RHS and RPL Team Up for Summer Reading for All incoming ninth and rising tenth graders
In order to enrich the experience for students and encourage reading over the summer, Ridgewood High School and the Ridgewood Public Library are offering their Second Annual Teen Readers Tru 9&10 book discussion groups on selected titles. All incoming ninth and rising tenth graders will have the opportunity to voluntarily choose to read one or more of the selected books and then participate in a discussion group led by library volunteers and high school student mentors.
RHS Students inducted into World Languages’ Honor Society and National Honor Society
Ridgewood NJ , Nearly 200 RHS students, representing five different languages, were inducted the World Languages’ Honor Society Ceremony for excellence in their chosen language.
Seventy-six RHS juniors were inducted into the National Honor Society for the Class of 2015. This year’s group marks the 50 year anniversary of the National Honor Society at RHS.
The next Regular Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board of Education will be held on Monday, June 23, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda for the June 2, 2014 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the webcast of the June 2, 2014 Regular Public Meeting.
2014-2015 Budget Information Taking effect this year, the Ridgewood Board of Education has opted to move the annual school board elections from April to November, thereby eliminating the public vote on the proposed general tax levy if it is at or below the statutory tax levy cap. Since next year’s proposed budget falls within the mandated cap, it will not be put to public vote. The Board approved the 2014-2015 budget at its April 28 Regular Public meeting
Click here to view the Budget edition of Newsline, sent to Ridgewood residents in May. The newsletter provides information about next year’s school budget.
Click here to view the Fiscal Year 2015 User Friendly Budget.
Click here to view the Fiscal Year 2015 full budget.
Click here to view the 2014-2015 Budget Presentation.
To send a question or comment about the 2014-2015 school budget, please email the superintendent at[email protected].
Trenton’s Broken Record Jun. 19 By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog
“This plan is not only a matter of fairness and responsibility with pension payments, it is really about the full range of government services and opportunities, including such things as property tax relief, college affordability, public schools, law enforcement, transportation and many more priority needs,” NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney said on Wednesday as he rolled out his counter-proposal to Governor Chris Christie’s budget. “We have to maintain the state’s commitment to all New Jersey residents by meeting all of our commitments. This is a fair and responsible plan that will help meet those needs as it restores balance to the budget in a fiscally responsible way.”
So in all the years and administrations prior to Christie being governor, the 154 tax increases, raising the state sales tax from 6% to 7%, a 4% corporate tax surcharge, a 25% increase in liquor taxes, increased taxes for the citizens of New Jersey by over $10 billion dollars, an increase in the Realty Transfer Tax of $62 million on the state level, another $22 million on the county level, along with another $8 million tax on the lottery. . . Senator Sweeney now suddenly believes we need a fair and responsible plan?
What happened to all of the revenue that was already collected?
Even the promised tax rebate disappeared. On average, property taxes went up 55 percent statewide from the prior seven years before Corzine and another 20 percent when Corzine took office, and Corzine left us a $2.2 billion shortfall that existed when Christie took office on Jan. 19, 2010.
And Senator Sweeney decides now is the time to meet the commitments of the residents? Why is it that more is never enough in this state?
The good school-expensive home dilemma June 13, 2014, 10:00 a.m. EDT
Peter and Megan Dale of San Francisco say their two-bedroom condominium in Cole Valley, just south of the Haight-Ashbury District, is starting to feel cramped; their two school-aged children share a single room. But they have no plans to leave the condo, which they bought for $990,000 in 2007. The reason: The nearby public school is rated a “9” out of 10 by GreatSchools.org, an Oakland, Calif.-based education-advice website.
