Sunday Leftovers

Don’t miss Jessica Calefeti’s expose in this morning’s Star-Ledger on Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School in Newark, which “reveals a faltering institution that provides bare-bones learning facilities while using millions of dollars in state and federal aid, bolstering a real estate fiefdom controlled by the school’s founder, Fredrica Bey.”  Bey is described as “a powerful figure in New Jersey’s largest city, with friends in political, cultural and activist circles, along with a direct line to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.” She’s also, apparently, a crook.

For a happier view of educational options for parents in Newark, see this description of a Daddy-Daughter dance at Peshine Avenue School, one of Superintendent Cami Anderson’s “Renew Schools.” There’s 8 of them and all have “new leaders who were free to pick much of their staff and who were given a mandate to reorganize the school around principles of education reform.”

In today's Record, Charles Stile reviews the status of Barbara Buono's gubernatorial campaign:

With only four weeks left before she becomes its nominee in the June 4 primary, Buono has yet to mobilize the fractured party behind her campaign. She hasn’t made the transition from being the “default” candidate — the person who got the job because nobody else wanted to waste his time, money and reputation running against Christie — to a “viable” candidate who has convinced a broad cross section of her party that she can beat Christie in November. 

Stile also covers the “heresy” committed by Buono when she voted against pension and benefits reform package for public workers,  alienating leaders in her party but winning fealty from public unions, including NJEA.

Larry Feinsod, head of NJ School Boards Association, expresses concern about the state’s creative way of gutting local district increases in educational aid by levying School Development Authority “assessments.” He urges local school boards to pass resolutions protesting these unanticipated costs. A sample resolution is provided.

Lakewood Public Schools is well-known for its unusual student configuration where the public district enrolls 5,600 kids but the district provides transportation (and special education services, when appropriate) for 24,000 additional kids who attend Orthodox Jewish day schools. This creates bizarre budget contortions, and, reports the Asbury Park Press, the Board there just approved a $108 million budget, up $8 million from last year. The district is currently undergoing three state audits.

Mike Petrelli has a really bad idea. 

The New York Times asks, "is cursive dead?"

Stephen Sawchuk reports on a new study that shows that "within schools, less experienced and minority teachers are more frequently assigned classes with lower-achieving students than their more experienced or white colleagues."