The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
photo courtesy of the NEA
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The state Department of Education recently released its annual Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending for 2018, which shows the median salary in every New Jersey school district and charter school.
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Parents time to kiss up , the Ridgewood Education Association wants you to show your support , for Ridgewood teachers and secretaries by displaying a lawn sign. Pickup anytime at 348 S Irving Street( on the porch). Remember if you want those recommendation letters you better step up !
Anyone teaching in the Ridgewood School System should be thankful that they are earning above average salaries in addition to the benefits and pension all NJ teachers receive. The whining is getting old. If you don’t like the arrangement, find another job. Teaching is a very difficult job and I could not be a teacher. I don’t begrudge them their packages but the constant complaining is tiring. As the above poster said, “You just had the summer off.” You should be refreshed. Try having 2 or 3 weeks off a year as your only respite from the daily grind!
file photo
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Ridgewood NJ, it was is starting to seem like a regular thing the Ridgewood teachers’ union plans to conduct a “walk-in” on the very first day of school to protest working without a contract. The Contract between the district and the Ridgewood Education Association expired on July 1.
Continue reading Ridgewood Teachers to Hold “Walk-in” to Protests lack of Contract
May 3,2018
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Hamilton NJ, according to James Edward O’Keefe ,Project Veritas last month they sent undercover journalists who blanketed the state of New Jersey visiting dozens of teacher’s union offices. We wondered, how union leaders would react to claims that teachers were physically and verbally abusing students?
What you’re about to see is a man who is a union president, with a PHD, A LEADER; not working for children like the sign above his head says, but working to what he calls, “Bend the truth” and hide a potential crime.
In this undercover investigation, Hamilton Township Education Association President David Perry details the steps the teachers union would take to protect a teacher who physically abused and threatened middle school students from losing their job.
Dr. Perry says he would misrepresent the events of altercations between teachers and students by back-dating reports and instructed the teacher to not tell anybody about incidents with students.
The union president also stressed that a teacher who abuses his students needs to come to the union after any incident so that they can create a report that would best protect them from students that come forward about abuse.
Veritas will be releasing more undercover videos of teachers unions from ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY in the coming days and weeks. To be alerted as soon as they are published, sign up for our newsletter and check in to www.projectveritas.com frequently for any updates.
October 10,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, everyone in the Village remembers the contract talks for teachers salaries. Over the years there have been threats to strike , non signing of recommendation letters and so on, but this takes the cake yesterday the Star-Ledger reported the NJEA president Ed Richardson is making $1.2 million in salary and benefits .
Once again New Jersey taxpayers are sucker punched and teachers are forced to cough up almost $1000 in union dues for Richardson and his buddies at the top to play around with. Property taxes go higher and people vote with their feet.
Only in a state like New Jersey can an organization like NJEA continue to exist unfettered without ever having to answer to anyone about its unfettered power and intimidation.
September 26,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Teaching can be a profoundly rewarding career, considering the critical role educators play in shaping young minds. But many teachers find themselves overworked and underpaid. Historically education jobs are among the lowest-paying occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree, and teacher salaries consistently fail to keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, the law demands better student performance, but some critics argue that it deprives educators of guidance and positive incentive to improve their own effectiveness in the classroom.
This combination of job pressures, low pay and lack of mobility forces many teachers to quit soon after they start, a pattern that has led to a perpetual attrition problem in America’s public schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about a fifth of all newly minted public-school teachers leave their positions before the end of their first year, and nearly half never last more than five. Many teachers, especially novices, transfer to other schools or abandon the profession altogether “as the result of feeling overwhelmed, ineffective, and unsupported,” according to ASCD, a nonprofit focused on improving the education community.
In some states, however, teachers are more fairly paid and treated than in others and therefore less likely to face a revolving door of teacher turnover. To help America’s educators find the best opportunities and teaching environments, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 21 key indicators of teacher-friendliness. Our data set ranges from teachers’ income growth potential to pupil-teacher ratio to teacher safety. Read on for our findings, expert insight from a panel of researchers and a full description of our methodology.
WalletHub ranked states that are most conducive to be a teacher , New Jersey placed second . The top 5 were New York, New Jersey, Illinois , Connecticut, Pennsylvania.
Read the whole report :https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-teachers/7159/
August 4,2017
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Ridgewood Nj, The Department of Education has just released its annual list of teachers and their salaries for 2017. And the list of educators making $100,000 or more ie the $100,000 club. This list barely had any teachers on it more than a decade ago has grown to more than 5,000.
