Week in Review: School Budget Approved, BOE Reorganizes, ‘Reduces’ Staff

A review Tuesday afternoon of the provisional ballots in last Wednesday's school budget vote  left the results just as they were before—with the $55.1 million budget passing by the narrow margin of three votes.

With Fort Lee School Superintendent Raymond Bandlow, district business administrator Cheryl Balleto and assistant school board attorney Yaacov Brisman watching closely, county election officials reviewed 28 provisional ballots—paper ballots cast by a voter whose eligibility requirements are in question.

After election officials threw out seven of the 28, a count of the remaining 21 resulted in seven in favor, seven against and seven that didn’t vote on the budget question, leaving the final tally at 1,112 in favor and 1,109 against. (read full article)

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Peter Suh and Joseph Surace, who were re-elected to the Fort Lee Board of Education last week, and Helen Yoon, who was elected for the first time, took the oath of office at Monday's reorganization meeting, as Arthur Levine was elected the board's new president and Linda McCue was elected vice president.

And then came the special public business meeting, when a large contingent of students, parents and others expressed concerns over personnel matters on the board's agenda, specifically the "termination due to a reduction in force" of certain school employees.

After returning from a private session, the board passed resolutions eliminating the positions of six high school faculty members, one part-time Art teacher at School No. 4 and one ESL teacher at School No. 2.

The board also eliminated 60 classroom aide positions across all Fort Lee schools in what Bandlow characterized as a “re-structuring.” (read full article)

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The Fort Lee Board of Education’s newest member, Helen Yoon, filed an ethics complaint with the state School Ethics Commission stemming from a campaign kickoff and fund-raising event in March for then incumbent board members Peter Suh, Joseph Surace and Michelle Stux-Ramirez, the Fort Lee Suburbanite reported Thursday. (read full article)

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Reaction in Fort Lee Monday to the news of Osama bin Laden's death was a mix of exultation that the United States' most elusive foe was dead as a result of U.S. action, thoughts and prayers for 9/11 victims and their families and trepidation about what comes next. (read full article)

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Fort Lee Police say a cab crashed into a the front entrance of a house on Anderson Ave. Tuesday evening after the vehicle accelerated when the driver attempted to stop after backing out of a driveway across the street.

A Babe’s Taxi was backing up from the driveway of 1554 Anderson Ave. at about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday when it accelerated, according to police, travelling north across two lanes of Anderson Ave., crashing into the front entrance of 1565 Anderson Ave. and coming to a stop in the driveway. (read full article)

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Among official action taken at Thursday’s Mayor and Council meeting was the $450,000 settlement of a lawsuit filed by a contractor involved in the widening of a portion of Main St. about two years ago. (read full article)

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Now in it’s third year, the “Design an Ad Program” kicked off last week at Fort Lee High School, offering two classes of 9th and 10th grade students in the Academy of Finance (AOF) program the chance to gain real-life, hands-on experience in media and marketing by teaming up with local businesses to see an advertising project through from concept to completion. (read full article)

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Fort Lee's Merissa Pico was ranked third in the world when she was only 13 years old and made the United States Junior National team in 2008. She has won the New Jersey State Championship for the past nine years and has won the New York State Championship the last few years as well, on top of finishing third at the trials for the upcoming 2012 Olympics. Pico is currently ranked first in the country in her junior division and second in the senior division.

But none of it seemed possible in 2009, when Pico suffered a serious back injury during competition. It was unknown at the time if Pico would even be able to attend school or walk properly again, let alone compete in Taekwondo. (read full article)

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And Fort Lee Patch’s “Whiz Kid” of the week was Fort Lee High School’s Megan Gimson, a junior who has played four sports during her high school career but is known just as much for her schoolwork. (read full article)

The week in review appears every Sunday on Fort Lee Patch.