What to do? What to write?

Mr. Beatty prepares to address the BR-Board of Education..

This has been a tough week to select a topic for a blog entry – much to write about, not enough time for it all.

On the local scene, Bridgewater Township held its annual reorganization meeting on Monday evening at the Municipal Complex, followed on Tuesday by a similar ceremony for the Bridgewater-Raritan School District at the Wade Building in Martinsville.

It was at Monday’s meeting that Bridgewater Mayor Dan Hayes gave his positive State of the Township Address.

Both events, although technical in nature, were on the light-hearted and celebratory side. I came away with the sense that Washington politicians might learn something from some of our locals.

  

On the national stage, we Americans saw the installation of a new Congress with little expectation that it will get along with the Executive Branch.  Each is firmly positioned in the nation’s sandbox, throwing a fine mixture of dirt at the other – much to the nation’s detriment.

On the international scene, one would have to be completely tone deaf not to know what’s been going .on in Paris where another  radical Islamist attack has spread terror throughout that nation, one that has captured the world’s media focus.

With all of that material, I decided to stick close to home and to publish an address made to the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education at the end of its Tuesday meeting where, at that time, persons are invited to address the board on any topic of their choosing.

 

It was the only heavy-lift topic of that evening, and one which engendered the greatest amount of discussion among board members.  Any topic that can get teachers that riled up is sure to get the board’s attention, and this one did.

Steve Beatty, President of both the Bridgewater-Raritan and Somerset County Education Associations rose to give his impassioned plea to the Board of Education for it to take up the cudgel against the newly introduced federal school testing mandate called PARCC (the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers).

 

This first-of-its-kind testing process is an outgrowth of Common Core requirements begun under President Bush and subsequently adopted and expanded by the Obama administration.

Mr. Beatty and the teachers he represents don’t like PARCC one bit.  Neither, apparently, do some parents.  Local and regional newspapers are beginning to run stories that don’t tell a favorable tale. 

 

At the moment I have not formulated an opinion on this topic.  However, over the weekend, I will run the complete unabridged text of Steve Beatty’s address to the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education in a follow-up blog post. 

 

It is the board and the new superintendent of schools who will have to see to PARCC’s implementation in Bridgewater-Raritan and who will oversee its impact on students, teachers and the parents of this school district. 

Thanks for reading.  Keep warm and healthy.

(Click on the image for an enhanced view)