Ridgewood Girls Lacrosse stars cap careers with state tournament run
JUNE 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Any notion that the Ridgewood High School girls lacrosse team did not meet expectations this season shows just how high a pedestal upon which the program stands.
Freshman Hannah Cermack, left, is congratulated by senior Anna Jorgensen after scoring the game-tying goal late in the North Group 4 state final against Ridge on May 28. The Maroons overcame a four-goal deficit but fell just short of their sixth straight sectional title, as the Red Devils prevailed, 11-10.
Although the Maroons lost in the North Group 4 state title game to Ridge, 11-10 — ending a streak of five straight sectional championships — the team finished the year with a 16-5 record against the toughest competition the state had to offer and also claimed another Bergen County tournament title.
“They should be very proud of what they accomplished throughout the season,” RHS head coach Karla Mixon said Tuesday. “I know it was a heartbreaker. We expected to go a little bit further, but it just wasn’t our day.”
After trailing at the half of the May 28 sectional final, 8-4, Ridgewood nearly pulled off an improbable comeback, tying Ridge at 10 on a goal by freshman Hannah Cermack with just over two minutes left. But the Red Devils responded with a goal 22 seconds later to hold off the surging Maroons.
Ridgewood NJ , RHS junior Reid Simoncini received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award of the West Point Society of New Jersey. This award honors “exceptional performance and potential in the areas of academics, athletics, community service, good citizenship, and leadership.”
RHS students Sophie Noel and Maeve Cannon maintained a two-year winning streak in the Lightweight Girls Double crew competition this May. The pair won the gold with a six-second margin at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s Championship Regatta on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, where the US National Team trains.
Construction to begin on Ridgewood High School Learning Commons
JUNE 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
A new, state-of-the-art media center will greet Ridgewood High School students next fall.
After a year-long wait, construction will begin on renovations to the school’s library on Tuesday, June 10.
The library will be closed to students until the end of the year, and the literary collection and computers will be packed up before demolition, according to the organizers on the project’s parent committee — RHS Home and School Association President Carol Olson, Jaime Frederick, Tina Telesco, Lori Weil and David Zrike.
“Every effort is being made to minimize disruptions to the students and the majority of the library dislocation and construction will take place during the summer,” the organizers said in a recent letter thanking residents and district officials for their support.
The design will “honor the feedback received from students, faculty and parents,” the group added. The final project, they said, will include both individual and group study spaces, including four conference rooms; areas to accommodate different activities; improved lighting and aesthetics; more and better technology; more seating and a variety of comfortable furniture; computer and printing stations; and enhanced research service.
The history of this project traces back to the spring of 2012, when a parent-driven fundraising campaign commenced to turn the old student library, last renovated in the 1960s, into what is called a “learning commons” — a study and work space that goes beyond the traditional definition of a “library.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/clubs-and-service-organizations/construction-to-begin-next-week-1.1030404#sthash.xSeCb1iV.dpuf
Two attempted child luring incidents reported in Bergen County
JUNE 7, 2014, 3:31 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2014, 3:35 PM BY AARON MORRISON STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Authorities in two Bergen County towns were dealing with reports of attempted child luring Saturday.
In Elmwood Park, a 10-year-old girl told police Saturday morning that a man driving a red sedan asked if she needed a ride. When she refused the offer, the man yelled at the girl and he sped off, said Sgt. Ralph Sigona of the Elmwood Park police. Detectives were reviewing security footage from a building near where the alleged luring attempt took place, added Sigona, who did not release the location of the incident.
Tenafly Schools Superintendent Lynn Trager described a similar incident, reported to police Friday evening, near the Stillman Elementary playground at Windsor and Tenafly roads. A student was approached by an “older teenager with short hair” at approximately 9:30 p.m.
The teen asked the girl to come with him, but she ran away and informed an adult, Trager wrote in an alert sent to parents.
JUNE 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM PAGES: 1 2 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE
Concerns about hospital proposal Marcia Ringel
To the editor:
At two recent Planning Board meetings, residents were invited to share their concerns about Valley Hospital’s expansion proposal. This letter roughly reiterates my statement on May 20.
A child says, “I want a pony.” The parent says, “How about a puppy — or a guppy?”
