Rumor control: Is the BOE going to "dump" Driver's Ed?

A friend pointed out to me that one person with a blog has claimed that the Board of Ed is "looking to dump" driver's education at Ridgewood High School, and asked if it's true. In light of the fact that some blogs run ads and may choose to stir up controversy in order to maintain readership levels and thus justify ad rates, making things up is understandable (I guess). I'm glad this one parent decided to verify the "facts."

The fact is, the Board did review financials for the Ridgewood Community School during the 9/27 public meeting. Driver's Ed is run through the RCS. And it is true that on a line-by-line basis, Driver's Ed is not a profit-maker. It is a net expense. That is, it costs us more to run the program (salaries, cars, etc.) than it brings in via fees charged. It is also true several other Ridgewood Community School programs (mostly athletics) run a healthy profit. Overall, the entire Ridgewood Community School runs at a slight profit.

At the 9/27 BOE meeting, I said, "The reality is, some of the other programs are subsidizing driver's ed, which is fine." The conversation around the table was in agreement. We actually talked about not wanting anyone to think that we were expecting driver's ed to make a profit...we mentioned that it's important that we offer Driver's Ed. In fact, I asked if we could do an estimation of how many more students we would need to add to get the program to break even, if that's even possible.

So, rest assured, Driver's Ed is not in danger.

P.S. I was going to recommend that anyone who's curious could watch the webcast of the 9/27 meeting. I watched myself and discovered that the video for that particular meeting is having technical difficulties. A few minutes in, the screen goes blank and there is just audio, which has a terrible echo. It is very difficult to make out the conversation. Hopefully the video file can be improved.

While I'm at it, let me just make a quick plug for those video webcasts of our public meetings. I frequently go back to watch or listen, to remind myself of what was said. The videos are posted quite soon after the meetings. I encourage anyone who is interested in BOE business, but doesn't have the time or patience to attend a meeting or watch live online or on Channel 77, to watch the archived webcasts. You can fast forward to the "good parts!" Have a good day!