>The Fly on the wall has just heard that BOE members might appoint Ridgewood’s newest Public Schools Superintendent during their scheduled 5/14/07 Public Meeting.
It is rumored that the proposed appointee will reside on Long Island, NY and commute to Ridgewood in a taxpayer funded automobile, with expenses for fuel and tolls being completely covered by Ridgewood taxpayers as well.
The appointee’s negotiated salary is rumored to be in the $260-270K range, with an agreement that he/she will work from home 1-2 days per week.
Nice work, if you can get it, heh?
Readers comment;
Don’t let the BOE get away with this! The education tax increase is NOT for transporting an official NOT CHOSEN by the community, without public approval, back and forth from his home in Long Island. This is not the Superintendent we need for our district. Please write our BOE officials to protest this.
Correct E-Mail Addresses For Ridgewood BOE Members
Mark Bombace, President – mbombace@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
Joseph Vallerini, Vice President – jvallerini@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
Shelia Brogan – sbrogan@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
Bob Hutton – rhutton@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
Michelle Lenhard – mlenhard@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
>At that pay scale he can’t afford to drive himself ?!?!? And work from home?
pah-lease ….
>Ridgewood isn’t good enough for him to live in?
Nice.
And what leadership can he exactly exert from afar?
>So if the rumors are correct, we will have a “boss” who will only be on site 60% of the time. I have serious concerns about our providing a car for him also. A quick calculation of the number of days, miles, tolls comes to the neighborhood of $3600 to get this guy to work and back – and that excludes insurance, maintenance, etc. Will others in his family be allowed to drive the car? Will he be able to use it for non-work activities? This is outrageous. The Board of Ed does it again.
>Paying for a quality candidate is one thing but does his record warrant this payscale?
>from https://www.pobmath.com/notes.html
“Dr. Brooks’ retirement (by mutual decision) at the end of June was announced at the Wednesday, April 18 BOE meeting.”
The word “retirement” has a new definition!
Should Dr. Brooks’s contract get approval from the Ridgewood BOE, he will work a few days away from home at a salary of $260-270K range, commuting to Ridgewood in a taxpayer funded automobile, with expenses for fuel and tolls being completely covered by Ridgewood taxpayers as well.
It’s not too late!. Attend the BOE meeting next Monday.
>I just can’t wrap my head around this. It’s INSANE. Who’s minding the store?
>Brooks is desperate for a job (no one in his home area will touch him!) and our Board of Ed is desperate for a superintendent…I’d call that a shotgun marriage.
>Its the inmates running the asylum and they think with a signed blank check!
Either that or their fuzzy math education has them estimating that this is a good deal.
>Please fix the links to the emails of the BOE members. Does anyone know Michelle Lenhard’s contact email? Please post.
>In the October 16, 2006 Board of Education minutes of Plainview-Old Bethpage:
https://www.pob.k12.ny.us/BOE/BOE%20MINUTES/min10.-16-30-2006.pdf
On page 32 in the pdf file,
“when the district’s poor math performance was discussed, a Board member asked how many districts were below Plainview and Dr. Brooks replied not many. The Board member thought it was “unbelievable” that the district was at “the bottom of the barrel in Nassau County.”
>The VORmath.com website published a letter written to the BOE that expressed concern about the superintendent choice and his track record in Long Island:
https://www.vormath.info/pdf/publicpost1.pdf
>So let’s see, in the past 3 school board elections, Ridgewood had the chance to vote out the current crop of nudnicks, yet didn’t. Now folks are upset because of all the problems like bad bus drivers, terc, pathetic leadership, high taxes and so on. Sounds to me that we only have ourselves to blame. Next year Brogan and Bombace are up for reelection. Oh sure someone can run against them, but why bother as they will probably win and things will only get worse.
>BOE
Your behavior in the selection of a School Superintendent is at best misguided, certainly irresponsible, and at worst, self serving and potentially a violation of the civil rights of the TAX PAYERS of the Village of Ridgewood.
What you have failed to do:
– Document and hold OPEN hearings on the process for the selection of a school Superintendent.
– Publish the process
– Publish and agree with the community (parents, taxpayers) the qualifications of a Superintendent.
– Publish a list of selected candidates, along with biographies, resumes and qualifications.
– Provide a community forum to meet candidates prior to selection.
You have violated any common sense approach that ALL LEADING School Districts in NJ, the NY Metro area, and school districts across the US adhere too.
I recommend that you NOT announce any new Superintendent until you immediately rectify the situation. You have LOST the CONFIDENCE of the VOTERS, the TAXPAYERS that you have been elected to SERVE.
