Sunday, March 31, 2013
Radburn and Milnes elementary schools also ranked in the top 52 of New Jersey's elementary schools, according to SchoolDigger.com
Lyncrest Elementary, recently named one of the state's 57 Reward Schools, was ranked among the top 15 elementary schools in the state in 2011-2012, according to school rankings website SchoolDigger.com. Drawing from third and fourth grade performance data from the New Jersey Department of Education, Lyncrest was ranked 14th out of 1,254 grammar schools in the state. Radburn Elementary grabbed the 46th spot, with Milnes Elementary right behind it at No. 52. No other Fair Lawn or Saddle Brook elementary school made the top 300. Third and fourth-grade students from all three Fair Lawn schools showed high proficiency in mathematics, each scoring above 95 percent proficient on average in the ASK evaluation tests. Language arts proficiency for …
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Sandy Ferro, the executive assistant to the superintendent of schools since 1998, has announced her retirement, effective June 30.
Sandy Ferro got about as affirmative a sendoff as any district employee could ever hope to receive Thursday when her retirement was announced at the Fair Lawn Board of Education meeting. Board members, who have developed close working relationships with Ferro over her 21 years as the superintendent's assistant, took turns praising her calming influence with parents, exceptional conscientiousness and complete professionalism in dealing with sensitive school-related issues. Longtime board member John Mancinelli equated her retirement to losing a friend. "You don’t really know what you’re going to do the next time you come in and she’s not there," he said. "I truly have a sense of loss and I expect to miss her tremendously." Superintendent …
Friday, March 22, 2013
The Fair Lawn Board of Education Thursday unanimously passed an $88.3 million budget for the 2013-2014 school year that includes a smaller tax increase than in recent years.
The Fair Lawn Board of Education unanimously approved an $88.3 million budget Thursday that superintendent Bruce Watson said contains the lowest-ever tax increase in district history. Cost savings from last year's custodial privatization, switch to the State Health Benefits Program for employees and receipt of unanticipated additional state aid freed up the board to increase expenditures by more than $2 million while upping taxes only 0.85 percent, or $73.88 on the average assessed homeowner, Watson said. Far from being a one-year gimmick, Watson stressed that the district's finances are in order for the foreseeable future. "Fair Lawn is financially positioned as probably one of the best districts in at least Bergen County," he said. "…
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Christie Administration has designated Fair Lawn's Lyncrest Elementary as one of 57 "Reward Schools" from across the state.
The New Jersey Department of Education has singled out Lyncrest Elementary for its students' high achievement on standardized state tests. Lyncrest was named one of New Jersey's "Reward Schools" last week for achieving overall test proficiency levels greater than 90 percent and ranking in the top 10 percent in the state for every category of student. It's one of 57 schools in the state to earn the distinction and one of just 10 in Bergen County. Principal Maria Corso attributed the school's success to its teachers. "As Principal for the last 13 years at Lyncrest, I see how hard my teachers work," she said in an email to Patch. "This is a wonderful honor for all of them." Reward Schools are categorized as either "high performing," for …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Police officers are making an effort to be seen at district public schools this week to allay parental fears.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Zak Koeske
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Update: Fair Lawn will extend its police school detail -- stationing a highly visible officer at all schools, manpower-permitting -- through Friday. Police officers and patrol vehicles have been stationed at both Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook schools this week to allay the fears of both parents and students still shaken from Friday's school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The Fair Lawn Police Department has arranged to have an officer at each of the district's 10 public schools during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times through Wednesday, manpower-permitting, Sgt. Richard Schultz said. Saddle Brook police chief Bob Kugler said his department had increased its uniformed and marked police vehicle presence around all…
Monday, December 17, 2012
Fair Lawn schools will make counselors available to any student or staff member who needs to talk following Friday's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., superintendent Bruce Watson said in a statement.
Fair Lawn superintendent Bruce Watson released a statement pledging the district's continued commitment to school safety Saturday, one day after a mass shooting killed 20 children and six staff at a Connecticut elementary school. Watson's message, which went out to parents over the district's Swift Reach phone notification system, also stated that the district would make counselors available to students and staff beginning Monday. "Parents, should your child wish to talk to our trained and caring staff, we will have someone available during school hours," Watson said. "For many, family discussion is enough, but for others additional support and attention may be necessary." Board of Education president Michael Rosenberg, who stressed the …
Monday, November 19, 2012
Absentee ballot results all but confirm that Fair Lawn Board of Education challenger Mark Spindel will join challenger Jeff Klein and incumbent Eugene Banta on the board next year.
Absentee ballot returns, released last week by the county, have solidified Mark Spindel's hold on the third and final contested seat in the Fair Lawn Board of Education election. Barring an enormous outpouring for incumbent Ron Barbarulo in the yet-to-be-counted provisional ballots, Spindel will join incumbent and leading vote-getter Eugene Banta and challenger Jeff Klein on the board come January. Banta and Klein held significant leads that virtually assured their victories before absentee ballots were counted, but Spindel's 87 vote lead over Barbarulo put him in a more precarious position. "I can't be very jubilant at this time until it is completely finalized," Spindel said the morning after the election. "There's still that uncertainty…
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
In wake of the power outages throughout town, including at school buildings in Fair Lawn, both Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook have cancelled school Wednesday.
With power out across large portions of Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook, and trees blocking roadways near school buildings in Fair Lawn, both districts have cancelled school Wednesday. Radburn School in Fair Lawn is without power and an enormous tree with tangled wires is blocking Radburn Road at the northbound approach to the building. Board of Education president Michael Rosenberg said he wasn't sure what other school buildings may be without power or impassable, but that with all of that blocked roads and outages throughout town, including among faculty and staff members, schools would stay closed for at least another day. Memorial School in Fair Lawn, which flooded during Irene last year and remained closed for the next month, survived …
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The superintendents in each district have cancelled school on Monday and Tuesday due to the threat of Hurricane Sandy.
With Hurricane Sandy closing in on the area, Fair Lawn superintendent Bruce Watson and Saddle Brook superintendent Kathryn Fedina have chosen to close all schools in their respective communities on Monday and Tuesday. Fair Lawn sent out a SwiftReach alert to all parents and posted the information on its website around 3 p.m. Saddle Brook followed suit a few hours later. Fair Lawn emergency management coordinator Ira Marks said that extra precautions have been taken this year at Memorial Middle School, which suffered flood damage in Hurricane Irene and remained closed for a month following the storm. In addition to sandbagging all entrances to the building, which was largely successful last year, the district's buildings and grounds crew …
Thursday, October 25, 2012
First-time Fair Lawn Board of Education candidate Vladimir Itkin wants to ensure students are provided a rigorous mathematics curriculum.
This is the second in a series of profiles about each of the six Fair Lawn Board of Education candidates. Vladimir Itkin never paid much attention to elections growing up in his native Moscow. The process just wasn’t very interesting, he said. “In Russia, either there was no choice — there was only one choice — or later on there was a choice between a bad guy and a very bad guy,” said Itkin, who left Russia for the United States in 1994 to attend graduate school at Ohio State University. “Here in the U.S., there is a real choice.” Today, Itkin is not only interested in the upcoming election, he’s one of the six candidates vying for three Fair Lawn Board of Education seats. Itkin, who has two young daughters, began attending board meetings …
Go Figure
3:56 am on Friday, March 15, 2013
Congratulations! This school has always had a very dedicated and outstanding staff. Keep up the great work with our kids! more ›