MayorGangemi
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On the article Outages Drop as JCP&L Adds More Manpower
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On the article Fencing Parents Plead for Budgetary Support
MayorGangemi
10:55 am on Wednesday, January 11, 2012
ReplyRecommend we table further discussion about adding BOE budget for a fencing team when the high school has dropped its class in computer science/programming. We dropped computer science - do you think they dropped computer science in Palo Alto high? Or in Chinese high schools? Just sayin' people. Where are the priorities?
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On the article Poll: Will Chatham Follow Princeton's Example and Merge?
MayorGangemi
11:00 am on Saturday, November 12, 2011
ReplyScott and Ken, These small-towners are missing the point. I recoommend, though, since you seem to view yourselves as serious people to take a close look at the Chatham budgets and find the potential savings. Then take a look at the personnel decisions involved in reducing head-count. And look again at the travesty of having TWO Rec directors and ask yourself what politician is going to face the police forces, the "first responders", and tell them we are cutting back on personnel. You can reduce through attrition but that will take a lot of time and money. And you underestimate the cost of taking on Chatham Boro. Can anyone tell me the ongoing liability for replacing the lead drinking water pipes in Chatham Boro?
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On the article Poll: Will Chatham Follow Princeton's Example and Merge?
MayorGangemi
8:48 am on Friday, November 11, 2011
ReplyAt one time, I felt the marginal savings would justify a full merger. But, over time, I have observed that most of those savings in personnel and other duplicated services would take a long time to realize, if ever. These towns have a history of protecting public workers (see two Rec Directors for instance) and its not reasonable to expect that a merger would do much more than create some small incremental savings. But I am more concerned as a Township resident with the decline of downtown Chatham Boro over the years (see current vacancy rates), the lack of parking and the loss of competitiveness to Summit and now New Providence. Madison is a special case as a college town. Summit and NP planned their way out of downtown delcine. Frankly, I don't want to pay for the development and implementation of an economic plan to deal with the traffic and parking issues in the Boro - I get what I need from Madison, Summit and New Providence. Isn't it enough that we already pay the majority of the freight for our school system - why take on more to compensate for Chatham Boro's mistakes?
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On the article Poll: Is Obama Student Loan Plan Positive?
MayorGangemi
1:31 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2011
ReplyChrissy, legacy jobs not requiring any hard knowledge, but a facility with communications will always exist but the odds for success get longer every year, the earnings in those careers go down and those opportunities in general are in decline, not on the increase. My main point is that with all the concern about social stratification and earnings imbalances, we need to encourage students to enter the areas that offer real economic opportunity rather than the "feel good" majors. Sorry, but I can see, from where I sit in business, that you are clearly on the wrong side of economic history on this one.
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On the article Poll: Is Obama Student Loan Plan Positive?
MayorGangemi
11:15 am on Thursday, October 27, 2011
ReplyYou are all missing the point. Liberal arts, arts, communications, international relations and social sciences majors have largely run their course as a preparation for a rapidly automating workplace. We have far too many intellectually capable college students earning easy majors and far too many detached educators encouraging them to take these majors. What the economy needs is people prepared to do the difficult work - computer science degrees, a variety of engineering degrees, bio/biochem/microbiology, physics, math and applied math, languages, accounting (I've probably missed one or two). The students opting for easy majors are prepared for little except graduate school. So, with current undergraduate debt in-hand, they move onto grad school and attempt to find a way to become economically relevant - or, they go out into the workplace that needs them for little more than a dead-end job. The university line is "we teach people to think". But they don't tell you that "the rest is up to you". Before you decide to apply and enter college - know exactly what you need to get out of it and where you intend to find work. Here is a fact to consider: last year our flagship State University, Rutgers New Brunswick, graduated 70 math majors and 610 Psychology majors. That represents an enormous waste of tuition money. Today, what you study is more important than where you study. I will guarantee you that most of those math majors have jobs right now.
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On the article Parents Submit Petition for First Grade Teacher
MayorGangemi
9:34 am on Thursday, July 21, 2011
Sorry, you are pushing an agenda, Jack, because you are factually incorrect. End of discussion.
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On the article Parents Submit Petition for First Grade Teacher
MayorGangemi
2:24 pm on Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Its not on the web - it is printed in broadsheet and available to all high school students near the end of each year. You might call the High School office to see if they have a supply on hand or ask a neighbor whose senior just graduated. Its done every year and I check it every year - the class of 2011 had the strongest showing,yet, and that shouldn't be surprising given its strength in the National Merit Scholarship program (that too is listed in the profile). And for Peter, the county college info you want is right on the CHS site in the "attending 2 year colleges" category of the School Profile.
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On the article Parents Submit Petition for First Grade Teacher
MayorGangemi
5:47 am on Wednesday, July 20, 2011
ReplyIf you see class sizes creep north of 25 per class, then start thinking about it. But class size isn't any larger now at SBS than it has been in the past. With that in mind, perhaps you should take a look at the profile for Chatham High school on the web site for a reality check. Most of these kids went to Chatham elementary schools with the kind of class sizes you see now. Check out the SAT scores, the number of National Merit commended and scholarship students, the types of colleges/universities our kids are attending. Take a look at the number of Ivies, top technical universities and major research universities our graduating seniors are attending this Fall (its published). We don't need to pay for class sizes of 20 students per room. If your kids can't make it in this school system - its not class size that is the problem. Give us a break on property taxes with that extra money Christie sent us instead of reflexively looking for new reasons to spend it. Sheesh.
MayorGangemi
11:45 am on Tuesday, November 6, 2012
I just drove through the area the township says is being worked on and only saw one lousy truck on Runnymeade. The intersection of River Road and Southern is a total disaster and the destroyed poles and downed lines run far down River toward New Providence. It will take days, days to fix the problems on River Road. We are being lied to and the mayor need only drive the Township roads to know we are being lied to - yet, she is out there shilling for the power company. The response from JCP&L is atrocious and getting dangerous for those of us without power. The only response possible is to sit this out and then sit on bill payments - you think those spineless utility bureaucrats are going to shut you off for non-payment in the aftermath of this mess? Screw 'em.