Lunch point-of-sale system confusion.

Received this email from the Ridgewood Public Schools tonight:

Hello Parents of Ridgewood Middle Schools and High School,

As you may know, we have implemented a Point-of-Sales system in the cafeterias at the Middle Schools and High School.  In order to make the lunch period run quickly and efficiently, we ask that you remind your students that they will require a Key Pad number for purchasing items from the cafeterias, either on account or in cash.  Your students key pad number can be found in Skyward Family or Student Access under Food Service.  If you need assistance, please email skywardhelp@ridgewood.k12.nj.us.Thank you for your patience during this transition period.

I do encourage everyone to be patient (and nice) during the transition, but I have to agree with some of my friends who find it utterly baffling that students must enter a PIN number in order to purchase something with cash. Makes no sense to me. (Not to mention -- if you don't use Skyward to pay for lunch in advance, then you don't have a PIN...or you don't know you have a PIN.) I'm hoping this is something that can be tweaked and corrected. I don't understand why a Point of Sale system needs to track cash purchases. 

I'll let you know if I hear about anything changing.

The high cost of low salaries.

Now that my daughter (RHS Class of 07) has begun working on her Master’s and started student teaching at an elementary school in New Hampshire, I’m getting a fascinating look at the process of becoming a teacher. The view from the very first days of one’s career is so interesting – especially when that career is constantly in the news and the topic of blog posts, speeches, political posturing, national debate and local ridicule. More than a few young or aspiring teachers are asking themselves, “What am I doing? Is this really the smartest thing for me to do with my life?” For most young adults who enter the teaching profession right out of college, teaching is a calling. They’ve always wanted to be a teacher, or they’ve always know they wanted to work with children. Teaching is certainly not the career one lands on when scanning the list of Top 10 Starting Salaries or Top 10 Growth Careers, where it seems the primary focus is on how fast can you get out and how much money can you leave with. Teaching is no way to get rich – there are much higher starting salaries and much more lucrative fields. This fact, I believe, is directly related to the current worries about the quality of our schools.

I read a great piece in the NY Times about teacher compensation and the high cost of turnover -- as 46% of teachers quit before their fifth year. (The High Cost of Low Salaries, 4/30/11) According to the piece:

WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.

And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources.

Compare this with our approach to our military: when results on the ground are not what we hoped, we think of ways to better support soldiers. We try to give them better tools, better weapons, better protection, better training. And when recruiting is down, we offer incentives.

We have a rare chance now, with many teachers near retirement, to prove we’re serious about education. The first step is to make the teaching profession more attractive to college graduates.

I find it difficult to argue with this premise. What do you say?

The article discusses a McKinsey study that looked at countries with successful education systems – you know, the countries frequently cited as shining examples of school systems that are “better” than ours, namely Singapore, Finland and South Korea. The study found:

Turns out these countries have an entirely different approach to the profession. First, the governments in these countries recruit top graduates to the profession. (We don’t.) In Finland and Singapore they pay for training. (We don’t.) In terms of purchasing power, South Korea pays teachers on average 250 percent of what we do.

The authors also remark that “turnover in these countries is startlingly low: In South Korea, it’s 1 percent per year. In Finland, it’s 2 percent. In Singapore, 3 percent.”

Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. Great teachers are going to be the key to improving our education system, and great teachers – who possess the best and brightest minds and who can afford to teach and contribute for the long haul – will cost money.

The NY Times column concludes:

For those who say, “How do we pay for this?” — well, how are we paying for three concurrent wars? How did we pay for the interstate highway system? Or the bailout of the savings and loans in 1989 and that of the investment banks in 2008? How did we pay for the equally ambitious project of sending Americans to the moon? We had the vision and we had the will and we found a way.

To which I add, it’s time to rustle up our collective will, leave the politics out, and make it happen. This is not to say it must happen by being fully funded by local property taxes. It's a federal issue. Right? Isn't our nation's overall approach to education a national issue? Hello? Is this thing on?

And to the young teachers just starting their careers now, perhaps in your first classrooms this week: Hang in there. Don’t be discouraged. Think for yourself and not your union’s political agenda. Be part of the conversation. And thank you.

You'd be surprised how easy it is to save someone's life.

