September 7
...serving up your daily dish.
What's the scariest word in the language for people who live in Bloomfield? Apparently it's Barringer.
The rumor that Newark's Barringer High School is sending students to Bloomfield is hardier than crabgrass. It's a regular staple of the NJ.com Bloomfield message board and we even heard it last night, while standing in line at the West Orange Staples to buy school supplies.
Not only does school board member Ed Zilinski assure us it's not true, but we called over today to Barringer to see if they're sending students to Bloomfield. The answer: no.
September 7, 2005 in Paranoia Beat | Permalink
Even if this WERE true for some reasons unknown..maybe a reciprocal program for additional course offerings...is Barringer so scary? Are all kids from Newark "fresh air kids" ?
Montclair and Glen Ridge and yes, even Bloomfield I am sure have their own brand of teenage angst that rears it's ugly head from time to time. What a silly rumor...
Posted by: Maryellen | Sep 7, 2005 12:51:50 PM
Wow this rumor still exists? It was alive and well when I was in school-- and I graduated in 1992.
I did know some Barringer kids when I was in high school and they were great kids. So don't think it's all scary.
--Dani
Posted by: Dani | Sep 7, 2005 5:38:48 PM
Is there something wrong with "fresh air kids"?
I'd like to know what it is- fresh air fund camp was the only time that I ever got out of the city when I was growing up.
Most of us looked forward to camp all year long. I learned to swim, ride horses, what the stars looked like and to identify trees and all sorts of birds and bugs.
Now I live in the suburbs- contribute to helping the homeless- pay my taxes.
I've never thought of being poor as a crime, or of poor people being a bad element.
While dropping off recyclables at the DEP last weekend, he said that Bloomfield was expanding the HS because Newark is going to pay big $$$ for sending a High School worth of kids to Bloomfield for school- and that it was well worth our while.
Posted by: exit_151 | Sep 7, 2005 5:39:11 PM
Not sure what the big is ... a student is a student is a student.
As long as there is room and no Bloomfield student is displaced why not?
It means some additional revenue being transferred from the Newark Board of Ed to the Bloomfield Board of Ed coffers.
Ya think you'll be able to distingish a 'Bloomfield' student from a 'newark' student.
Yes a student is a student is a student.
A rose by any other name would still be a student.
Posted by: Franklin | Sep 7, 2005 8:57:38 PM
Oh for God's sake will you people cut it out with this?
Bloomfield high school expanded (at great cost to the local taxpayers) because the school enrollment expanded and there was no more room for the studens attending. NO MORE ROOM to the point that the school had to institue a 9 period day so that kids could be warehoused in study halls for 40 minutes/ day to give them more scheduling options. When that was not enough, "senior privilege" was invented whereby seniors can either arrive late or leave early each day, to lower the occupancy.
My friend called Barringer high last spring to inquire about the rumor that Barringer was going to be razed. Know what they told her? They are in the middle of a RENOVATION AND BUILDING project of their own... expanding their school!
Finally, if a student is a student is a student, then I am sure that our neighbors in Glen Ridge and Montclair will eagerly line up to accept some Barringer transfers, too.... right? Because inner city kids would not bring all kinds of problems and issues (including performing below grade level and thus lowering your schools' school report card status... drastically altering your schools' four-year college acceptance percentage... etc. etc.)
Posted by: Klonsen | Sep 7, 2005 10:14:44 PM
As posted above:
"Finally, if a student is a student is a student, then I am sure that our neighbors in Glen Ridge and Montclair will eagerly line up to accept some Barringer transfers, too.... right? Because inner city kids would not bring all kinds of problems and issues (including performing below grade level and thus lowering your schools' school report card status... drastically altering your schools' four-year college acceptance percentage... etc. etc.)"
If there is room in any school district I believe (I might be wrong) that students can opt in if they or their school district is willing to transfer a per capita payment to the 'new' district.
Yes, just like a student is a student, one might also say a district is a district is a district.
Posted by: Franklin | Sep 7, 2005 10:29:33 PM
No, you are not correct. A student can't simply decide to "opt in" to another district's school. Some public schools are underenrolled and do accept tuition students. Many are overenrolled and do not accept tuition students. The decision is that of the receiving district, not that of the studet who wants to "opt in".
Posted by: klonsen | Sep 7, 2005 10:45:53 PM
exit 151, no there is nothing wrong with fresh air kids - except those perceptions in the wild imaginations of cloistered suburbanites. Thank you for illustrating my point.
Posted by: Maryellen Stadtlander | Sep 8, 2005 6:26:12 AM
I went to Montclair high and it did take kids from other local school districts. Some were enrolled in the highs schools svpa (school of visual and performing arts) classes and they paid a tuition. Other kids were trouble kids who also paid a tuition. It didn't take anything out of any other students educations and made a few sheckles for the school.
Posted by: hrhppg | Sep 8, 2005 8:50:27 AM
