Welcome!

Welcome to Laurie Goodman's blog. I use this space to share news and opinions about education and schools in Ridgewood, the state of New Jersey and the nation, in addition to other issues I'm personally interested in. I invite you to share your thoughts, feelings, questions or opinions, too, by posting comments on any blog entry. Please observe basic courtesy -- keep your comments focused on issues, no personal attacks or bullying, please. Contact me directly at: lauriegood@mac.com

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Vacation time!

I'm not saying I won't post during my vacation...but you never know. The weather report looks pretty good (knock wood) and my laptop has a lot of glare in the sun... Sometimes you just have to turn off the technology, you know? (Or so I'm told...)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Congratulations to our new supervisors!

Last night the BOE appointed two new supervisors:

Mark Ferreri (current RHS social studies teacher) will be Supervisor of Humanities.

Chris McCullough (current RHS art teacher) will be Supervisor of Fine & Applied Arts.

It's really nice to be able to fill these positions with teachers from within the District, helping ensure that the transition is smooth and we maintain continuity. Congrats to both educators!

Ridgewood BOE opposes Governor Christie's proposed cap on superintendent salaries

Last night, the BOE passed a resolution opposing Governor Christie's proposed cap on superintendent's salaries. As I commented last night, I'm not sure such a resolution will do much good. It's largely symbolic. But I suppose it doesn't hurt anything either. Charlie Reilly discussed his view that Ridgewood is a leader among districts and that we should speak out about issues that we feel are unacceptable attacks on our district's ability to make decisions and represent our community's wishes. I see his point. I see Sheila Brogan's point that unlike the 2% budget cap, which is a done deal, there is still time to influence the Governor and/or legislature on the salary cap issue. I also see Michele Lenhard's point, that a resolution such as this should be part of a larger strategy, perhaps more coordinated with other districts or groups such as Garden State Coalition of Schools. In the end, I voted "yes," and will be interested to see if any other districts pass similar resolutions.

Here is the text of the resolution:

RESOLUTION OF THE RIDGEWOOD BOARD OF EDUCATION
RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
Superintendent Salary Cap

WHEREAS, on July 15, 2010, Governor Christopher Christie announced a reform proposal to cap school superintendents’ base pay; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie proposed that the capped salary be based on a sliding scale determined by the state; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal based the maximum amount of the capped salary for a superintendent on the number of students enrolled in the district; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal allows for an increment of $5,000 for each additional district the superintendent oversees and an additional $2,500 if the district includes at least one high school; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal restricts a duly elected Board of Education from increasing a superintendent’s base pay above the mandated cap; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would disallow renewal of a contract for an existing superintendent with a compensation package above the mandated cap and requires that the compensation in the new contract conform to the mandated salary cap; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would allow the duly elected Board of Education to provide a non-pensionable, individual year merit stipend awarded on the basis of the school district’s year-to-year progress relative to specific performance metrics of student learning defined by the state; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would require the New Jersey Department of Education to provide the duly elected Board of Education with a list of state-approved quantitative and qualitative merit criteria; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would permit the duly elected Board of Education to add one district-requested merit criterion to the NJDOE list and have the district-requested merit criterion approved by the Executive County Superintendent; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would allow the duly elected Board of Education to choose 3 quantitative and 2 qualitative merit criteria from the state approved list; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would require the Executive County Superintendent to assemble the quantitative and qualitative performance data that forms the basis of a superintendent’s performance evaluation relative to the state approved merit criteria; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal prescribes the amount of the non-pensionable merit stipend to be 3.33% of base salary for each quantitative performance criterion achieved and 2.5% of base salary for each qualitative performance criterion achieved in a given year; and

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal arbitrarily compared and set the compensation of career educators to that of his statutory elected official’s salary;

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal has no provision for higher cost of living expenses in different areas of the state;

WHEREAS, Governor Christie’s proposal would impact 70% of New Jersey superintendents whose current salaries are above the proposed salary caps; therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education opposes Governor Christie’s proposal to cap superintendent salaries; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education objects to the state’s interference in contract negotiations between the duly elected Board of Education and the superintendent; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education objects to the state defining the quantitative and qualitative merit criteria to be used to evaluate the superintendent’s performance; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education believes that the superintendent’s compensation and merit increase should be based on achievement of district and superintendent goals defined by the Board of Education; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the administrative and supervisory tasks required of a superintendent to run an effective and efficient school district are not to be undervalued by the state; and be it further

RESOLVED, that with dwindling resources, reduced state aid, and restrictive tax and expenditure limits, the job of the superintendent to manage the budget, supervise staff, oversee the instructional program, ensure compliance with state and federal mandates, and focus efforts on continued improvement and high student achievement requires a skilled administrator whose salary is appropriately determined based on his/her education, experience, skill, and goal attainment, not on the number of students in the district or a state approved list of performance criteria; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Ridgewood Board of Education duly elected by the voters in Ridgewood has the duty and responsibility to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract and set the compensation for our Superintendent of Schools; and be it further

RESOLVED, that this resolution be sent to Governor Christopher Christie, Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, State Senator Kevin O’Toole, Assemblyman David Russo, and Assemblyman Scott Rumana; and be it further

RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Garden State Coalition of Schools, Dollar$ and Sense, the Bergen County Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials, and the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Who says summer meetings are quiet?