A good local school can be one of the biggest drivers of home prices in a community. And parents hoping to get their children the best education possible are often willing to stretch their finances for a pricey home in a good school district, sometimes taking out ambitious loans. When the Dales bought their condo, they took out an interest-only jumbo mortgage that allowed them to put down just 3% instead of the usual 20%. When the market fell, they briefly found themselves underwater on the home. And they face hefty payments ahead when their loan resets to a principal and interest payment. Mr. Dale, a 42-year-old software designer, says the headaches are worth it for the great school and a short commute to his Montgomery Street office: “Some things are just more important than money,” he said.
In the past year, relatively low rates for jumbo loans have made buying in expensive school districts a little easier for some borrowers. Even so, some jumbo borrowers say they have trouble competing in markets where cash-only deals are commonplace. Anna Sikha, who lives in San Francisco with her husband, needed jumbo financing when they shopped for a home in the same neighborhood as the Dales in the hope of getting their 3-year-old son into same school. They lost out on several homes to all-cash buyers. “We were constantly getting outbid. It was so depressing that we thought about renting,” Mrs. Sikha, who works for a biotechnology company, said. Ultimately, they bought a condo in the neighborhood for $1.25 million, with the help of a jumbo loan.
Mark Livingstone, president of Cornerstone First Financial, a mortgage broker in Washington, D.C’s Georgetown neighborhood says he often needs to write aggressive preapproval letters for his jumbo-loan clients that waive appraisals and financing contingencies in neighborhoods such as Bethesda, Md., that have highly rated public schools. “Families are willing to pay more for a home to get into a well-rated public school. They see themselves saving $10,000 to $20,000 year in private-school tuition,” Mr. Livingstone said.
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:42 PM Lisa Baney
To the Editor:
Let me start by saying I could never be a Planning Board member, but if I were, I would be so tired. Over the past 14 months, they have had to attend 26 sometimes very long hearings, and listen to and dissect thousands of pages of testimony focusing on details and information that any normal human could scarcely nail down. All in response to a prestigious applicant, Valley Hospital, and its application for a master plan amendment that would allow its near-doubling of size at its location at South Van Dien Avenue next to the Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
It has become evident through this process that there are many different ways to slice and dice the data. By that, I mean a litany of measurements such as square footage, lot coverage, floor area ratios, shadow lines, changes of buffers, heights and setbacks at various sections of the buildings and property. Moreover, the board members have needed to distinguish each of these measures according to the current 2014 expansion proposal, the former 2010 proposal and what exists today. Add differing testimony on hospital beds needed, numbers and types of trucks during specific years and stages of construction, possible impact on child safety and schools, and a magnitude of other information – most importantly village character.
If I were a Planning Board member, I would see three things through all these nights.
1. Land use is primary as the basis of a master plan change.
2. As a key burden of proof, the applicant for the master plan change has not substantiated why it is absolutely necessary to conduct this degree of expansion on its main hospital campus. Valley affirms that this scale of expansion, at its current location, is the only way to well serve both our village and region, and that it is cost-prohibitive to relocate additional services, re-think its bed counts here, or follow other paths to modernize – based on elements of a business plan that it chooses not to make clear.
3. There is more than enough reason to believe that the detriments of this permanent change to our village outweigh the positives, and that the hospital has not made a convincing case to the contrary.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-planning-board-members-have-much-to-consider-1.1034646#sthash.6Qg61KBE.dpuf
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:43 PM Melinda Wagner
To the editor:
When my husband and I began attending Planning Board meetings years ago, we were deeply annoyed with Valley Hospital, whose officials had already drawn up elaborate plans to double in size while neglecting to consult the taxpayers who would have to endure years of construction, and its permanent aftermath (to date, residents have yet to be consulted).
More than eight years later – after countless meetings, thousands of dollars, and numerous, stressful hours, my family is no longer annoyed. We are furious!
Valley wants to place a structure the size of Paramus Park Mall in the middle of a neighborhood of single-family homes, three schools, and playing fields – an area traversed by many hundreds of children daily. In order to get their way, Valley officials have spun, sliced and diced the “facts,” treated residents with disrespect, and have consistently failed to address the matter at hand. It is this last point that I find most infuriating. Indeed, every single argument in support of this gargantuan project has been specious, beside the point, and misleading – no matter how compelling, heartwarming or dire.
