Sunday Leftovers

Good news on the graduation front: New Jersey’s graduation rate grew to 88.6 percent in 2014, slightly higher than the previous year, Note that this increase follows N.J.'s now complete implementation of the Common Core State Standards. See coverage from NJ Spotlight, the Star-Ledger, Press of Atlantic City, and Asbury Park Press. The latter notes, however, that graduation rates plateaued in Monmouth and Ocean counties. And in Asbury Park, the graduation rate sank to 49%.

In Trenton, the city schools also report an increase. Star-Ledger: " For the first time in years, the Trenton school district is reporting an on-time graduation rate of more than 50 percent for 2014... That percentage is up from 48.6 percent last year."

More Trentonia: "As the Trenton school district seeks to close a $3.9 million budget gap, the superintendent and school board have asked permission from the state to use the district's surplus to make up the difference.In a letter sent to acting Commissioner David Hespe last week, the Superintendent Francisco Duran said the district has an emergent need to use $3.67 million from the surplus because a larger than anticipated number of Trenton students enrolled in charter schools this year."

In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka sent a letter to N.J. Ed. Comm. David Hespe complaining of "intolerable conditions" at Barringer High Schools' academies.

Also from the Star-Ledger: "The Paterson Public Schools district is paying 66 employees more than $125,000 this school year, according to a Paterson Press report. That number has doubled since 2010-11, drawing criticism from the teachers union and a mixed reaction from school officials."

A parent in Toms River is fighting for later school start times, reports the Asbury Park Press. (See earlier coverage here.) Another group of parents in the same district is protesting this Spring's full implementation of PARCC testing: ""I don't want him being put under this pressure," Kurasz said of her ninth-grade son. "It's teaching him what to think, not how to think."

The Record asks,, "Are Montclair's African-American male students being classified for special education at a higher rate than other ethnicities?" (Answer: yes.)

NJ Spotlight: "The state Department of Education last week released a mostly positive report on the initial year of the system as dictated under the TEACHNJ tenure reform law, citing some challenges but praising the progress in meeting requirements for additional observations and goal setting for teachers." Also see former N.J. deputy commissioner Andy Smarick's thoughts on this report.

School board member and administrators in high-performing districts are celebrating because “New Jersey is making its high-performing school districts eligible for a streamlined state review, the Department of Education announced Wednesday. Schools that satisfy 80-100 percent of the quality performance indicators in the state’s Quality Single Accountability Continuum will be able to submit a document instead of undergoing a full QSAC review every three years."

The Record:"New calculations show that the pension fund covering retirement benefits for most of New Jersey’s public employees is projected to go broke in a decade, not the 30 years officials had estimated just months ago."

Fans of “This American Life”: a recent episode describes what happens when people who don’t want to pay for public schools run the school board. No, this isn’t Lakewood: it’s East Ramapo. There, Hasidim and public school parents had reached a détente which involved a practice of the school board giving private Jewish day schools as much money as they could get away with and, in return, the Hasidic community stayed away from the polls. That détente collapsed over special education costs for non-public school students. Sound familiar?

From the teaser: "We take it for granted that the majority calls the shots. But in one NY school district, that idea — majority rules — has led to an all-out war. School board disputes are pretty common, but not like this one. This involves multimillion-dollar land deals, lawyers threatening to beat up parents, felony criminal charges, and the highest levels of state government. Meanwhile, the students are caught in the middle."

(Hat tip: a fellow board member)