Press release from Red Bank Borough Schools Superintendent Jared Rumage
The Red Bank Borough Public Schools are a proud participant of the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) Governor’s Educator of the Year Program. Each year, the NJDOE recognizes Teachers and Educational Services Professionals throughout the State and honors educators based on the following criteria.
Teachers and staff welcomed students to the Red Bank Middle School with a clap-in on the first day of the 2022-2023 school year. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Superintendent Jared Rumage is not a fan of summer.
“I hate empty school buildings,” he said outside the middle school Tuesday, as the two-school district welcomed 1,261 students for a new academic year. “They should be like this, filled with kids.”
In an email exchange with redbankgreen last week, Rumage, now in his 10th year at the district’s helm, provided an overview of some key issues.
The budget includes funding for a counselor to help stressed students, Rumage said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Federal and state grants to offset pandemic-related expenses helped keep the Red Bank school district tax increase at two percent for the second year in a row, Superintendent Jared Rumage said Tuesday night.
Alyssa Geary, below, teaches at the Red Bank Middle School. (Click to enlarge.)
On August 25, the New Jersey Department of Education announced 21 educators as the 2021-2022 County Teachers of the Year during a virtual awards ceremony.
Among them: Red Bank Middle School teacher Alyssa Geary, who garnered the honor for Monmouth County.
The Red Bank Borough Public Schools are a proud participant of the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) Governor’s Educator of the Year Program. Each year, the NJDOE recognizes Teachers and Educational Services Professionals throughout the State as part of the Governor’s Educator of the Year Program.
Red Bank teachers Carol Boehm, left, and Kristen Maiello with nurse Cathy Reardon, right. (Photo by Red Bank Borough Schools. Click to enlarge.)
In March of 2020, we were preparing to celebrate several incredible educators but the health pandemic and ensuing school closure forced us to hit the pause button. Of course, late is better than never and these educators deserve to be recognized for the outstanding work they do for our students. Each exemplifies the “Red Bank Borough is Best in America” (#RBBisBIA) mindset, which is deeply rooted in our school district’s culture. We strive to be the Best In America so we can be certain we are the Best for Red Bank. Moreover, we all know an organization is only as strong as its people. Luckily, here in Red Bank we have some distinguished exemplars.
Jobs and after-school programs that were cut this spring are being restored, said Superintendent Jared Rumage, seen at left with board president Fred Stone before a lobbying trip to Trenton in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank school officials have been busy in recent days restoring jobs, programs and contracts eliminated just four months ago.
Under Governor Phil Murphy’s first budget, the borough’s 1,422-student pre-K-8 district saw a 55-percent jump in state aid, which board members said Tuesday night was a cause for both celebration and frustration.
Jobs and after-school programs are on the cutting block unless the state comes through with an additional $750,000, said Superintendent Jared Rumage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The average Red Bank homeowner would pay about $117 more in taxes to support borough schools this year if New Jersey legislators don’t come through with more funding, Superintendent Jared Rumage said Tuesday night.
Even with the levy increase, the local primary and middle schools could see cuts in staffing and extracurricular programs such as jazz band and the fledgling cross-country track team, he said.
District officials say they may have to eliminate a new cross-country program in order to balance the budget. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank school board members and parents reacted with outrage Monday night to an effective reduction in state aid under funding announced by the administration of Governor Phil Murphy last week.
Though nominally a $178,503 increase for the district, more than that sum is to be relayed to the Red Bank Charter School, Superintendent Jared Rumage said at a board meeting at the primary school.
With the district seeing an effective decline in aid while state funding to the charter school’s rises $1,025 per student, “I think the time has come to have the discussion about running two public schools in Red Bank,” Rumage told redbankgreen.
An increase in state aid enabled the district to add two teachers Tuesday night, with more coming, says the superintendent. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Board of Education approved the hiring Tuesday of two teachers whose jobs were made possible by an increase of $512,682 in additional state aid.
