Fisher-Price Loving Family Grand Dollhouse Deluxe Parent’s Room

From the Manufacturer

Busy parents love to relax in a cozy, attractive bedroom. This set is loaded with fashion-forward comfort and charm from the beautiful headboard on the full-size bed, to its soft quilt, removable decorative pillows, and blanket with dust ruffle. There is even a robe for mom, a clothes rack to hang it on, and bedside storage chest with opening action. It is sized to fit any Fisher-Price loving family dollhouse.

Fischer-Price Loving Family Parent Bedroom set w/bed, clothes rack & storage chestFor ages 3 and up

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Jackson Daisy Scouts prepare park for National Trails Day ribbon cutting ceremony

Jackson, NJ – Armed with shovels, rakes and a whole lot of community spirit, the girls of Daisy Troop 110 from the Lucy N. Holman elementary school landscaped and  planted a flower garden this morning at the Bunker Hill Bogs Wildlife Recreation Area, Jackson Township’s newest park.    The park consists of over 5 miles of hiking and scenic trails along the Bunker Hill Bogs which was preserved and saved from developers through many years of hard work by the Jackson Pathfinders.   The girls were on a tight deadline today as the official ribbon cutting ceremony takes place tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m., followed by a short hike through the preserve and a community cleanup project.  Mayor Mike Reina is expected to be in attendance along with members of the Pathfinders organization and other township dignitaries to celebrate National Trails Day and the official opening of the park.

Above you can see the before and after of the Kiosk flower garden at Bunker Hill Bogs.

The girls, ages 5 and 6,  and their parents led by troop leader Kathleen Malmstrom,  arrived at the Bogs at 9:00 am and started clearing out their garden area, removing branches, picking weeds and turning the soil in preparation for their transformation.

They then headed to I&G Farms on Whitesville Road, just a minute from the park where Justin, an employee at the farm center helped the girls pick out flowers, plants and bushes that are both beautiful and deer resistant as the bog area is home to many dozens of white tailed deer, beavers, groundhogs, rabbits and other plant eating animals.

After picking the right flowers for the jobs, the girls headed back and got busy digging and planting their flowers, which I&G farms gave a generous discount on to the scouts. (hint: go to I&G farms and buy some flowers).   

By noon, the girls and their parents finished the garden and were ready to go home after  hard day’s work.    Their flower garden and the park is a gift to the Jackson community given by Jackson residents.   The entire park has been created through state grants and volunteer efforts by the Pathfinders, Jersey Shore Boy Scouts, Jersey Shore Girl Scouts and dozens of volunteers who have worked very hard this past winter to get the park and trails ready for tomorrow’s ribbon cutting ceremony.

The plants and landscaping supplies for this project were donated by Jackson NJ Online with the help of our friends at I&G farms who were generous to provide the scouts a discount on their materials for the project.  “When you give children the tools to give back to the community, it’s amazing how well they respond.” said Phil Stilton, an organizer of the project “These girls could have slept in today and watched cartoons, but they knew the mayor and other important people will be here tomorrow morning  and wanted to do something special for Jackson. Every one of them went home covered in dirt and mulch this morning.”    

After meeting park site manager Art Rosky over the winter and realizing the girls still needed to work on a community garden for the scout program, Mr. Stilton felt the Pathfinders and the Girl Scouts were a perfect match and introduced the two groups to each other.  Each hour of time donated on this project helps the pathfinders earn credits from the State of New Jersey to buy more trees from the Forestry Resource & Education Center.  “I’m hoping other scouts and community organizations can see what both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have done here and help make this place beautiful ” he continued, referring to the informational Kiosks built and provided earlier in the year by local Boy Scouts “There are many opportunities here at the bogs  with all sorts of environmental  projects for children to lead and I’m sure our kids can continue to deliver.”

Any other volunteer organizations who wish to help make this park beautiful by planting flower gardens, working on cleanup projects or donating materials to this effort should contact Karen Borga, chairperson for the Jackson Pathfinders at (908) 330-2579 or visit the Pathfinders online at www.jacksonpathfinders.org.   The garden still needs appropriate border material to be complete.

