the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, this item is contained within the posted agenda for the Ridgewood Board of Education’s (BOE) Monday, 3/20 Public Meeting:
The Ridgewood Board of Education, upon the recommendation of the Interim Superintendent of Schools, approves the appointments listed below, subject to receipt of appropriate documentation and the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) certificate, if required.
Administrator
Davenport, Kathryn, Interim School Business Administrator/Board Secretary, Education Center, effective March 14, 2023 through June 30, 2023, pending County approval and verification of employment outlined by Chapter 5. Ms. Davenport possesses an NJDOE Standard School Business Administrator.
Salary: $700 per day & $100 per hour outside of regular work day.
This agenda item likely signals the departure of Scott T. Bisig, the BOE’s previous Business Administrator. As our readers may recall, Mr. Bisig, who was hired in December of 2020, and whose snippy demeanor during meetings generated multiple comments to The Ridgewood Blog, recently ran afoul of his employer. Read about what happened here:
The Ridgewood Blog welcomes Ms. Davenport and offers our best wishes for her success in the interim Business Administrator role.
Rofl! Comical watching the schools continue to fall as everyone in the town( no longer a village) thinks they are still on top!
Ridgewood has been on the downslide for a few decades now (yes decades), but momentum has kept up the illusion that it is still desirable. Finally, the cracks are starting to show and the collapse will be quick and ugly.
It’s settled science.
Glad to know that the Board found a way to get rid of the trash.
Does that explain the $$ for the new trash cans?
Get a grip, the only trash is this dysfunctional Board of Education. They all need to go!
Warning to Polestra – Mind your manners in meetings or you could be next.
If you pay attention, Polestra is the last Administrator who knows what she is talking about. If you’ve seen previous Board meetings, which it sounds like you haven’t, certain Board members DON’T harass her anymore because they know better and were shut down in public.
$700 per day?
Was there a search to hire? Or friend of family
She’s an interim. Will be gone by July.
$700 per day is absurd
Nationwide searches remarkably often turn up local talent that just could not be imagined before.
Most likely a friend of family. Interesting how fast a BA comes in goes in Ridgewood these days. I guess the Board members don’t know how to hire, again….
Ridgewood school suck. People are paying for additional services elsewhere to get their children ahead at this point. Ridgewood schools are a joke.
But hey. Nice fields. Oh… wait.
Nice Deflection!
One BOE member reviews the checks before each meeting, the big checks are listed on the FYI and then the entire board votes to approve. At the very least someone on the board should have noticed these checks before all three of them appeared on the audit. But, sure, blame the guy that YOU brought in because you didn’t like Ms. Kelly’s accounting. Next victim please stand up. We’ve never seen professional turnover like this before, shame on the board for not being able to work together and using the professionals as their own punching bag.
Fishbein hired him, not the Board.
He was hired by Dr Fishben.
Once you do not know what your talking about. The current BOE trustees have the final say on who gets hired as the Supt. or B.A. They entire was involved in the hiring process.
Great comment! This entire Board of Education needs to be voted out during the next two election cycles.
Honestly, cut the BoE a bit of slack. Yes, turnover is high, but I am not sure that the fiscal ship could have been righted without it. Come on people, there may be a near 0% increase this year for the education part of our property taxes- I can live with the turnover.
What isn’t looking good is that they are now starting to turn over their own picks- not great.
Let’s see how it goes…
RW BOE has destroyed a school system that was top notch 25 years ago.
You need to wake up, with rising inflation costs, contract negotiations again this year; how will this BOE afford these increased costs without raising the taxes to help reduce the costs. You will see when programs and staff cuts come next.
The BOE certainly has not destroyed the Ridgewood school system. The entitled teachers and the super entitled parents have done so.
…and the RW BOE.
Does $700 per day include holiday pay?
Yes, $ 700 per seems a little expensive
700 a day is less than. 150k a year, which is way below the salary of a qualified BA.
Your math is poor. Administrators work 240 days a year.
The BOE finally hired their temporary pupit to do as I say, not as I do mentality. What a joke.
This revolving door was installed by the current BOE- Kelly, Fishbein, Gorman, Bisig all gone in 3 years? that’s a big deal people – pay attention please.
and the school budget is $120 million that’s a bigger deal but people gave up the right to vote on it
Each of those employees were routinely arrogant and disrespectful to certain Board members during public meetings. Such behavior was inappropriate and unwarranted. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Anther one that doesn’t pay attention. If YOU paid attention, you would’ve noticed how these Board Members were disrespectful and HARASSED their administrators. I’ll bet you’re probably one of their followers. Respect goes both ways. Something you probably don’t know about.
LOL! Your opinion is that asking a question of an administrator constitutes harassment? Get a life bozo!
