meeting in Flint,Michigan. Two major decisions came out of the “War Council.” The first was to immediately begin a violent, armed struggle (e.g., bombings and armed robberies) against the state without attempting to organize or mobilize a broad swath of the public. The second was to create underground collectives in major cities throughout the country. Larry Grathwohl, a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant in the Weatherman group from the fall of 1969 to the spring of 1970, stated that “Ayers, along with Bernardine Dohrn, probably had the most authority within the Weatherman”.
In an interview published in 1995, Ayers characterized his political beliefs at that time and in the 1960s and 1970s: “I am a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist … [Laughs] Maybe I’m the last communist who is willing to admit it. [Laughs] We have always been small ‘c’ communists in the sense that we were never in the Communist party and never Stalinists. The ethics of communism still appeal to me. I don’t like Lenin as much as the early Marx.
Ayers was asked in a January 2004 interview, “How do you feel about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?” He replied: “I’ve thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it’s impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful? … I don’t think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable.”
In an op-ed piece in 2008, Ayers gave this assessment of his actions:The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. He also reiterated his rebuttal to the charge of terrorism: The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices…. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.
>Readers concerned over appearance of a Teacher Union slowdown at Ridgewood Schools
OFF TOPIC WARNING – Today was a nice day and a Friday. My RHS student spent 4 of her classes in the Campus Center. Is it too convenient for teachers to now call in with little/no consequences or I am just paranoid? One teacher was scheduled to be out and had work for them. The other three . . . zilch.
>State to take tougher look at graduation and dropout rates
As New Jersey continues to revamp what is required of students to graduate, high schools this summer will face more stringent calculations on exactly what are their graduation and drop out rates. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
>Telecom Deregulation: towns concerned about losing money from franchise fees
Loosened N.J. phone controls hits snag
A proposal to deregulate traditional landlines and cable television in New Jersey has run into opposition, from seniors worried about rates going up to towns concerned about losing money from franchise fees. (Fleisher, The Wall Street Journal)
>Up In Smoke: Six N.J. nonprofit agencies to produce, sell medical marijuana
Six N.J. nonprofit agencies to produce, sell medical marijuana
Webster “Dan” Todd Jr., brother of New Jersey’s first female governor, Christie Whitman, is now a pioneer in his own right: he sits on the board of one of the first legally-sanctioned medical marijuana providers in the Garden State. (Livio, The Star-Ledger)
