Annual Super Science Saturday is an amazing Ridgewood tradition.

For the 23rd year, Super Science Saturday will fill Ridgewood High School with a dazzling array of scientific exhibits, shows and presentations. The event will be held on Saturday March 12 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Everyone, all ages, is invited.

If you've never been to Super Science Saturday, you should check it out. It's really amazing to see how many kids, adults, teachers, parents, visitors, experts, animals, and more come out.

In addition to presentations from Ridgewood Police & Fire, Whole Foods, local college physics clubs, RHS science students, Valley Hospital and dozens of other experts, the Great Paper Airplane Contest, rocket launches, and an interactive show by the Franklin Institute, Ridgewood children are also invited to present their own science experiments and activities. Over the years, over 3,500 students have presented in the Hall of Science, and this year they're hoping to get that number to 4,000!

If your kids want to participate but they just don't have a good science project idea, all Ridgewood students are invited to participate in a three-week after school program designed to help students choose ideas and create projects. IT will take place at The Stable (259 N. Maple Ave.) on February 17, March 3 and March 10, from 3:30 to 5:30 on all days. To sign-up for the workshop, email Mel Powers at mel@superciencesaturday.org. Contact before Febrary 4 to reserve a space!

Click here for a Super Science Saturday flyer that tells more about the event and the workshops at the Stable.

Hear that sound? It's Jamboree season again!

Folks who live near BF or GW may be hearing the telltale sound of tapping feet...it's Jamboree time again! It's the time of year when over 100 Ridgewood High School parents dance, show off their talent (some), make fools of themselves (others) and give remarkably of themselves (everyone) for the benefit of our students.

The shows are February 9th-12th at Ben Franklin Middle School Auditorium.

This is Jamboree's 65th year, and the theme is "That's Life"

All proceeds from Jamboree go to the Jamboree Scholarship program. The scholarships are distributed in the spring to deserving RHS students.

Tickets for reserved seats are available online at the Jamboree website (click here) or tickets may be available at the door. Parking is a challenge, so carpool to the shows!

(And yes, the Board of Ed will again have a small cameo in the performance...as further enticement to get you to come haha. That's always good for a laugh...or an eye-roll.)

Preliminary school budget will require cuts to balance, again.

At Monday night’s Board of Ed meeting, Dr. Fishbein presented the first look at what he called the “top down” or preliminary budget for 2011-12. This is the starting point for crafting the actual budget, the process for which will culminate in the budget vote on April 27. Basically, the preliminary budget takes the large categories and projects the increases, if any, we can expect, based on everything (staffing, programs, enrollment, etc.) remaining as it is now. Then it projects an expected increase in revenues (including the property tax levy that makes up the majority of our income).

The preliminary budget as presented the other night will be posted to the website soon, and I’ll provide the link when it’s there. But I’ll share a few of the highlights here.

The largest increases in expenses are projected to be:
RAA (Administrators’ Salaries) 3.6% (per their contract)
PERS 18.8%
Workers Comp 5%
Health Benefits 12%
Utilities 5%
Tuition 5%
Liability, Property, Casualty Insurance 5%
Most other expenses were projected at 2% increase. The line for REA (teachers' and secretaries' salaries) is posted at 0% right now, as there is not yet a contract for 2011-14.

These increases are things we already know about (and can’t do much about). For example, the increases in PERS (pension contribution) and Workers Comp come from the state. Increases in Tuitions (the tuitions we must pay for Ridgewood students who are educated in other districts, often for Special Ed) are set by the state. Insurance increases are projected by our broker based on our actual health history.

In terms of revenue, the only line projected to increase was the Local Tax Levy at 2% (which is the maximum allowable according to current state law). We kept the categorical state aid line at 0...no reason to expect that to change.

Bottom line, if we calculate the increase in expenses over which we don’t have control (without changing program, staff, etc.), and the maximum increase we’re allowed in revenue, the District will face a $655,191 deficit, just to break even. That is, we would need to come up with $655,691 in cuts. Any increase in the teachers' salary line would require additional budget cuts.

It will now be up to the administration to come up with recommendations for how to balance the budget. I think we'll see the first recommendation at the February 24 BOE meeting.

Find out about K-5 Math online resources.

Parents/guardians of K-5 students in the Ridgewood Public Schools are invited to attend a preview of online mathematics materials that are available to them and their children for working at home. Provided by Pearson Success Net, these resources offer interactive games, review and enrichment opportunities.

