Kyrillos: Court Ruling Offers Blueprint for NJ Teacher Tenure Changes

By Senator Joe Kyrillos

A JUNE 10 California court ruling that teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional and violate students’ rights to quality education signals the need for further education reforms in New Jersey and other states across the country.

New Jersey was the first state to pass tenure legislation more than 100 years ago, and despite bipartisan reforms enacted two years ago, many antiquated state education laws still persist.

In 2012, the Legislature and Governor Christie compromised to pass a bipartisan reform law, addressing teacher tenure and the teacher dismissal process. Although it was a good first step, that effort came up short because public teachers’ unions had enough influence over the Legislature to preserve policies such as “last-in, first-out.”

LIFO forces schools to ignore educator effectiveness and lay off high-performing, bright educators, instead of ineffective, more senior ones.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Assembly Votes to Put Brakes on Impact of Common Core and New Student Testing

Assembly Votes to Put Brakes on Impact of Common Core and New Student Testing (via NJSpotlight)

A bill to slow the impact of the new Common Core State Standards and accompanying student testing won big — and bipartisan — approval from the state Assembly this week. Now the question is: What happens next? The measure won a 72-4 victory in the…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Cartoon: ‘Down the Drain’

• Tweet

Middletown Officials Suspect “The Situation” Staging Publicity Stunts

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was in custody for over 2 hours on simple assault charges

Fiore wants the Monmouth County Prosecutor to investigate

Middletown Committeeman Gerry Scharfenberger cuts the ribbon at Sorrentino’s tanning salon last March. photo via facebook

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was arrested in Middletown this afternoon after Township Police broke up a fight between the reality TV star schmuck and his brother Frank.

Detective Lt. Steve Dollinger told MMM that a call came into to the Middletown PD shortly after 2PM reporting a fight at the tanning salon owned by Sorrentino. The actor was arrested, charged with simple assault and released on $500 bail at around 5:15.   Dollinger declined to comment further, but other sources told MMM that Frank Sorrentino had a black eye and that Mike’s hand was bandaged as a result of the fisticuffs.

The story of Sorrentino’s arrest was first reported by TMZ, the entertainment gossip website.  Last week TMZ, which is located in Marina del Rey, California, broke the story that employees of the tanning salon filed complaints with the Middletown Police that their $100-$200 paychecks had bounced.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

The List: Ten Ways Sandy’s Impact Continues to Be Felt At the Jersey Shore

The List: Ten Ways Sandy’s Impact Continues to Be Felt At the Jersey Shore (via NJSpotlight)

Kids are getting out of school, the weather is getting nicer, and many people are starting to flock to the Shore as they do each year around this time. Early indicators like pre-season beach tag sales and vacation rental bookings seem to point to a…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Red Bank Regional substitute teacher charged with bedding 16 year old student

Accused rapist is founder of a youth advocacy organization

Darnell Lewis recruiting youth to make the right choices in Newark, August 2010. photo via I.M.P.A.C.T.’s facebook page

A substitute teacher and assistant football and basketball coach at Red Bank Regional High School is facing charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child after it was learned that he engaged in sexual intercourse with a 16 year of girl in his Red Bank home, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced from Afghanistan yesterday.

Gramiccioni is on a six month deployment with the Naval Reserve JAG Corps.

Darnell Lewis, 37, is charged with three counts of second degree Sexual Assault and one count of second degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He is being held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on $200,000 bail with no 10 percent option, as set my Superior Court Judge Angela White Dalton. He is to have no contact with the victim, should he make bail, according to White Dalton’s order.

Described as a hall monitor, substitute teacher and coach by Gramiccioni’s statement, Lewis recently resigned from Red Bank Regional and has not returned to the school.

Lewis is the founder of I.M.P.A.C.T., an organization he founded in 2010 that purports to help people make better choices.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Obama diverts $1 billion in Sandy funds away from New Jersey

Kyrillos and Holzapfel cry foul

Sen. Joe Kyrillos

President Barack Obama announced that he is diverting nearly $1 billion in Hurricane Sandy recovery funds away from New Jersey and New York to fund a nationwide resiliency competition that will ostensibly help the winning communities build infrastructure to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Obama announced the competition last weekend at the University of California Irvine’s commencement, according to The Star Ledger. 

“In some parts of the country, weather-related disasters like droughts and fires and storms and floods are going to get … harsher and they’re going to get costlier,” Obama said during the speech. “That’s why today I’m announcing a new one billion dollar competitive fund to help communities prepare for the impacts of climate change and build more resilient infrastructure across the country.”

State Senators Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth)and Jim Holzapfel (R-Ocean)l condemned the diversion of recovery funds away from their constituents.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Fisherman discovers dead body off Sandy Hook

Fisherman discovers dead body off Sandy Hook (via NJ.com)

SANDY HOOK – A fisherman discovered a man’s dead body in a shipping channel off Sandy Hook on Monday morning. At approximately 6:30 a.m. Monday, a fisherman from Staten Island discovered a dead body in the Ambrose Channel – a major shipping channel…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

The Arnone Report: Keeping our roads safe and affordable

By Freeholder Tom Arnone

Freeholder Tom Arone

TRAFFIC SIGNALS are of great significance in that they help to control the flow of traffic as well as helping to ensure the safety of our residents. Recently, there was a traffic signal activation ceremony held on the corner of Locust Avenue and Parker Roadin the Borough of West Long Branch. This project came about as a result of Mayor Tucci requesting that the County study this intersection to allow better traffic flow from Parker Road onto County Route 15 (Locust Avenue) and to improve safety and access for the Frank Antonides Middle School and the West Long Branch Community Center. Based on the County’s study our in-house County engineers designed this state of the art traffic signal which has dedicated turn lanes, improved crosswalks and push-button control pedestrian signals. The traffic signal uses LED lights that costs less to operate and is eco-friendly.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Guild of Creative Art Exhibit: Abstraction: Expressive? Precisely!

Be sure and take a visit to Guild of Creative Art  to see the David Levy & Annette Margulies Exhibit:  Abstraction: Expressive? Precisely!
now appearing until June 25, 2014
The diverse nature of Abstraction is revealed in the art of Annette Margulies and David Levy; heart-felt, cerebral, and a feast for the eye. 

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet