This is a letter to the editors of the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

In response to the May 12 article regarding the Asbury Park Board of Education offices (“Asbury’s office decision questioned”), let me clarify a few points that were not written.

The board has people “bamboozled” into thinking that there is a required cost to renovate this building in the amount of $1.6 million to $2 million.

For the record, the Early Childhood Department and the Child Study Team have been working in that building for this entire school year at a renovation nowhere near the figure that was stated for the board move. The Alternative School is slated to move into that building this September.

I toured the second and third floor of that building to see the preparation made to have this building up to specifications. Those two floors never looked better. The staff did an outstanding job of preparation, only to be told that the board will not be moving there.

Here are a few questions that need to be answered:

• Why an exorbitant cost of $1.6 million?
• If our neighbors in Ocean Township can utilize an older school building for their central office, why isn’t it good enough for Asbury Park, when they have cut union staff for five years now?
• Why do they need to be on Mattison Avenue, the farthest point from the majority of the schools within the district?

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — Analysts say a new state revenue report could change Gov. Chris Christie’s budget plans and force new spending cuts.

In a memo sent out earlier this month to lawmakers, the Office of Legislative Services reported April revenues were less than expected, but didn’t say by how much. They also were on pace to trail the same period a year earlier.

Lawmakers last week asked State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff to provide specifics on the shortfall. But he declined, saying it wouldn’t be prudent to do so.

The new revenue report is due out today.

OLS officials say there’s not much breathing room in the current budget. That means low revenues could force budget cuts and changes in budget plans for the coming fiscal year.

The state constitution requires a balanced budget.

This is an opinion piece from the New York Times. Here is a link to the article:

By GAIL COLLINS

Let’s talk about talking pineapples.

Actually (spoiler alert!) I’m going to use the pineapple as a sneaky way to introduce the topic of privatization of public education. I was driven to this. Do you know how difficult it is to get anybody to read about “privatization of education?” It’s hell. A pineapple, on the other hand, is something everybody likes. It’s a symbol of hospitality. Its juice is said to remove warts. And you really cannot beat the talking-fruit angle.

This month, New York eighth graders took a standardized English test that included a story called “The Hare and the Pineapple,” in which you-know-what challenges a hare to a race. The forest animals suspect that since the pineapple can’t move, it must have some clever scheme to ensure victory, and they decide to root against the bunny. But when the race begins, the pineapple just sits there. The hare wins. Then the animals eat the pineapple. The end.

There were many complaints from the eighth graders, who had to answer questions like: “What would have happened if the animals had decided to cheer for the hare?” They were also supposed to decide whether the animals ate the pineapple because they were hungry, excited, annoyed or amused. (That part bothered me a lot. We’ve got a talking pineapple here, people. You don’t just go and devour it for having delusions of grandeur.)

Teachers, parents and education experts all chimed in. Nobody liked the talking pineapple questions.

This is an article from the MSNBC.com, here is a link to the article:

By Mark Lagerkvist
New Jersey Watchdog

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — a rising star in the national Republican Party — called an overhaul of the state pension system his “biggest governmental victory.” He now faces embarrassment from flaws his reforms failed to fix.

The sweeping new laws increase contributions from public workers, decrease benefits and halt cost-of-living hikes. According to Christie, the changes should save the state $120 billion over the next 30 years.

But his reform did little to stop the age-old New Jersey practice of double-dipping, in which employees “retire,” start collecting a pension, and then are rehired, often the next day. Christie’s own deputy chief of staff collects $219,000 a year from the state — a $130,000 salary as a top aide to the governor plus $89,000 in state pension.

Worse for Christie, a criminal investigation is under way involving his running mate, New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

As a county sheriff in 2008, Guadagno made false statements to enable her chief officer to pocket nearly $85,000 a year in retirement pay while drawing an $87,500 annual salary. The double-dipping scheme first was reported by New Jersey Watchdog in 2010.

The state’s investigation is assigned to the Attorney’s General’s Division of Criminal Justice, a unit where Guadagno once served as deputy director. Despite the apparent conflict, Christie has not appointed a special prosecutor.

A spokesman for Christie and Guadagno declined to comment. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to questions.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Sun, here is a link to the article:

Sides with superintendent on approving full list of recommended rehires

By Molly Mulshine

State fiscal monitor Lester Richens has overruled the board of education and re-appointed all tenured and non-tenured faculty and administrators in the school district as recommended by the superintendent.

“Please be advised that I am overriding the vote of the Asbury Park Board of Education on resolution number 1 on page B1 that appeared on the board agenda on May 9,” Richens said in an email today. “By this action, I am approving the reappointment list as recommended by the superintendent.”

A more detailed memo on Richens’s reasons for overruling the decision will follow, he said in the email.

At the board of education meeting on May 9, the board was one vote shy of approving the renewal list, which had been recommended by Superintendent Denise Lowe. Richens had said he would issue his decision today on whether to overrule that vote.

Board member Angela Ahbez-Anderson had moved to table the vote on four people on the list — two tenured, two non-tenured — until a future meeting so they could be voted on separately. This motion did not garner enough votes to pass, so those four staff members will be renewed.

The re-appointment list contains tenured and non-tenured teachers and administrators in the district, although the list has not been made public. At a recent meeting, employees on the list were identified by numbers instead of their names. For the full story on the vote Wednesday night, click here.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Sun, here is a link to the article:

Lester Richens will decide by tomorrow whether to renew teacher, administrator contracts

By Molly Mulshine

After the Asbury Park Board of Education failed to renew teacher and administrator contracts for the 2012-2013 school year, the decision is in state fiscal monitor Lester Richens’s hands.

