essexcountypolitics

Lawmakers want to bring ‘senior freeze’ tax relief in from the cold

Posted by · June 07, 2022 3:32 AM · 1 reaction

JOHN REITMEYER, BUDGET/FINANCE WRITER | JUNE 7, 2022

Proposed changes to "senior freeze" could mean good news for New Jersey's senior and disabled homeowners.

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A state-funded property-tax relief program cherished by thousands of New Jersey seniors may soon get a legislative fix to keep more people enrolled as property tax bills continue to rise across the state.

A measure that easily cleared key committees in both houses of the Legislature would revise the state’s popular “senior freeze” property-tax relief program to make sure those enrolled can remain eligible for benefits even if they move into a new home.

The senior-freeze proposal is advancing at a time when lawmakers from both parties have moved concerns about affordability and the state’s high cost of housing up to the top of the legislative agenda.

It is also follows a series of policy changes in recent years to modernize state property-tax relief programs that have, in many cases, been on the books for several decades.

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N.J.’s top cop and judge agree: Stop jailing people for minor fines | Editorial

Posted by · June 07, 2022 3:20 AM · 1 reaction

Published: Jun. 06, 2022

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

Cops in New Jersey have been arresting hundreds of thousands of people for minor stuff like unpaid tickets. (F

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The chief justice of New Jersey’s Supreme Court, Stuart Rabner, has been on a years-long campaign to stop using our jails to punish people for being poor; what amounts to a debtor’s prison.

He started by making our state a national model for bail reform, locking up dangerous people awaiting trial but releasing those stuck behind bars because they can’t afford to pay their way out.

Now he’s seeking to reform our municipal court system for lower-level offenses, which brings us to the new policy announced last week for all New Jersey cops and courts: You can no longer arrest people for minor fines like an unpaid parking ticket or hold them in jail because they can’t pay.

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Fresh Finds at Westfield Farmers Market: Vegan Cobblers, Local Produce & More

Posted by · June 06, 2022 5:33 AM · 1 reaction

By MATT KADOSH

TAPinto Westfield

Published June 5, 2022

Diane L. Murray-Clements, Grandma Emma's chief risk officer, at the farmer's market Saturday in Westfield.

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WESTFIELD, NJ — Fresh fruits and vegetables along with gourmet condiments and baked goods were on offer on the north side of the Westfield Train Station as the area chamber of commerce opened Westfield’s first farmers market of the season Saturday morning.

Gathered with representatives for the Greater Westfield Area Chamber at a display for Schieferstein Farm Market & Garden Center behind her, Mayor Shelley Brindle cut the ribbon for the market’s opening.

“I’m a regular here,” Brindle told TAPinto Westfield. “I’m particularly thrilled that Schieferstein farm is here. I’ve been going to this farm in Clark for years. It adds a great diversity and a lot of new produce.”

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Newark School District 4-8 Graders Trail State Average in Reading, Math, Test Results Show

Posted by · June 06, 2022 2:19 AM · 1 reaction

By TOM WIEDMANN

TAPinto Newark

Published June 5, 2022

NEWARK, NJ — Newark Public Schools District students in grades 4-8 performed far below the statewide average in proficiency in reading and math in the 2021 Start Strong assessments, according to an analysis of the assessment results.

The Start Strong assessment, which was administered in 2021 between Sept. 13 and Oct. 22, grouped students’ scores into three categories: in need of “strong support,” “some support,” or “less support.” Students in grades 4-10 took English language arts assessments (ELA), and students in grades 4-8 took mathematics assessments.

In general, the NJ Department of Education has described the “less support” category in Start Strong as lining up with the “proficiency” category in the more typical annual state exams, such as the NJSLA, which was last administered in the 2018-19 school year.

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Mental health part of plans to protect students

Posted by · June 06, 2022 2:14 AM · 1 reaction

LILO H. STAINTON, HEALTH CARE WRITER | JUNE 6, 2022

NJ Spotlight News

Communities in New Jersey and nationwide are again focusing on the need to protect students, avert violence and help kids and families heal from the trauma of incidents like the recent mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas.

New Jersey — which has among the nation’s strongest gun laws — had already taken steps to beef up school security, identify students who may pose a threat and ensure districts provide comprehensive mental health services. The state also created a $1 million grant fund to help schools develop depression-screening programs, starting this fall.

“We’ve always had children that experienced mental health issues, but not at the level and frequency that’s going on now. We have to treat it like we treat reading,” said Millville schools superintendent Tony Trongone, pointing to strategies such as intervention, ongoing support and parental engagement.