As we sit here in our cozy Village, chilly rain falling, going about our daily lives, it's easy to forget some of the challenges experienced by people in other places around the globe. We're here getting riled up about fields and lunch-buying programs and teacher contracts. Those are all worthy topics of some concern. But sometimes our local issues make it easy to forget we're part of a bigger world. It's easy to remain uninformed, as we constantly filter the news that comes at us via the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, TV, radio, etc. But please don't filter this one out. It's about a problem that is literally killing millions of people -- and which each and every one of us could help fight with just pocket change and a few minutes of our time. Really.

Check out Seth Godin's blog today, which is End Malaria Day. Malaria? Isn't that some disease you get if you're on a safari and get bitten by too many mosquitos? It's far, far worse than that. Worldwide, a child dies of malaria every 45 seconds. But this disease could be virtually wiped out by something as simple as mosquito netting. Godin's blog post, and the End Malaria Day event, are designed to give people like you and me an easy way to learn more and save lives by contributing to the purchase of mosquito netting for families on the other side of the globe. Here's how simple it is:As suggested by Seth's blog:

Right this minute, right now, please do three things:

1. Buy two copies of End Malaria, an astonishing new book by more than sixty of your favorite authors. In a minute, I will explain why this might be the most important book you buy this year (not the best book, of course, just the most important one). You should buy one in paperback too so you can evangelize a copy to a colleague.

2. Tweet or like this post, or email it to ten friends (It only takes a second.)

3. Visit the End Malaria Day website and share it as well.

What would happen if you did that? What would happen if you stepped up and spent a few dollars?

Here's what would happen: someone wouldn't die.

A child wouldn't die from malaria, a disease that causes more childhood death than HIV/AIDS.

It's that direct. Malaria bednets are simple nets that hang over a window or a bed. They're treated with a chemical that mosquitos hate. The mosquitos fly away, they don't bite, people don't get malaria.

I hope you will do this. I'm going to do it right now.

First day of school 2011!

So here we are again, back to school. This time it’s strange for me for a couple of reasons. My son, who is my youngest child, is starting his senior year at Ridgewood High School. It’s hard to believe we’re already here. Hard to believe his college applications will be done in a couple of months. And hardest to believe he’ll be going off to college in one year. He is such a different person than my daughter, that the college app and senior process will be much different this time around. Let’s just say things aren’t quite so buttoned up. At the same time, things don't feel so stressful, either.

We did manage to get a few things done this summer. We researched and visited several schools. At the beginning of the summer, his list of potential colleges was around 40. It is now a manageable 11 schools – and that’s how many he will apply to. I think he’s got 2 reach, 3 target/reach, 4 target and 2 safety. Part of the challenge is that he is completely undecided in terms of what he wants to study or what he wants to do with his life. And that’s OK with me – in fact I think it’s great because I don’t think 16 or 17 year olds have the experience or knowledge of themselves or the world to be “deciding” on their careers. So while I’m glad he’s open to a lot of possibilities, it changes the college search process from one focused on finding the school with the perfect program to finding a school with a wide variety of options, where the important thing is he feels comfortable enough to explore.

I appreciate the fact that college is a priority among Ridgewood students – as my daughter used to say, it’s actually cool to be smart at RHS – but I don’t like the constant comparison and “where are you applying” and “what are your SAT scores” that can reach a fever pitch among some/many of the students (and parents). My number one goal with my son (and my daughter in 2007) was to get them to keep their heads down, focus on themselves and what’s right for them, and don’t listen to what everyone else is doing.

As a parent, it can be helpful to hear what others are doing as a way to get ideas, hear advice from those who’ve lived it before and to relieve stress (whew, glad to know all the boys are procrastinators!). But for the students, I think the constant talk and comparison is not helpful. So I try to be a counterbalance to that.

Anyway, the beginning of senior year is an exciting time. Even though I know that at the very end of the process there will be a letting go, I’m looking forward to the experience – the one I’ll be sharing with my son and husband and the one I’ll be sharing with my fellow RHS Class of 2012 parents.

Have a great year, everyone. Here we go!

That Einstein was a pretty smart guy.

Don't have time for more at this moment (this is an awesome solution for days when I don't have time to write a thoughtful post). Any thoughts?