If you are interesting in having your daughter join the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, visit http://www.girlscoutsjs.org/ or call (800) 785-2090  to find a troop in Jackson.

Are stay at home parents sacrificing?

By Becky Parr

I am the stay at home mother of five children, four of whom are biologically mine. I’m asked quite often how the heck we get by. I almost never give an honest answer. To do so would only make the person asking the question feel belittled and make me sound superior and that’s not what I would ever want.

When I look at the world around me today I see so many lost little faces. Little people feeling disconnected and big people feeling like they missed out on something but knowing not quite what. I have friends who work fifty to sixty hours a week. They take two vacations a year and have two new cars. Their children all have the best video games and computers. They are very stressed people. I know parents that only work forty hours a week. Both parents mind you. They also have at least one new car and massive credit card debt to get their kids the latest games and phones and computers. They are very stressed people. The thing I find amusing is where these children can be found. Not where the brand new computers are, ours is many years and many repairs old. Not where the latest video game equipment is, we don’t own even one, wait I might still have an Atari. Yep, you guessed it, they’re all at my house, lamenting about their horrid math teacher or gushing about the hot guy in 3rd period while I’m stepping over a toddler and a husky (my pound rescue and my comic relief)trying to fit 2lbs of pasta into a pot designed for much less because my 5 year old is using the big pot for a homemade “science experiment.”. The children wandering in and out of our home range from 18 months to 20 years. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We live comfortably, no new cars, no state of the art electronics but we’re not walking or taking the bus and we have cable. How we manage to get by is very simple, we prioritized. I’m not sacrificing anything by staying home to raise my children. Even if I did have to take the bus, have no TV and do without meat in my meal plans 6 of the 7 days a week it still wouldn’t be a sacrifice. (If that sounded a little specific, it was, we have had to do those things and I’d do them again, happily. Ooooh, there’s a word not used very often in conjunction with doing without.)

One of the little ones spent the night a while back. She was about 4 at the time. We got up on Saturday morning and took inventory. The only thing in the house we had enough of to feed us all was the makings for French Toast. She asked to call her mother about half way thru, I said sure and overheard her call. She had called home absolutely amazed that there was another way to make French Toast. Mom. she said, did you know that some French Toast is made with bread and eggs? Aunt Becky didn’t even put it in the toaster! Sacrifice? Please. My children will be raised with my beliefs and morals, not whoever the daycare center has making minimum wage pretending to give a rats ass about my children. I’ll know them well enough to see warning signs of future trouble and they’ll know me and my expectations. It occurs to me that instead of asking how much a person would sacrifice to be a stay at home Mother/Father, the question should be do you know what you’re sacrificing by not being a stay at home Mother/Father.

As I sit here writing these things I know that I’m sounding a wee bit defensive. Yeah, I said wee bit, problem? Huh, well, Huh? OK I keeed, I keeed! This comes from a part of me that has listened to women in our government as well as media and business people that make raising ones own children sound like a job that’s not worth the time of a well educated, motivated individual. Like by choosing to take complete responsibility for what I have brought into this world is somehow hurting the the cause known as Womens Rights. I for one don’t think getting out from under a big hairy knuckled thumb to replace it with a dainty well manicured one is what the original bra burners had in mind.

Becky Parr has started The Ordinary Woman at rltopreviews.com . If you like what you have read here please take the time to browse through the web site. It is a place to submit any DIY tips or stories, be they funny or disastrous. Currently there are several pages dedicated to small repairs that are traditionally way over charged for that can be done with minimal tools and no special skill. Thanks for your support, Becky.

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The Evenflo triple fun exersaucer is a jungle of fun for babies

News For Parents -  As your baby grows and begins to progress through stages of development, one of the hardest tasks as a parent and perhaps source of costliest mistakes is deciding which activity centers and playsets to purchase for your child.

Sometimes you will find yourself buying two products that overlap, sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you might need something extra as your baby enters in between periods of growth.  

