On Sunday, February 8, students from the Ridgewood High School Bands will be taking fruit orders door-to-door for their annual Citrus Sale fundraiser, in which the goal is to reach every Ridgewood home. Buyers will receive fresh fruit from Florida (delivered on March 14-15) and support the band program. Sellers offer orders for California navel oranges, red grapefruit and a citrus sample (a combination of both). A mixed box of apples, pears, and oranges will also be offered. If residents are not at home, they have the option to fill out order forms left at their door, which can still be placed until February 20 to Melissa Pizza at [email protected].
The RHS band program is made up of curricular bands (Wind Ensemble, Concert Band, Symphonic Band), Marching Band, Jazz Ensembles and other small ensembles.
Ridgewood NJ , Jamboree 2015 performers are working harder than ever to deliver a breath-taking show! Jamboree raises need-based scholarships for college-bound Ridgewood seniors. Come be a part of this 69 year tradition! It’s sure to be a wonderfully entertaining show! Make their hard work pay off! Shows are
Feb 4, 5, 6 & 7. For donations, tickets and information go to RHSJAMBOREE.org.
FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:45 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:46 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
In an effort to cut down on rising costs, the state is capping a program that allows students to attend schools outside their own district at no extra cost, limiting some Bergen and Passaic schools to just a handful of open spots for the coming school year.
“It’s fiscally unsustainable,” state Education Commissioner David Hespe said in an interview. “The program has increased fivefold. The cost has increased fivefold.”
The education commissioner is also considering preventing additional students from high-performing schools, which would include many in Bergen County, from participating. The program was meant to give students access to better schools, but many of the students who took advantage already had good schools in their hometown, Hespe said.
State officials say they need to stop the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program’s growth because it has ballooned to about 5,000 students at a cost of $50 million a year. But supporters of the program say the decision to cap it seems to contradict the Christie administration’s stated policy of creating more taxpayer-financed options for students who don’t want to attend struggling local schools.
How did Camden, N.J. come to have one of the highest spending AND worst performing school districts in the nation?
The recent history of Camden, New Jersey, which is the poorest small city in America, provides a case study of the tragic ineffectiveness of government programs at ameliorating poverty. State and federal taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on various redevelopment programs in Camden over the years, but the money never ended up where it was supposed to and the promised revival of this fallen manufacturing town never happened.
By far, the largest initiative to combat poverty with government largess has been directed at Camden’s public schools. New Jersey spends about 60% more on education per pupil than the national average according to 2012 census figures, or about $19,000 in 2013. In Camden, per pupil spending was more than $25,000 in 2013, making it one of the highest spending districts in the nation.
But all that extra money hasn’t changed the fact that Camden’s public schools are among in the worst in the nation, notorious for their abysmal test scores, the frequent occurrence of in-school violence, dilapidated buildings, and an on-time graduation rate of just 61 percent.
This is the story of how Camden became one of the nation’s best funded and worst performing school districts, which is the first in a three-part video series on Camden public school system.
Another round of ‘school report cards’ released; include new career, tech info
January 30, 2015, 7:58 PM Last updated: Friday, January 30, 2015, 7:58 PM
By HANNAN ADELY
Staff Writer | The Record
New Jersey school report cards released Friday show how well schools are educating children and include for the first time a breakdown of how many students take career and technical courses.
The School Performance Reports, searchable online, give a school-by-school picture on measures including test scores, graduation rates and absenteeism and offer comparisons among schools that have similar demographics.
“Each year, the school performance reports present information designed to give local districts a more complete snapshot of where their schools stand in terms of how well their students are moving toward college and career readiness,” said state Education Commissioner David Hespe.
Participation in career and technical education was added as a school measure under a package of bills that Governor Christie signed in December to boost vocational education.
RHS Teams Make National History Bee/Bowl Playoffs
January 26,2015
Ridgewood NJ, Four RHS teams made the playoffs for the National History Bee and Bowl (NHBB), which took place on January 17 at the high school. The Ridgewood A team made it to the quarter-finals, scoring in the top eight of 80 teams. Seniors Ben Bechtold and Thomas Cleary made the playoffs for the Individual Bee Tournament.
The NHBB is a nationwide history quiz competition for high school, middle school, and elementary students. Students first compete at regional qualifying tournaments, from which the top students advance to the National Championships in the spring.
RHS Junior Wins Regional Art Award
January 29, 2015
Ridgewood NJ, The RHS Art Department is excited to share the news that junior Chloe Brover is a 2015 Scholastic Art Northern New Jersey Regional Award winner. She won a Gold Key Award for her photograph, Twisted. Chloe’s work will now be considered for recognition at the national level. Her work will be on display in the Gold Key Exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ from February 12 through Sunday March 22.
