| |||||||||||||||||||
Politicker NJ - Administration working overtime on Supreme Court nominees
Philadelphia Inquirer - N.J. charter-school dispute may end in church's eviction
NJ Spotlight - Intervening in Troubled School Districts Just Got Simpler…State streamlines QSAC monitoring, while spotting problems in Camden, maintaining control over Newark
Star Ledger - Gov. Christie announces $1M scholarship initiative for students in urban school districts
Gazette.net – Maryland community News Online - When public schools aren’t enough Hundreds of Montgomery students need specialized, nonpublic education
Star Ledger editorial - Could teacher's fear help Gov. Chris Christie change his attitude?
Politicker NJ - Administration working overtime on Supreme Court nominees
By Darryl R. Isherwood | March 20th, 2012 - 4:15pm
The Christie administration is working overtime to ensure the votes are in place for the two latest nominees to the State Supreme Court.
Philip Kwon and Bruce Harris will come up before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, but both men could face a tough battle for confirmation.
Two sources told PolitickerNJ.com that the front office this week attempted to get a head count of senators who plan to support Harris and Kwon. At least one source said so far senators have been reluctant to commit.
The governor and members of his staff also scrambled Tuesday to blunt criticism that the two nominees will violate a longstanding but unwritten rule that no more than four justices from either party will sit on the court at one time.
Critics, including some Democratic lawmakers, contend that confirmation of both men would violate the judicial balance policy that has been adhered to since at least 1947.
Labor unions and progressive groups have been particularly vocal given Kwon’s voter registration history. Before registering as an independent in New Jersey, Kwon, who would be the first Asian to ever sit on the Supreme Court, was registered for more than a decade in New York as a Republican.
Critics say the addition of Kwon would give the GOP five members on the court. They include in their calculations Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, who also is a registered independent, but who worked in the administration of Republican Gov. Christie Whitman before being named to the court.
In a press conference, Gov. Chris Christie stood by the potential court make-up, saying Kwon is a true independent and would put the balance of the court at three Republicans, two Democrats and two independents.
“The partisan balance would be respected,” he said.
In a release, Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts reiterated the stance, adding that even if the administration concedes Kwon as a Republican, the court balance will still remain four, two and one.
“The simple facts are these: Bruce Harris is a Republican and Phillip Kwon is an independent. Their confirmation would provide a court with 3 Republican members, 2 Democrats and 2 Independents. As the Governor noted at this morning’s press conference, even if you concede the fact of counting Kwon as a Republican – which we do not – that would still leave a court with a 4 Republican majority for just the 3rd time in the court’s history,” Roberts wrote.
But several groups have come out against the nominees, saying Christie should work to find a true independent to sit on the court. Democrats worry that having four Republicans and just two Democrats would put at risk policies fought for an won over a decade of Democratic rule in the legislature and governor's mansion.
Both men have issues. Harris is seen as inexperienced owing to his lack of court room time. Kwon is facing questions over a business owned by his mother, which paid $160,000 to settle a civil complaint over more than $2 million that was deposited into a bank account in increments of slightly less than $10,000. A pattern of deposits like that is known as structuring and is often used to move large sums of money undetected and can signal a pattern of money laundering.
But it is likely to be the balance of the court and not the qualifications of the nominees that dominates backroom chatter among Democrats come Thursday.
The nominees received a shot in the arm this week when the seven-member Judicial Advisory Panel unanimously endorsed both men.
Philadelphia Inquirer - N.J. charter-school dispute may end in church's eviction
A controversy over a proposed charter school in Cherry Hill may soon be settled - in New Jersey Superior Court.
The Regis Academy charter is scheduled to open in September, but its operator, the Solid Rock Worship Center, is $20,000 behind on the rent and missed a Jan. 3 deadline to buy the property from Holy Eucharist Parish for $2.9 million. The property encompasses the church and the proposed school.
This week, the parish asked the court's landlord-tenant law division to evict Solid Rock and grant a "Judgment for Possession" of the site in the 100 block of West Evesham Road.