Up to six more teachers and instructional aides are expected to be added to the district’s payroll for the coming school year under what Superintendent Jared Rumage called a “gigantic” cash infusion from Trenton into the still-underfunded district.
Superintendent Nelson Ribon fielded pointed questions from parents about the teachers’ contract and other issues at two packed meetings in April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
After two years without a contract, Fair Haven school teachers have approved a new collective bargaining agreement, the Asbury Park Press reports.
The unresolved contract was among several flash points when parents grilled Superintendent Nelson Ribon and the school board over the possible elimination of two full-time kindergarten teaching jobs in April.
Students held signs with the names of teachers whose jobs they hoped to save. Board member Katy Frissora, below, fielded a question from a parent. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Some 300 Fair Haven parents and students packed a gymnasium to protest a plan not to renew the contracts of seven non-tenured teachers Wednesday night.
“It breaks my heart to leave my school like this in two months,” eighth-grader Ellie Gibney told the borough school board, just 48 hours after a smaller crowd upbraided school Superintendent Nelson Ribon over the plan.
Board members, however, defended the decision as the outcome of an evaluation process that included elements they could not discuss publicly under laws governing personnel matters.
“We need people to stop with the vitriol and the Facebook nastiness – at me in particular,” said Katy Frissora, who’s been on the board for eight years.
Superintendent Nelson Ribon, center above, fielded pointed questions from parents, including one, below, who compared him to a CEO who had lost the respect of his employees. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven school Superintendent Nelson Ribon found himself in the crosshairs of about 100 mothers and a handful of students Monday night.
Joined by about a dozen men, the women and kids challenged Ribon and the school board over the possible elimination of two full-time kindergarten teaching jobs, a plan to expand the half-time kindergarten program next September, and pending decisions on the jobs of more than two dozen teachers.
“Teachers are afraid to talk,” a woman who has four children in the district schools told Ribon during a two-hour Q&A at Knollwood School. “They’re fearful for their jobs, and that’s not what Fair Haven is about.”
“We’re asking you to reconsider” a plan to replace the two kindergarten full-timers with four part-timers, said another, echoing a sentiment voiced several times.
Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High
Ian Jukes, who has garnered international acclaim as an expert on educating the “Digital Generation,” will be the featured speaker at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School’s Professional Day on September 3.
His keynote address, titled “Critical Thinking and Effective Question/Discussion Strategies,” will be presented to all RFH staff members in the school’s auditorium. This special presentation will serve as a kick-off for the events of Professional Day, which is designed to help RFH staff effectively prepare for the upcoming school year.
Teachers and board members returned to the bargaining table Thursday night. (Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
More than two years into a drawn-out negotiation process, including almost a year-and-a-half of slow-paced mediation, Red Bank Regional High’s teachers’ union and the board of education were once again face to face Thursday night.
The first bargaining session in months, held behind closed doors following a regular board meeting, capped a rather dramatic couple of weeks in which teachers gathered several times in silent displays of unity at morning drop-offs of students.
[Update: This article replaces an earlier version, which cited contract terms that Superintendent Laura Morana says were reported incorrectly in both the Asbury Park Press and the Star-Ledger.]
Gov. Chris Christie has offered pointed praise for a pact, finalized late last week, under which Red Bank teachers agreed to a three-year wage freeze.
Christie’s called out the deal was in an opinion piece under his byline in the Star-Ledger Sunday. That followed Thursday night’s ratification by both the teachers’ union and the Red Bank Board of Ed of a contract that will bump each of the district’s 130 teachers up to the next pay grade in two of the three years, Superintendent Laura Morana tells redbankgreen.
Some items from Monday night’s bimonthly meeting of the Red Bank Council:
The council honored this year’s teachers of the year at local schools. They are:
Red Bank Primary School: Karen Gerber
Red Bank Middle School: Damian Medina
Red Bank Regional High: Cassandra Dorn
Red Bank Charter School: Brenda Conni