You are the bozo, wake up and pull your head out of the sand.
Guess again, the BOE trustees were the rude and disrespected over 100 yrs of combined knowledge. This BOE is the joke of the State. Everyone knows how bad this BOE throughout the State.
Yes! Please pay attention people! In the three years the following senior admisitrators at the Ed-Center have resigned: 2 Business Administrators, 1 Assistant Business Administrator, 1 HR director, 2 Superintendents, plus countless other supporting staff.
I’m glad I don’t live in Ridgewood because its turning out to be another one of “those” towns going the wrong way. Certain Board Members ruining the BOE with their own agendas and inexperience. As mentioned before on this blog, “Kelly, Fishbein, Gorman, Bisig all gone in 3 years? that’s a big deal people – pay attention please.” You have no idea how right you are. Atleast 3 of these people with DECADES of experience in their field, ALL CHASED AWAY BY INCOMPETENCE of some Board Members. See what happens when taxpayers don’t pay attention and don’t vote! You and your children are, and will, pay the price for the next year and a half. What does Kelly, Fishbein, Gorman, Bisig have all in common, THE SAME 3 REOCCURING BOARD MEMBERS! Wake up people! You don’t need an advance degree in anything, or even a degree, to see how Board Members ruin a BOE. Good luck to the future Super and BA, you’ll need it with this Board. Unless youre their puppet. You’ll do fine………
we thought it the free daycare for teachers kids ?
Well stated! The BOE must be replaced during the next two elections.
Glad to see the sweep continues. Maybe now we can get back to the real tradition of excellence.
Who is David Rinderknecht???? Business Office Financial Consultant???? What’s this guy doing???? AND A NEW BA?????!!!!!!!!!!!!! More money Board Members are wasting…. So the Board chases another BA away and then they hire 2 people for the Business Office?!?!!! All of a sudden they need 2 people for 1 job!?!??!?!!? HOLY COW!!!!
Remember the administrators are the professionals, the ones with advanced degrees and continuing professional development in public school administration. The BOE members are elected by the voters to provide oversight and make sure the schools are well run by hiring the best people to run the schools. Those who are elected are often chosen because their platform is popular with the voters
Not because they have a deep understanding of how public schools in NJ run. We might see exasperated administrators being challenged in public by BOE members, what we don’t see are the challenges and questioning behind closed doors that make doing their job impossible for top administrators. Gorman was a great pick – he didn’t last a year. That says a lot about the ‘BOE Three’.
yes because people who work for Morgan Stanley cant understand a school budget… lol , that attitude gets you fired
I think at least several of our BoE members have demonstrates, through their education and careers that they are capable.od understanding how a public school system works. Kwak has an undergrad degree from Brown, anBA for Oxford and runs a.mitliilliom dollar real estate fi. Dani has undergrad degrees in Computer Science and Engineered, earned masters degree in Finance and Information Technology from NY,.and is a corporate leader in information sciences… These aren’t soft degree like EdD.
These are smart people asking hard questions administrators don’t like to answer.
‘Soft degrees’.
That’s unfortunate. People with soft degrees educated you my friend.
EdD is a soft doctorate . . . Give me a break. And EdD are administrators, not teachers. Please..
My college professors were all PhDs..
Degrees are worthless if you have no commen scene! Kwak and Dani have none. It is about their respective political agendas! Wake up people, we are letting these appointed officials by us destroying our district.
He should be rewarded with a metal for lasting this long with the current dysfunctional Board of Education.
Most of the turnover was caused by proven incompetence. Gorman was the exception and it is a true shame we lost him. The purpose of the Board is to investigate all potential hires and expenditures BEFORE they are hired, or spent.
Social pressure is often unduly present and some of our board members too easily succumb. They tend to overrule the ones who attempt to resist. The Ridgewood lower grades have been forced to deteriorate because of the “No Child should Be Left Behind” rule. We can no longer have ability groups. Instead the brighter children sit there day after day relearning the same material because some of the children in the class are unable to keep up. This education destroying concept must be thrown out if we expect Ridgewood schools to climb out of the pits and even become middling, much less excellent. But, a fact from yesteryear. Many many years ago our children moved to outstanding Ridgewood from a much lower class community of schools. I attempted to enroll them into a school whose Principal was fully already into the ‘No Child shall Be Left Behind” theory and not a first grader was reading. As a result, I was informed that, if I enrolled them there, all of our children, including the Kindergartner, would have to skip a grade. Needless to say, I was thoroughly shocked and was forced to enroll them in another school. Fortunately, the following year Ridgewood hired a school co-ordinator to see that all schools taught at the same level but our local school was so far behind that I could not return them to it. The same thing is currently happening today.
Yes, that was only approved because the administration demanded it from the dysfunctional BOE trustees who are clueless.