One item that is a must have for babies is an exersaucer, from Evenflo.  They’re great playsets that encourage lower muscle development, head and neck muscle development, motor skills and basically introduce your baby to a new world of using their bodies in ways they never knew before.

Evenflo makes many exersaucer models, but the one we chose was the Evenflo ExerSaucer Triple Fun – Jungle because it starts out as an activity mat, which then can be converted into a fully functional exersaucer and finally to a creative learning center once your child can walk on their own.

The activity mat setup was simple.  It’s basically a soft green leaf shape mat that attaches to the two activity bars from the exersaucer and a great secondary activity mat for a finished basement or upstairs play area for your baby.  The mat itself is very basic and you probably want a nice activity mat in the begining as your primary play area.

Once your baby can support their head, neck and back, they are ready for mom and dad to conver the matt into the exersaucer.   Setup was not a snap and does require a screwdriver, patience and close attention to the manual.    There are spring loaded legs were the most difficult part of the setup only because you have to match the springs exeactly in the right locations inorder to make sure the legs of the saucer can’t  buckle and move while your child is jumping around.   Other than the spring assembly, installation was  a snap.

Why is this exersaucer better than the rest?  It’ simply has more activities for your child with two overhead activity bars and removable and interchangeable components all around your baby.  Our baby started using his exersaucer this week and has been going absolutely bonkers with it, in fact when his time is up, and we take him out he has a fit because he wants to stay in.   Maybe when his muscles are a bit more developed, he can spend more time, but we can tell that his new favorite place to be is in his 3 in 1 jungle.

Once your baby outgrows the exersaucer, the unit turns into a stationery play center in which the child can move about and play at different areas in S shaped activity desk.  This product will last through the whole first year of your child’s life opposed to other systems that they will outgrow once they start walking.  It’s great for 1-12 month olds.

Our baby playing in the Evenflo Exersaucer Triple Fun Jungle.

Jackson softball parents claim unfair treatment for girls in recently filed petition

Jackson, NJ – Back in January, Mayor Mike Reina, who recently was appointed mayor of Jackson called a meeting in which every sports league was invited, to hash out plans for a smooth 2009 sports season for all of Jackson’s children.    The meeting was a success and all parties left the meeting in good spirits, anticipating another safe and successful year of youth sports in our town.

However, all was not as it appeared, especially for the Jackson Recreational Youth Softball league where parents became upset over field conditions at designated girl’s softball fields.     Softball coaches and parents Tony Beja and Shaun Staulker raised concerns with then newly appointed Mayor Reina about the conditions of playing fields and their availability to the local girls’ league.

At the request of Beja and Staulker, Mike Reina investigated the matter and found that the township’s former recreation director had not given the girls league all of the support required and expected from the township and that fields had gone unmowed and scheduling conflicts between the girls league and little league had caused use issues that inconvenienced the girls.    It was not the first lapse by the former recreation director, other lapses included not properly maintaining the Jackson Jungle and the Skate Park, which eventually led to Mayor Reina hiring a new Parks and Recreation director this year.

Now left with a mess that included poorly handled rec leagues, poorly maintained playgrounds and a skate park which had been nearly destroyed by vandalism, Mayor Reina started to pick up the pieces.   After recieving complaints from the coaches, he ordered the public works department to properly maintain the softball fields, he even made sure that the township set aside a single lawn mower just for sports field use only.    In the past the same mowers that mowed the sides of our roads, chipping their blades on rocks, tree stumps and who knows what else gave the fields a rough and unsuitable cut.  The new mower for the fields gives our parks a nice clean cut that our kids deserve.     Beja and Staulker both agreee that of late the fields have been maintained better than in the past.

The Mayor also discussed along with councilman Scott Martin a closing ceremony for the girls and trophies, which had never been given by previous administrations and the future possibility of a dedicated field, possibly with concessions for the girls, but admitted that these things may take time and won’t happen in the 2009 season and that the sides should continue working together to make sure the girls softball league is treated the same as any other league in the town.

