Friday Morning News Roundup

By • Jun 18th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News

- Support for Epps: Embattled Board of Education superintendent Charles Epps got some support from some community members at last night’s board meeting.

- Alleged Ticket Fixer Pleads Guilty: Former municipal court employee Virginia Pagan, who was accused of dismissing more than 200 of her own parking tickets, pleaded guilty in a Bergen County court yesterday. She faces up to three years in prison; sentencing is scheduled for August 20.

- No Bedbugs at Goldman: After ABC News reported this week that Goldman Sachs’ waterfront office tower was being sprayed for bedbugs, officials denied a pest problem and insisted extermination was a “precautionary measure.”

- Newport Fitness Sexual Harrassment Case: The state Division on Civil Rights has ruled that there is probable cause in two sexual harrassment complaints brought against Newport Swim and Fitness by two former employees. The employees also charged that they were fired after reporting the alleged harrassment. Now that the Division has issued findings of probable cause, the two cases will be referred for a process known as conciliation.

- Embezzler Sentenced: An accountant and former employee of Jersey City electronics company Bel Fuse was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of embezzling $1 million from the firm.

In Statewide News:

- Christie Wants Medical Marijuana Grown at Rutgers: In a move that would place further restrictions on the nation’s strictest medical marijuana law, Gov. Christie has proposed that Rutgers University’s agricultural center should grow all of the state’s pot and hospitals should dispense it. This would eliminate the option of entrepreneurial growers and non-profit dispensaries getting some of the state’s marijuana business. Christie has also sought to delay the implementation of the law, which was passed in January, for up to a year; Sen. Nicholas Scutari will introduce a bill Monday limiting that delay to 90 days.

- Red Tape Reform Bills Move Forward: Over the objections of environmental groups, four bills designed to reduce bureaucratic delays cleared an Assembly panel yesterday. The Christie administration says the laws are needed to eliminate redundant or outdated regulations, but several environmental groups say they are important public protections.

- Live Nation Suit Can Proceed: A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit against Live Nation accusing the concert promoter and ticket seller of price gouging can go forward.

- Jersey Fresh Fakes: The state Division of Consumer Affairs and Agriculture Department warned shoppers about produce that falsely claims to be “Jersey Fresh.”

- Henna Tattoo Artists Face Regulation: An Assembly panel cleared a bill that would fine henna tattoo artists up to $1,000 if they use temporary tattoo dyes that contain the chemical PPD.

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  • Riaz Wahid

    I don’t like the direction that the Dr Epps’ contract issue is heading now !!!

  • Alb

    I think the problem is that no one who’s visible to a casual observer like me is looking at Epps and the Jersey City School District schools in an even-handed, realistic, knowledgeable way.

    You have people on one side saying, “Epps, bad! Makes too much money! Took that junket! Scores too low! Dickinson kids rampaging! All ye enter the zone schools shall die!”

    On the Epps side, you have people saying, “Epps one of ours! Good guy! Trying hard! Rome not built in a day! Charter schools bad! LCCS/TECCS parents are elitists who should be ignored, even if they’re trying to tell us, correctly, that our hair is on fire! Better for us to burn up and blow away than to listen to LCCS/TECCS parents!!!!!!”

    One problem is that, really, even from the perspective of someone who thinks standardized test scores can be useful in some situations, the tests the New Jersey schools are using tell us virtually nothing about how our schools are really working. The tests don’t show us whether kids are getting appropriate gym, recess, art or music sessions; whether the kids are learning to behave reasonably well; or whether the kids like school and are doing their best to learn on their own. The test summaries don’t show us much about how well the schools are serving kids who enter kindergarten with different levels of preparedness.

    My impression is that the kids in the Jersey City School District schools are getting inundated with 3 R’s homework, but that the homework is kind of dumb. The curriculum designers seem to be ambitious people who think they are smarter than they really are and have a tendency to fall for fads and bad writing.

    My questions would be:

    - What is Epps really doing to get the maintenance people to maintain and fix up the schools?

    - How well is Epps doing at identifying smart curriculum designers, as opposed to airheads who have swallowed books of education jargon?

    - How well is Epps, within the power that he is, keeping tabs on things like school lunch contracting?
    -

  • http://onejerseycity.org Dan Levin

    should be pretty straight forward. if an organization is by all accounts successful, then hire and promote within, if it is struggling and not meeting expectations then go outside for talent. with that in mind, if the Jersey City school system is by measure one of the top urban school districts in the country, then hire from within and/or renew the superintendent’s contact. however, if the Jersey City schools are falling and failing short, then we need new blood, new leadership and a candidate with a difference set of experience and skills to offer.

    is the job of superintendent of the Jersey City schools easy? no way, no how, but if we are looking for change, improvement and reform, I do not believe that a 40 career employee is free of the personal relationships and loyalties to change the district’s direction. I also believe that his standing for election and serving a term as state assemblyman (double dipping) while superintendent failed to demonstrate sound judgement and the necessary commitment to our challenged school district.

    related – I would expand Alb’s statement about “curriculum designers” to include some of the self proclaimed educational activists and school reformers that have jumped on the “race to reform” bandwagon who – “seem to be ambitious people who think they are smarter than they really are and have a tendency to fall for fads and bad writing.” thanks Alb.