"They haven't been able to come up with the money," Camden Diocese spokesman Peter Feuerherd said Friday. "This is about a real estate deal that didn't work. They didn't fulfill their commitment to come up with $2.9 million, and we're in the process of dealing with the situation."
Surprised by news of the court action, the Rev. Amir Khan, pastor of Solid Rock, said Friday that he received a lender's verbal commitment for the funds two weeks ago and will have a written commitment by next week.
Solid Rock, a nondenominational, predominantly African American congregation, will pay the full purchase price plus the back rent at settlement, the pastor said.
"Technically, I have nothing until I have the written commitment," said Khan, who still expects to close the deal with the parish and is moving ahead with enrolling students in the charter school.
"We'll have 250 [students] at our school," he said. "We already have 80 applications and two to three a day coming in."
The Regis Academy was one of four new charter schools conditionally approved in 2011 by the state Department of Education to open in September 2012.
"Each approved charter school needs to go through a readiness review in order to be eligible to open," department spokeswoman Allison Kobus said Friday.
"By June 30, each approved charter submits information on their facility and academic plan, and by July 15 the commissioner makes decisions on which schools will open in September," Kobus said. "So Regis must demonstrate a facility by June 30."
No facility, no state approval and no school.
Kahn has been part of a committee of African American pastors that has met with Gov. Christie about charter schools. Kahn said he wanted to provide an alternative for parents dissatisfied with traditional public schools.
But his plans have run into opposition over the last several months from the Cherry Hill Township School District officials and some residents, who say the charter is unnecessary in a municipality where children already get a quality education. The school would accept students from Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Somerdale, and Lawnside.
"We question whether there is a need for it," Cherry Hill School District spokeswoman Susan Bastnagel said Friday.
Sending districts would pay 90 percent of the annual cost of educating each student who attends the charter, she said. Since the Cherry Hill school board is likely to plan on about 50 township students going to Regis, it would have to set aside $600,000 - about $12,000 per pupil.
"I don't believe a large number will go to the charter school," Bastnagel said. "If Regis doesn't have a facility in which to open, that could change the discussion" when the board makes its final decision on the money issue.
Some area residents also have opposed the opening of a charter school.
"Cherry Hill is a high-performing school district," said Rita McClellan, a member of Speak Up South Jersey, a grassroots group of about 20 residents who have been fighting the planned charter. "If there's a church or a private school there, that's OK, but not a charter school."
Since moving to Cherry Hill in 2010, Solid Rock has run into other controversy, too. Last year, a man working at the church was accused of burglarizing five houses in the neighborhood.
"There's been mistrust in the neighborhood since day one," said McClellan, who is a parishioner at Holy Eucharist Church. "There's been no outreach" from Solid Rock.
Some residents "have said they don't want Regis Academy here, but it's probably a small handful of people who have the biggest voice," Khan said. "We talk to people, and they talk to us and some come to our services."
Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.
NJ Spotlight - Intervening in Troubled School Districts Just Got Simpler…State streamlines QSAC monitoring, while spotting problems in Camden, maintaining control over Newark
By John Mooney, March 21, 2012 in Education|Post a Comment
The Christie administration and the state Board of Education have moved ahead to streamline how and when they decide to intervene in school districts.
Related Links
Meanwhile, debates roil in two of New Jersey's biggest cities over what role the state should play in running local schools in the first place.
The BOE this month gave final approval to the administration's revisions to the state's monitoring system, the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC). The system grades districts on financial, academic, and operational measures to determine how much the state should be involved, ranging from assistance in specific areas to full intervention.
The streamlining largely reduced the number of measures and the level of paperwork required from any district being evaluated. Specifically, the number of criteria plunged to 48, down from 330.
The QSAC changes are separate from the administration’s new push to step in at individual schools as well, with new leverage for replacing staff and revamping programs.
But while the QSAC process may have gotten easier, it may not make it much easier for districts to actually pass, as Camden and Newark are finding out.
In Camden, the state's QSAC review completed this winter found the district falling short in every category and spurring the likelihood of aggressive intervention. In the area of instruction, it met just 7 percent of the indicators.