Child’s counteroffer: “How about a slightly smaller pony with setbacks and an above-ground parking lot?”
The family doesn’t spend eight years discussing where a horse could be stabled or what it would eat. Just: “No pony.”
Valley Hospital’s revised proposal is a slightly smaller pony.
In the past 42 years I have entered Valley as an inpatient, outpatient, parent and visitor. But Valley feels less caring to me now. Our community has been treated with contempt by our community hospital, marketing madly with millions saved in taxes on the backs of this community. What began as David and Goliath morphed into David and Godzilla.
I feel perplexed as my neighbors must repeatedly remind our elected and appointed officials that we love our village, begging them not to destroy it in the name of progress or for fear of litigation.
I feel alarmed that almost every year a new group of residents has felt compelled to band together to protest the handing over of our public lands and space.
I feel betrayed by our Board of Education, who wimped out when they should have spoken out.
I feel dismayed that this issue has overshadowed five council elections.
Ridgewood neighborhoods are adjacent to schools, fields, parks, shops and a hospital. We lived in harmony for many years. That delicate balance must return.
Several decades ago the late Barney Van Dyk told me that he wanted to include indoor seating in his ice cream store, nestled among homes on Ackerman Avenue. But he graciously accepted the zoning board’s refusal, understanding that zoning laws protect residents. Ice cream is still eaten in the parking lot.
We have no dearth of fine hospitals. Even New York is coming: Memorial Sloan-Kettering in Basking Ridge and in the fall, physicians’ offices in Paramus for the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Village Planner Blais Brancheau’s recent report said Phase 2 of the hospital expansion might not happen. Of course it would, as would Phase 3, causing decades of unstoppable derangement — a tax-exempt Juggernaut that no wall, buffer or traffic island could mitigate.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-concerns-about-hospital-proposal-1.1030466#sthash.qhqYB8WM.dpuf
Half of Americans can’t afford their house June 3, 2014, 1:58 p.m. EDT
Over half of Americans (52%) have had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover their rent or mortgage over the last three years, according to the “How Housing Matters Survey,” which was commissioned by the nonprofit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and carried out by Hart Research Associates. These sacrifices include getting a second job, deferring saving for retirement, cutting back on health care, running up credit card debt, or even moving to a less safe neighborhood or one with worse schools.“Affordability issues are real and a major hurdle,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, an industry group. Home prices have increased 20% over the past two years while wages have barely gone up, he says. “Only by adding more new supply, via housing starts, can home prices be tamed,” Yun adds. In fact, construction of housing units has averaged around 1.5 million a year for the past five decades, he says, but it’s likely to be less than 1 million in 2014.
What’s more, at least 15% of American homeowners (or residents of 78 counties across the country) were living in housing markets where the monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home requires more than 30% of the monthly median household income — long considered the maximum for rent/mortgage repayments. Housing costs above that threshold are “unaffordable by historic standards,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at real estate data firm RealtyTrac. In New York county/Manhattan, mortgage payments represent 77% of the median income and in San Francisco County represents 70%.
MAY 30, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014, 12:31 AM BY DANIEL FISHBEIN
At a recent Board of Education meeting, the trustees and I had the distinct honor of applauding several of our high school students who achieved perfect scores on the National Latin Examination. We also congratulated members of our own RHS Latin Team, which just took home the distinguished title of New Jersey State Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl) champions and are now preparing for nationals this summer.
Listening to the eloquent and enthusiastic RHS Latin team captain describe the thrill of competing in the arena with other top high school students drawn to the esoteric realm of Latin language and vocabulary, ancient Roman history and culture, I couldn’t help but reflect on the irony that despite our tech-savvy world, the classics are quietly thriving still, and in a refreshingly old-school kind of way, with opponents carpooling to compete face-to-face using old-school hand buzzers and timers. I am proud of our Ridgewood students, Latin teachers and parents for upholding this discipline and I am thankful to the community for their support of programs such as this.
It so happened that the board’s Latin team presentation came on the heels of a stressful few days in the district after an alert parent raised our attention to an anonymous threat posted on the new Internet social media app, Yik Yak, against one of our buildings. Swiftly resolved, this serious incident now serves as a classic example of how technology, despite its many benefits, can be more damaging and detrimental than constructive if not used wisely and respectfully.