Tonight's meeting of the Board of Education was for the most part a quiet affair, as meetings during the summer usually are. Dr. Fishbein updated us on referendum construction projects, which are rolling along. Big work starting at Hawes...Stevens Field is dug and draining is being installed...roofing projects all over the place. So far, so good. Our construction management company, Epic, is doing a great job of overseeing things and updating the administration and Facilities Committee.

We actually conducted some important business at tonight's meeting:

The Board passed a resolution opposing Governor Christie's proposal to cap school superintendents' salaries. We made some revisions during the meeting, so when the revised version is available in a day or so, I'll post it here.

The Board also approved going forward with a plan to install lights at the RHS Stadium and Stevens Fields, thanks to a financial partnership with many of the community sports programs, and high school parent booster groups. If you recall, during the referendum discussion last Fall, we talked about the need and desire for lights, but we wanted to wait and see if community sports groups were able to contribute to the funding. Over the past few weeks, a few remarkable things happened to lead to tonight's decision: first, the District solicited bids for the best, high-tech lights out there -- Musco lights are efficient and so well-targeted that there is no "light spill" just a few feet from the field. Next, the bids came in much lower than expected, and one contractor's prices were about $300,000 lower than the next bidder. Next, several youth sports groups and high school booster groups committed to funding over half the total cost, and Dr. Fishbein outlined a plan for the District the fund the remainder through a combination of donations to the District in exchange for "naming rights" of various facilities, through annual savings of approx. $10,000 in water expenses that will not be needed to water the turf fields, and, if necessary, with money saved in referendum project costs coming in much lower than projected.

Basically, the total cost of the lights is roughly $500,000 and it's a 5-year lease-purchase program. The sports groups will fund 100% of the installation -- $106,000 -- in the first year, then in years 2 through 5, the sports groups will fund $40,000 per year, and the BOE will fund $65,000. We could raise all the remaining funds through additional donations. It's definitely within reach. In any event, we'll have access to the leftover referendum funds in years 4-5 (that's when the projects will be complete), so the only "unknown" is our portion for years 2-3, which is about $130,000 (or $110,000 if you deduct the money we're saving by not watering the fields). There are already potential corporate donors "in the pipeline," who are eager to make donations in exchange for naming rights to fields or other facilities. (The Board already has a policy for naming rights...it is currently being updated.)

I'm really proud that we were able to work together, in partnership with the community, to make this happen. The arrangement is similar to what happened in the construction of Maple Field, when the sports groups worked with the Village and were so successful in their fundraising, that they were able to fulfill their financial commitment early.

Also at tonight's meeting, we approved a change to the school calendar for this year, 2010-11. As part of our budget cuts for this year, we eliminated paying teachers for extra time to conduct parent conferences outside of school hours. Instead, elementary schools will hold a half-day session on Election Day November 2, with teachers holding parent conferences in the afternoon. Additionally, all schools grade K-12 will be closed on November 3. On that day, grade K-5 teachers will conduct conferences, and grades 6-12 will do professional development. This will flow into the Teacher Convention Days, which are November 4 and 5.

The next Board of Ed meeting will be August 30. This will be our annual "Retreat," where we will set goals for the 2010-11 school year, and discuss our evaluation of our operations and effectiveness.

27 months...time sure flies!

I haven't been blogging a lot lately. Maybe you've noticed. I think my reduced activity reflects the way my blog seems to have evolved, especially over the past year. When I look back to the early days of my tenure on the Board (I was elected in April 2008), my blog posts were a little more personal...they tended to focus on my feelings as a new Board of Ed member and my genuine reflections on my role, the role of the Board and the challenges facing Board members, administration, teachers and parents in our District. That was fine...my posts had a personal, "journal-y" quality, which I think was good for me and I hoped might be interesting to whomever was reading (cue the sound of chirping crickets?).