The contract renewal was up for a vote at last night’s board of education meeting. Board members were unable to publicly discuss the contracts in detail because this qualifies as a personnel matter, which is only to be discussed in private executive session.

Those employees whose names were not on the renewal list are effectively terminated. The superintendent is required to notify them by May 15 that their contracts have not been renewed, said board attorney Michael Gross. If they are not notified by that date, they “will be deemed to be renewed on May 16 whether the board acts or not,” he said.

Board member Angela Ahbez-Anderson moved that two tenured employees and two non-tenured employees be removed from the contract renewal list and tabled until a future meeting. Those employees’ names were not disclosed. After a vote, this motion did not carry.

Only four board members voted to approve the renewal list, while two abstained. Because passage requires five votes, the motion did not carry.

State fiscal monitor Richens then spoke up, saying he has the authority to overrule the board on this matter and would give the board a decision by Friday.

Richens could not immediately be reached for comment.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

By Jarrett Renshaw/Statehouse Bureau The Star-Ledger

More than one in three school administrators in New Jersey have failed to disclose the value of their unused sick and vacation time as required by a state law intended to make their compensation plans more transparent, a Star-Ledger analysis shows.

In 2007, lawmakers approved legislation calling for school districts to provide the state Department of Education with details each year on the salaries and benefit packages of administrators who earn at least $75,000. The department is then expected to post the information on its website under the heading “user-friendly” budgets.

But that does not always happen.

A Star-Ledger review of the most recent state data found that only 1,305 of 3,447 school administrators statewide — or 38 percent — disclosed the price tag of their accrued time, and even less provided the required details on how the payout is calculated.

Despite the lack of participation, the cost of the reported accrued time still amounts to $25.2 million, the data show.

“It’s defeating the purpose of the law,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), a co-sponsor of the legislation. “The public deserves to know how much they are paying, and we need to find why that’s not happening.”

Some of the districts that did not disclose any financial information on unused sick and vacation time are among the state’s largest, including Camden, Atlantic City and Paterson as well as suburban districts like South Brunswick.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — Asbury Park High school staff members have made a public vote of no-confidence against Colleen White, now finishing up her second year as a director of guidance in the Asbury Park School District.

John Napolitani, president of the teachers’ union, told school board members Wednesday night that “your staff has had enough” and that of 67 staff members who voted, 64 agreed to a vote of no-confidence in White. Two staff members disagreed with that vote and one abstained.

Napolitani asked that the vote “not be taken lightly.”

White, who attended the board meeting and was reached at her office at the high school Thursday morning, declined to comment. According to the school district website, she oversees guidance, assessment and testing and is the anti-bullying coordinator.

Union members asked that White not be renewed for next year. According to paperwork Napolitani gave board members, they listed a number of grievances about her direction and administration.

White, who has one more year before she would gain tenure, was up for renewal on a list of tenured and non-tenured staff that the board voted on Wednesday. But the board was unable to complete the process of getting staff members approved before a May 15 deadline to notify those not renewed.

Lester Richens, the state fiscal monitor working in the district, who has the final say on hiring and firing and all financial matters, said that because the board did not approve the appointment list, he would act on it by Friday to meet the upcoming deadline.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — With fewer than two months before the state budget is due, Gov. Chris Christie said this morning he wants the state Legislature to deliver laws changing the tenure system for public school teachers in a way that will result in decreased taxes for New Jersey residents.

“I want to make one thing really clear to the state Legislature: Do not send me watered down B.S. tenure reform,’’ he told a crowd of more than 450 at a town hall meeting in Monmouth County.

In this Republican-heavy county that delivered big for his election in 2009, Christie delivered his usual criticism of Democratic lawmakers who he said have finally agreed to cut taxes.

“Now the Democrats in Trenton, are not arguing with me anymore about whether they should cut your taxes,’’ he said. “They just argue about how we should cut your taxes.’’

But he saved the majority of his rant at the National Guard Armory in Freehold for teachers unions, who he said spent tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against him the past two years “because I have dared to speak out against their monopoly.’’

“Well, $20 million later, here I am,” he said to an enthusiastically supportive crowd.

He called state aid to failing school districts, including nearly $30,000 per pupil in Monmouth County’s Asbury Park “an obscene waste of money’’ and reiterated his call for merit pay for teachers rather than automatic tenure after three years on the job.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

By Megan DeMarco and Jeanette Rundquist / The Star-Ledger

PLAINSBORO — New Jersey high school students will need to pass as many as 12 end-of-year tests to earn their high school diplomas, under a plan unveiled today that’s designed to ensure “a New Jersey high school diploma is a meaningful measure of college and career readiness.”

The proposal calls for a multi-year phase-in of the tests, which will be given to 9th, 10th and 11th graders and start to “count” for students now in the fourth grade. The state’s current graduation tests, the High School Proficiency Assessment and Alternative High School Assessment, will be phased out.

Students will be tested in language arts, math, science and social studies. However, neither the number of tests that will be required for graduation nor the passing scores have been determined.

The proposal, unveiled by Gov. Chris Christie and Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf during a press conference at West-Windsor Plainsboro High School North, was billed as the culmination of work by the state Department of Education’s College and Career Readiness Task Force.

“We need to make sure that the students we send from New Jersey’s high schools either into the workforce or into higher education are prepared on that first day to sit in that college classroom or to perform the job that a business has asked them to perform,” Christie said.

The plan came under immediate fire from some educators.