The search for relevance.

A friend alerted me to a post on another blog that referenced something I tweeted. The person commented, apparently about my blogging or tweeting, that I am “desperately trying to stay relevant.” And then they said it was “sad.”

My first thought was, Isn’t that what we all want? To be relevant? To matter? Whether it’s feeling like we are valued by the people in our lives, or by vast numbers of strangers in our community, our state, our nation or the planet, I’d say the quest to feel like one matters is one of the primary pursuits of mankind. My excellent high school English teacher, Louis Hill, would have said it was part of the “hooman condition.” (For some reason that’s always how he pronounced it…hoooooman condition.)

People all over the world are participating regularly in online communities, from Facebook and Twitter to blogs, message boards, and various other social media. What’s driving this explosion of communication and creativity? A big part is the search for relevance…the quest to belong…the need to matter. People who, prior to this digital revolution, felt disenfranchised and disconnected from each other, from their government, and from their future, now have a chance to join in the conversation. To participate in the debate. To share their unique perspective and opinions, even if it’s as simple as clicking “Like.”

In Ridgewood, the reach for relevance can be seen in some of our local blogs as well as online news sources like the Ridgewood Patch or NorthJersey.com. Patch and North Jersey are legitimate news sources, with the addition of a comment capability, which is where local residents can find their connection, their relevance. Local blogs, like my own, are pet projects (NOT news sources), with posts reflecting our personal opinions, our individual interests. In the comments section of our blogs is where you can see certain residents grab for their share of relevance. But is there a catch?

I wonder…How much are we participating, how much do we matter, if we only participate anonymously? If we don’t use our name or any other recognizable identifier, are our comments relevant? Are we relevant? Is there a difference? Does anonymous posting only allow us to feel relevant?

I certainly understand that some people are naturally comfortable speaking up publicly and others may be shy. I also know that the “cloak of invisibility” gives some people license to A) say things they don’t actually believe, for the fun of “stirring the pot;” B) say things that are socially or politically “incorrect;” C) use hate speech, bully others and just generally be mean in ways they never would to someone’s face; D) lie. Basically, all these behaviors stem from the lack of accountability that comes with anonymous posting.

And herein lies the monkey wrench. Can we be relevant and avoid accountability? Or when we communicate anonymously, are we simply being relevant-ish? What do you think?

(And, really, I’m not calling you out and demanding only named comments (not yet haha). I’m just thinking out loud and exploring a concept. If you have a thought on this topic, please feel free to comment, by name or by nom de plume or by anonymous…I know that old habits die hard!)

Thumbs up & down: online payment system.

Talking with some friends (also Ridgewood parents) about the announcement that the school district has moved to a new system for online payments for things like activity fees, lunches, etc. One friend complained that the district is now "nickel and diming" us with the $3.50 transaction fee for online payments. She said something like, "the system was working fine before, and it was free!" Another parent commented that the District had successfully found a new revenue stream.

I give a mixed thumbs up and thumbs down on this. On the one hand, a better online payment system, that lets parents "load" their account with cash and then use it as necessary, seems good. I never did the online lunch ordering with my kids, so I'm not sure how it works if you order a lunch and then don't end up using it. Do you get your money back? It seems like with this system, you could order lunches but then if your child doesn't actually receive a lunch, then your account won't be charged? That's what it sounds like to me. I also like that now high school students will be able to draw on the account to buy lunch. Previously there was never a cashless way to get lunch at RHS. I don't know how it works, though. (Swipe your ID card? Do they even have magnetic stripes?)

I guess I can see an advantage to being able to check my account online in Skyward, then make payments, etc., in one place. (Although I notice that the instructions say you have to do activity fee payments and lunch payments separately, so that's not such a time saver.) I read that the system will allow me to "monitor" my child's food selections...I'm not sure what that means exactly. If kids are in elementary school, there isn't a "selection" is there? Don't they just get whatever is served that day? Maybe it means middle school and high school. Eh. Maybe that's important for some people to know if your kid had a sandwich or a cookie. I guess I'm neutral on that feature.

On the other hand, it does irk me that the District says they are charging the $3.50 as a "convenience fee." It's not really more convenient for me to use Skyward vs. Community Pass. Whether I click on this URL or that URL, neither one is more convenient than the other.