We are also reminded of our serious responsibility as parents and educators to promote strong values in our children and to model good behavior ourselves. Computers and technology are great tools and help us in many ways and places, including the classroom. But only a human being can teach our children the difference between right and wrong and encourage them to be the best they can be.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/teachers-are-critical-to-success-1.1026371#sthash.QJykEP9j.dpuf
Common Core critics speak out at forum in Ridgewood
MAY 29, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014, 3:50 PM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
Christopher Tienken, an assistant professor of education administration at Seton Hall University, questions why some local control in education is being taken away.
This is why he studies standardized school reform, and why he came to Ridgewood High School (RHS) to speak on Tuesday.
“What I see is a whole lot of ‘one size fits all,’ trying to make everyone the same at the end of the day,” Tienken said. “These standards might be great for some. They might propel some schools forward. But that issue should be a local decision.”
Invited by Ridgewood resident and mother Terry Anzano to speak, Tienken gave a presentation titled “Standardized Schooling: Is It Necessary? Is It Effective?” to about 40 parents on Tuesday in the RHS library. Principal Tom Gorman, Assistant Principals Jeff Nyhuis and Basil Pizzuto, Board of Education (BOE) trustee Christina Krauss, Ridgewood Education Association president and RHS social studies teacher Michael Yannone, and a few other teachers also attended.
The presentation was about myths surrounding the national education standardization movement, including controversial mandates known as the Common Core State Standards, which will replace testing standards in New Jersey and 43 other states.
The debate over these standards, which were created by a group of individuals representing both the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, has become a well-known – but still confusing – subject.
New Jersey adopted the standards, which Gov. Chris Christie supports, in 2010. Ridgewood educators, who still design their own curriculums, completed any needed alterations to align lessons to the benchmarks. The district has also implemented a new, more involved teacher evaluation system that replaced Ridgewood’s old system, which administrators supported.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/common-core-critics-speak-out-at-forum-in-ridgewood-1.1025976#sthash.lhaVWXTo.dpuf
Fate Uncertain for Bills Aimed at Slowing Down Switch to New State Testing
It’s a big question in New Jersey education circles these days: What is happening with legislation and other efforts to slow down the full implementation of new online testing and the attendant educator evaluations.
And the short answer at this point appears to be — stay tuned.
The chief sponsor of the bill in the Assembly said yesterday that she is still hopeful it will be posted for a full vote in the lower chamber, even after it was passed over for the last voting session.
“I would hope to have it posted,” said state Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) yesterday. “I think there are a lot of people who would like to see it happen.”
And the likely sponsor of a companion bill in the Senate said he, too, had high hopes — but also wasn’t sure next steps. And the likely sp
“I’d like to see at least a discussion about it,” said state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May).
But there does not seem to be much wavering from the Christie administration, at least for the time being, raising doubts as to whether a bill, if ever passed, would have a chance of being signed by Gov. Chris Christie. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)
The next Regular Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board of Education will be held on Monday, June 2, 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 district website atwww.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda for the May 19, 2014 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the webcast of the May 19, 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].
Kids Reject Michelle Obama’s “Healthy” School Lunches Tiffiny Ruegner May 24, 2014
Michelle Obama’s new dietary restrictions is so bad that they can’t even GIVE the food away. A million kids have turned away from Obama’s school lunch and schools are feeling the huge hit.
Via The Hill:
More than a million kids confronted by healthier school lunches are turning up their noses, leaving the cafeteria and heading out to get a burger instead.
The difficulty in getting students to eat lower-fat, lower-sodium meals is at the center of a food fight between House Republicans and first lady Michelle Obama that erupted this week.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, supported by President Obama, requires lunch programs that receive federal dollars to provide healthier meals. The new standards began to go into effect in 2012. Childhood obesity has spiraled in recent decades, and the first lady has made the fight against it a signature issue. Democrats say stemming the epidemic will cut healthcare costs and keep the armed forces functioning.
But Agriculture Department statistics show the number of school children in the National School Lunch Program dropped from 31.8 million in 2011 to 30.7 million in 2013. School boards are asking Congress to allow schools to opt out. Some schools are raiding their teaching budgets to cover the costs of mounds of wasted fruits and vegetables, Lucy Gettman of the National School Boards Association said.