However, Beja and Staulker claim that the girls still do not have a fair shake at public field use and are often kicked off fields by the little league and have been refused use of the new turf fields and only one girls game has been played on the fields all year.    They view the newly signed lease with the township as an unfair practice that gives the Jackson Little League a sense of entitlement to the million dollar turf fields which have been paid for and owned by taxpayers, leaving  the girls out in the cold and have directed their frustration at the township for signing a 25 year lease with the Jackson Little League.

Mike Reina said “The lease was open for public debate for nearly 6 weeks while we postponed the final vote, waiting for the softball league to voice their concerns, but they never came”  so the measure eventually went to a vote in which the township council voted unanimously to sign the lease.  After hearing no public complaints on the matter, Mayor Reina signed the lease which shifts the cost of maintaining the field, a cost of $60,000 per year from taxpayers directly to the Jackson Little League who is now responsible for field maintenance costs.

Beja and Staulker stated that the lease with the little league further shortchanges the girls and feel that the girls league is not getting the same treatment as the other leagues in town who each have a facility to call their own.   The parents of the softball players have been circulating a petition around town calling for a measure to overturn the lease and give the girls their own fields.

I was personally handed this petition and requested to sign, but even though I have a girl who now plays little league and next season wants to play little league and softball, while I agree with the fair treatment request, the petition went beyond and called to overturn the lease and just seemed to attack our town instead of resolving issues for those who were most important, the children.   It was presented to me as “The township is not letting the girls play”, but I just couldn’t believe that, which prompted me to contact all involved parties to try to find out what’s going on.  I felt the petition was a little misleading at the time and after investigating the matter, I still find it misleading, but I also think the gripes of the softball parents do have merit, short of the lease dispute.

The girls should not be treated as if their league is unimportant, and I think after inheriting a complete disaster Mike Reina is doing what he can to resolve the issue and has made good faith gestures towards the league and came through so far this year regarding field maintenance, an end of the year ceremony for the girls and he is looking into trophies for the girls.    “I have no reason to against any of the leagues.” Mike Reina said “We’re at the end of the season and we should work towards next year” adding that right now the township budget has taken up most of his time of late.

Concerning the lease, Reina said “The lease was promised to the little league two years ago by Mark Seda and it was open for six weeks.  At no point did anyone attend a township council meeting to protest the lease, which is why we delayed it, to give the softball league an opportunity to voice their concerns.  The council voted unanimously on the lease and I signed it.  Why would I veto a lease that was approved by the council and was not objected to at any council meeting?”

Mike Reina assured me that while he is committed to improving conditions for the girls, it may take some time to provide them with their own field and concessions.

Perhaps it’s time for a second meeting between the Little League, Mayor’s Office, recreation department and the girls softball league to remedy this problem as it seems that months of miscommunications at all levels have made a bad situation worse.   The girls playing softball deserve at least that and they also do deserve fair treatment, but I’m not so sure that asking the township to sue itself over the terms of the lease are in the best interests of the town or the children. A lawsuit will not help our children and it is not good for our town.

It would be nice to see this dispute, which has culminated from years of neglect by former administrations, be resolved by all involved parties and that the little league, for which my daughter is a member give the girls recreation league a little more respect and support, if Beja and Staulker’s claims of being kicked off fields is indeed true.

I see where Mr. Beja and Mr. Staulker are coming from.  My daughter wanted to play softball intially this year, but when I learned that they get tossed on 3rd rate fields, no uniforms and no end of year awards and that enrollment was low in the 6 year old division, I convinced her to try out little league and she’s having a great time.   I’m happy with our decision.  I think perhaps one valid form of protest would be to flood the little league with girls in the 2010 season.  Another form of protest would be to circulate a petition requesting fair and equal conditions for girls, but I cannot support a petition that seemingly attacks Mayor Reina and our township council when instead a more positive approach should be taken to take care of the township’s children.

Hopefully next year, this issue can be resolved peacefully, the girls can have their own suitable field of dreams and that the leagues can coexist in mutually benefiting manner.

What are your thoughts?

A St. Thomas Family Travel Guide

Cruise News Network – Travel with children can always be a rough encounter with mixed results, but St. Thomas offers many child friendly activities around the island.   One of the unique features you will find in St. Thomas is a K-mart that sells pretty much what any K-Mart in the U.S. offers.   