It might have been better if the District had explained that the previous processing of online payments with Community Pass also cost $$ per transaction -- only in the past, the cost was absorbed by the District. It was never "free." It was just free for parents. There is a difference. (From what I understand, the District was spending around $30,000 per year between the user fee and the transaction fees.)

The reality is, now the cost of processing online transactions will be paid for by only those parents using the service, instead of being paid for by all taxpayers. This seems fair to me. I just think it wasn't explained well.

So I give the new online payment system a thumbs up, but the communications about it a thumbs down.

When incentives are incentives to cheat.

Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that the NYC principal who was removed from her job for changing students’ grades and giving course credit to failing students was retained by the NYC public schools as an “Achievement Coach?” (See New York Times article.) That seems like a stretch. Apparently she will still be paid a principal’s salary “but will no longer be eligible for a $25,000 performance bonus like the one she earned in 2009.” Well, that’s a relief.

I’m not even going to bother being outraged (or even surprised) that this principal wasn’t fired, that the NY schools chancellor seemed to think this wasn’t a very big deal. Let the NYC parents get upset about that. I’m more concerned about the lesson to be learned by those who push financial incentives for higher test scores. This type of thing – tweaking scores or massaging grades or “misapplying grading policies” or, let’s be real, cheating – is going to become tempting as the stakes get higher and higher. Perhaps you’ve heard about the cheating scandal recently coming to light in some Pennsylvania public schools? Or what about Atlanta? Desperate people, in desperate times, will do desperate things to keep their jobs.

Of course, another irony is the fact that incentives like bonus pay have been shown to have ZERO effect on student performance. (Click here and here.) But lawmakers don’t want to hear that. The public doesn’t want to hear it. It’s easier for them if the answer is simply to reward educators for higher test scores.

Seems pretty clear to me that this is not going to end well…

Update: There's a new story today on the NY Times website, reporting that allegations of cheating and grade tampering in the NYC public schools have tripled since 2002. Yep, expect to see more and more stories like this...

Share the road.

Alright so this is my first “real” blog post in a month or so and I decided to start with…bike riding. Early in the summer, I bought a new bike (the photo at left is my sweet new ride!). What I really wanted was a new car. I haven’t had a new car in years. We’ve had plans for new cars now and then, and my husband got a new car so he could commute to his new job, but it’s hard for me to make the case for a new car when I work out of my home office! So…I placated myself with a shiny new bike, and it’s been great. I made a commitment to try and ride the bike for any errands within two miles of home, inspired by the Clif 2 Mile Challenge. I was intrigued to learn that (according to the 2 Mile Challenge website) “40% of all urban travel in the US happens within 2 miles of where people live. And 90% of that travel is by car.” The premise of the Challenge is to get people to ride a bike for those under-2-mile trips, in order to reduce the effect of carbon emissions on climate change.

While I like the idea of reducing carbon emissions, I was motivated by some other benefits of bike riding in Ridgewood. For starters, no more parking hassle! There aren’t exactly bike racks everywhere, but there are lampposts, signposts and fences to which I can lock my bike. I love pulling up to whatever store or restaurant I want and parking my bike – FOR FREE – within a few feet. Next benefit – exercise. I had not ridden a bike in years, perhaps decades, and I forgot that you can get some pretty good exercise peddling around town. (There are hills and grades where I never noticed before.) The final benefit is saving a little on gas money. Hey, every little bit helps!

So this summer, I’ve been riding the bike for my typical errands, most of which are: bank, post office, Stop & Shop, nail salon, haircut, friends’ house. That’s pretty much my life outside the house. (Exciting, I know.) We’ll see how long I can keep riding when the weather starts cooling off. I can tell you I don’t ride in the rain and I won’t ride in the snow. I’m not that crazy.

But I did want to make one point after all this explanation: the streets of Ridgewood are not a welcome place for bike riders! I had no idea. The hazards are many: potholes, uneven pavement and deep sewer drains. People who open their doors without looking over their shoulder. People who follow too close in their cars, or who don’t pay attention when they make a right hand turn and you’re right there. Hello, I’m riding here! It’s frustrating…and more than a little scary sometimes. Now, I will never advocate bike riders who ride two- or three- (or more) across. That’s rude. But I think we all need to make it easier – and safer – for bike riders in our town. Fewer cars on the street benefits all of us. You don’t have to ride a bike if you don’t want, but please watch out for those who choose to get some exercise, reduce pollution, and leave a parking space open for you. You're welcome.

