the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, once again we are reminded why so many parents and residents passively and some would say blindly support the Ridgewood Board of Education. Despite the many missteps , declining rankings, fighting,bullying, drug dealing ,bigots and ballooning budget the BOE continues to hold on to significant support by Village residents .
The ugly reality once again is fear by residents of retribution by the BOE,school administrators , teachers and coaches on their childern and the implosion of property values tied to school performance .Not suprisingly recent criticism of the Boards move to use taxpayer money to launch a lawsuit to extend trustee terms with no tangible benefit to students and taxpayers has been primarily spearheaded residents who no longer have children in Ridgewood public schools or never had children in Ridgewood Schools.
To dismiss the voices of dissent simply because they do not have kids in schools ,is to ignore the fact that they still pay massive property taxes to support those schools.
The Ridgewood blog long ago established the option to post “anonymously” to protect posters from the wrath of the Board of Ed . Contrary to popular criticism of this blog by the “Aronsohn regime” or Hudson County machine politicians in town and their supporters who have been bribed with options of low coast housing and other political favors the “anonymous” option was established to protect dissenting voices and has become even more significant in an era of gross financial mismanagement and a “colossal failure of common sense” the is currently driving the state of New Jersey into financial ruin .
WHAT DO THEY DO IN THAT STRANGE BUILDING AT TOP PAY?
Beautiful windows!
More proof that we are RICH and STUPID.
There’s a sucker born every minute, and that’s what the BOE is hoping for.
Stacey Ingraham Loscalzo is the most recent defender of the Board.
But nowhere in her many defensive Facebook posts does Ms. Loscalzo reveal that she is a member of the Executive Board of the Ridgewood High School Home and School Association, nor does she mention that she is a Facebook friend of BOE President, Jennie Smith Wilson and Sue Morgan (BOE Vice President Jim Morgan’s spouse) and Sally Morgan (BOE Vice President Jim Morgan’s daughter and business partner).
“Tradition of Excellence” is their motto, but it’s more like “Living Off of Reputation”
Real estate agents all selling Ridgewood based on reputation of the schools, but is that valid? Only four Ivy League offers to RHS students last year…
Five groups spend other people’s money: children, thieves, politicians, ex-wives and out of control public sector workers like teachers. All five need supervision.
Fishbein has overseen the more recent precipitous decline in our schools. He should be the first to go.
Four our of 500 students. That’s LESS than 1%
#18 in NJ (niche.com ranking) with a $110 million BOE budget for a Village of 25,000 people… logically that makes no sense to me with BOE budget making up 65% of property taxes
“Tradition of Excellence” ?
OK, let’s look at the numbers, shall we…
Out of the 70 municipalities in Bergen County, we in Ridgewood pay the 37th highest property tax rates. This is to say that we pay *slightly less than* the average property tax rate. We certainly do *not* pay “high taxes” relative to some municipalities.
These guys pay the most (expressed per $1,000 of assessed value):
Bogota (Borough) 3.8
Ridgefield Park (Village) 3.723
Dumont (Borough) 3.525
Hackensack (City) 3.415
These guys pay the least:
Alpine (Borough) 0.801
Rockleigh (Borough) 0.873
Englewood Cliffs (Borough) 0.998
Saddle River (Borough) 1.013
Teterboro (Borough) 1.138
(Naturally, if you live in a fancy town with comparatively high home values, then you’re going to pay a high absolute tax rate versus someone who lives in a run down area of, say, Bogota.) –> obvious
Let’s examine how many Ridgewood High School students were accepted to the 10 colleges and universities that really matter to employers. They are (in no particular order):
Stanford University
Harvard University
Yale University
Princeton University
MIT
University of Pennsylvania
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
From this source:
https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/UserFiles/Servers/Server_207516/File/Announcements/2016-17/One%20Page%20Summary%204.17.pdf
It appears as though we’re only getting 2.4% into Ivy League schools. THAT’S TERRIBLE PERFORMANCE!
If were graduating a disproportionate number of students who actually get accepted to the best schools of higher education relative to, say, Alpine, then I’d say we’re “excellent”. If we’re not, then we’re merely average (at best). It’s that simple, folks…
And, shame on us if towns that pay less than Ridgewood are successful in getting their kids into the types of higher educational institutions that will help to secure their futures.
Fancy slogans like “Tradition of Excellence” are just words. The data doesn’t lie…
My grade for Fishbein and other so-called administrators: somewhere between a “D-” and a “D”
Has to be an F with that few graduating to the best universities.
Ridgewood will not do better until we allow an open fair vetting for key positions, inclusive of people outside the village .
Can anyone really defend that Fishbein or Gorman are the best there is?
Just the performance of the schools shows us they are sub-par. But they live in the village so we hire them. Remember when Fishbein threatened to leave for more money and couldn’t find anywhere else to take him? Same position on police, why limit it to village residents, why no college requirements, why not raise the bar for these high paying, high benefit jobs. Shouldn’t we be insisting on the very highest standards for the taxes we pay in our schools and
The root of the problem is we elect sub-par leaders who have no idea or interest in how to lead or make tough decisions that need to be made, or they have personal agendas to keep things as they are.
4 out of 500 is absolutely appalling!
To give you an example, there were 182 students in my high school graduating class and we had 11 students accepted to one or more of the 10 schools mentioned in DataScientist’s post. Granted, it was probably a bit easier to get accepted to Stanford in the late 1980s. Given all of the international competition, I don’t think I would get accepted there today. But, ya never know… 🙂
Most of us fall for the realtor sales pitch about the schools when we arrive. We later come to realize that we were duped. The problem then is protecting our real estate investment for our post graduation time to leave. We join the realtors and continue the con. It’s in our financial interests.