The dietary restrictions have not actually made the food healthier. They have cut down the amount of food to cut calories which has also cut nutrients to the growing generation. When a body doesn’t have enough nutrients… it craves food more. Give us 10 years and you will see this denying kids food will have exacerbated the obesity problem. What they really needed to do was increase the amount of fresh non packaged food and either increased the food cost or encouraged volunteers over paid employees in the cafeterias for food prep to balance the extra cost for quality food.
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – On Tuesday, May 13, the Northern Illinois Patriots , President Greg Clements, sponsored Dr. Duke Pesta, Freedom Project Education Academy Director — an online school offering a complete classical education for students from Kindergarten through High School, free from public school spin and Common Core indoctrination — as its featured speaker at Austin’s Saloon and Eatery, 481 Peterson Road in Libertyville. Dr. Pesta’s topic: “Common Core: Dangers and Threats.”
As a teacher himself, Dr. Pesta is not anti-teacher despite his negative opinion of Common Core. If truth be told, many teachers oppose Common Core but are told to keep quiet or lose their jobs. Pesta received his MA in Renaissance literature from John Carroll University and his Ph.D. in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature from Purdue University.
He has taught at major research institutions and small liberal arts colleges, and has been active in education reform, developing and implementing an elective Bible course that is currently available for public high school students in Texas. Currently he is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh in addition to his role as Academic Director of Freedom Project Education.
The chilling truth behind the new national standards are sure to terrify you, as they did to those who attended the Northern Illinois Patriots event. A question Dr Pesta asks at the beginning of each of his events is how many are familiar with Common Core? As is the case most often, 90 to 95% are still foggy about the nature of Common Core.
Dr. Duke Pesta, using research done by others, presented Common Core as the drive it is toward complete government control of our children’s education through a series a slides and commentary titled, “Common Core: Dangers and Threats.” Dr. Pesta considers Common Core a hugely bi-partisan problem. In Wisconsin Republicans refused to allow a vote to be held on Common Core legislation. Nationally, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie are in total support of Common Core, as is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Duke Pesta divided his presentation into three parts
Part 1: How did Common Core come about? a Research Fellow in Education at the Heartland Institute
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implies that that all states were consulted before they signed on to Common Core, as though it were a democratic thing instead of Banana Republic tactics. Not so! Joy Pullman, a Research Fellow in Education at the Heartland Institute, traces the writing of Common Core back to five individuals. One of its writers, David Coleman is considered the chief architect of Common Core. According to Dr. Pesta, Coleman is not qualified to write on any subject. Worrisome is that Coleman has since moved on to become president of the College Board where he will integrate the AP assessments with Common Core standards.
Hence, the curriculum was written by a small group of individuals and then copyrighted by two Washington lobbyist groups, making it devoid of any government ownership. This is important because the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Acts was the first federal attempt to regulate and finance schools. In 1979 the law that created the Department of Education forbids it to exercise “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” or “program of instruction” of any school system. The mechanism of control were the tests all students had to take to be written by the people who created Common Core. To pass the tests, the Common Core curriculum had to be taught. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $170 million to support the creation and implementation of Common Core State Standards. To date they have contributed $2.5 billion.
But there is no way Common Core could have been brought into the nation’s schools given that it was the product of a small group of activists supported by billionaire Bill Gates. As background, in 2001, President G.W. Bush came up with “No Child Left Behind” which he gave over to Senator Ted Kennedy to write. “No Child Left Behind” was a disaster from the beginning as it was based on “outcome” education, which is akin to socialism. Every single child was expected to meet the same arbitrary standard through high stakes testing.
Fast forward to 2009. President Obama is now in office. It was in 2009 that President Obama took $5.1 billion of taxpayer money and offered it to states to sign on to his “Race to the Top” program. The catch: If states accepted “Race to the Top” money they had to accept Common Core State Standards (CSSS) sight unseen. Additionally, a waiver was granted to states so they could opt out of Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program if they signed on to Obama’s” Race to the Top” program.
