Thursday, March 18, 2010
The state releases the specifics on aid cuts to municipalities Thursday afternoon.
The state Department of Community Affairs announced Thursday afternoon that Scotch Plains and Fanwood will each lose several hundred thousand dollars in state aid this year. Scotch Plains is slated to lose over $600,000. Fanwood's will drop nearly $200,000. These reductions are relatively close to what the municipalities had been expecting. Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool said on Tuesday that the township was anticipating a 15 to 20 percent drop in state aid. The actual drop, from $2,854,052 last year to $2,227,587 this year, is 21.95 percent. The aid this year will include $244,821 in consolidated municipal property tax relief and $1,982,766 in total energy tax receipts. Fanwood's aid has decreased from $949,450 last year to $755,288 …
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High Mike Demmel shares his opinion on banned Web sites on school computers.
As we progress into the future, more and more work is done over the internet. Now, practically every school project assigned requires some kind of online research. The school not only expects us to be proficient with our computer skills, but also expects us to utilize the resources available on the web. Many organizations, including Wikipedia, government programs, colleges, and newspapers, have very useful Web sites for students to conduct both independent research as well as class-directed research for various projects and assignments. Unfortunately, the school tech department has deemed many of these Web sites inappropriate for school for a wide variety of reasons. Some of the sites blocked, and the reason they are blocked, may even …
Additional performances will be held Saturday and Sunday.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High's Repertory Theatre will continue its production of the musical "Curtains (The Musical Comedy Whodunnit)" tonight. The student actors debuted their spring performance last Friday, March 12, and followed it with a performance on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, the playwright who wrote "Curtains," Rupert Holmes, attended. Set in 1959 Boston, "Curtains" follows what happens when the untalented star of the show within the show, Robbin' Hood of the Old West, is murdered during her opening night curtain call. The production follows a police detective who moonlights as a musical theater fan to see if he can save the show, solve the case and find love before the show reopens, without getting himself killed. "It's a lot …
40.651911
-74.384287
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School
667 Westfield Rd, Scotch Plains
/articles/curtains-continues-tonight-at-sp-f-high-school
7105
/locations/318175
The Raiders will likely have to play all of their April games away.
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High baseball team – defending Union County Tournament champions - may not play a home game until May because of construction that is presently being done on the varsity field. According to seventh-year head coach Tom Baylock, the infield was dug up in February so that drains could be put in. "It's something that needed to be done, although the timing is not the best right now," said Baylock, who has guided Scotch Plains to its last two UCT crowns, including its third in 2004, which was during his first year at the helm. The Raiders are practicing at Park Middle School and will host their first scrimmage there Friday at 4 p.m. against Somerset County foe Hillsborough. Baylock hoped that the work that is being done…
40.651911
-74.384287
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School
667 Westfield Rd, Scotch Plains
/articles/sp-f-high-baseball-field-not-ready-for-season-start
7105
/locations/317985
The Fanwood native is set to play in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament today.
SPORTS|22 hours ago
The New York Times has a story Thursday profiling Fanwood native and basketball star Derrick Caracter. The story follows his basketball history from eighth grade to his time now on the University of Texas-El Paso team, and interviews everyone from his parents to Scotch Plains-Fanwood High basketball coach Dan Doherty. Read it here.
The school district's state aid cuts were much steeper than expected.
State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler on Wednesday defended the governor's significant cut to New Jersey school districts' state aid, telling reporters that previous Democratic administrations and the loss of $1 billion in federal stimulus funds are partly to blame for the reduction. The Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District found out Wednesday afternoon that it will lose $3.84 million in state aid for the 2010-2011 school year. Fifty-nine other districts, including Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Springfield and Summit, had their state aid eliminated entirely. The reductions come on the heels of Gov. Chris Christie's budget speech on Tuesday, in which he stated that school districts would see an aid cut that would equal no more …
40.655562
-74.384975
Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education
2280 Evergreen Ave, Scotch Plains
/articles/education-commissioner-defends-hefty-cut-in-state-aid-to-sp-f-other-districts
13094
/locations/317658
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The numbers were released Wednesday afternoon.
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District will lose $3.84 million in state aid for the 2010-2011 school year. The numbers, released by the state Department of Education Wednesday afternoon, call for Scotch Plains-Fanwood to lose 84.4 percent of its aid for the next year, dropping the money it will receive from the state to $708,590. The $3.84 million cut reflects Gov. Chris Christie's call on Tuesday to slash state aid by no more than 5 percent of a district's total budget. Up until now, the district had been preparing its budget with the expectation that it would lose 1o to 15 percent of its expected state aid, which only would have lost them a few hundred thousand dollars and would have still guaranteed them at least $4 million. Now that…
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High senior Mike Demmel shares his concerns about Kyleigh's Law
Last week, history was made in New Jersey. Well, maybe not history, but there was surely an event of extreme importance. A New Jersey judge ruled in favor of Kyleigh's Law, setting it up to be enforced starting on May 1. This new driving law will, among other things, require all drivers with either a learner's permit or provisional license to have sticker decals on both license plates. The new law has created a large amount of uproar from both students and parents alike. Those for the bill argue that the decals will make the police force's job easier by identifying young/provisional drivers and being better able to inflict rules such as the 12 a.m. curfew and the one-passenger limit. It could also alert other drivers that there is a less …
Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool says this and next year won't be easy for the township.
Scotch Plains is expecting a 15 to 20 percent decrease in aid from the state this year, Mayor Nancy Malool said Tuesday. Following Gov. Chris Christie's budget speech earlier that day, the mayor said she anticipates Scotch Plains losing at least $100,000 from the state for 2010. The township will know the exact amount by the end of the week. "This will not be an easy year," Malool said. "The changes the governor is asking the legislature to make will not make next year an easy year, either." The latter comment refers to the governor's proposal to decrease the annual cap for property tax increases from 4 percent to 2.5 percent. Malool said the lower cap "will be tough to meet," but noted that the governor has given municipalities the tools …
An additional county budget meeting will be held on March 24.
GOVERNMENT|2 days ago
A third date has been added to the open public hearing dates in March for the review of Union County's 2010 Executive Budget. The additional date is March 24, beginning at 5 p.m. and concluding at about 7:15 p.m. The two previously announced dates are March 18 and March 25. Both of these hearings will begin at 4 p.m. and conclude by 7 p.m. Freeholder agenda-setting meetings will be held after the March 18 and March 25 meetings. All three budget hearings will be held in the freeholder meeting room on the sixth floor of the County Administration Building, at 10 Elizabethtown Plaza in Elizabeth. "We will continue to explore cost savings and reductions in the budget line by line," Freeholder Fiscal Committee Chairman Alexander Mirabella said…
Mike - I think the problem lies with "key words" that the software looks for. I'm not sure what program your school uses, but at my work we too are blocked from certain sites. The sites that get blocked don't make any sense from a work perspective either. According to our IT department, they can individually unblock sites if asked. Perhaps the school could do that for Georgetown admissions and … more ›