Reader says Valley Construction will create a Mass Exodus from Benjamin Franklin Middle School
Based on the statement made by the Board of Ed. president at one of the meetings, you really have to wonder where her( and the board’s) head is at. If I had a child in BF, and this goes thru, I would be looking to transfer.
If the BOE can be so ignorant in saying this and doing this about BF. What about the Planning Board and Council? Does anyone in power have any sense? More importantly will this town be saved from Valley?
We have to believe that this absurd 2X over expansion will not happen? Then what more years of 1 3/4, 1 5/8, or 1 1/2 expansion plans? God save us?
Reader says It does not take much to turn a real estate market and we are likely on the tipping point.
Perhaps the most interesting indication of this is the No Valley and No Apartment signs that appear on the lawns of houses that have recently sold to young families moving into town. They came here for the schools and the neighborhood feel of the town. Then, they learn that what they just bought into is under the threat of the massive hospital and apartment complexes. Having just sunk their young fortunes into new homes, they are justifiably worried.
Think now of what happens if that worry becomes known to those currently looking. Through this blog, for instance, or newspaper coverage of the planning board hearings or letters to the editors. Real estate can very quickly take a nose dive in Ridgewood when towns in close proximity offer almost as much without the looming risk.
If you were 30-35 again, with two young children and enough money to buy a house in Ridgewood, and there was a chance Ridgewood was going to turn into something more along the lines of the hustle and bustle found in a small city sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, would you risk your hard earned down payment money on Ridgewood property? And for those of us in the 45 to 55 range, on the verge of being empty nesters, do we risk riding the property market to the bottom when we can cash out now?
No, make no mistake, Ridgewood is very much on a precipice formed by the intersection of a monolithic hospital concerned about its future revenue stream, developers who want to increase their profits and well meaning Villagers who are buying into false arguments and fears generated by the Hospital and developers.
file photo by Maura McMahon DeNicola in Ridgewood PJ Blogger with Joe Kyrillos
Post-CA Tenure Decision, Kyrillos Seeks Repeat in New Jersey Jun. 11 Education, Joe Kyrillos, National, Uncategorized 1 comment
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Joe Kyrillos at 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida
Following an earth-shattering decision by the California state court striking down that state’s tenure law, state Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) says he’s reaching out to an advocacy group involved in the West Coast case to help accomplish the same result in New Jersey.
He’ll start by re-introducing S-2171, “The School Children First Act.”
“This legislature should seize this opportunity and momentum to pass full tenure reform to improve education and lower property taxes in New Jersey,” Sen. Kyrillos said in a statement released by the Senate GOP office. “This overhaul bill allows public school districts to best serve their students and communities by ensuring only the best teachers, administrators and staff members are the ones educating and nurturing our next generation.”
Past efforts have been examples of tokenism at best and a waste of time for the more cynical among you.
Kyrillos says his legislation would accomplish the following:
· Eliminate last-in, first-out (LIFO) seniority protections that force schools to ignore educator effectiveness and layoff high-performing younger teachers, instead of more expensive, ineffective ones;
· Require school districts to adopt merit-based compensation schedules, whereby public school employees are paid and retained based on their performances, contributions and growth;
· Allow school principals to assign teachers to classrooms where they will be effective; and
· Alleviate tenure-law obstacles for school districts seeking to become more efficient by consolidating or merging services.
It’s a tough issue, Save Jerseyans.
Why? Because it’s easy enough to say “let’s reward good teachers and reform/penalize the bad ones,” but how do you effectively evaluate teacher performance when the good teachers find their classrooms filled with the most challenging students on an annual basis?
There’s also an emerging consensus among everyone NOT in government that testing is close to useless.