"Currently, 76 percent of the district's students are below proficiency in language arts literacy, and 69 percent are below proficiency in math," wrote acting education commissioner Chris Cerf in his report to the district. "These proficiency levels are unacceptably low."
State officials aren't yet discussing the possibilities, but the scathing report launched the next phase in the process, a separate "in-depth evaluation" of the schools by teams of state and outside experts.
The public in Camden will also start to have its say, beginning tomorrow night at a public hearing announced this week. It will be held at the Adventure Aquarium on Riverside Drive, starting at 5:30 p.m.
In Newark, meanwhile, state intervention is old news: Trenton has been in control via a state-appointed superintendent for nearly 20 years. And hardly a month has passed without oversight coming up as a sore point, even among some of the state's supporters.
The issue flared up again this week with the release of a plan by Superintendent Cami Anderson to reorganize the district in the face of continued low performance and dropping enrollment. It calls for closing of six schools and shaking up another eight with new leadership and programs.
The local advisory board -- a nonbinding elected board that came with the state's takeover -- met last night for the first time since the plan was finalized. The ongoing arguments as to who's in charge was evident.
"The state has been failing us for 16 years, and they continue to fail us," said Marques-Aquil Lewis, one of the most outspoken members.
The board itself formally challenged the state's control this winter, filing suit in state appellate court against Cerf's latest QSAC report, which maintained full state control despite some passing scores.
While lawyers exchange briefs early in the legal challenge, advisory board members yesterday said the issue of the local control remains critical as the district goes through wrenching changes.
Eliana Pintor Marin, the board's chairman, said the resolution of the legal challenge won't come in time to affect the plan that Anderson has put forward. It is a plan that Marin has largely supported so far.
"This is not about what Cami has done," she said in an interview last night.
"Ultimately, [return to local control] could take many years. It's not something imminent," the chairman said. "But we'd like at least some progression toward local control."
The state BOE has the final say about state control in both Camden and Newark, as well as in other districts that fall short of the new QSAC measurements.
And the president of the board, Arcelio Aponte, said last night that he appreciates the process providing the exit strategy for the state's takeovers. Aponte himself is a Newark native, and works for the city.
"It is the only mechanism in place," he said. "But it can't just be about those benchmarks either. There is still a significant amount of work for the district to do. The test scores and graduation rates are not where they should be."
Star Ledger - Gov. Christie announces $1M scholarship initiative for students in urban school districts
Published: Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 1:45 PM Updated: Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 8:11 PM by Megan DeMarco/Statehouse BureauThe Star-Ledger
TRENTON — High school students in 14 urban school districts would be eligible for collegescholarships under a proposed initiative announced by Gov. Chris Christie today.
Christie wants $1 million in his budget to fund an urban scholarship program. Under the program, up to 1,000 students would get $1,000 scholarships for four years.
To qualify, students must meet income requirements, be in the top 5 percent of their class, and have a 3.0 grade point average.
They can be used to attend any college in New Jersey, public or private.
The scholarships will be available starting in the fall 2012-2013 school year.
Christie announced the parameters of the scholarships today in front of more than 30 high school students seated in bleachers at the Trenton Catholic Academy gym. He first announced the scholarships and other higher education increases in his budget address last month.
“Why should we not allow college to be a real possibility for those children?” Christie said, adding he wants to make higher education more “accessible and available.”
The 14 eligible towns are Asbury Park, Camden, East Orange, Irvington Township, Jersey City, Lakewood, Millville, Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, Paterson, Plainfield, Roselle and Vineland.
The Higher Education Student Assistance Authority will administer the program and will notify eligible high schools in the next few months.
Gazette.net – Maryland community News Online - When public schools aren’t enough Hundreds of Montgomery students need specialized, nonpublic education
by Jen Bondeson, Staff Writer
Nonpublic schools help students stay out of jail, continue education
The Maryland Association of Nonpublic Special Education Facilities Post School Outcome Study — to be released within the next few weeks — measured employment rate, crime and social engagement of 200 Maryland students and 200 New Jersey students two years after they left nonpublic schools.
