Township to Vote on Resolution for School Resource Officer

Bridgewater Township Mayor Dan Hayes
addresses the audience at the January 7,
2013 township re-organization meeting
at the Municipal Complex.
 

At its regular meeting on Monday, July 1, the Bridgewater Township Council will consider a resolution which will have the effect of adding a second specially trained police officer as a full-time security presence on the campus-like facility of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School on Garretson Road.

The cost of the current on-site school resource officer (SRO) is being borne entirely by the Township.  At issue is the cost for a second SRO.

The township administration and the school board have tentatively agreed on a number for the cost of a second SRO to be paid for by the school district.

However, the township council has placed on the table consideration of a higher figure, as well as the expectation of a contractual time commitment from the school district.

What if They Started a War . . .

. . .  and other countries showed up, but the U.S. declined to participate?  Unfortunately, that is not what our leaders in Washington have chosen to do. 

Instead, the Obama administration has agreed to involve us in another Middle East conflict, this time with Syria.

Street fighting rages in the cities and towns of Syria
as rebel groups including anti-American factions
such as Hezbollah strive to topple President Bashar
al Assad.  (TV Screen Shot/Credit Fox News)

It began with Syrian demonstrations in 2011 – those have since morphed into another of the area’s sectarian-driven Islamist civil wars, this one against President Bashar al Assad.  Estimates of total casualties stand at 93,000, and additional thousands of refugees have fled across Syria’s northern border to Turkey.

The Obama administration recently announced that it will supply military assistance to Syrian rebels, and that it will funnel that assistance through General Salim Idriss, a Syrian exile.  As leader of the Supreme Military Council, Idriss holds together a fragile coalition of anti-Assad rebel fighters, the Free Syrian Army.

Pitfalls of the Internet

Early yesterday evening, when I returned home after a Father’s Day celebration in Hamilton, I checked the status of my blog, as I do from time to time.  Under the comments section of the Saturday, June 15^th post concerning tenure charges, I found two links commonly known within the blogging community as ‘pingbacks.’

They were placed on The View from Bridgewater at noontime on Sunday.

When used appropriately, ‘pingbacks’ are a form of publicity by which an author of one blog site links up to another website with the intention of directing the attention of his/her readers back to the other website.

Tenure Charges Hang over Music Teacher

Mr. Larry Markiewicz leads the Somerset Valley
Orchestra on the lawn of the Somerset County
Courthouse on an early summer evening, on
June 17, 2011.  (Credit/Bergeron Image)

It’s called “conduct unbecoming ". . . and, if a tenured faculty member of a school district within New Jersey is charged with that accusation; if a board of education certifies such accusations; and, if that and/or other charges are determined to be true under the education statutes of the State of New Jersey (Title 18A – Education), it can mean the end of a teaching career for that person.

The denouement of that situation, it appears, is precisely where the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education, its Superintendent, Dr. J. Michael Schilder, and a district music teacher now find themselves. 

Dr. Schilder, who goes off-payroll effective August 1, 2013 due to his imminent retirement, has charged Mr. Larry Markiewicz, a music teacher in this school district with “conduct unbecoming a teaching staff member, insubordination and/or other just cause warranting dismissal and reduction in salary.”

In a closed session on Tuesday, the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education certified the charges contained in that document by a full vote of the board in favor of certification, with one board member abstaining.

Workshop: Planning for the Inevitable

St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church, Bridgewater, NJ
(Bergeron Image.)

On Monday evening, June 10^th, at 7:30 pm, St. Bernard of Clairvaux Parish will host a workshop dealing with end-of-life considerations. 

This forum is open to all who are interested in expanding their views on the topic.  St. Bernard’s is situated at 500 Route 22 East, in Bridgewater, NJ.

It is opposite the highway from the large, shiny MetLife facility on Route 22 West.  For those coming from the Somerville Circle, there is a convenient  jughandle immediately past the MetLife building which will get you promptly turned back onto Route 22 East.

Attendance is free.  Registration is required:  Call 732-562-1990, extension 1543 or 1629.

Entitled “Death with Dignity, What Does that Really Mean?” the program will feature proficient experts on this topic:   the Rev. Msgr. John N. Fell, STD, Vicar of the Healthcare Apostolate for the Diocese of Metuchen; Jane McElroy, RN, Hospice Nurse;  and Jennifer Ruggiero, Director, Office of Respect for Life in the diocese.

The workshop will include a panel discussion on end-of-life matters, and is expected to address the following topics:

• Advance Directives for Health Care
• Nutrition and Hydration
• Proportionate Care
• Palliative Care
• The Potential for Physician-Assisted Suicide Legislation now Before the New Jersey Assembly

Lautenberg: The Ghouls are out already

The last Iris of my spring garden:  In
Memory of Senator Frank Lautenberg,
1924-2013 

Life contains surprises for all of us.  The most prominent is . . . well, death!  But not many want to be reminded of that troublesome truth.  Particularly if it relates to one’s own mortality.  There are few exceptions.

And so it was with great dismay, and with no small sense of irritation and outrage that I thought Tom Moran’s column  about Senator Frank Lautenberg in today’s The Star Ledger to be way off-base. 

TO SUMMARIZE:  Mr. Moran speculated that Lautenberg should have resigned to open up his seat “70 days before today’s primary, then Christie would have been forced to set the special election date this year, the OLS says.”  Moran prefaced that statement with, “You can call that tough.” 

THE REST OF THE STORY:  I don’t think so:  I consider Moran’s column and the timing of his near-death viewpoint ghoulish.