>I just read through all these posts on the blog. I can’t imagine that our board of education would even consider hiring this man and paying him to stay away. Have they lost their &^@#$ing minds? Someone should check out what’s in the kool aid in that building.
>I just finished reading Martin Brooks’ book that sells on Amazon. It’s called “The Case for Constructivist Classrooms.”
Here is my review: Review
>In the book, Martin Brooks claims that entire districts must be overhauled to become purely constructivist as in your kid teaching some other kid while the teacher acts as a “facilitator”, as in no textbooks but send the teachers for more “professional development”, as in eliminate grading as you know it, as in no core content of knowledge.
Just teach your kid where to look up an answer to any basic geography, history, or science question or buy that $5 dollar calculator to do his basic math.
You know, those kids who grow up to adults and appear on those camera shows unable to answer a question such as “What country begins with the letter U?”
United States of America.
Not Utah.
>Your BOE, principals and new superintendent have all drank the TERC/EVERYDAY MATH kool-ade.
They talk in the tone of the converted.
Its a cult and they are indocrinating your child into it.
And you get to pay for it.
Now in your taxes.
Later when little Biff and little Muffy take remedial math in COLLEGE.
Daddy better keep making the big bucks cause he will need it to fix this problem.
Only in Ridgewood.
>> Later when little Biff and little Muffy take remedial math in COLLEGE
Even worse — when Biff or Muffy grow up to be President and say things like:
“They misunderestimated me”
“The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”
“And if you’re interested in the quality of education and you’re paying attention to what you hear at Laclede, why don’t you volunteer? Why don’t you mentor a child how to read?”
“The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society.”
“I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that’s responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be—a literate country and a hopefuller country.”
Face it, we live in the Age of Stupid, and it goes WAY beyond Ridgewood.
>Why shouldn’t we have a Supt. who lives on Long Island and is here for only 4 days? We set the precident when we hired an Athletic Director who lives in Greenwich, and who can’t attend games because he leaves Ridgewood at 3 as he has long commute. He gets awfully big bucks, too!
>hey, here’s a CRAZY idea…why don’t we get the FACTS before we SPEAK OUT. There was an extensive process for the superintendent search — and there was quite a bit of opportunity for community involvement. I know it’s easier for most of you to sit back and wait until something happens and then criticize and protest…but it’s so inefficient. Did any of you give your input when the superintendent search criteria were announced? Hm. I didn’t think so. Let’s calm down and get some real info — instead of rumors from “the fly.”
>Does anyone know exactly when TERC was introduced at Travell, and in which grades? How about Orchard?
>”There was an extensive process for the superintendent search — and there was quite a bit of opportunity for community involvement.”
I’m sure there was an extensive search process, but I don’t recall any of the candidates’ names being made public, nor do I recall any taxpayers being provided with any updates from Mr. Bombace & company.
>“why don’t we get the FACTS before we SPEAK OUT”.
Yes!Lets do that.Release ALL the documents.
Lets file a request through the NJ Freedom of Information Act for all the letters, emails, search firm reports, everything on this superintendent search.
Lets have the board answer to that taxpayer who was CENSORED when she attempted to ask about the superintendent candidates and public servants AT A PUBLIC MEETING!
Alas, they were to afraid to let her speak. What was the Board and Superintendent afraid of the public learning?
Lets file a request through the NJ Freedom Of Information Act and the facts would come to light, not spin.
It would make what ‘the fly on the wall’ has been reporting pale in comparison to the reality of it all.
Hey Bergen Record. Hey Star Ledger. Hey Ridgewood News.
Now there’s a story to make front pages.
>Sorry, but no FOI request is going to “bring to light” details on personnel issues. Those are private. As well they should be. The idea of some of you neanderthals sitting in on or commenting on someone’s personnel interview is frightening! Have you even ever HAD a job? Gone through an executive search yourself? You don’t publicize the names of the candidates while interviews and research and negotiations are going on! And you definitely don’t talk about personnel details in a public meeting! Censorship? No. Fear? Sure — fear of breaking the law by talking about things that shouldn’t be talked about, or fear of harming negotiations. There will undoubtedly be lots of questions about the candidate. Let’s ask them when we know who he/she is.
>Personal Issues … On the video she clearly states she wanted to discuss something that was on PUBLIC RECORD.
Look across New Jersey at all the other places that have publicized the names of their finalists. (for example, Camden and there are many others.)
Look across the country at how public the search is for superintendent candidates (try Dallas Public Schools, or Jefferson County Kentucky public schools – where they had published the candidates/finalists resumes online)
Letters addressing ALL of the Board of Education members and without specific request for confidentiality ARE probably PUBLIC material. They would be an interesting read – not only for their questions but for the stonewalled answers by this Board of Education.
