NJ Education Report

Earl Kim, the highly-regarded Superintendent of Montgomery Schools, is leaving, word has it, to run a school for low-income youth in Hawaii. The Star-Ledger reports today on Kim’s heroic actions on behalf of poor urban NJ kids, in spite of his role as leader of a wealthy district. When Sen. Mike Doherty proposed his “fair tax” initiative, which would give more money to rich districts, Kim wrote a letter explaining,

“It stands to reason that a student with greater needs should get additional funding to support programs that would level the playing field for that child,” he wrote.
“Moreover … the return on investment to a child who is lesser advantaged is far greater than the return on a dollar spent on an advantaged child,” he continued. “From these two perspectives, your proposal does not make sense.”

The Record has a special report today on the impact of the anti-bullying legislation in NJ’s public schools.

NJ Spotlight analyzes proposed “tweaks” to the School Funding Reform Act, with some legislators and lobbyists focused on fully funding the formula, which would increase aid to all schools, and others focused on the necessity of sending more money to poor districts.

In its next attempt to fire Superintendent Janine Caffrey, the Perth Amboy School Board invoked “a doctrine of necessity” that would permit board members with conflicts of interest to vote on her removal. The Star Ledger reports that “tonight’s measure stated a requirement to post the resolution for 30 days and noted the specific conflicts of several members. Four board members, Kurt Rebovich, Milady Tejeda, Diane Roman and Israel Varela, have relatives employed by the school district. In addition, Caffrey has filed ethics charges against Varela, board president Samuel Lebreault and vice president Kenneth Puccio.”

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board commends Ed. Comm. Chris Cerf for improving the DOE’s oversight of charter schools.

The Press of Atlantic City reports on Ed. Comm. Chris Cerf’s visit to some poor non-Abbott South Jersey school districts, the first time ever for one of NJ’s Education Commissioners.

Wildwood school Superintendent Dennis Anderson said when the local Rotary Club asked what it could do to help the school, the recommendation was to buy inexpensive raincoats for students. 

“We don’t bus, and families don’t have cars, so if the weather is bad, sometimes children just stay home,” Anderson said. 

He and business administrator Greg Rohrman bemoaned the lack of vocational training programs for their students, noting that because of their challenges their students can’t pass the admissions test for the Cape May County Vocational High School, and Wildwood can’t afford to add the programs. 

“There are a whole group of kids who are just being written off,” Rohrman said.

Check out ConnCan’s special report, which takes a “detailed look at the key components of 10 teacher evaluation models.”