Joanne Archer poses with members of her comedy class at Ridgewood High School back in the 1990s.
Ridgewood’s Jamboree is ready to go
January 30, 2015 Last updated: Friday, January 30, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Betsy murphy
CORRESPONDENT |
The Ridgewood News
Here it comes – the annual song and dance review called RHS Jamboree that brings high school parents together on stage for a month of fun, foolishness and fond friendships! This wonderful tradition has parents who don’t sing singing and parents who don’t dance dancing. It’s a month of concentrated hard work with the ultimate goal of raising money for scholarships. The memories and lasting friendships are legend, but there’s a serendipity along the way that has happened to some.
It was four years that changed Joanne Archer’s life.
Joanne Archer poses with members of her comedy class at Ridgewood High School back in the 1990s.
photo courtesy of dotti fucito
Filmmaker/Producer and Jamboree President of the Board of Trustees, Dotti Fucito, poses at the Jersey City International & Television Film Festival with Marke Manke, a cast member in her movie, “The Jersey Devil,” and Jamboree Sets Chair for 10 years.
“I had never been on a stage,” she says, before she auditioned for Ron Tutrone, Dotti Fucito and Tony LaFemina.
“It was during the World Series, and I sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She says, “I couldn’t sing, but they saw something comedic. They put me in the spotlight and – she says the words separately – “I Never. Wanted. To get out!”
She admits, “It was thrilling.” She recalls one particular skit with Lou Fucito when “I had to throw a pie in his face. It was a great opportunity for grownups to act like kids.”
Fresh from Jamboree, she went to NYU and took a Comedy Writing Class.
Her final exam was to perform at Stand Up New York at 78th and Broadway. Her husband, John, her parents, her whole family came, with about 50 people.
“I loved hearing that audience laugh!”
Joanne had spent five years with Hospice as director of volunteers. Her innate sense of humor had helped her, but it was a serious job.
“As a result of being in Jamboree, I went into a whole new career,” she says smiling her broad and infectious smile. That career took her into appearing at Legends in Midland Park. (“I talked them into doing comedy shows,” she says. “I had comedians come out from New York to perform.”)
It was at Legends she met Suzanne Peterson, who was there to see her perform. Shortly afterward, Joanne and Suzanne, a soprano, formed a successful partnership. Joanne talked Bacari Restaurant in Washington Township into doing Dinner Theater and she and Suzanne did a number of shows there during the course of two years. “John went to every show,” she says. “My greatest support person.”
That was during the 90s and it was also then that Joanne began to teach a comedy class at Ridgewood High School, which went on for four years.
After 9/11, the pair began a local TV show, Blondz in the Hood, interviewing area residents, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” That show continued for seven years. The show’s producer, Mary Pat Boron, was a friend Joanne had met at Jamboree.
Joanne says again of Jamboree, “It was great fun as a grownup to do silly things. There were wonderful moments! It was a life altering four years.”
Joanne enjoyed her second career for 20 years. Now, retired, she says, “it’s great to spend time with the grandchildren. I like being on this end!”
“Jamboree was my jumping off point into a professional career in the entertainment business,” says Dotti Fucito. Along with other parents, she was dancing, sewing, painting and writing (script committee). But Jerry DeFalco, director of that year’s show, noticed something. “I’ve been watching you multitask, create, organize, coordinate, lead and perform and I really think you have something special that Jamboree needs – someone to take the reins behind the scenes and help Jamboree to the next level,” he told her.
“When I looked at him questioningly, he said, ‘you have the foresight to see all the separate pieces of the show and how they all fit together.’ He said he saw me as a sort of behind-the-scene conductor or stage manager.”
Director, art teacher, creative designer, DeFalco became Dotti’s mentor.
Pressure builds for fresh look at N.J. building codes in wake of Edgewater fire
JANUARY 29, 2015, 5:39 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015, 8:31 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH AND LINH TAT
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Pressure is mounting for a review of state building codes — and even a potential construction moratorium — in the aftermath of a fast-moving fire that destroyed more than half of an Edgewater apartment complex last week and left hundreds homeless.
Officials in Mercer County on Thursday called for an emergency review of state construction codes before a residential community planned by the same developer for Princeton gets evaluated by the state. And Assemblyman Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, said he is working on legislation that will put a moratorium of up to two years on the approval and construction of multi-family housing developments until the state’s building code is revised.