As my 27 months (so far) on the Board evolved, my blog posts evolved, too. Especially during the time of the referendum in December 2009, and then during the 2010 budget season, my posts became less personal and more news-y. I found myself wanting to communicate facts and figures, rationales and rebuttals. I answered questions and received criticisms. While I do enjoy reporting news (I'm a former newspaper reporter, after all), I've found it difficult lately to get excited about posting another news item on my blog. So the posts have become less frequent.

Which brings me to today...mid-summer 2010. Board work slows down a bit in the summer, as we meet less often and there are fewer topics for the Board to discuss or items to approve. On top of that, my workload is slow this week, too. Wow...this is a truly rare occurrence. I actually MIGHT go through the foot-high pile of BOE paperwork on my desk corner. Woohoo!

As I've been cleaning up and organizing, I started thinking about this blog and thinking I should try and write some more thoughtful posts about my Board life. The first thing that comes to mind, that I mentioned when I saw old friends at various Graduation parties last month, was that I have definitely learned a lot over the past 27 months. It's mind-boggling.

So in the coming days, I'll be sharing some of the lessons I've learned... How's that for a cliffhanger?

Saturday, July 17, 2010

RHS named Best High School Marching Band in Bergen County.

Exciting news from RHS Bands Director Jeffrey Haas:

Ridgewood High School has won the Bergen Health & Life Magazine Readers' Choice award for "Best High School Marching Band" in the county, and will be featured in an article in their September edition.

We are very proud of our musicians, color guard members and staff. Great thanks to the parents, faculty, administration, and community for making this possible.

Congratulations, RHS musicians!

Friday, July 16, 2010

What's behind Gov. Christie's cap on superintendent's salaries?

Reprinting an interesting post from NJ Left Behind:

What’s behind Gov. Christie’s surprise announcement that he is capping school superintendent salaries? Isn't this sort of un-Republican? What happened to the free market economy? Is it a sort of shooting-fish-in-a-barrel move, a free ride fueled by public animosity towards school taxes or the occasional exorbitant salary? Is it a set-up for capping teacher salaries or installing statewide contracts? Is Christie trying to get some love from Jersey City, where citizens are fighting back against a mishandled $268,000 annual superintendent contract? Is the heat getting to him?

A few facts to throw out there: first, superintendent salaries are a tiny piece of school costs. From New Jersey School Boards Association’s press release yesterday:

The department’s National Center for Education Statistics indicates that New Jersey directs 9.5 percent of public school expenditures toward central-office and school-level administration, as compared to a nationwide average of 10.8 percent. According to this report, New Jersey administrative spending is lower than that of 42 other states. At the same time, New Jersey’s spending on instruction and student support services (71.9% of total expenditures) is higher than the nationwide average.

Secondly, one reason for high salaries, to whatever degree they’re high, is because school superintendents don’t get tenure. (A blog called Dr. Petrosino's Education Project argues that the DOE should reinstate tenure to balance out newly-cropped salaries.) Thirdly, the cap of $175,000, except for the 16 districts with more than 10,000 students, will encourage some unknown number of superintendents to go to Pennsylvania or New York or Delaware, which remain capless. Not so good for maintaining quality. See what happens, Gov. Christie, when you go all non-Republican on us? (Read Bruce Baker’s post at SchoolFinance101, specifically his chart of NY superintendent salaries which are almost all above $175K, at least in southern NY., though his larger point that the cap is arbitrary is rebutted by John Mooney at NJ Spotlight in the comment section of today’s column, also well-worth reading.)

Of course the cap will also wreak havoc with administrators – supervisors, principals, directors -- further down the food chain, some of whom get more than $175,000. (The slick comparison to Christie’s salary, also $175K, by the way, is a canard: not too many superintendents we know are contemplating higher office or big book deals in a couple of years. Superintendency is typically the last stop.)

In effect, Christie’s plan takes school superintendents out of the marketplace and places them on a pay grade on the civil service scale. Next to come is business administrators and assistant superintendents, according to Comm. Schundler. Are teacher salaries the endgame?

Monday, July 12, 2010

They are busy in Trenton.

As if creating a budget and dealing with the state's deficit weren't enough, you'll be happy to know that our state legislators are also busy crafting other vital legislation. Here's a sample of recent bills:

A-3140 Spencer (D-29); Wagner (D-38) Requires boards of education to calculate body mass index for students in first, fourth, seventh, and tenth grades.

Oh, boy, for all those parents who feel schools intrude too far into the personal lives or home lives of students, how is this? Under this bill, we'd be calculating weight and body fat and, presumably, tracking this info over time.

A-444/S-295 Spencer (D-29), Caputo (D-28), Quijano (D-20), Rodriguez (D-33) Requires school board members to undergo criminal history background checks, and it would disqualify members convicted of any crime that would disqualify a person from working in a public school.