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Newark boosts starting teacher pay to $62K to fill staffing gap worsened by pandemic

Posted by · June 04, 2022 2:37 AM · 1 reaction

Published: Jun. 03, 2022

By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

An increase in starting pay for Newark teachers to $62,000 this fall is intended to close a long-term staffing gap aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic. Newark teachers lined up to be vaccinated at Barringer High School in March 2021.

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In an effort to plug a years-long teacher shortage aggravated by the Coronavirus pandemic, Newark public schools will boost starting pay by $8,000 this fall, or about 15%, the district and local union announced.

The hike in starting pay to $62,000 a year for rookie teachers in the state’s largest school district is among several pay-related changes intended to attract new teachers and retain veterans.

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University Heights Charter School Announces State Intends to Revoke its Charter

Posted by · June 03, 2022 3:04 AM · 1 reaction

By TAPINTO NEWARK

Published June 2, 2022

In more optimistic times, University Heights Charter School staff stand outside a new school building on Broad Street in Newark.

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NEWARK — University Heights Charter School announced that the state Department of Education intends to revoke the school’s charter at the end of the school year.

A statement released late Thursday evening said Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan based her decision to shutter the K-8 school on 2018-19 test scores and “subjective conclusions reported from one of the DOE evaluators who paid a short four-hour visit on March 14, 2022.”

“Much of the information asserted by the evaluator cannot be verified as accurate by the University Heights Charter School,” the school said in its statement.

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NJ’s training on school threats now more urgent

Posted by · June 03, 2022 2:56 AM · 1 reaction

JOHN MOONEY, EDUCATION WRITER | JUNE 3, 2022

NJ Spotlight News

May 25, 2022: Esmeralda Bravo, center, holds a photo of her granddaughter, Nevaeh, one of the Robb Elementary School shooting victims, as she is comforted by Nevaeh's cousin, Anayeli, during a prayer vigil in Uvalde, Texas.

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Dating back at least five years, the state’s training for New Jersey school and law enforcement officials comes with a clinical name and lots of detail on processes and procedures that belie its tragic topic.

But the latest online session of the “School Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management” certainly took on a greater urgency — and interest — than usual on Thursday, as experts and educators spent the day discussing strategies to address troubled students who could turn violent against others or themselves.

The session comes in the aftermath of the Texas school shooting last week, where the 18-year-old gunman was somehow missed by such safeguards in his school, leading to the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School and the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers.

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Election officials say they’re ready for N.J. primary. They just need voters to show.

Posted by · June 02, 2022 3:54 AM · 1 reaction

Published: Jun. 01, 2022

By Jackie Roman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Only about 3.2% of the state’s more than 6.5 million registered voters opted to vote early during the general election last year. Pictured here, a man casts his ballot during early voting in October 23, 2021

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Election officials say they’re ready for just about anything this primary after rising to the challenges thrown their way these last few years, first with the coronavirus pandemic and then with the hastened rollout of early voting in New Jersey.

“They’ve been throwing us a lot of curveballs,” said Passaic County Clerk Danielle Ireland-Imhof.

Ireland-Imhof is one of a half dozen election officials NJ Advance Media interviewed ahead of the June 7 primary, who said their counties were prioritizing training, education, and transparency in order to avoid the technology glitches and long lines that plagued the general election last fall. Whether voters will actually turn out for the primary — in which voters will weigh in on mid-term Congressional races and about 100 contested county and municipal races — and put their preparations to the test, remains to be seen. During the last mid-term primary in 2018, only 11% of registered voters cast a ballot and that figure was even lower at 6.6% in 2014.

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DEP spells out new permitting standards for ‘overburdened communities’

Posted by · June 01, 2022 3:15 AM · 1 reaction

TOM JOHNSON, ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT WRITER | JUNE 1, 2022

NJ Spotlight News

Incinerators are one of the uses that would come under enhanced DEP permitting scrutiny.

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For the first time, state environmental regulators would be required when making permitting decisions to consider the cumulative impact of new facilities such as power plants on pollution levels in already overburdened communities.

That requirement is spelled out in a new rule proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection to protect communities that already have high levels of pollution from new projects that would increase public exposure to contaminants.

NJ Spotlight News obtained a copy of the draft 153-page rule, which is set to be published Monday in the New Jersey Register. A series of public hearings will follow on the new regulations before they are officially adopted.

The rule would implement a nearly two-year-old law that aims to end the long-standing practice of siting power plants, incinerators and other unwanted facilities in low-income communities — typically with mostly Black and minority populations. The so-called environmental justice law, touted as the nation’s strongest, was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in September 2020.

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