Boring readers with the process

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Why has Teaneck High done a better job than high schools in Englewood and Hackensack in keeping a diverse student body? You won't find that story in the Woodland Park daily.

"More precise, uniform teacher evaluations statewide" and "a new tenure law" may be laudable goals, but does The Record really expect readers to follow every step of the process leading up to them?


Yes. The story dominating Page 1 today purports to be an inside look at supervisors "learning to conduct more keen-eyed classroom observations." 


If you're not asleep yet, take a gander at this sentence, also on the front page:

"For four days this fall, a dozen principal and supervisors visited classrooms in groups of three or four for 10 minutes, then met in a conference room to trade notes."

Only 10 minutes in a classroom? Trade notes? How exciting. Even Leslie Brody, one of the paper's top reporters, can't save this snoozer.


Hey, Deirdre Sykes, as chief assignment editor, why are you wasting your staffers' time on this drivel? Hey, interim Editor Douglas Clancy, is that all you had for A-1?


More education questions


What readers really want is a lot more information about Governor Christie's drive to create charter schools, draining tax dollars away from public schools already hurt by deep cuts in state aid.


On the front of Local, a photo of a Teaneck High School class suggests the township has done a far better job than Englewood or Hackensack in keeping a diverse student body.


Why The Record has paid so little attention to increasing segregation in the latter two communities is something only the editors know.


Burning issue


On L-3, a story quoting Fire Official John Hansen reports a cigarette likely sparked the Christmas morning fire that destroyed a Park Ridge house. 


Hansen related what the occupants told him, but the story triggered a backlash, judging from comments on NorthJersey.com.


Here are two of the comments, which seem likely aimed at the insurance company that will be asked to pay for the damage:

• Marylu Frisco Trenery

  Perhaps Merry Firschein should have found out the facts before she wrote her article. I would consider this article an outright lie in many areas, not to mention terribly insensitive to the people who just lost not only all of their material possessions, but a lifetime of memories. Shame on you Merry Firschein.

  Reply · 2 · Like · Follow Post · 22 hours ago
• 

  Jaclyn Kristin · Rutgers University

  I am one of four survivors of this house fire and this article is a complete fabrication of what actually happened. We do not know how this fire started but we know that it destroyed everything that we once called home. We did not get "comfortable" in the garage nor were there couches there to smolder. Our garage doors were not left open for the cats to "feed the fire" and the pieces absolutely do not "fit together". We are so thankful for the support that so many have given us but this article is insensitive and very hurtful to the people who have just lost so much of themselves.

  Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · 22 hours ago