Sometimes the Caribbean can be difficult on parents with young children should you lose any of your essentials or comfort items.  

St. Thomas is also one of the many places where it’s ok to leave the resort and venture around the island, but I would definitely recommend the island’s shuttle service to get around.   There’s not all that much to do for kids downtown unless they like shopping and sightseeing, but looking at rundown old historical buildings usually loses its appeal to toddlers and tweens fairly quickly.   

Coral World Ocean Park is entertaining for kids, offering plenty of encounters and chances to pet sharks, turtles and engage with sea lions and more.  Here’s a few articles put together from a parent’s birdseye view of St. Thomas.  We’ve been there now twice and it’s definitely on our repeat vacation list down the line.

What to do in downtown Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

I’ve never been a huge fan of downtown areas of the places I visit because… 

The Beautiful Vistas of St. Thomas

One of the best things about St. Thomas is the dozens of scenic vistas around the… 

Is Magens Bay, St. Thomas good for young kids?

As far as Magens  Bay being one of the top 10 beaches in the world as advertised… 

Magen’s Bay, St. Thomas U.S.V.I. Review

On my first trip to St. Thomas, the weather was uncooperatively miserable the entire… 

Arriving at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas via Cruise Ship

Charlotte Charlotte Amalie is the capital of St. Thomas and the largest city in the…

An energy conservation pilgrimage to a Toms River elementary school

Toms River, NJ – Tonight, I had the oportunity to tour West Dover Elementary School, a school in the Toms River Regional Schools District.    I was invited to see the 5th grade production of The Amazing Game show, a play in which students soon heading to Toms River Intermediate South put on as a final farewell to the school they called home for the past six years.   In the image above you can see tonight’s 5th grade rendition of the Jonas Brothers. 

The play was a cultural walk through time as a hippie family played the all American family in a mock game of family fued , then the 50’s family above went head to head against the champion all American family.   In this photo, we see the Cunninghams, featuring Johnny, Sandra Dee, Fonzie, Annette with brother Elvis off camera.  It was a wonderful play and I had a thoroughly good time.

While the play itself was well thought out and a very entertaining performance by children who obviously worked very hard to produce and practice, my main reason for my visit to the school was a pilgrimage of sorts to see first hand, the effects of energy conservation the Toms River School District has been engaged in since 2006 under the NJ BPU Green Schools Grant.

Toms River Regional Schools and Brick Township Schools were chosen as the first two schools to receive this grant which paid for the school to create energy conservation programs and procedures by calling on both faculty and students to discover ways to reduce energy costs in the district.    Green Schools is a unique grant program in which the schools are each allowed to perform actions that are necessary to meet certain green goals by tackling conditions that are unique to each school and finding ways to reduce energy waste and energy costs.

In the first year alone in this program, Toms River Schools reduced their energy costs by over $220,000 for a 9.6% reduction in electric, gas and water charges.       In Brick Township, the district, smaller than Toms River saved over $100,000 dollars or 15.1% of energy consumption.

After recieving an invitation to see the play, I couldn’t resist to see this program in action.   I was more than amazed at how two and a half years after intiating the project, West Dover Elementary School was maintaining its energy conservation plan.    In the hallways, four socket flourescent lights were mostly being lit with only two bulbs.  In the main corridor to the gymnasium, all lights reamined on for safety reasons, but in side corridors, lights were alternated so that every other fixture was turned off.   The classroom doors were all closed and the lights were turned off as were computers and other appliances.    Outside the school, they were using energy conserving outdoor lighting instead of wasteful halogen bulbs.  It was a 70 degree humid day and rightfully, the heat was not on and the administrative offices were all dark. 

In the image above, you can see the low intensity outdoor lighting and all of the lights in every classroom turned off at 7:30 pm, a stark contrast to what can be seen driving past many Jackson Schools during the same time.

I was thoroughly impressed by the level of discipline both staff and students displayed when it came to energy conservation long after the grant has ended.    In November, NJ BPU had announced they were looking for 9 more school districts to expand the Green Schools Progam and I thought it would be a great program for Jackson Township to get involved in.  