Real job? Yes most of us have those and work in that real world.
It would be nice to bring our education administration and Board of Education back into that realm.
But really, it comes down to this … what are you afraid of being disclosed if those closed doors are opened wide?
>”why don’t we get the FACTS before we SPEAK OUT”
Sorry, but this is obviously someone who does not have the “facts” (Must be a BOE Member). First of all, the School District is not a “Business” and has to abide by a set of public, democratic principals, and is responsible to the citizens of the community. 2nd, members of the community who are expressing their opinions here not only have a right to do so, but a responsibility. 3rd, These people represent leaders from all aspects of the business world, including VP(s) in major publicly traded global corporations, professional services (doctors, teachers, lawyers), engineers, technologists, etc … All who have reasonable expectations that their children be educated to the best degree possible, and to see their tax dollars used wisely and with the consent of the community.
As for participating in the “process”, in the business world, one starts with a very basic problem statement and then performs a root cause analysis to determine why the problem exists. So try this: Problem Statement: Why do so many people feel the need to express their opinions, frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the Superintendent search, and Math programs on Web Blogs, letters to the Editor and other public forums rather than working the system with the BOE. ANSWER: Because the BOE, Superintendent and other Administrators are not interested in the communities input, refuses to have an open dialog, refuses to implement best practices used by many NJ school districts to hire a new Superintendent, not interest in listening to parents concerns about the Math program, etc. Many of these people have all tried to “work” the system to drive change …….. BUT … as you can see, the Ridgewood School District is managed and run based on the principal that the BOE and Administrators know best, and the parents and community have no business questioning their decisions or actions.
>> Why do so many people feel the need to express their opinions, frustrations, and dissatisfaction…
ANSWER: Because Ridgewood, like every community, has a small-but-vocal Lunatic Fringe (LF).
And the LF never needs FACTS before it SPEAKS OUT.
Carry on…
>It will be great if we truly can get FACTS in Ridgewood. Oh yes, if the BOE really wanted to inform the public about the choice for Superintendent, it would have been in the school website, documented in detail. Is it there? In writing?
Unfortunately, if people speak out in this town, they are labeled as LF. It is simply not done to say anything critical…and the unchecked spending? Ridgewood likes to pay top dollar without fiscal responsibility. Let’s redo the community hall a few times, let village cars get damaged in the flood, let’s throw away the trees the parks department never got to plant rather than calling volunteers or giving them to residents…people who speak out about these, or the math program are labeled the LF: Lunatic Fringe.
As for the current constructivist/discovery learning slant—a lot of educators like the “discovery” method of teaching because they can be “creative”. Meaning: they don’t have to prepare legitimate, organized lesson plans. Yes, let the kids teach themselves and then teach other kids. And the best deal—-these educators can pursue their various MAs and Phds because they have more time to pursue their ambitions! RPS: A great place to work for!
>’hey, here’s a CRAZY idea…why don’t we get the FACTS before we SPEAK OUT. There was an extensive process for the superintendent search — and there was quite a bit of opportunity for community involvement. I know it’s easier for most of you to sit back and wait until something happens and then criticize and protest…but it’s so inefficient. Did any of you give your input when the superintendent search criteria were announced? Hm. I didn’t think so. Let’s calm down and get some real info — instead of rumors from “the fly.” ‘
Yes. The answer is yes. I gave my input. But to no avail. And that’s why we’re all angry. They haven’t listened to us taxpayers.
>”nd the LF never needs FACTS before it SPEAKS OUT.”
You are so wrong. This group of concerned citizens has done their homework, applied their intellect instead of their emtions, used proper channels, spoken publicly and privately, and sacrificed their precious time which they’d sooner spend on their kids.
There really is a problem. Hiding your head in the sand is your perogative. But don’t judge those of us who are trying to do what’s right.
Sometimes people who try to do what’s right make other people uncomfortable.
Oh well.
>”There was an extensive process for the superintendent search — and there was quite a bit of opportunity for community involvement.”
I disagree with this comment. The BOE did not have an “EXTENSIVE” process…well, maybe behind closed doors between BOE folks and not shared with the community…
As to having a bit of “OPPORTUNITY” for community involvement…WHEN?!!!
Give specific dates (also called FACTS) and how many opportunities (MORE FACTS) fully documented, IN PRINT and not hearsay. Are these FACTS in the website?
If the BOE is truly interested in involving the community, the opportunity would be ongoing, with opportunity even NOW to comment.
Instead, the BOE is being evasive, non-commital, furtive, unwilling to let parents express their opinion in record…COWARDS.
>…and the “Lunitic Fringe” are made of the same metal today as the LF who wanted their independence from England some 200 odd years ago.