Ridgewood schools used to be among the best… in the country. Now we’re not even amongst the best in Bergen county. Until residents admit the truth and stop propagating the lie, nothing will change. Same with the RPD and municipal jobs. Taxpayers are being taken for a ride, and these greedy teachers and police know it.
DataScientist, do we have the comparable data for the RHS classes of 2017 and 2018? That was for 2015 and 2016 on the 2.4% at Ivies… and was that freshmen at Ivies, or all graduates of the classes of 2015 and 2016? Looks like data manipulation by the BOE without further clarity. I heard only four offers were made by Ivy Schools to grads of the class of 2018, but for all I know that could have been to only one or two students?
Shame these teachers don’t take any pride in their product
I would venture to say that kids who get accepted into Ivy League schools are getting massive amount of help from outside tutoring. I would also disagree with datascientist approach of comparing Ridgewood vs Bogota. What ratio that matters is ( $$ / #students in the public schools ) and the relative performance of the kids vs other school districts.
@Parent – Yes, of course you want to compare dollars spent vs. the outcome (e.g. acceptance to elite-level schools). That comparison between ‘Wood and Bogota was to demonstrate where Ridgewood stands in the pecking order of which towns pay the most taxes (before people start bitching about Ridgewood paying “high taxes” — we don’t). We pay a lower tax *rate* than Bogota, but most probably higher tax *amounts* due to the disparity in real estate valuations between the two towns. The point is that we’re not paying a tremendously high tax rate relative to other towns and achieving sub-par results. WE’RE PAYING AN AVERAGE TAX RATE AND ACHIEVING SUB-PAR RESULTS. EITHER WAY, WE NEED TO STEP IT UP BIG TIME!!! Yes, we must also look at the amount of dollars spent per student. That is key and unfortunately I don’t have access to that data (yet).
@Anonymous – I can’t seem to find data other than that which I provided. If we want the data, we can always call Fishbein and request it. I believe he would be required to provide it.
the 10 colleges and universities that really matter to employers? Really? Did you ever think it doesn’t matter to your child? Did you ever ask him or her?
What is with you people? The Ivies?
Try listening to your children for once…yes your the one who’s relying on and overpriced university system to “secure” juniors future. Your also the dope who bought into the narrative that Is Ridgewood. Stupid is what stupid does.
Yes, “the 10 colleges and universities that really matter to employers”….
As someone who has interviewed and hired literally hundreds and hundreds of employees, I can tell you unhesitatingly that you would rather hire someone from Stanford into a non-janitorial position than someone from, say, a community college. Their network alone is worth the price. At Harvard, you’re sitting next to a future president. At a community college, this is not the case. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and there are many exceptional people who have attended community college (for one reason or another). If you get accepted to an Ivy League school, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t attend (barring cost, of course)… 🙂
And, anyone who resorts to calling someone a “dope” just shows a complete lack of emotional intelligence.
Since it is hard to refer to another poster I am just repeating what someone else says from earlier posts. It is a great post which I appreciate:
“Ridgewood will not do better until we allow an open fair vetting for key positions, inclusive of people outside the village .
Can anyone really defend that Fishbein or Gorman are the best there is?
Just the performance of the schools shows us they are sub-par. But they live in the village so we hire them. Remember when Fishbein threatened to leave for more money and couldn’t find anywhere else to take him? Same position on police, why limit it to village residents, why no college requirements, why not raise the bar for these high paying, high benefit jobs. Shouldn’t we be insisting on the very highest standards for the taxes we pay in our schools and
The root of the problem is we elect sub-par leaders who have no idea or interest in how to lead or make tough decisions that need to be made, or they have personal agendas to keep things as they are.”
Here’s the scary part…your so completely brainwashed you don’t even know it.
Non-janitorial position? Really? Is that what you HR types call it now? And your banking on a “network” of a recent college graduate? Fabulous. Could you possibly come down off your pedestal whilst your hiring “hundreds and hundreds” of employees to take a look at what’s going on in the real world? Yes yes yes we all are very impressed that you read Goleman and your so well versed with regards to emotional intelligence. Funny how one of the capibilities of emotional intelligence on the HR side is to reduce staff turnover. And your hiring hundreds. Fascinating. I take that back your not a dope…your just a plain old asshole. Stick that in your Harvard pipe and smoke it.
Anonymous January 25, 2019 –
Sweeeet burn!
The Goleman reference is especially awesome…
Many years have passed since my husband was in school. But the fact that he graduated from Regis High School in NY, University of Notre Dame, and Chicago MBA got him connections then and still does. No matter how you look at it, it is easier to make connections if you go to a “name” school. Not everyone can afford the astronomical prices to go to big name schools(Thank heavens they were cheap then compared to incomes then), and they each have the possibility of doing very well in life, but starting out, the name helps a lot. As our son, also a graduate of Regis and Notre Dame, put it when he was looking for work, “They don’t really look at my grades or what I have a degree in, they just see where it is from and that’s enough for them.” It is a shame the world still often reacts that way, but they do. And, if you want strict honesty, neither of them, or me, would be able to get in today!
anon Jan 25th – I think you have provided enough information about your husband and your son to identify you. So you aren’t anon anymore.
Never read Goleman, jerkoff, nor am I in Human Resources. Just a CEO of a company that does nearly a billion in sales annually. Oh, and I didn’t go to Harvard…
Fishbein is not up to the job. He and his enablers are a blight on our schools and an insult to good teachers. They are worse than you can even imagine. Our children are being cheated of the education their parents want for them and that they deserve.
Hear, hear Ridgewood parent! We need to stand up to these bullies in the REA and our BOE and claim back our schools. Fishbein, Gorman, and a number of the Trustees need to go. It starts at the top and until we admit our schools are no longer what they once were, we cannot begin to address the multitude of problems.