At recent meetings, the Board of Education seemed to be grappling and struggling with financial delays and setbacks from the state and were aggressively challenging parents for $25,000 in student parking fees.    It seems like our district has been doing a lot of wheel spinning in the area of energy conservation, while our nearest neighbors have been reaping the rewards of a sound energy conservation program, created by students with guidance from the faculty.      When comparing the size of Jackon’s district against Toms River, we can stand to save as much as $150,000 in energy costs in just the first year of this grant and the efforts will be funded completley by the grant at no cost to the taxpayers.  This grant can help our district begin to  chip away at the past 7 years of attacks on education in which senior citizen communities have overwhelmingly voted against school budgets by margins up to 70% each year!

I have been told that the Jackson School District has hired outside vendors to conduct an energy audit in our schools, but while we continue to unecessarily spend money on professional services contracts, it’s no wonder why our district has been struggling with budgets and finances over the past 7 years.    While we pay vendors, forward thinking districts like Brick Township and Toms River are taking advantage of available grants and have accomplished the same goals we are hoping for with commercial services.      These district empowered their staff and students to make a change and they delivered with substantial cost reductions through simple common sense energy conservation strategies.    I’m not sure if the November 2009 NJ BPU Grant is still available, I had called on Tuesday to get information, but have not yet received a return phone call.   I can only hope that somebody in the district reads this and procatively looks into this grant and we can start seeing some real savings and perhaps we won’t have to continue to look into the pockets of our students to make up for losses incurred during the past 7 years of failed budgets.  I will seek to ask the Jackson Board of Education if we had applied for this grant at the next business meeting and the district did not, perhaps find answers to why we passed on a golden opportunity to lower energy bills.

Over the next few weeks, I’m also going to set aside some time to try to speak to members of the Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education to engage in a fact finding mission to perhaps bring case studies of energy consumption back to Jackson to present to our Board of Education.

Correction: The school was erroneously listed as East Dover, but in fact was West Dover.

Another rainy day in Jackson another vehicle loses control on Route 527

Jackson NJ – As has been the norm for several months now, each new rainy day in Jackson Township, New Jersey brings with it disaster on Route 527.   The road which has been host to dozens of critical and many fatal accidents over the past few years has recently been in the media spot light after two high profile accidents, one claiming the life of a 40 year old Jackson man and another sending young Chesley Thomas to the hospital in critical condition, still recovering from her injuries, has been a source of contention within the community.

On Tuesday night at 6:45pm, local Jackson mom Christine Stilton was stopped at the red traffic light at the intersection of Jackson Mills Road and Route 527 along with her 6 year old daughter when she looked in her rear view mirror and saw a black sedan veering out of control behind her which had lost control and apparently unable to stop for the traffic light.  The car veered off the road narrowly missing Mrs. Stilton’s vehicle and another vehicle behind hers and came to a stop after hitting the trees just a few feet away, narrowly missing the guard rail.

The passenger of the vehicle was alright and Mrs. Stilton immediately called 911 to report the accident in which Jackson Township Police responded to within minutes.   The vehicle was later towed away, showing minor damage.

The ironic twist to this accident is that Mrs. Stilton is the wife of Phil Stilton, a Jackson Township father who has been lobbying the Jackson Township Board of Education unsuccessfully for over one year to relocate bus stops where children are unnecessarily waiting on Route 527.  Mr. Stilton’s efforts began in June of 2008 when he was notified by the Jackson Township Board that his six year old kindergarten daughter would be expected to wait for her school bus on the busy 50 mph highway that has been host to so many tragedies over the years instead of within the safe confines of the development which he resides.

