Welcome to Ringwood, New Jersey!

This site is designed to let my friends, relatives, and neighbors know what is going on in my life.  Some of the information concerning education in Ringwood may also be of interest to Ringwood residents and taxpayers as well.  I'll provide information on all aspects of my life including my neighbors, my vacations, and my philosophy on Ringwood education and our school system.

The most difficult situation that Ringwood education faces is trying to provide a high quality education at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.  The state is constantly interfering with the district’s right to self rule via new legislation that it is passing.  The governor has recently proposed a cut in state aid that is in excess of $1,000,000 for Ringwood for the 2010-2011 school year.  In addition, the Ringwood Board of Education is confronted with an increase in health benefits in excess of $500,000.  After these hardships, the Ringwood Borough cut our failed budget by an astonishing $417,000.  Ringwood will start the next school year with $2,000,000 less than we would have expected last year.  All of these cuts will leave Ringwood Education in a sorry state.  The New Jersey Governor is funneling good people into his vendetta with teachers and education.  What these poor fools don't understand is that all of these cuts negatively impact education for Ringwood children, but have no impact on teachers salaries.

Let's look at a teacher's salary.  Ringwood just had a number of senior teachers retire due to Governor Christies scare tactics.  All of these teachers had more than 30 years experience and a couple had 40 years.  Most of the retirees had 30 to 40 years service and a Master's degree plus 45 credits.  That's the equivalent of two Master's degrees or virtually equivalent to a Ph.D.  I don't see any problem with a teacher with 35 years experience and a Master's Degree plus 45 credits making $90K to $100K.  These teachers are not overpaid.  An engineer with a Master's or even a Bachelor's Degree can make well in excess of $100K with 30 years experience.  Why shouldn't teachers?

The state may try to force Ringwood, Wanaque, and Lakeland Regional High School to regionalize (consolidate) into a single school district.  The push from the state is dramatically reduced over the past year or so, but I remain firmly against regionalization and I will support the district in its fight against regionalizing.  When all the aspects of regionalization are examined, it is likely that the costs after regionalization will exceed current costs.  Ringwood residents are proud of our school system and our teachers and we do not want to see any changes in an efficiently working system.   Please click on Education to the left to read education information.

Favorite Links	Coming soon!
Richard's Links - Backflip! Ringwood Schools Ringwood New School Borough of Ringwood Proactive Publishing Inc. PPiDVD Photo Album -- Updates have been installed and more are coming Soon!	1.  Photo Gallery on summer activities in Ringwood, especially Erskine Lakes area. 2.  Discussions on all aspects of education in Ringwood - Nothing sacred but the truth. 3.  Anything else that will interest Ringwood residents.  Feel free to send me comments or criticism.
Communities & Forums -- Coming Soon!
Feel free to comment on my philosophy and I may post your concerns.  I'll consider posting submissions expressing opposing views, but they must be signed and they may be edited for language and appropriate subject matter.