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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

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Ridgewood to receive $98,000 in Federal money.

Well, we finally know the status of New Jersey's share of the Federal education jobs bill that was passed last month. Ridgewood is (of course) receiving one of the smaller allocations: $98,941 which can be spent on education jobs and related services. Trenton has not released any more detailed rules on how the funds can be spent, so the Ed Center hasn't made any decisions regarding how we'll use the funds. One thing to be mindful of -- since this is a one-time infusion of money, any position funded this year would not be funded next year -- without funds coming from elsewhere in the budget. Normally, when a district receives a one-time allocation of cash, it is wise to not use it for salaries or any expense that will be recurring. For example, supplies or repairs or something like that are usually safe. But in this case, the money is designed for jobs...which we will then be required to either fund again in subsequent years, or cut.

More details to come on where this money will be spent.

You can read the full story from NorthJersey.com by clicking here.

3 comments:

Sara said...

Laurie,
How about using the money to bring in professional's to help get all of our IT issues worked out. Trainers to train teachers, staff, etc. Any other help that would be useful.

Anonymous said...

How about putting it back for Latin Club and the other after school activities for our children? No more hiring spec ed folks or any more admins. Those two areas are bloated enough.

Laurie G said...

The money may not be used for extracurricular or after school activities, IT issues, nor for administrators. It can be used for instruction only. (And that's as best we can tell right now, the rules are still a little vague. More detail/clarity to come.)