The Board of Education balked at Mr. Stilton’s request stating that Route 527 makes for a safe stop for a Kindergarten students,  in light of the dozens critical and many fatal accidents each year in the area of the proposed bus stop.  After attending many BOE meetings pleading with the Board of Education, board member and current President Barbara Fiero told Mr. Stilton ”We are not the Police Department” and that if Mr. Stilton is concerned about vehicles illegally passing school buses, he should “bring pencil and paper to the bus stop and record the license plates yourself”

“It’s disheartening to learn that the people who have been elected to the position of caretakers of our children’s education flat out reject a parent’s legitimate safety concern for his daughter.” Stilton said of the decision “as a parent with children just entering the public education system, I was not expecting a year long battle between the determination of the Board of Education and myself to ensue, but early on, I was told by the Superintendent that he was against opening the floodgates when it came to changing bus stops.  He told me if he did it for one parent, he would have to do it for all parents and to think this is how our district handles safety is appalling”.    In the Asbury Park Press forums, Joe Fiero, husband of Board President Barbara Fiero called Mr. Stilton a “Whiney first year dad who threw a tantrum when he didn’t get his way” in regards to Stilton’s persistance regarding the Board of Education taking children off this dangerous highway.  “I never realized the sort of people running the show in Jackson would resort to childish personal attacks just because you’re concerned about safety” Stilton said of Mr. Fiero’s comments.

In a meeting held between Luanne Meinders and the Board of Education Transportation subcomittee in December 2008, assistant Superintendent Meinders alluded that if Mr. Stilton was so concerned about his child safety, driving her to school himself was an option.   “I was floored that instead of providing a safer alternative for my child that the district would sit on their decision and instead tell me that if I don’t like it, I can drive my child and pick her up from school every day” Stilton Continued “To this day, I still don’t understand why the district is making such a huge issue out of nothing.  Every other bus company services the development in safe manner, the same should be expected by our public schools.”   

Today’s accident hit close to home as the very road Mr. Stilton has been tirelessly lobbying the Jackson Township Municipal Council, Jackson Police Department, Ocean County Engineer Department and the Board of Education to make necessary changes in policy and the road itself to present unecessary loss of life and injury in the future as it was just a few feet from potentially making his wife and daughter another statistic in the road’s lengthy and destructive history.

“I’ve seen so many bad things happen on this road in the 5 years since I moved to Jackson after being a lifelong Toms River resident” says Stilton  “In Toms River we had a similar issue back in the 1990’s on Church Road, where the county and the township eventually worked together to lower the speed limit, install many new traffic lights that broke up and stopped traffic and the results were amazing, significantly lowering the amount of fatalities by nearly 100% and reducing the number of accidents on that road significantly.  I don’t see why the same isn’t being done here”.

Mr. Stilton was recently quoted in the Asbury Park Press after several critical accidents within 1/8th mile of his daughter’s bus stop as saying “It is a bad place to stop a bus, it is just a matter of time before this happens where there is a corner loaded with children.”  regarding the increased amount of vehicles losing the control due to driver inattention and driving in execess of the speed limit on the road.

To this day, very little has been done by the Board of Education and Mr. Stilton is still lobbying the district to reconsider the placement of children on route 527 at least until the county completes its plan to make the road safer by widening and minimizing curves where possible and possibly a speed limit reduction.   A recent phone call to Mr. Stilton was made by Superintendent Thomas Gialanella stating that the district will take another look at the situation in September of 2009, but Mr. Stilton feels the longer we wait, the higher the risk will be for the children in the meantime.

Online Workshop: Creative revenue generating ideas for the Jackson Township Board of Education

This year the Jackson BOE presented a school budget in which the most creative revenue generating solution consisted of charging high school seniors to drive their vehicles to school.  Some in the community, including the seniors themselves have objected this idea and feel it is an unfair tax on the students.   Others, including board members claim that the time for parents to complain has long since passed because they chose not to be involved in the school budgeting process.   They feel that parental non involvement is justification for maintaining this fee.

Others in the community have suggested alternative revenue sources.  Some simple, some complex.  Since the school board is usually unwilling to discuss new ideas at BOE meetings and rarely value the parental input they publicly claim they seek, perhaps it’s time for an online workshop and a community based online think tank to present a list of creative revenue generating ideas to this Board of Education who has now threatened cuts to other programs in order to compensate  for the $25,000 lost should the parking fee be eliminated.