In 2016-2017, the average salary for teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and other non-administrative staff totaled $70,637, according to an NJ Spotlight analysis of salary data for public school districts and charter schools. The increase is about 1.5 percent higher than the previous year.
February 13,2017
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Hackensack NJ, Ridgewood teachers joined the “Bergen County Unity March and Rally” on Sunday, February 12th, at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack . It was promoted by the NJEA , REA and its bought and paid for Democrat allies and claimed,”as we come together to celebrate and reaffirm our American values of freedom, diversity, and inclusively, and to push back against hateful, divisive rhetoric. With one voice, we will send a clear message to those around the country who seek to drive us apart: We will not be divided, and we will not be silenced.”
Anti-Choice Sponsor Organizations were:
Communication Workers of America
Bergen County Education Association
Bergen County NAACP
Bergen County LGBTQ Advisory Committee
Mount Olive Baptist Church, Hackensack
Central Unitarian Church, Paramus
The Latino Coalition
Women for Progress
WEDO of Bergen County
Democratic Women of Bergen County
Bergen County Brady Campaign Chapter
Women Lawyers of Bergen County
Garden State Equality
Smile for Charity
Northern NJ Chapter, NOW
Latino American Democratic Association
Council of the Unitarian Society, Ridgewood
Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE)
Indivisible NJ 5th
Darulislah Mosque, Teaneck
Young Democrats of Bergen County.
I am completely disappointed and disillusioned with many of our teachers. I agree ,it goes to the problem with tenure. It protects hacks earning good salaries when we have enthusiastic, energetic and able bodied folks working in retail or Starbucks because they can’t find teaching jobs. I wish all those teachers with the signs and smirks would move on but they won’t because despite their protests they know they have a great deal in the Ridgewood School System.
Click here to read a letter from the Board of Education to the Ridgewood community on BOE – REA contract negotiations, issued on September 7, 2016.
Click here to view the agenda and addendum for the August 29, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the minutes of the July 18, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the 2016-2017 Budget presented at the May 2, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the Full Day Kindergarten Recommendation presented to the Board at their March 7, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
September 7, 2016
The teachers should realize that the current lack of signs means very few support the teachers. Where do we get a sign supporting the Board? The teachers ARE going to cut out writing letters and any extra time w/the students. The Board and the parents are going to have to take a stance and not give the teachers a thing. This has been how the teachers have always won their demands in the past. Parents have to support the Board for once. The teachers have more under their old contract than most communities. And contrary to their theory that they are the cause of Ridgewood’s supposed “Excellence”, they are not. And our rankings, contrary to what many people think, have gone quite a long ways down in the time we have lived here (over 40 years). We long ago reached the point that, unfortunately, a child will get a better education in the private schools–which most of us can’t pay for. A friend sent her daughter to IHA for 9th grade and then had to return her to Ridgewood for the following three. The child basically repeated her entire 9th grade year while she was actually in the 10th. And this was years ago–imagine the differential now!
Ridgewood NJ, Students return to school on Tuesday and as the new school year begins the Ridgewood Education Association members are still working without a contract. The Ridgewood Education Association is looking for the public’s support to settle their contract dispute with the school board which up till now has been tepid at best.
The Ridgewood Education Association is asking the public to please support their members by demanding that the Board settles the contract. They want to make sure Dr. Fishbein knows that their contract is the number one priority. They are also asking residents to place a sign on your lawn to support the Ridgewood Education Association.
Readers agree that a contract settlement is needed but consider REA demands unreasonable , “Isn’t it obvious the NJEA is forcing the REA to make unreasonable demands and negotiate in bad faith with our volunteer BOE? Settle now.”
Many blog readers also do not share the REA’s enthusiasm ,”The REA thinks that just because Ridgewood schools have a “tradition of excellence”, that they are somehow excellent. That takes hard work. This current bunch of teachers seems to care more about their annual wage increases and health care benefits than they do about excellence for our school system. Shameless greed given a BOE budget already north of $100 million even though the population of Ridgewood is little changed since we did have top rated schools in the 1980s and 90s.”
This Tuesday September 6th, the first day of school for students, the Ridgewood Education Association will hold a rally at 4:00pm at the Ed Center. The rally is an attempt to pressure the BOE to give in .That evening there will be a negotiation session and union is looking to let the Board know that 434 days is too long to work without a contract. The REA is also asking residents to come and support your teachers and secretaries by wearing red.