Forty-four states agreed to trade their K-12 math and English targets and tests for those of the Common Core’s State Standards yet to be written. Now that CC is in place, in some states longer than others, Dr. Pesta looks upon Common Core as “No Child Left Behind of steroids.” He also refers to Common Core as a social justice curriculum that comes before the ABC’s. Remaining at its core is a one-size fits all definition of education. But what if the high standards can’t be met? It becomes obvious that the only way to get more children to the same place is in time to lower standards.
Part 2: Nature of Common Core Curriculum
Although it is often said that Common Core is not a curriculum but a set of standards, Common Core standards are being put into textbooks which then become curriculum. Pierson, as the largest education product sales company on earth, has a monopoly on education products, including textbooks. This month Bill Gates — the second richest man on earth who almost single-handedly funded and marketed the entire Common Core movement going back to UNESCO and its goal to bring a master curriculum worldwide – has joined forces with Pearson to create a one size fits all curriculum. Although it is claimed that states can deviate 15% from what is being taught in other states, if this were true there would have to be a different test for each state.
Dr. James Milgram, professor of mathematics at Stanford University, and Dr. Sandra Stotsky, professor emerita at the University of Arkansas and former Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education, as members of the Common Core Validation Review Panel were the only experts on the panel in their subject area. Both Milgram a math expert and Stotsky an English expert refused to give Common Core Math and English standards, respectively, a good recommendation as did the rest of the panel. Both have gone on to testify with a warning voice to state legislatures and school boards about the inadequacy of the standards.
Hear Dr. Milgram talk about “What happened to Math education and why Common Core won’t help.”
James Milgram points out these flaws of the new Core Curriculum math standards:
By the end of fifth grade the material being covered in arithmetic and algebra in Core Standards is more than a year behind the early grade expectations in most high achieving countries. By the end of seventh grade Core Standards are roughly two years behind. Core Mathematics Standards are written to reflect very low expectations and do not reflect the mathematics education that underlie the results in the high achieving countries. The explicitly stated objective is to prepare students not to have to take remedial mathematics courses at a typical community college.
Common Core applies a never before seen methodology in the way common math problems are solved. Parents can no longer help their children with simple addition and subtraction not understanding the system. Staking of numbers is no longer permitted, instead children must draw dots, circles, squares, etc., to come up with the answer.
Dr. Pesta used as a demonstration a Champion News video of a Grayslake D46 Curriculum Coordinator relating how under the new Common Core math system if a child determines that 3 + 4 is 11, that’s perfectly fine if the child is able to explain how he arrived at the answer. Even if a child can do math beyond his grade level, he must stay put and not try to move to a higher level.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky has come to refer to Common Core standards as propaganda. Hear Dr. Sandra Stotsky describe “What are the major problems with Common Core English Standards?”
Dr. Stotsky’s concerns about Common Core can be read here.
Common Core is a step backwards for English Standards. The architects of Common Core’s English Language Arts standards never claimed that their standards would do so; rather, they claimed the standards would make all students “college-ready,” Common Core English standards require English teachers to emphasize skills, not literary or cultural knowledge, such as how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text at all grade levels, which may lead to a decreased capacity for analytical thinking. Common Core standards require English teachers to teach “informational” texts over 50% of their reading instructional time rather than literary texts. There are, however, 30 books sexually unfit for high school kids to read on the Common Core approved reading list, one such book for the 11th grade: The Bluest Eye. Writing is emphasized more than reading, but kids only learn to write well after they can read well. When writing they will most likely write what they read in their textbooks such as the global warming, threat, ways to save the planet, or a denial of American exceptionalism.
Here is Dr. Pesta’s anti-Common Core Speech similar to the one he presented at Austin’s on Tuesday, May 13.
Article 2: “Shocking Far Reaching Tentacles of Common Core” as referenced in 3rd part of Dr. Peta’s presentation on Common Core sponsored by Northern Illinois Patriots Tuesday, May 13.
Authored by Nancy Thorner at Illinois Review https://eagnews.org/thorner-chilling-truth-behind-common-core-state-standards/
ILLINOIS REVIEW
Founded in 2005, Illinois Review is a digital media site, providing an alternative perspective and source of Illinois news and information.