This closed mindedness is what has led us to student parking fees in the first place.  Instead of embracing parents, the board instead chastizes parents for raising concerns.   At this week’s BOE meeting, board President Barbara Fiero lashed out with her own temper tantrum against parents standing up against a fee to their children.

Lets get the discussion going and see if we can come up with some creative solutions to help generate revenue for our children without them having to reach into their own pockets.

Here are some Creative Revenue Generating Ideas for Schools

1) Charge students and faculty.  This will generate more money and create a fair system that should be acceptable to Mr. Gross.

2) Charge parking fees at sports events and carnivals.

3) Advertise on sports fields.

4) Concact stop and shop and shop rite and they have programs where they will ask shoppers for a $1 donation to the Jackson BOE at check out.

5) Now that ch 77 is on cable, monetize that service.

6) Monetize the district’s website.

7) Host concerts in our school gymanasiums for the children.  You don’t need carrie underwood, a local high school band or semipopular regional act would result in a sellout and you can probably charge up to $20 per ticket plus parking.

Host senior friendly concerts like Brick Township does.  They turn people away with oldies nights.

9) Host an ongoing year long talent show like American Idol, etc with a scholarship reward from your JEF.  This will create a steady stream of events that will have cover charges.

10) Turn yearbook ad sales into a competition in which the leading sellers will be rewarded with a scholarship, trophy or other award.   Many districts do this.

11) Healthy beverage sales.  You can contract with a gatorade or vitamin water type company to exclusively sell their products in vending machines on school property.

New school board may be faced with tough decision tonight

If you’re looking for the best show in town, forget the St. Al’s Carnival, fireworks at Great Adventure and even the town council meetings.   This week’s hottest ticket is the Jackson Schools’ Board of Education’s regular business meeting tonight at 7:30 pm in the Jackson Memorial High School Fine Arts Building.

New school board president Barbara Fiero and her fellow board members will undoubtedly face tough questions about the March 31st decision to charge high school seniors $25 per semester to park their vehicles on school property.  The public outcry over this “taxation” of children has been heated as parents and students have been writing to the local papers in protest of this new fee.

The school board’s dynamics have changed since this decision was made as two new members have joined the team, Tracey Murnane and Theresa Schiazza.   They replaced John Morvay and Marty Spielman in last month’s heated BOE election.    Will the new board president open this topic up for discussion and reevaluate the former board’s decisions?   Will the new board members vote to overturn the ruling or will they reaffirm the existing decision?  Or will the new board be “same as the old boss” and refuse to acknowledge the concerns of parents.  Find out tonight and get a front row seat to all the action.

Happy Birthday EverythingKids.Org

Today is the 2nd birthday of Everything Kids, and I gave it a visual makeover this weekend.  In 2005, when I created the GoKidsNJ website, I never imagined that an entire business would grow around it.  What started as a simple online database pooling together events and contact information for fun stuff for kids has grown into a network of family based websites in which 12.5 million visitors pass through each year.

It was by no accident either, GoKidsNJ was initially designed as a fun case study for the SEO abilities of my company, but I indirectly created a monster.   In 2006, after just one year online, I realized there was a national marketplace for GoKids, so we branched out into a sub section called Everything Kids.  That section, in 2007 got so popular that  I had to break it off of GoKids and in March 2007, Everything Kids was born.  It used the same platform as GoKidsNJ, but it’s growth became unmanageable, so last year, I merged it back with GoKidsNJ.  Unfortunately, parents didn’t like that merge because parents from Wisconsin and Wyoming had to sift through pages of NJ events and places to find non-NJ information, so as a birthday present, I gave Everything Kids its own home.

Please check out the relaunch of Everything Kids!  I decided to start clean.  I have about 5,000 articles that could have been migrated, but the nature of the articles would mean migrating outdated content for products and items 2-3 years old.    It’s one of the biggest taboos in SEO, but this time I felt relevant content trumped SEO.  Will it be a mistake? Only time will tell.

Hopefully you enjoy the new Everything Kids, next week, I will be running a pass on the Parent’s News Network that we run here.