OK, this isn't so bad, I suppose. The NJ School Boards Association already supports disclosure of past criminal convictions by current and prospective school board members. I think it's a little annoying that the school board member would be required to pay the cost of the background check...and I certainly agree with critics who wonder why background checks wouldn't be required of charter school trustees -- or all elected officials?

A-1019/S-438 Spencer (D-29), Caputo (D-28), Quijano (D-20), Rodriguez (D-33) (passed the Assembly on June 28 by a 74-2-1 vote, and now in the Senate Education Committee) would require background checks of all school volunteers.

Yikes, can you imagine? Mandatory background checks for everyone who works at an HSA book fair, who serves cupcakes at the faculty breakfast, who checks-in books at the library, or who reads a story to kindergartners? And, of course, the cost of the fingerprinting, etc., would be borne by the volunteer! This would be difficult to implement, at best, and the hassle factor alone would definitely keep people from volunteering. Silly, if you ask me.

Friday, July 9, 2010

GW Expansion Drawings

Here are the architect's conceptual drawings for the GW expansion. Note that the new gym is not your typical "box," but rather it fits with the design of the rest of this beautiful, historic building. Any comments?

Additional drawings plus an update on all referendum projects are on the District website. Click here.

1) View from Monroe St. (New gym and classrooms are on the far right):


2) View from Washington St.


3) Another view from Washington. New gym and classrooms are at left.


4) View from Godwin Ave. Auditorium is on far left; new gym/classrooms on far right.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Can a public district convert to a charter or private district and leave Trenton's rules behind?

There was a story in the Star-Ledger this weekend about the Glen Ridge district considering converting to charter schools or private schools.

According to the story:

Faced with burdensome mandates and diminishing returns from Trenton, one of the state’s top public school districts is considering a path that could make it the first to effectively secede from New Jersey’s public education system.

The Glen Ridge school board will enter largely uncharted waters when it gathers at a retreat this month to discuss converting some or all of the four schools in the 1,932-student district to charter or private schools.

In a community where the average property tax bill tops $16,000, the idea of becoming a breakaway district emerged as word spread that Glen Ridge’s already small portion of state aid would vanish and that New Jersey might embrace a new cap limit to tax increases in order to encourage school districts to merge.


Click here for the full Star-Ledger story.

Sounds sort of lovely, doesn't it? Just leave Trenton behind, do things ourselves, nobody telling us what to do, nobody taking away our funds at the last minute. I bet the sun shines a little brighter and the birds sing a little sweeter, too...

Sorry, don't mean to be cynical, but I'm not super-optimistic about this. First of all, the idea that we could secede because we get "nothing" from the state isn't accurate. Sure, our regular aid was cut 100% for 2010-11. But the state does provide other aid to Ridgewood, in the form of "extraordinary aid" to help with special education costs. I don't have the exact amount at hand, but I'm fairly certain we would miss it if it were gone. Second, the state makes the employer contribution to teachers' pensions. OK, OK, the state is supposed to make the employer contribution..the fact that they have not been doing so recently is a minor detail right? You can bet that if we became responsible for making those contributions, Trenton would be all over us with fines and whatnot if we didn't pay-up on time.

Another thing to consider: I'm not sure, but I think it's true that if a school or district were to do convert to private, they would be required to turn over all property to the state.

So the question Glen Ridge's BOE will be considering is if the savings achieved by removing Trenton's rules and regs are enough to make up for the loss of extraordinary aid and the obligation to make pension contributions.

I certainly understand the appeal of "secession." I'll be watching what develops in Glen Ridge.

Small world note: Glen Ridge's current superintendent is John Mucciolo, former RHS principal. And our superintedent, Dan Fishbein, was superintendent in Glen Ridge before he came to Ridgewood.

Should schools police cyberbullying?

Following are some letters to the editor in response to the recent New York Times story in which Ridgewood was featured. Do you have any comments to add from Ridgewood?

To the Editor:

As a public school teacher and parent of a 13-year-old boy, I had two visceral reactions to your June 28 front-page article “Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray.”

The first was one of strong support for the sober-minded principal, Tony Orsini, who insisted that children’s behavior at home on a Saturday night is not his responsibility.

The second was horror at the abdication of parental responsibility. The parents of a targeted girl felt that it was “too awkward” to contact the parents of the boy sending offensive texts. I hope that they have reconsidered. If I received a call regarding similar behavior, my son would not have access to texting for a long time. I feel that the parents of the boy in question deserve to know what their child is up to.