School choice is the only solution. The free market is the only fair way to judge any professional’s abilities. Anything else is probably a net negative for hardworking teachers and a net neutral for the kids we’re trying to help. Just one former student’s opinion…
Ridgewood High School Teen LEADers present findings
JUNE 10, 2014 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 3:53 PM BY DARIUS AMOS STAFF WRITER
They’ve navigated the corridors of the county jail, tested the acumen of top-flight health care professionals and even grilled Bergen’s top executive with an assortment of questions.
But for the 20 students who made up the inaugural Ridgewood High School (RHS) Teen LEADS class, the most difficult assignment over the past eight months was to formulate answers to a question that has puzzled this municipality for years: How can civic participation in Ridgewood be improved?
Last Wednesday, the group of mostly RHS sophomores and juniors presented their findings of a months-long project addressing that question, which was personally issued by Mayor Paul Aronsohn last fall. Their research into local government was far from the typical “how a bill becomes a law” examination – their work included lengthy studies of a decade’s worth of election results, original surveys issued to village residents and an analysis of the raw data that was gathered.
“I’m impressed with how this turned out,” Aronsohn told the students. “This was an idea, and we didn’t know what it would look like [at the conclusion]. It took courage and vision, and you really made this happen.”
Teen LEADS is a spin-off of the original Bergen LEADS, a county-wide civic leadership program for adults. Bergen LEADS was created in 2007 by members of the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, who fashioned lessons learned from the larger Leadership New Jersey seminar into a local curriculum.
Among the many Bergen LEADS graduates is Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, who was one of the main driving forces that brought the LEADS program to RHS. Sonenfeld also highlighted the support of RHS Principal Tom Gorman, club coordinator and sociology teacher Jenna Wilson and Bergen LEADS co-director Lynne Algrant.
Over the past year, the students participated in on-site classes, meeting with Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli at the county jail in Hackensack and speaking with doctors at The Valley Hospital. In addition to meeting with Ridgewood’s mayor on Government Day, the LEADS class spent time with Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
“This is such a superb first class. This class would not let Donovan go, and they challenged her,” Sonenfeld said. “For those of us who are passionate about LEADS, this has been great, and we had a great first class.”
Ridgewood’s Teen LEADS, the only one of its kind in the county, was tested as a pilot program over this past school year and received funding from the Volunteer Center and the Ridgewood Education Foundation. Entry into the program was based on student applications, and the same methods will be used to grant entry to those wishing to participate next year.
Gorman indicated that school officials will consider introducing LEADS as a full-time class after the 2014-15 year. And once the test period at RHS is completed, Bergen LEADS volunteers hope to expand the teen program to other high schools.
Why I’m pulling my kids out of public school By Lynne Rigby Sunday, June 8, 2014 6:21pm
Lynne Rigby with her husband and five children. “Today’s public school atmosphere is all about accountability and not about the actual needs of the child,’’ she writes in her open letter to Gov. Rick Scott and school officials. “Not everything in education can be quantified.’’ Lynne Rigby photo
Editor’s note: More than 150,000 people have read a posting byLynne Rigby, a 40-year-old Seminole County mother of five children, on her website, lynnerigby.com. Rigby, a former teacher, addressed it to Gov, Rick Scott and Seminole school officials. The following is a condensed version.
I am a parent of five children in Seminole County schools, aged 4 to 16. My husband and I are deeply embedded in this community. We are both successful products of Lake Brantley High School. I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1995 and came back to Seminole to teach kindergarten; he is currently the pitching coach for the Lake Brantley varsity baseball team. We stayed here so our kids would be blessed with a similar educational experience.
This year has been completely disheartening for us. You see, I’ve been okay with FCAT … show what you know, I get it … some sort of accountability. That was until this year. My third-grade son, Jackson, has had mostly As, a scattering of Bs through his Bear Lake Elementary career, much like his brothers. However, he has had the Discovery Education tests added to his school year. I saw his score on DE in first grade and it was scary low, in the 20s. But his teacher said he was doing fine. Same thing in 2nd grade, though knowing that FCAT was looming, I began to panic a bit.