The students’ successes were compared to those of special education students in public schools after they left the school, tracked by a study funded by the U.S. Department of Education, to measure special education students’ accomplishments.
The study was conducted by the association and New Jersey-based Association of Schools and Agencies for the Handicapped; both are nonprofit organizations of special education nonprofit schools and agencies.
The results show that special education students who attended nonpublic schools:
ŸWere enrolled in secondary education at higher rates; 12.5 percent compared to 4.4 percent for public school counterparts
ŸHad lower levels of involvement with the criminal justice system; 13.8 percent had been arrested compared to 29.2 percent
ŸWere overall more involved in either employment, post secondary education or job training; 8.3 percent were not engaged in any of the above, compared to 20.6 percent
Nonpublic special education students lagged in employment levels and involvement in community groups:
Ÿ32.7 percent had been employed, compared to 48.8 percent for public school counterparts
Ÿ19 percent had been involed with a community group such as a sports team, religious group or club, compared to 28 percent
Related story: Disagreement about a child’s needs
Laura Russell always will remember the day her 6-year-old son, Adam, attacked her.
He was so small he couldn’t hurt her, but Russell said it was a terrifying and defining moment — she wondered how his aggression might escalate as he grew.
“I was pretty convinced that one of us wouldn’t live to see his 10th birthday,” Russell, of Silver Spring, said of herself and her partner. “... Our life was ruled by fear, and inability to know quite how to cope.”
With both autism and attention deficit disorder, Adam has impaired neurological functioning that caused low impulse control and an inability to communicate — he didn’t start talking until age 6, Russell said.
At school, he would hit his teachers and classmates out of frustration. By the time he was 8, Adam had attended five schools in Montgomery County.
If he hadn’t been transferred out of the public school system at that point, Adam, 22, would not have had the attention, support and programming he needed to become a contributing member of the community, Russell said. Adam now volunteers at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.,
Adam’s salvation was Rockville’s Ivymount School — one of 18 nonpublic, special education schools in the county licensed by the Maryland State Department of Education to serve students whose needs cannot be met in the public school system.
Last fiscal year, the county school system spent about $34.5 million to send 524 students to nonpublic special education schools — about $65,800 per student, according to Gwendolyn Mason, director of special education services for Montgomery County Public Schools. Maryland's contribution to nonpublic special education that year was $89.4 million on tuition for 4,284 students, according to the state department of education.
Just as Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is proposing in the fiscal 2013 budget to increase state funding for nonpublic special education schools to $113.9 million, the Maryland Association of Nonpublic Special Education Facilities is preparing to release results of a new study that demonstrates the schools’ effectiveness.
The study suggests special education students enrolled in nonpublic schools go on to enroll in secondary education at higher rates, and have a less of a chance of being arrested in the two years after graduating than special education students in public schools.
“The schools can really demonstrate their value by the examples of what these kids can accomplish,” said Dorie Flynn, executive director of the association. “These students are really going on to successful lives.”
Flynn and others hope the governor's proposed increase will offset the schools' ever-increasing operating costs, especially given state funding has been frozen the past two fiscal years.
The increase will allow schools to raise their tuition by 1 percent, helping them provide cost-of-living raises for staff, according to Marcella Franczkowski, assistant state superintendent for special education and early intervention services.
Tuition ranges from $50,000 to as much as $418,000, Mason said.
Going nonpublicAfter five schools and no signs of improvement, Russell underwent a lengthy process to enroll Adam in a nonpublic school. Multiple meetings with teachers and school specialists must take place before a decision is made to move a child to a nonpublic school, Mason said.
If nonpublic schooling is most appropriate, the county school system and the state must pay the cost of that child’s tuition, according to a state law passed in 1973.
The county is required to contribute to each student’s tuition a base 300 percent ($34,024) of the cost of educating a nonspecial education student, according to Dana Tofig, Montgomery County school system spokesman. The remaining cost of the student’s tuition is split between the state and the county; the state pays 70 percent, the county 30 percent.
