4-11-16 Education in the News

Star Ledger--N.J. school board set to vote on new transgender restroom policy

New guidelines that would allow high school students in the Pascack Valley regional schools to use restrooms based on their gender identity will be up for a vote Monday.

If adopted, the district's Board of Education would follow in the footsteps of numerous other New Jersey communities by adopting new rules designed to protect the rights of transgender students.

According to the proposed policy, the board "will accept a student's assertion of his or her gender identity when there is consistent and uniform assertion of the gender identity, or any other evidence that the gender identity is sincerely held as a part of the student's core identity."

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2016/04/nj_school_board_set_to_vote_on_new_transgender_res.html#incart_river_index

 

Star Ledger--Elevated lead levels found in 14 Paterson schools

PATERSON — Recent disclosures by the Paterson school district has revealed that water sources in 14 out of 45 city schools were above the federal limit for lead — and, in three schools, those levels were more than 13 times above the Environmental Protection Agency's limit of 15 parts per billion.

Moreover, a letter from Superintendent Donnie Evans to parents states school officials not only knew of the lead in the water but that they failed to disclose that information to parents.

"Regretfully, parents of students enrolled in impacted schools did not receive information about the 2014-2015 testing until recently and for this I apologize," Evans said in the notice.

According to The Record, Schools 6, 9 and 28 exceeded 200 parts per billion of lead in water samples, which is more than 13 times over the federal action limit.

http://www.nj.com/passaic-county/index.ssf/2016/04/paterson_school_district_apologizes_for_not_disclo.html#incart_river_index

PolitickerNJ--No Action on Christie Lawsuit Against A.C. Government Friday

No action Friday as judge declines to order a freeze of Atlantic City’s funds. Governor Christie announced the lawsuit against the city Monday.

Sources confirm that the first round of arguments in Chris Christie’s lawsuit against the government of Atlantic City resulted in no action Friday. The governor announced the suit Monday, and called for a swift ruling against the city for what he called improper use of property tax collections to shore up its shore up its municipal budget. The next court date is scheduled for April 19.

The state department of education mounted the lawsuit when the city missed an April 1 deadline for paying back $8.4 million to its public schools. At Christie’s request, State Education Commissioner David Hespe was seeking a temporary freeze of the city’s funds for the state to immediately repay that sum, a request the judge rejected today. The city’s defense argued that only the local board of education has the authority to bring an action to sue.

http://politickernj.com/2016/04/no-action-on-christie-lawsuit-against-a-c-government-friday/

By JT Aregood | 04/08/16 4:28pm