We read out loud together each night through the summer, talked about the books as we read, and I believed that would pay off on the first DE test of third grade because he was doing really well. I was wrong. His first DE test was similar to others, but now his teachers started panicking because their pay depends on it. He was sent to remedial LEAP and ultimately a math pullout group. All the while he has had mostly As and a few Bs.
Disconnect. That’s the word that plays over in my head. How can he do all his homework on his own, never struggling with any topic and get such a low percentile on a test? Then, an epiphany. What is the validity of this test? How does it relate to our curriculum?
JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM BY CHRISTOPHER DE VINCK THE RECORD
Christopher de Vinck is the language arts supervisor at Clifton High School in New Jersey. His 13th book is “Moments of Grace” (Paulist Press).
LET’S CREATE a national program called “No Child Left behind,” and flood the schools with standardized tests. Let’s change the name and call it “Race to the Top.” Let’s put kids in uniforms. Let’s increase the school day. Let’s pay teachers less money. Let’s pay teachers more money. Let’s create charter schools. Let’s create schools just for boys. Let’s create schools just for girls. Let’s have kids pray in school. Let’s create common core standards. Let’s blame the college teacher-education programs. Let’s blame the teachers. Let’s blame the parents. Let’s give the governors and the business community the keys to the schools. Let’s flood the schools with technology. Let’s call schools boring. Let’s blame the curriculum.
Don’t you see how foolish we have been? Don’t you see that all of these initiatives are focused on the politics of education and not education? Don’t you realize that none of these attempts has made any difference in the education of children for the past 40 years?
Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card), the average reading scores for 17-year-olds today is not significantly different from the scores in 1971.
For the past 43 years our nation has been dodging the real reasons why our system of education has been stagnant.
Ridgewood seniors enjoy one last solid baseball season
JUNE 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The Ridgewood High School boys baseball team fell short of the championship aspirations it had set before this season, but the squad didn’t finish the year without adding a few more signature victories for a senior class that has experienced its share of them.
The Maroons’ 16 seniors can cherish the program’s first victory over Don Bosco in a decade and a deep run into the North 1, Group 4 state tournament.
“We did have some great wins, and we had some tough losses,” RHS head coach Kurt Hommen said Monday. “We had a very experienced team, a team that’s played together for a quite a while.”
Ridgewood finished 16-10, overcoming a rough early stretch in which it lost 4-of-5 by a combined score of 35-16 to drop its record to 4-4.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/high-school-sports/boys-baseball/maroon-seniors-spur-signature-baseball-wins-1.1030444#sthash.352ziWIB.dpuf
Support the Ridgewood Baseball Booster Scholarship Fund Through June 30, Yankee Candle products ordered online will help support all levels of RHS baseball. Click here for the flyer and more information.
JUNE 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM
Ridgewood Crew wrapped up another winning season with one gold medal, two silver medals and one bronze medal at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Championships, held at Mercer Lake in West Windsor over Memorial Day weekend.
The Ridgewood Crew women’s varsity 4X boat captured silver medals at the SRAA National Championships and Stotesbury Cup Regatta. From left: juniors Bridget Callaghan and Julia Hefferon and seniors Emma Brickfield and Amanda Criscitiello.
Remarkably, this final regatta for Ridgewood High School seniors Maeve Cannon and Sophie Noel capped a two-year win streak in the women’s lightweight double for this dynamic duo — a feat virtually unheard of in the rowing community.
Illness and poor weather conditions prevented senior Joseph Criscitiello, who rows the men’s 1X scull, from participating in the last three regattas. His sister Amanda, a triplet, rows in the women’s varsity 4X boat and captured silver at Nationals and the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, as well as a bronze at the Philadelphia City championships (a.k.a. “Cities”).