There are two ways you can get the information:

In-Person: Wednesday, February 2, from 7:30-9 p.m. at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, in the Third Floor Board Room: This will be an in-person preview conducted by Pearson staff member Jackie Thompson.

Online Webinar: Tuesday, February 15, from 7:30-9 p.m.: Pearson staff member Jackie Thompson will give an online webinar, which can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer. Click here for directions about how to participate in the webinar.

Should funds be taken from Ridgewood schools to pay for charters?

Today the New Jersey Left Behind blog questioned whether charter schools can serve a purpose in successful school districts. The writer was bothered by testimony at the charter school hearings in Trenton, at the Assembly Education Committee, where the school board president from Princeton argued that “regulations should require charter applicants to prove there was a true educational need for their new school, rather than just a desire for it among a select group of parents. She cautioned against the spread of “boutique” charters for studying Hebrew, Mandarin and “the extensive recycling of plastics.” Others made similar arguments.

The NJ Left Behind blogger commented, “In some ways this is a choice between philosophical inconsistency -- limiting school choice for some and not for others -- or the targeting of ed reform resources to those truly in need.”

I will not deny that having a choice of charter schools can be (although not always) a positive thing – in districts where the existing public schools are failing. But of course ed reform resources should be targeted “to those truly in need.” How could it be otherwise? That seems to make basic sense. The fear of high-performing districts is well-founded. If a charter wants to come into Ridgewood, why should our public school students have to give up successful programs in order to support it? Our district is high-performing. Our budget is stretched beyond the limit. We get $0 in state funding, and the 2% tax levy cap means we have to cut just to balance the budget. Our community already sends plenty of income tax dollars to Trenton, where it is redistributed to other districts. It simply would not be fair to siphon additional funds out of our schools, thereby affecting the quality, so that parents could set-up a “boutique” school, for something like Mandarin immersion. NJ Left Behind makes a good point with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “"a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." That sounds about right, especially when the “consistency” is at a level our community is not willing to accept.

Pizza.

Have I mentioned how glad I am to see the new "take and bake" pizza place, called HomeMade Pizza, opening downtown soon? There was a similar place we used to frequent back in California and I never understood why the idea wasn't more popular out here. Anyway, I don't usually talk about local businesses too much (at least not on this blog), but just thought I'd mention this one...also they have online ordering. Way cool. I'll probably see you there sometime. If you get there first, post a comment and let me know how it was.

On the BOE agenda for January 24.

Updated 1/24/11 @ 12:42 p.m.

The Ridgewood Board of Ed will meet tomorrow (Monday) night at 7:30 p.m. As always, the meeting is open to the public and we have plenty of seating available :) so come on down. You can also watch live on Cablevision Channel 77 or webcast at this link.

A few highlights from the agenda:

• Dr. Fishbein will give an update on referendum budgets and costs. Good news – we’re still under budget!

• We’ll get a presentation on middle school schedules and the 6th grade world languages program.

• Dr. Fishbein and Mr. DeSimone will present the first pass of the working budget for 2011-12. This is an in-process document, but it’s important to share with the community so you can see where things are as of right now.

• The Communications Committee (Sheila Brogan and myself are the BOE members) will discuss the document responding to neighbors’ concerns regarding RHS and Stevens Fields.

• Finance Committee (Michele Lenhard and Bob Hutton are BOE members) will report on the 2009-10 audit and the status of software corrections.

• I will give a brief update on the status of the revised Fields Use Policy, currently being worked on in the joint Fields Committee. (Please note: the revised Fields Use Policy itself will not be presented or reviewed tonight. There may be general discussion, but the committee is not presenting the revised policy tonight.) (Updated 1/24/11 @ 12:42 p.m.)

Any questions, let me know.

Great blogs to follow if you're interested in education.

A new list of the "Top 100 School Administrators' Blogs' was recently published and it looks like a great compilation and a really useful and fascinating resource, especially for information about technology and learning. All the big guns are there, plus lots of amazing little blogs from around the country. You'll find big picture theoretical discussions about how kids learn...opinions about how schools should be run or financed...interesting perspectives on teaching and leading...and lots of great information about how 21st century technology is being put to creative and successful use in classrooms around the country.