Although the state’s goal is to provide safe, free and appropriate education in public schoolhouses, it realizes the least restrictive environment for some students might be a nonpublic school, Franczkowski said.
But once a child is in a nonpublic school, he or she still is connected to the public school system — each student has an annual meeting with representatives from both the school system and the nonpublic school, and the state oversees the schools’ operations, Franczkowski said.
Twelve years ago, Kim Khan of Olney decided to pursue nonpublic special education for her son, Cameron.
Cameron, who has a type of autism called “pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified," was in public schools until he was 9, but Khan's fears peaked when Cameron was found wandering outside of school one day.
For Cameron, tasks such as walking back to the classroom from lunch were too much. One day, he accidently got out of line and a teacher found him trying to walk home, Khan said.
“They were supposed to be ‘walking like a duck,’” she said. “He didn’t know the backs of people. He didn’t know who he was supposed to follow.”
Finding a place
When a child’s needs are so complex, nonpublic schools have intensive programming to help, said Jan Wintrol, executive director of Ivymount.
At Ivymount, teachers work with occupational therapists, speech therapists and behavior specialists, among others, to create an individualized curriculum for students — smaller classes, sometimes with a student-teacher ratio of 1-to-1 or 2-to-1, allow for personal attention, Wintrol said.
The teachers and specialists meet regularly to discuss student progress and to train on topics such as body movement regulation; each week the school has a half day for students, to allow time for staff development and parent meetings.
Ivymount has 215 students — many of whom have autism, some with speech and language impairments, learning and intellectual disabilities or health impairments.
“We know that the students have disabilities, but we are all about abilities,” Wintrol said. “We figure out how we are going to teach them and make their education very understandable to them, very doable, very respectful to them.”
Adam Russell graduated in June from Ivymount. He recently sat through public classes on his own, graduating from Takoma Park Citizens’ Police Academy on Jan. 31. He is now known more for his charisma and wit than his tantrums, his mother said.
“All of [his success] is because of Ivymount,” she said.
Cameron Khan, 21, will graduate next year from Ivymount. He has worked through some of the high anxiety, communication problems and fine motor issues that made it hard for him to function in a public classroom.
He is learning life skills in a post-high school program, such as how to create a grocery list and how much bread costs, Khan said. He works at PetSmart.
Khan said she doesn’t know where he would be without Ivymount.
“I don’t know that I would be standing,” she said.
jbondeson@gazette.net
Star Ledger editorial - Could teacher's fear help Gov. Chris Christie change his attitude?
Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 6:45 AM By Star-Ledger Editorial BoardThe Star-Ledger
Could a schoolteacher’s soul-baring confession that she was afraid of Gov. Chris Christie bring about more change than all the money the New Jersey Education Association has spent bashing him?
Could one moment of honesty — “You scare me” — soothe Christie’s rough style?
Christie and his handlers cultivate the governor’s tough-guy image. His town hall Q&A’s are fertile ground for made-for-YouTube moments.
Whether calling an assemblywoman a “jerk” or, more recently, calling a Navy veteran who interrupted him an “idiot,” Christie is quick to resort to playground tactics when challenged.
Verbal gunslinging plays great on a national stage, but it’s led many in New Jersey to denounce Christie as a bully.
Christie appeared genuinely surprised when the woman, who identified herself only as a second-grade teacher on maternity leave, took the microphone to confide that she was “scared to death” to ask her governor a question.
So was Monday’s exchange a turning point? Consider it newsworthy that the normally unapologetic Christie did just that.
“I’m really glad that you weren’t too scared to ask a question,” Christie said, “and to the extent that I contributed to scaring you, I’m sorry for that.”
Christie’s sincere apology was the right tone at the right moment. Christie should ride its momentum away from his growing reputation as a bully. This was a breakthrough for Christie, even if he doesn’t see it that way. A wise leader encourages dissent, even in public.
Perhaps one woman’s timid admission will finally help Christie see himself the way some of his constituents do.
