Ringwood Public Schools Facilities Blog

On Thursday, December 16th, we had a very productive meeting.  Mr. Beattie had the opportunity to present his PowerPoint presentation on the referendum for the first time and we received a lot of constructive feedback.  It was Mr. Beattie’s first opportunity to publicly offer the presentation so the small group was welcome.  We received suggestions for additional slides and improvements to the existing slides. 

We also went over the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document and I received some good feedback on that also.  I removed Quite a few items completely and improved on a number of additional items.  Diagrams of all 3 floors for the new construction are now included in the FAQ and the document is more effectively focused on important issues of concern.  More changes will be made as additional information becomes available.  The FAQ is designed to answer specific questions for individuals and not necessarily meant for everyone to read every word.  I’m sure though, that many individuals with a high level of interest will read the entire document. 

My highest priority is to come up with a dollar figure for the tax impact on the average priced home in Ringwood.  I am working with our Bond Attorney to come up with a figure as soon as possible.  It is important that we emphasis the fact that we will be getting approximately $2.7 million in state debt service.  That will reduce the tax burden of the Hewitt Project from $11.2 million to about $8.5 million.  New Jersey state debt service is when the government provides aid dollars “plus interest” on a yearly basis over the duration of the bond.  A lot of information on finance is currently available in the recently published Version 2.0 of the Hewitt FAQ which can be found here on the ringwoodboe.edublogs.org blog site.

I know that this is a very busy time of the year for everyone and that many people have other engagements for December 16^th, Thursday night at 7:30, but we do have a Referendum Committee meeting scheduled for that time and date.  This was the only date available before the holidays close in on us.  We will discuss version 1.0 of the Referendum Frequently Asked Questions document that has been on this blog site (ringwoodboe.edublogs.org) for the last 2 weeks.  We are hoping to get enough feedback to produce version 2.0 and to have the document in a final format.  We would also like to decide whether any issues are so important that they should be written up in Fact Sheets which will be single page documents focusing on a single important issue. 

We will also be getting a preview of Mr. Beattie’s PowerPoint presentation on the referendum.  The presentation promises to be very informative and it is one of the visual aids that we will rely on for passing the referendum.  The presentation will also be placed on the blog site in a PDF file.  The presentation will cover the needs for the refurbishments and the financial figures involved. 

The committee is also considering a video production for the referendum.  At this time, the video will probably focus on middle school children who have made their way through Hewitt.  We will emphasize what the learning experience at Hewitt meant to these students.  Of course finances will be covered also in the video. 

Thank you and I hope to see you Thursday evening.

We’ve selected Thursday, December 16^th as the date for the next Referendum Committee meeting.  We will meet at 7:30 in the media center at Ryerson School.  I know this date is close to Christmas and New Year’s Day, but we need to get started on the materials we require to promote the Referendum.  The board of education members have been working on a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document for use with promoting the referendum.  We will put it on the internet at our web site, www.ringwoodschools.org, and also on our blog at ringwoodboe.edublogs.org when it is completed.  I hope to have a draft of the FAQ ready to distribute to the committee members at the meeting.  At that time we can discuss it and add or remove items.

 Our new superintendent, Hugh Beattie, is joining Ringwood on December 1^st.  He attended our last referendum committee meeting and should be completely up to date on the referendum by this meeting.  I am hoping that Mr. Beattie will help us out with a PowerPoint presentation to provide at meetings with residents before the April 27^th, 2011 election date.  We have a number of talented people to assist Mr. Beattie with this endeavor.  I want to thank our interim superintendent, Dr. Sellitti for his support for this project.  He will be leaving the district on December 1^st and will be missed.

 We also need to put together a couple of Fact Sheets for the more important issues facing us and the referendum.  Some issues require a fact sheet rather than mention in a FAQ where it will not get as much attention.  We would also like to have the referendum committee members have small parties of friends or neighbors to their homes for tea or coffee to discuss and promote the referendum.  The board will attempt to provide a knowledgeable member of the board to attend the get-togethers to provide additional support.  We can provide the PowerPoint presentation and the FAQ for support if necessary.

 If you have suggestions on successfully marketing the referendum, please send them to me via email or leave them on the blog where everyone can see them.  Thank you for your support.

Welcome to our brand new blog at ringwoodboe.edublogs.org.

Thank you to those who attended the Referendum Committee meeting last night.  It was a very informative meeting and the committee and the board agreed on selecting option 1A as presented by our architect, Jerry Rubino.  You can see the 1A plan here on the blog.  Click on the link for “Renovations & Construction”.  Be sure to visit the blog regularly for fresh information and discussion and don’t hesitate to leave feedback.

 There was a lot of discussion on how we need to get our marketing program started for us to sell the Hewitt improvement plan to the community.  Over the last couple of months we’ve had 3 Referendum Committee meetings to get feedback from the residents and each meeting was more poorly attended than the last.  A lot of people are talking about the Hewitt School, but few people have attended our meetings where they can offer some input into the project.  However, I feel that we are progressing at a good pace.  We needed to select a plan to resolve the Hewitt problems and that’s what we did last night.  The board approved plan 1A out of 12 optional plans offered by our architect.  We needed a plan before we could begin to sell it to the public.  The whole board will discuss the issue at the November 22 business session and vote to put the renovations and construction package on the April 27^th, 2011 school election ballot.  For financial details on the cost of the refurbishment and the construction, click on the link for “Renovations & Construction”.

 Ideally, we would like the community to drive this committee along with the board of education and Hewitt teachers.  We will have to see if we have some dedicated volunteers who wish to take this responsibility on.  Two volunteers to be coordinators would be ideal.  I do not have a follow-up meeting scheduled, but I will try to schedule a meeting before Christmas.  We are in the process of making a FAQ document and we will make a number of fact sheets to distribute.  Our marketing options can be discussed at the next meeting and we really look forward to your input.

 Don’t forget to visit our blog regularly and leave some comments.