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Follow-up on Several Unresolved

2023 Issues


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

1/9/2024

Contents:

Follow-up on Several Unresolved 2023 Issues

·        Financial Data on Town Green's Two Monuments

·        Planners' Summary: 10/20/2023 ALD 2nd Meeting

·        Dr. Pruitt's View of NJ's State test for HS graduation


This Week in Teaneck - 1/9 to 15

  • 1/9 Council Meeting Now Zoom Only


Knowing How to Access Teaneck's Public Meetings



Announcements:


Youth Advisory Board Career Day 1-9


MLK 95th Birthday Celebration: Our Shared Humanity 1/15

Follow-up on Several Unresolved 2023 Issues

In the final several weeks of 2023, Voices identified several issues about which it told its readers it did not have sufficient information and would seek to obtain it in the new year. Three of those issues were:


1)In the final several weeks of 2023, Voices identified several issues about which it did not have sufficient information and would seek to obtain it in the new year. Three of those issues were:

1) obtaining information cited by several Council members on 12/12/2023 about the expenditures of public funds made by the Holocaust Memorial Committee and the Enslaved Africans Memorial Committee seeking to implement two monuments on the Municipal Green. These were originally a joint single effort but are now separate endeavors – see Res. 362-2023 and 367-2023);

2) Buried in the Council’s 12/12/2023 meeting Consent and not identified as such is the 18-page planner's summary of the October 20, 2023 second meeting on plans the American Legion Drive AINR. We found it an placed it on our website; and

3) Clarification of what is NJGPA, the state test being failed by seniors at Teaneck High School that has led to official statements that this threat to the graduation of many THS students is the sole reason for the Board of Education making personnel changes in THS leadership. Voices now has information on all three issues:


1)   Expenditures made/approved by the entities seeking to implement the monuments on the Green: Voices OPRA’d the public records related to the financial transactions resulting in expenditures by or approved by these two private entities. The results of that OPRA are now, without comment, found on a page on the Teaneck Voices’ website (Click Here)



2)   A summary of the second public meeting held at the Rodda Center on 10/20/2023 about plans for the American Legion Drive (ALD) Area that is now identified as an Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) got lost in the Council’s agenda packet for its final 2023 meeting. The ALD meeting was attended by more than 100 residents many of whom found the meeting disappointing. The Town’s planners served as conveners of the meeting’s three breakout groups and then produced an 18-page summary of what they took away from the meeting. We found their summary and believe our readers will likely want to compare notes with what is in this summary. It is now found on Teaneck Voices’ website Click Here

3)   What is NJGPA, the NJ state test the potential failure of which is looming over so many THS seniors? When Voices began exploring this question, its discussions with former educator and BOE and Council member Dr. Henry Pruitt led to his providing us with a cogent critical review and assessment of this New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) test. We have shortened his assessment and provide it below as a letter to Voices’ editors which like all such letters represents the views of this well-qualified author:

The Time Has Come For NJ's Department Of Education To Reexamine Some Of Its Assessment Practices


In response to an earlier article in the RECORD:


The high school diploma exit exam otherwise known as New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) needs to be discontinued for several reasons.


Assessment of Students

Educational assessment is a vital requirement to point out Instructional weaknesses so that corrective measures can be put Into place. Individual student assessment takes place in the classroom: The teacher provides Instruction, students take notes. the teacher prepares an examination that measures student proficiency relative to the specific subject matter covered in the class, students study for the exam and then take it. Student achievement is largely dependent on the quality of instruction received and the students' motivation to learn that subject in that particular class.


There are other high stakes examinations that students take in seeking college acceptance. The SAT is an example of that kind of examination. SAT Test prep is exhausting. Economically able students often go to commercial test prep classes who guarantee a score that is significantly higher than what students may get if they do not attend these classes. Nonetheless, the SAT, even with its built-in inequities, tests college applicants across the country. Colleges compare student transcripts, class rank, GPA, SAT scores, letters of recommendation and often an essay. But since the NJGPA tests student ONLY in New Jersey it has little meaning.


The NJGPA

The NJGPA is an exit examination that determines whether or not a NJ student will receive a state certified high school diploma. This test is required for a diploma even If all other high school graduation requirements are satisfied. This (Language Arts-Mathematics Assessment Is supposed to measure whether or not graduating public high school students in New Jersey, have “The Skills They Need To Function ln A Democratic Society.” Can those skills really be measured with this kind of an assessment?

Specific Reasons Why this Kind of Test Should be Discontinued

        This test was not field tested.

        Thirty-nine states no longer use exit examinations for high school diplomas.

        Federal law does not require exit exams.

   . There are over eight hundred and fifty high schools in New Jersey. Roughly six hundred of those are public and approximately two hundred and fifty are private. There are no state requirements for private high schools to take the NJGPA. Private school diplomas are given to students who meet the requirements for high school graduation.

        Students who take the GED are not required to take the NJGPA.

        Students who do not score at least 725 on the NJGPA must find an alternative means to meet this diploma requirement.

 

Finding alternatives is stressful for both students and faculty.


Developing alternatives puts a tremendous burden on the school staff, causing some students to not meet the alternative assessment.

 

  • An extra burden is placed on teachers to develop and evaluate alternatives.

 

  • There is a loss of valuable Instructional time


  • It is neither fair nor educational to add to a student’s anxiety about graduation and create stress when the student has met all of the other requirements for graduation. Many of them already have been accepted
  • at the college of their choice.


Who Benefits From The Administration Of This Exam?