A lot of the blogs on the list are those that I already follow via RSS feed or on Twitter. Even more are new to me -- I wish I had time to read them all every day.

And one of them holds particular interest -- because it's mine! My blog is the only one listed in the School Board category. What does that mean? Hmmm...mostly it means that there aren't a lot of school board members blogging. I realize that. But there are a few, and I follow their posts from time to time. I'll share links to them, if you're interested. But I have to admit -- it's not always so interesting to read about local school events in Ohio or Idaho. That is, until they are faced with a challenge similar to something we face in Ridgewood, then it's truly fascinating!

Anyway, check out the Top 100 list (featuring yours truly). Bookmark it and see what else is going on in the big world of education.

Tiger Mother, burning bright.

Have you been following the “Tiger Mother” story all over the media over the past 10 days or so?

In a nutshell, a Yale law professor, Amy Chua, wrote a book (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) describing how she’s brought up her two daughters in the strict Chinese fashion that her own parents used. The original story in the Wall Street Journal – Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior – described a childhood with no playdates, not TV, no computer games and hours of music practice. Her daughters are not allowed to: attend a sleepover, be in a school play, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, or not be the No. 1 student in every subject (except gym and drama). Mrs. Chua told about her priority to raise “successful” kids, often with “tough love” tactics. For example, the time her 4-year-old daughter brought her a homemade Birthday card and Mrs. Chua returned it, saying “I want a better one – one that you’ve put some thought and effort into … I deserve better than this. So I reject this.” Yikes!

Needless to say, mothers around the country reacted…and they were not supportive.

Mrs. Chua started going on the defensive, and tried to explain in a follow-up WSJ interview that she was telling about how she parented in the past, and now she has learned some lessons and is not so harsh. Her protestations were a little weak, if you ask me, and she really doesn’t apologize or regret those rules and tactics she used when her girls were younger.

I’ve read a few interesting responses to Mrs. Chua’s “tiger mother.” I recommend Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate, who wrote a column featuring stories of his own “crazy Asian mom” and his own interview with Mrs. Chua.

This past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had a feature under The Way We Live Now header, titled “No More Mrs. Nice Mom,” in which author Judith Warner discussed the Tiger Mother and hit on some points that really resonated with me and the way I often describe the Ridgewood parents I encounter at HSA meetings and soccer sidelines. Ms. Warner writes,

The terror of losing ground is the ultimate driving force in the middle- and upper-middle-class American family today, and however unique Chua’s elaboration of it…however obnoxious and over the top her attempts to cope, she is hardly alone in believing that, in her carefully considered ministrations, she will find the perfect alchemy that will allow her to inoculate her kids against personal and professional misfortune.

Through all the iterations of Mommy madness, “good” and “bad,” this article of faith always remains intact: that parents can have control. Developmental neuroscientists may talk of genes and as-yet-undiscovered-and-hence-uncontrollable environmental factors that affect the developing fetus, social scientists may talk of socioeconomic background and the predictive power of parents’ level of education — the rest of us keep hope alive that parental actions, each and every moment of each and every better-lived day, have the ultimate ability to shape a child’s life outcome.

That, my friends, is the source of so much frustration here in Ridgewood (and undoubtedly elsewhere in other so-called affluent communities). We are in a strange time, as we parents start to acknowledge how our children are under so much pressure to succeed, that the college acceptance merry-go-round and the AP course race might be out of control, that the childhood resume-building could be unhealthy (you think?). Parents at our high school and middle school HSAs have been captivated by the movie Race to Nowhere, and have begun questioning the amount of homework kids receive or how many AP classes they really need to take.

At the same time, sometimes even in the same room (at the high school HSA meeting, for example), parents are strategizing and looking for the magic combination of courses and GPA and AP scores that will make their child most attractive to colleges. I’m still trying to understand the parents who commented in the District’s recent parent survey that they wished their 1st grade child had more homework, or wished that there were more history and science tests in 2nd grade. I have often commented and attributed some Ridgewood parents’ drive to this phenomenon described by Ms. Warner – the belief that every little decision parents make for their children, every teacher assignment, every single activity or project or sports team, etc. – will actually determine their child’s future success (and, presumably, earning power). It's crazy, if you ask me, but it's there all the time: If I do everything right, then everything for my child will work out OK. Don't you think that's just a bit conceited of us? And isn't history riddled with stories of perfectly good people who did all the right things and yet life doesn't work out so well for them?

