10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Hilton Branch – Patrons
can use Rhino 3D software to build a model, print an object on our 3D
printer or use our new color printer or laminator. There are also Snap
Circuits, Squishy Circuits, littleBits and SparkFun kits for the kids.
Raspberry Pi single board computers are also available to learn more
about computer science. More information about the Create Space…
From the Township today:
Telephone Lines Down in Town Hall
Due to a Comcast
outage, telephone lines in Town Hall are currently unavailable. Comcast
reports to restore service at 2:00PM this afternoon. For all inquiries,
please email township employees or submit a request in the request
tracker.
Citizen Request Tracker
Last night's high winds uprooted a large tree on Prospect Street near Tuscan Road overnight, sparking a power outage for hours in some areas and forcing the road to be closed through the morning rush hour.
Crews were still clearing the tree and downed wires this morning at 8:30 a.m., with police blocking off Prospect between Tuscan and Harvard Avenue for much of the early commute time.
If you're a fan of the Christmas Tree House, also known as 635 Prospect St., just off The Crescent, you have likely seen the big news.
The house is for sale.
But for many, the big deal is not whether it will sell for the $1.3 million asking price or if the new owners will be good neighbors, or even if they will keep the hedges trimmed.
Will they continue to light the huge tree in the front corner of their lawn every Christmas?
For 15 years, The Burns Family, who is selling the six-bedroom, five-bath home, have given residents a treat by decorating the large tree, often hiring a tree crew to position the lights with a cherry-picker.
"Ever since we first purchased our home in 1995, I had always wanted to decorate the corner tree," said Steven Burns, 55, who lives there with his wife, Milvia. "It seemed a very fitting way to celebrate the season within our family and share it with our wonderful community."
He said the tree was too small in the early years, but by 2000 had taken shape enough to decorate.
"What we never imagined was the affection the lit tree gave so many people in Maplewood and surrounding communities," Burns said. "From the heartwarming stories and thankful comments online about children and families, the cards both neighbors and strangers would slip in our door, to even a nice woman from East Orange who sends along a box of chocolates each year as a thank you present."
Burns declined to say how much it costs to hire a tree service to place lights up via a crane and cover the electrical costs. But he did note, "it's pretty involved. The first year I had an outlet put in on the outside of the house, I thought I was well-prepared. They said it needed an entire box, an electrical panel that is used only for the tree."
He said it takes about two days to put the lights up and a full day to remove them. Asked why they are moving, Burns said his five children are grown and out of the house and it is just more than they need.
"We love Maplewood and the people in the community and believe that the best outcome will come forward that either the nice tradition will continue or that it can be a reminder to ourselves that change can be good," Burns said. "We only hope that the next owners find as much love, laughter and memories in the home as our family has been blessed to have over the last 20 years. Maplewood has many wonderful traditions to celebrate."
Hopefully this one will continue.
From Schools Superintendent John Ramos today:
Dear SOMSD Community:
As
you know, SOMSD is in the process of developing a Strategic Plan to
serve as a blueprint to guide everything we do. This particular
strategic planning process has embedded in it action planning,
implementation and feedback phases that will help to ensure that the
plans developed are realistic, and are implemented thoughtfully and
effectively.
Last
week, the Board of Education accepted the first component of the
Strategic Plan we are in the process of developing – the Strategic
Direction.
The Strategic Plan will ultimately have three parts:
- Strategic Direction
– aspirational document with enduring values, mission statement,
strategic boundaries, student performance statement, and strategies.
This document serves as the vision or direction to guide the development
of the rest of the plan.
- Action Plans – implementation steps for each strategy consisting of reasonable pieces of work that move us towards the mission.
- Implementation Schedule
– annual implementation plans which identify action items to pursue
based on resources and priorities. Budgets, timelines, and assignments
are developed as part of this process. The implementation plan will be
updated every year.
Why do we need a new strategic plan? Really, there are three main reasons:
- Our
educational system was designed for the industrial era, and the skills
it prioritizes are no longer those most prized by employers today. We
have an obligation to provide our students with the skills, content
knowledge and experiences which they need to be able to succeed in this
new era.
- SOMSD
is, by many metrics, a very good school system. Yet we have pernicious
achievement gaps and uneven rigor. We need to make sure we are
challenging our highest achievers and supporting all students in
maximizing their potential.
- When
I was hired, one thing I heard repeatedly was that SOMSD had suffered
over time from “initiative-itis” – moving from one great new idea to the
next, without any grounding in a long-term strategic plan. One point
of discussion with the board during the hiring process was the
importance of thinking more strategically, so that we can act
purposefully rather than reactively. A strategic plan will give us a
roadmap for the future, so that we can stay on course, and not get
distracted by either good or bad occurrences.