     The only beneficiary that I can find is the test creator. How many tax payers’ dollars are paid to the company that put the test together in the first place. This money should be given to poorly performing districts to help them Improve their educational performance.


Update

     It is my understanding that the NJGPA is being discussed in the legislature. I hope that they conclude that the right thing to do is to eliminate this examination. Thirty nine out of fifty states have already made that decision.


Henry Pruitt

201-837-1838

 

This Week in Teaneck - 1/9 to 15

As Voices goes to print, key access and agenda information about this week’s meetings is not available and/or is still changing! If important information becomes available later in the day or week, the additional information can be found on the Voices website at Click Here


Youth Advisory Board Career Day – Tuesday January 9, 2024, 7:00 pm

·       See Announcements section at the end of this Voices edition


Teaneck Council – Tuesday January 9, 2024 at 8:00 pm – NOT in person at the Council Chambers in Town Hall – ONLY by zoom (Click Here and add passcode 442643). According to the Clerk’s office, the change is occasioned by the Governor’s state of emergency declaration and the expected flooding effects of the impending rain storm. For the agenda Click Here


·       This Council meeting proposes 10 additional appointments associated with the leadership and membership of Township Advisory boards as nominated by the Council’s Personnel Committee and a subsequent majority vote to approve same. (Click Here and beginning at p. 41) 


The 382-page agenda packet also includes a public hearing and vote on two introduced ordinances, 24 additional resolutions (five of which were not posted until Monday the 8th).


Res. 39-2024 to approve the proposed annual contract for planning firm Phillips, Preiss cites but does not include the firm’s actual proposal for its 2024 work. Voices has obtained that proposal and placed it on a page in its website (Click Here).


As to the introduction of the 3 proposed ordinances, Proposed Ord. 44-2024 is an 84-page ordinance described as clarifying the Township's charter and administrative code. It begins at p. 284 of the Agenda Packet (Click Here) and at page 298 proposes a resolution to the controversial and confusing process by which Council currently makes Advisory Board appointments. Happily, this revised version of the ordinance clearly “red lines” the changes in the Code so members of the public can identify what is being changed. The proposed ordinance deserves to be read by our those of our readers who would like a quick tutorial on how our Township government works.


Cedar Lane Management Group – Wednesday January 10, 2024 at 6:30 pm – in person only at 555 Cedar Lane Suite 4 -only informstion available.


Parks Playgrounds & Recreation Advisory Board – Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at Zoom Click Here & use passcode 81175. For agenda Click Here

·       This presumably will be the initial meeting of PPRAB chaired by its two newly appointed co-chairs


Planning Board – Thursday January 11, 2024 at 8:00pm in person at the Council Chambers, Town Hall. There will be zoom access to this meeting but no access information or agenda are available as Voices goes to press. Members of the public seeking to question or comment would need to attend the meeting. It is quite possible that this meeting will be cancelled.


The Teaneck Board of Education will hold a Board Retreat Public Meeting on Sunday, January 14, 2024, which will occur in person only in the Media Center (2nd Floor) at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, located at 655 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 12:00 pm.



Martin Luther King’s 95th Birthday Celebration – Our Shared Humanity – Monday January 15 at 6:30 pm at Temple Emeth on Windsor Road.

·       See Announcements section at the end of this Voices edition

Knowing How to Access Teaneck's Public Meetings

Teaneck Voices' editors struggle every week to provide information about how its readers can either attend or otherwise access (and/or participate) in the Town’s various public meetings. Our publication is frequently delayed as a result. Today, even the format for the Council meeting changed midday. We do not expect that tussle to ease! Still, there now appears to be more predictability about 2024 access and schedules.


Going forward from January 2024 – There will be some options for meeting access and participation protocols in the coming year.. But it appears that much greater predictability is emerging as Township entities are beginning to commit to how access will be governed in set schedules for 2024.


Below we report on how the Council and four statutory board will likely function in 2024. As better information emerges, we will plan to provide similar information about other advisory board access plans and schedule for 2024.


Council – Although the 2024 meeting schedule resolution (Res. 299-2023) for Council hedges a bit (“All Meetings to be held at the Municipal Building located at 818 Teaneck Road, and on ZOOM if needed to accommodate the COVID-19 Pandemic…”) it appears that Council will stick for the year with its current hybrid format (except perhaps in winter storms). Typically, Council holds Tuesday public sessions at 8:00 once or twice a month with extra budget meetings 4 times beginning at 7:00 pm on Thursdays in March. To see the 2024 Council schedule, Click Here. Uncertain is when – and whether – Council will hold either topic-specific public meetings or workshops.


Planning Board – No entity’s access practices went through so many changes in 2023 as did the Planning Board’s. It now seems set to meet throughout 2024 in Council Chambers at the Municipal Building at 8:00 pm on designated Thursdays except when forced out by a Council meeting and to provide simultaneous internet broadcast of its in-person meetings. However, the PB will not allow internet observers to call in. When public input is permitted it will come from meeting attendees. To see the Planning Board schedule for 2024 Click Here.

Board of Adjustment - This Board will stick with its 7:00 pm Thursday start time and after 4 years of zoom only, will now meet in-person in Council Chambers at the Municipal Building and, like the Planning Board, will internet broadcast its meetings but require meeting attendance for the public to participate. To see the Board of Adjustment schedule for 2024 Click Here


Environmental Commission(EC) – The Commission’s new leadership can be expected to hold its virtual only meetings at 7:30 pm on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. To see the EC’s 2024 meeting schedule Click Here.


Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission – This Commission has been consistent in holding its monthly meetings on well-scheduled Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm according to the 2024 meeting schedule found Click Here  

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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