Ridgewood Schools December Advocacy Notes

This report is furnished courtesy of Ridgewood Board of Education Member Sheila Brogan.

The Legislature

The Assembly passed legislation, A3002, which would require Ridgewood schools to have monthly security drills. The bill now goes to the Senate. If it becomes law the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness would be charged with developing curriculum for schools to use when conducting these security drills.

The Senate Education Committee released bill, S 1861 on 12-8-08. This bill if enacted would move the Ridgewood School Board elections to the November General Election. It would also eliminate the budget vote on school budgets at or below cap. Only second questions would need to have a vote. However, voting on second questions would be in November and out of the budget cycle. The new DOE regulations make it more difficult for districts to propose second questions. The Assembly approved a similar bill in May. It is uncertain as to whether the Senate President, Senator Codey, will post S 1861 for a vote. He has expressed reservations about the bill citing concerns about the partisan nature of the November elections and that School Board elections are non-partisan.

State Board of Education

In testimony before the State Board of Education some educators voiced concerns that the new high school redesign curriculum which includes a number of college prep courses and exit exams will cause an increase in the number of students who drop out of high school. The redesign plan requires students to pass tests in biology, chemistry, language arts, foreign language, and Algebra II in order to graduate. There are also questions from some districts as to how they will fund the lab science courses that might need to be added to meet the state requirements. The vocational schools testified before the State BOE with concerns that these new standards would leave little time for students to take vocational training courses.

NJ Depart of Education and New Regulations

The NJ Department of Education released 178 pages of regulations on November 18, 2008. Included in these regulations are the guidelines for Executive County Superintendents to establish committees and subcommittees to look at consolidating and regionalizing school districts. The regulations also devote over 25 pages to travel and sustenance guidelines for Board members and school district staff and page after page on budgets and the role of the Executive County Superintendent. The Executive County Superintendents are granted increased authority to oversee budgets and to make changes to budgets (reduce or change line items) that do not meet the efficiency standards listed in the new regulations. There will be no public hearings on these regulations since the legislature passed S1911 last June which allowed the Commissioner to promulgate regulations on an emergency basis without public hearings.

NJ Courts

The New Jersey Association of School Administrators (NJASA) will be heading to state court to sue the Department of Education for regulations that require contracts for currently employed superintendents, assistant superintendents, and business administrators to be reviewed by the Executive County Superintendent. The new regulations limit payouts made at retirement for unused vacation and sick days and eliminate some contract provisions such as life insurance policies payments and providing lump sums for travel reimbursement. NJASA argues that their contracts have been negotiated with their Boards of Education and to have the Executive County Superintendent change the contracts denies administrators their due process.

The NJ Supreme Court remanded the case against the new school funding formula, the School Funding Reform Act, to a lower court for further study and assessment. This suit was brought against the state by the Education Law Center representing the Abbott districts. ELC will argue that the adequacy budget as determined by the state for each district in NJ are below what is needed to provide a thorough and efficient education as require by the NJ constitution. Dollar$ and Sense submitted an amicus brief. Hearings on the case will begin December 15 and a report of the findings is scheduled to be issued to the Supreme Court by the end of March.

State Budget

Estimates on next year's state budget indicate a $5 billion deficit.

Governor Corzine
Governor Corzine met with President-elect Obama last week and advocated for the Federal government to fully fund Special Education costs. In 1975 when Congress approved the Individual with Disability Education Act (IDEA) the intent was for the Federal government to pay 40% of special education costs annually. In the 33 years since passage of the bill the Federal government has not paid more than 18%. Governor Corzine asked that increases to IDEA funding be part of the second stimulus package. Funding special education costs at 40% would give needed relief to state and school district budgets.

School Construction

On December 9, nineteen NJ school districts will be presenting bond referendums to voters. These bond referendums amount to $235 million. Among these 19 districts are two districts in Bergen County. Northern Highlands Regional will ask voters for $1,397,080 to replace emergency generators and boilers at the high school. The state has approved $558,832 in debt service aid. Upper Saddle River is seeking $3,563,430 for roof repairs, installation of solar panels and renovations to all three of their schools. Upper Saddle River is eligible for $1,092,904 in debt service aid from the state and they will receive an $87,000 grant from the NJ Clean Energy Program.

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Ridgewood Schools Advocacy Report for December