We parents have got to reconcile this dichotomy. We can’t simultaneously decry the stress our kids are under while maneuvering to get the “right” extracurriculars onto their resume. We can’t say “give them less homework and fewer tests” and then turn around and complain that RHS is not ranked high enough in New Jersey Monthly magazine.

One thing this "tiger mother" story is bringing to light for Ridgewood parents is that we are all part of the problem and, thus, we all need to be part of the solution.

"Schools don’t fail in Glen Rock, Ridgewood and Mendham for a reason and it has nothing to do with tenure."

I liked today's column from Alfred Doblin in the Bergen Record -- it's a good response to Governor Christie's Town Hall meeting last week in Paramus.

Reprinting Doblin's column here (AKA, no time to write tonight!):

Doblin: Put teachers on the table, not in the trash
GOVERNOR CHRISTIE came to Paramus last week and, like anyone coming to Paramus, he came to shop. But the governor was not shopping for something; he came to shop his ideas for education reform.

At a Thursday town hall meeting he said, “When you have schools like the 200 chronically failing schools in New Jersey with 104,000 students in them that have been judged to be chronically failing, we’re going to close them and start over.”

Starting over means not just closing these schools, but doing away with teacher tenure and replacing it with merit pay attached to student performance. It also means opening more charter schools. Blocking the way is the New Jersey Education Association, according to Christie. The NJEA is the Big Bad Wolf.

Maybe there is some truth to that, but there isn’t just one wolf bearing its teeth on the path to grandma’s high-property-taxed house. Let’s face it: Chris Christie isn’t Little Red Riding Hood.

Two hundred failing schools is unacceptable. But the state Department of Education’s website lists a total of 2,485 schools in New Jersey. That means less than 10 percent are failing. It would seem that the majority of schools, and the teachers inside them, are doing rather well. No doubt, students in failing schools can take little solace in that.

I agree 100 percent with the governor about tenure. I do not believe in guaranteed jobs for life. I do not accept the notion that the current form of tenure allows for the removal of poor-performing teachers. But eliminating tenure without having a viable alternative that does not leave teachers vulnerable to the whims of angry parents and school board members with agendas is equally unacceptable.

What I see as problematic in all the school-reform talk is that none of it acknowledges that while the state has a constitutional obligation to provide a thorough and efficient education, students do not have a constitutional obligation to be willing participants. They can be forced to show up, but they cannot be forced to learn.

Teachers can motivate many students. Great teachers can work some miracles. But there are many factors from home life to language skills to neighborhood safety that affect how a child learns. Public schools are required to take in everybody.

Charter schools have not been shown to be universally better than public schools. Parents who push for their children to be in a charter school are equally likely to push for their children in a public school. One pushing parent is worth more than a room full of pushing Christies.

And I am sick and tired of hearing about the Robert Treat Academy in Newark. The charter school is by all accounts a very fine institution. But it also is the creation of one of the most powerful political figures in New Jersey, Stephen Adubato. Politicians visit it like devout Catholics visit Lourdes. Enough already.

The governor can close every poor performing school in New Jersey tomorrow and replace them with a charter school and there will still be failing schools because if those schools are required to teach everybody, they will have some students who will not get with the program. And if these charter schools toss out the students who do not meet their schools’ criteria, where do these students land?

There is a reason – a reason more complex than tenure – for failing schools. Schools don’t fail in Glen Rock, Ridgewood and Mendham for a reason and it has nothing to do with tenure. It’s stability. It’s parents. It’s safety. It’s many, many things.

The leadership of the NJEA remains a good target because it has been inflexible. It has put its interests ahead of it members. But less than 10 percent of the schools in New Jersey are chronically failing. If teachers, and yes, the NJEA, are to blame for 200 failing schools, they are also responsible for 2,285 schools that are succeeding.

Christie should take credit for raising issues that no public official has dared touch. Everything about education should be on the table – tenure, salaries, pensions, class sizes, federal and state mandates, charter schools – put them all on the table.

I’m sure the audience in Paramus was appreciative of the governor’s tough talk. The governor is passionate and, from my experience with him, it’s real. It’s not generated for the cameras or the polls. He is who he is.

He is a product of public schools. And he needs to remember that. Teachers and their contracts should be on the table; they should not be in the trash.

Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.