Update 8/23 @ 4:56 p.m.: A girl on a bike was hit by a car today at E. Ridgewood Ave. and Hope Street. It was about 10 minutes after I did my errands by bike. As I rode today on Ridgewood Ave downtown, squishing as far to the right as possible to avoid passing cars, hoping no one pulled out into traffic without looking over their shoulder, I realized how I should probably avoid Ridgewood Ave. Of course, it's impossible to avoid it completely when running errands downtown, but I gotta say, it is a little scary on a bike! I already make a habit of getting off the bike and walking across Ridgewood Ave or its cross streets downtown. It's just too risky to ride across. And forget about the offset intersection of Franklin and Maple...I have not figured out the best way to get across Maple there by bike. People...there are too many pedestrians and bicyclists being hit in our town! Pay attention, everyone!

Hey, welcome back!

I haven’t been blogging much (at all) over the past couple of months. It’s been a busy summer on the work front. I’ve been writing a lot for several clients, including writing a frequent blog (on home décor) for one client, so maybe that has something to do with my lack of energy for this blog of my own. It’s true that at the end of the day (or in the wee hours of the morning), after writing for hours, it can be a little difficult to get revved up to write some more. Especially when there's no deadline and no paycheck attached. I guess I just got a little tired...

Also playing into the situation is my status, as of April, as a “regular” Ridgewood resident. That is, not a member of the Board of Education. When I was on the BOE, I felt a very real obligation to write about various topics in a timely manner. If there was a topic that we discussed at a BOE meeting, I might write about it the next day to explain or to add my own opinions. I often tried to fill holes in District or Board communications. Since April, there’s no real rush or obligation for me to write. Not to mention, it’s definitely different to be commenting completely from the outside. I don’t want to be the armchair quarterback who simply lobs commentary or complaints on BOE decisions or actions, especially since I don't have all the information anymore. I may not really have a handle on my role these days, but I can say that I’m not interested in being a gadfly.

That being said, I am absolutely and completely just as concerned and interested in our schools in particular and in education in general today, as I was before the April election. My silence these past couple of months should not be interpreted to mean that I don’t know what’s going on, or, worse, that I don’t care what’s going on. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've been reading, corresponding, paying attention and researching, especially in education areas that particularly interest me, such as technology in schools, curriculum, communications and funding. Honestly, I'm just trying to figure out my role.

I'm not gonna lie...I have enjoyed the quiet a little bit. I enjoy waking up and reading my email and not finding half a dozen messages from people who are angry. I have enjoyed not receiving 200+ pages to read on Friday night. And I've enjoyed not running back and forth to the Ed Center for various Board meetings, reviewing bills, committee meetings, etc.

HOWEVER, now that we’re approaching the beginning of the 2011-12 school year, and having just enjoyed a couple months of quiet, behind-the-scenes observation of our Ridgewood schools, Village politics and life in our town, I’m feeling like I need to start blogging again. I don't really like being quiet. Vacation’s (almost) over! It’s true that Ridgewood can be a bit of a ghost town in the summer, but since I’m not one of those lucky enough to have a vacation home to escape to, I can tell you this: there’s been plenty of stuff going on in Ridgewood – both in our schools and out.

So I'm just starting to think about some of the topics I’d like to explore with my blog. Here are a few random things on my radar:

-U.S. schools/ education reform/comparisons to Finland and others
-Teacher pay
-Fast food retailers coming to Ridgewood?
-Bike riding in Ridgewood
-Results of the latest parent surve re: schools
-The latest on fields and lights
-School construction / additions at Ridge & Hawes / Status of Glen school (again)
-Technology in schools
-Overbooked children / Overdoing it with the extracurriculars
-Adventures of a first-time teacher
-Graydon
-Village Council effectiveness

These are just a few things I'm thinking about. What about you? What would you like to talk about?

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer. Please come back. My blog's re-start may be a little rocky at first, but I'll try to get ramped back up as quickly as possible.