Thomas Randall
Amherst, Mass., June 28, 2010



To the Editor:

The reluctance of the school administration to enforce anti-bullying rules, and of parents to confront the parents of the bullies, are factors that sustain and encourage these bad behaviors. In the worst cases, bullying has led to suicides and school shootings; in every case it creates additional misery for children who are already struggling with a difficult life transition.

In the early 1970s, when the Norwegian psychologist Dan Olweus created the anti-bullying program that remains the model for this kind of intervention, he made sure that it was used not only in the classroom, but also throughout the school, the community and the state.

Principals, parents and the police should not be worrying about whose responsibility it is to enforce anti-bullying programs; they should be working together consistently, in a coordinated fashion, enforcing the same rules with the same punishments.

When even one adult turns his back on bullying, in cyberspace or real space, he is giving this destructive behavior his covert approval.

Jonathan Fast
New York, June 28, 2010
The writer is an associate professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University.



To the Editor:

Unbelievable! First, we penalize our teachers for not guaranteeing that all students learn the material being taught. Of course, it is not the parents’ responsibility to see that these students actually do homework and study outside of school.

Now, we expect schools to be private investigators, police, counselors and mediators for activities going on outside of school. It’s time for parents to step up to the plate.

Sometimes it is hard to talk with other parents about their child’s behavior — or even harder to hear from other parents about your child’s behavior. Sometimes it is hard to enforce limits on technology use.

But that’s what we signed on for when we became parents. What we’re asking of our schools — taking responsibility for our children 24/7 — is not what teachers, counselors and administrators signed on for.

Parents, for the sake of our children let’s take responsibility here. Let’s work with our schools and not expect them to do it all.

Janice Lilly
Bloomington, Ind., June 29, 2010



To the Editor:

Your article brought back hard memories from my middle school years before cyberspace existed. There have always been bullies. You could deliver devastating social blows with a rotary-dial Princess phone just as easily as you can ruin someone’s life with your iPhone. Not inviting someone to a slumber party, then leaking it at recess, was just as powerful a tool as Facebook. Note-passing in math class could ruin someone’s reputation as quickly as texting.

Did schools interfere then? No. Could parents stop Cindy from calling you a “slut” or Joe from writing “Johnny’s a loser” on the bathroom wall? No.

Can parents ground their children, take away their cellphones, monitor their computers, instill a sense of kindness and respect for others, and give them assurance that life gets much better after junior high?

As far as I know, the answer is yes.

Virginia Ottley Craighill
Sewanee, Tenn., June 28, 2010



To the Editor:

What we have learned in our psychoanalytic treatment and research program is that school often becomes the only reliable place where our plague of bullying can be solved. More often than not the bully at school, either in person or online, is being bullied, abused or seriously neglected at home or on the street.

The bullying behavior has meaning, and is often an indirect communication that the student is trying to make others feel the way that he or she is feeling. Passive witnesses to such behavior — other students, teachers or parents — who do nothing are co-conspirators in the bullying behavior.

Whether anything can be done by the school legally is not as important as the school’s addressing the issue with students — the bully and the victim — and parents immediately as a significant first step.

Mark D. Smaller
Chicago, June 28, 2010

The writer, a psychoanalyst, is founding director of the Analytic Service to Adolescents Program, Morton Alternative School.



To the Editor:

Netiquette, just like etiquette, is learned behavior. Just as kids learn to control their offline bullying and to stand up to being bullied, they learn how to deal with the pitfalls of online social interactions. Schools can play an important role in this process by teaching kids how to interpret the new medium of text messaging, how to navigate social spaces, how to react to hurtful messages and whom to go to for advice and help.

But calling on schools to police student speech outside school dangerously undermines kids’ free speech rights. Young people sometimes say stupid and hurtful things to each other, online and offline. So do adults. The Constitution requires us to sort out these conflicts without undue government interference or control.

Svetlana Mintcheva
New York, June 28, 2010

The writer is director of programs for the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Monday, July 5, 2010

And so it begins...

It's very exciting to see all the work that's started on facilities around the district. Here's just a sample of some the projects which have already begun or which will be starting over the next couple of weeks:

Already begun:
RHS stone & masonry repairs
Glen Window Wall replacement
Hawes Roof

Beginning week of 7/6:
BF roof & electrical
GW bathroom renovation
RHS roofs
RHS bathroom renovation
RHS Stadium & Stevens fields
Willard asbestos abatement

Beginning week of 7/12:
BF ventilation & floor abatement
BF stage & rigging
GW cut-out
GW floors
Somerville roof
Somerville playground
RHS roofs & fire doors
Travell roof

Beginning week of 7/19:
RHS floor abatement
Hawes painting
Orchard floor abatement