Booker preparing for fight to keep his Senate seat
MAY 25, 2014, 10:45 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014, 10:46 PM BY HERB JACKSON RECORD COLUMNIST THE RECORD
Maybe it’s the positive thoughts he pushes out at least daily on Facebook and Twitter, but Sen. Cory Booker says he’s more optimistic about finding bipartisan solutions in Washington than he was when he arrived seven months ago.
“I came down here with low expectations and my experience is better and better and better,” Booker said in an interview last week, ticking off bipartisan bills to expand apprenticeships and study year-round schools, and touting his solo plan that could lead to other states’ contributing toward future New Jersey highway projects.
But while Booker’s enthusiasm grew for his new job, the rock-star image he built in his previous job as the mayor who turned Newark around is taking a hit.
This month’s intensely competitive campaign to choose his replacement as Newark mayor highlighted a $30 million shortfall in the city budget Booker left. The winner of that campaign, Ras Baraka, was a city councilman and public school principal who frequently criticized the Booker school reform plan that attracted a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but produced questionable results.
Booker also touted his ability to bring down crime in the city, and in 2008, the city murder rate had dropped to 67. But budget cuts after that then reduced the size of the police force to 1,038 from 1,317 last year. And there were 111 murders last year, the most in 23 years.
The state comptroller also issued a damning report in March saying that the city government was inattentive to corruption and patronage at the independent Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp., which had managed the city’s water delivery and reservoirs in Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.
Among the findings referred to state prosecutors were that a Booker ally serving as the agency’s director wrote herself unauthorized payroll checks, handed out no-bid contracts to close personal associates, and made surreptitious risky investments that lost $500,000.
“I don’t think my legacy needs defending,” Booker said when asked about the bashing he has been taking. He said that he got Baraka’s endorsement for senator in the October election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term, and won 90 percent of the votes cast in Newark against Republican Steve Lonegan.
The RHS History Bowl Club Varsity Team finished in the top thirty-two of over 100 teams in a recent national championship in Washington, D.C. In the individual tournament, junior Benjamin Bechtold finished thirty-first out of almost 200 competing students. The RHS History Bowl Club is an academic competition club that travels to different locations to compete in history knowledge. Students can earn an academic varsity letter through participation. The club is advised by Laura Fleming.
The RHS Boys Track team took third place in the Bergen County Championships on May 9 and 10. Michael Zeno won a silver medal in the 110 meter hurdles, and along with third place finish from Luke Dublirer in the 800 meters and a fourth place finish from Jamal Locke in the javelin. The Ridgewood boys had an excellent season, winning their division at the Jack Yockers Bergen County relays and taking first place at the Big North Freedom Division. Congratulations to coach Josh Saladino and all his boys on a great season.
For the second year, RHS Spanish students participated in the National Spanish Exam. Thirty out of 190 RHS students received either gold, silver, or bronze national status. To achieve gold status one must score in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher; silver winners scored in the eighty-fifth percentile or higher; bronze medalists scored in the seventy-fifth percentile or higher.
The RHS Ridgewood Crew team gold medaled in seven events at the Garden State Regatta on April 26. An annual event, the regatta is the Garden State Scholastic Championship and the New Jersey qualifier for those teams that will advance to the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Regatta in May.
The RHS Winter Guard placed in the top 10 in the Mid-Atlantic Indoor Championships in South Brunswick on April 12. This was the team’s first year competing in the advanced-level, Scholastic A class, which includes nationally ranked teams.
BFMS Holds Public Observance of Memorial Day Today May 22
On Thursday, May 22, Benjamin Franklin Middle School will host the second “Evening of Remembrance” in honor of Memorial Day. Students, parents, teachers, veterans — all are welcome to participate. The event will take place in the BFMS Auditorium starting at 7:30 p.m.
This year marks the 70th Anniversary of D-Day and the BFMS community will be looking closely at honoring the memory of “The Bedford Boys,” a small Virginia town that lost 19 young men that day. The evening will feature student poems, reflections and a video telling the story of the Bedford Boys. BFMS students will also be decorating luminaries for display that evening. They will also be selling luminaries in honor of veterans and the fallen.
To purchase a luminary in memory of a relative or friend, please send $10 payable to BFMS c/o Mollie Van Horne at Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 N. Van Dien Street, Ridgewood, NJ 07450, no later than May 16. The proceeds of the sale of the luminaries will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.