The
development of the Strategic Plan is an organic, evolutionary,
collaborative process, founded in months of input from students,
parents, teachers, administrators and other community members. My first
priority upon becoming your superintendent was to do a listening tour –
to hear directly from students, staff, and families about what is
working in SOMSD, what areas need attention, and what ideas the
community has for the future. This culminated in the Education Summit,
where 1,500 community members spent an evening together imagining what
our schools’ future might look like, and what it would take to get
there.
The
data collected through the Listening Tour, Education Summit, math KIVA,
student forums, Let’s Talk, and other interactions infuses the
strategic planning process on which we are embarked. These experiences
are best summed up in the data synthesis from the Education Summit
calling for a: “Paradigm shift from fitting students and families
into currently established structures and systems to structuring
programs, services, outreach and communications to meet the needs of
students and families.”
All
of this work led to the development of the Strategic Direction, which
we have shared with the community over the past few weeks. Now that the
Board of Education has accepted the Strategic Direction document and
approved the continuation of the Strategic Planning process, we move on
to the Action Planning phase.
Action
Planning teams will include at least one teacher, administrator, parent
and student, and represent diverse viewpoints and expertise. Each
committee has 2 co-chairs – one member of the Strategic Direction
Committee and one with expertise in the area. We received more than 180
applications to participate on action planning teams, and also invited
nominations from key partner organizations, and recruited people with
specific expertise. We had so many qualified volunteers that we expanded
the size of teams from the original plan of 5-7 members each, to 12
members each.
Team
members were selected by administrators based on qualifications, how
they best aligned with specific strategies, and to balance perspectives
and experience. Names of applicants who were not placed on a team will
be shared with team co-chairs, as potential experts or volunteers should
they require additional assistance. The current teams are listed on
our website: http://tinyurl.com/ActionPlanningTeams.
Action
planning teams will meet regularly over the next 5 months to create
specific, concrete plans for each strategy, consisting of reasonable
pieces of work that move us towards the mission. Teams will receive all
of the notes from the Education Summit and ensuing dialogues, student
forum, Math KIVA and from the small working groups in the Strategic
Direction Committee, as well as national and regional research and
examples, to serve as the foundation for their work. Teams can invite
outside experts and key staff members to participate in meetings, and
can make site visits.
I
am excited to see the work of the Action Planning Teams. I look
forward to working with you to build a system that will empower today’s
learners, and provide all students with the skills and knowledge they
need to be successful in college and careers, and to proactively
navigate the challenges they will inherit.
Sincerely,
John J. Ramos, Sr., Ed.D.
The Maplewood Fire Department has made a habit of using soon-to-be demolished buildings for training purposes prior to their demolition.
Most recently they took over the former PSE&G building on Boyden Avenue before it was demolished to make way for 235 apartments.
Now comes word they will use the former Maplewood Village Post Office building that will soon be gone to make way for the controversial three-story housing/retail project there.
The Township revealed the news that it will begin today in this alert:
Maplewood Village Construction News
The
Maplewood Fire Department will be conducting training exercises in the
interior of the former post office building on Maplewood Avenue on Feb. 25, 2016. The training exercises will continue daily, including
weekends, until site preparation for the building demolition begins.
Training times will vary. The Fire Department will park their engines in
the loading dock area.
When the South Orange Maplewood School District dropped a bombshell this week that its preliminary budget plan includes cutting 20 staffers --10 of them teachers -- and other serious cost cuts, from textbooks to training, it surprised many.
Not only because it was the first real sign the budget is in bad shape. But also because it flies in the face of how the district has been spending money on some events in the past few months, with thousands of dollars going to consultants and guest speakers at a time when they are also crying poor.
Business Administrator Cheryl Schneider said Monday night, "we are getting into areas where we are wondering if we are going to have as much as we really need."
So one wonders about some spending that has been done in just the months since Superintendent John Ramos took over Aug. 1, 2015.
In that time, the district:
* Spent $8,100 in September 2015 to hire Ramos friend Josiah Haig to run a one-day school board seminar.
* Spent a combined $13,500 to have civil rights icon Ruby Bridges speak at two events on Jan. 21, 2016.
* Announced plans on Feb. 22, 2016, to hire a consultant for up top $5,000 to review district bullying complaints against CHS baseball Coach Joseph Fichetti that the district already found valid.
* Announced plans on Feb. 22, 2016, to hire a redistricting consultant. Cost unknown.
That's on top of thousands of dollars approved each month for travel and events for staff. See what was approved for just this month HERE.
That's not to say that travel and events for staff, especially training, is a waste of money. But clearly having consultants hired to do work the staff may best be doing, or have done in the case of the coach's HIB issues -- and hiring paid speakers -- shows at least some irresponsibility when the budget is so dire.
Ramos deserves some credit for reaching out to groups like the Achieve Foundation as he did for funds to hire a consulting firm to help facilitate the Education Summit and the ongoing strategic planning (even if the planning has come under fire for offering more theory than detail).
But perhaps rather than focusing on a strategic plan that seems all broad terms and hype rather than details and substance, the district and school board should cut spending on things it does not need rather than be quick to cut what it does need.
