Readers say……..Not sure why the teachers seem to confuse a “tradition of excellence” with they, themselves, being excellent? The decline in our schools suggests they are, in fact, not continuing with the tradition… And health benefits and above property tax wage increases seem to be taken for granted. Offer them a diminished contract and if they don’t like it, they are fee to seek employment with another school board or in the private sector. If the grass is greener, walk!
Are we all aware of the actions the teachers are taking. They are so unprofessional and demonstrate a total lack of excellence and just no passion at all for the kids. They wait outside te high school as a group until the last minute required for school start, they lock the classroom doors during down time as not to be bothered to help a kid who may need it. They will not attend a single function, award presentation, and in many cases do not offer to help write a recommendation letter or even some guidance. Teachers that do offer to support anything outside what is in the contract are threatened and hassled by other teachers.
These are not good people, they do not care about the kids, and they are taking advantage of this town who values eduction. No one is getting 3% raised a year, everyone is paying more for healthcare, and very few only work 180 days a year.
Fire a few, I will take the job, after 40 years in corporate companies I could,use the relaxed job
Ridgewood is a town with a well educated electorate. Parents read to their you g children and spend time with many enrichment programs – all before the kids hit the kindergarten door.
We spend money on tutors and test prep outside of school. The teachers are not struggling with a difficult class population – overall. I am sure that there are some issues but this is a safe district.
My children’s accomplishments are all their own.
Agree with everything but with tenure in place, I fear the malcontents will take it out even more on the kids. I’m sure the malcontents will continue to hassle the few teachers that really do care and go the extra mile. Had a friend who was a lifetime teacher and became a principal. She hated tenure – it tied her hands to get rid of dead wood just waiting to collect their pensions. No dedication or what she called “magic” (inspiring students and making learning fun) from them and she could have hired two young teachers for the price of an older one who was not up to par. She felt the enthusiasm and energy of new teachers was lacking in her school. Pay for performance and no more tenure, no increases for mediocre performance and keep benefits in line with the private sector. Any teacher who is not happy working in Ridgewood’s school system – please leave now and let someone who would appreciate the job have it.
The union is the issue, not the majority of teachers. the tenure system discourages excellence, any profession where the worst performers are not removed is designed for failure and under performance.
I have talked to several teachers who absolutely hate what the union (and their peers) are forcing them to do. But, if someone would post a graph of Ridgewood in the 1960’s and 70’s versus now, many in this town would be shocked at the huge decline that Ridgewood has taken. (And how the proportion of “Administrators” to “Teachers” has roared upwards.) Ridgewood teachers need to face reality. As someone earlier said, “Bring some Paterson teachers here and see if makes any difference in our ranking.” It’s the background of caring and educated parents–many of whom are having to place their children in private schools around us in order for them to be challenged at school. Ridgewood is now geared to the “average” student while the more gifted students spend their days repeating what they learned the first or second day. Also, we no longer offer “gifted and talented” programs to our grade school children.
The Gifted and Talented program was just bragging rights for most parents, and it was open to many students. Everyone believes that they have a little Genius. They talk about missing the gifted program because they are sure that their children will be in it. One woman wrote a letter to the Ridgewood News about how some students (hers of course) needed the challenge. When kids don’t fit in we tell them that they are special.
Pay for a gifted program yourself. They just want your money and you can tell all your friends that your children were accepted (paid cash) into the program.
There are very few truely gifted children in Ridgewood. Most are pushed and tutored to attain every possible point in school. Mensa is not opening a local chapter in the Wood
Most of the students in the “Gifted and Talented program” were eager to go and learned many interesting things. 2:56 is right in the fact that many of them would not have qualified for the fee based Gifted Child Society which tended to accept the more “elite” as that writer indicated. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have many neighbors who moved here for one thing–the “special education” available in our schools. One even admitted that they had researched where the best education for an autistic child was, and moved here from Georgia to obtain it.