“The goal is not have any New Jersey residents’ lives at stake. But equally as important, it’s to not put our first responders into these buildings, which I would call fire traps,” said Rumana. “I have too much experience in seeing the failures of these types of facilities — if this fire happened seven or 10 hours later, who knows how many people could have died?”
A five-alarm blaze at the Avalon at Edgewater destroyed much of the 408-unit complex, shut schools and roadways, temporarily displaced nearby residents and brought to the surface long-standing issues in the firefighting community about lightweight wood construction — a cheaper, faster and legal style of building that is common in New Jersey and elsewhere.
New Jersey Parents Voice Concerns About Tests Linked to Common Core
JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Parents and educators anxious about new state tests starting in March vented their frustrations Wednesday at a hearing in a middle-school auditorium here.
Speaker after speaker told a state commission at the hearing that the new online tests would eat up too much class time, be too hard, hurt students’ self esteem and waste taxpayer money. The exams in math and language arts will cover public-school students from third to 11th grade. (Brody/PolitickerNJ)
Educators, parents urge commission to drop or delay new state standardized tests
JANUARY 28, 2015, 6:32 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015, 7:46 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
JERSEY CITY — Parents and educators told a state education commission Wednesday that New Jersey should drop new state standardized tests, or to consider delaying them, given many problems they already present .
Speakers at a public forum held by Governor Christie’s commission on student testing repeatedly referred to preparations for the tests as having a negative effect on classroom learning and the tests themselves as badly constructed.
Christina Krauss, a member of the Ridgewood Board of Education and parent of an eighth grader, said the new tests put a burden on teachers and students and that test preparation was consuming classroom learning.
“Our children are not lab rats,” said Krauss, who was one of about 45 people who spoke at the forum at the Franklin L. Williams School. “They are curious, creative, individual learners who should be allowed to flourish.”
The tests, known as PARCC, will be required in grades 3-11 in math and reading this spring. State education staff have said the tests will provide useful information about students’ progress and needs as they prepare for college and career. But critics say they take too much time much time away from instruction, are too long and stressful and hamper learning in non-tested subjects.
George Washington Middle School Student is Finalist in Statewide Poster Contest
January 28th 2015
A George Washington Middle School student has been chosen as a finalist in the Protect Me With 3+ immunization awareness contest.
Protect Me With 3+ empowers middle school and high school students to create posters and videos, offering prizes for first, second and third place. Among the entries, 10 finalists have been announced and it’s now up to the public to decide who the top three winners in each category.
The creative works of 10 finalists – five middle school and five high school students – are displayed for public voting which began on January 24. Individuals can vote every day until the ballot is closed on February 11, 11:59 PM EST. The top three posters and videos (and their respective creators) will be acknowledged at an awards ceremony on February 12.
Please let me know if you need any further information and/or if you would like to speak to Protect Me With 3+ about the contest and its overall mission.
N.J. parents critical of standardized tests, poll by teachers union indicates
JANUARY 27, 2015, 4:54 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015, 4:57 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Many New Jersey voters believe that standardized tests are too stressful, take too much time from the classroom and should be reduced, according to the results of a poll released Monday by the state’s largest teachers union.
The New Jersey Education Association, which has been critical of standards-based tests and their use in teacher evaluations, asked 800 registered voters, including 200 parents, for their opinions on testing. Also, 400 parents — including the 200 from the voters group — were polled and their results provided as a group.
In all, 71 percent of parents and 64 percent of voters said the standards-based tests should be reduced. But more than half of parents and 69 percent of voters said they had heard little or nothing about new state tests known as PARCC tests that have been controversial among educators and parent activists.
Also, 81 percent of parents and 78 percent of voters believe teachers are forced to “teach to the test.” The same percentage of parents and voters said they also believe tests aren’t a good measure of the individual student and are given too much weight when used to make decisions on teachers, schools and students.
For much of human history, most individuals have lacked economic freedom and opportunity, condemning them to poverty and deprivation.
Today, we live in the most prosperous time in human history. Poverty, sicknesses, and ignorance are receding throughout the world, due in large part to the advance of economic freedom. In 2015, the principles of economic freedom that have fueled this monumental progress are once again measured in the Index of Economic Freedom, an annual guide published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington’s No. 1 think tank.
For over twenty years the Index has delivered thoughtful analysis in a clear, friendly, and straight-forward format. With new resources for users and a website tailored for research and education, the Index of Economic Freedom is poised to help readers track over two decades of the advancement in economic freedom, prosperity, and opportunity and promote these ideas in their homes, schools, and communities.
The Index covers 10 freedoms – from property rights to entrepreneurship – in 186 countries.
