Week in Review: BOE Introduces Preliminary Budget, Basketball Ends

The Fort Lee Board of Education voted at its regular business meeting Monday to hold its high school academic and athletic awards banquets at Fiesta in Wood-Ridge, N.J., continuing a tradition of celebrating academic and athletic excellence in style in spite of the extra cost.

At least one board member took issue with the cost of holding the event at such a swanky venue instead of staying home and saving a bit of money. But others on the board, including the board president, as well as some parents and Superintendent Raymond Bandlow said it was worth the extra cost to celebrate the kids’ achievements. They also pointed out that holding such an event at the high school for example wouldn’t really save that much money. Full Story

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The Fort Lee Board of Education also adopted its preliminary budget Monday, which calls for a 2 percent increase in local taxes.

Bandlow said the preliminary budget does anticipate a reduction in staff, but said, “We haven’t identified any specific positions yet, but it could include [teaching] personnel,” adding that no approximate dollar amounts or number of positions have been determined yet.

However Bandlow did say the recent increase in state aid, in which Fort Lee is slated to receive $951,643, an increase of $565,960 in total aid over last year, will help some in that regard.

“By itself it’s not going to prevent us from having to make some layoffs, but it does have the impact of now we’ll have to make fewer layoffs than if we didn’t receive this extra money,” he said. “It saved a few people’s jobs.” Full Story

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Fort Lee students will attend the required 183 days, while their teachers will work 186 days—also meeting a requirement—during the 2011-2012 school year. But some members of the public at Monday’s Board of Education meeting expressed concerns over how early in the year school starts and questioned whether the schedule could be adjusted somewhat to allow for a slightly later start date. Full Story

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Detective Frank Pantaleo is the recipient of the Police Chief Thomas Ripoli’s “Chief’s Award” for February, an award Ripoli created when he took over as chief to honor individual officers for their years of commitment to the department, as well as their outstanding contributions to the community.

“I can put him in a lot of different positions, and he can handle the job,” Ripoli said of Pantaleo. “I can put him anywhere in the detective bureau and anywhere in the patrol division, and he’d be valuable there. That’s probably his biggest quality.” Full Story

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Fort Lee senior track standout Nancie Sophias was named Patch’s Whiz Kid of the Week. Sophias is one of the top female track stars in Northern New Jersey and has also set numerous school records for the Lady Bridgemen. But in addition to these accomplishments, she also dedicates herself to a class schedule filled with college level courses, is Vice President of her senior class, the secretary of the student council and the President of the Greek Club.

“Even if I have to make sacrifices with hanging out with my friends and things like that, I have to give it all I have,” Sophias said. “[That means] to do my best with sports, school, to get into the college I want and do the best I can.”

Sophias hopes to continue her running career at the collegiate level in the fall and is considering schools including Fordham, Rutgers, Syracuse and Villanova. Full Story

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The Fort Lee Library’s subscription to the remarkable language learning program “Mango Languages” was recently updated with ten new languages for Fort Lee Library cardholders eager to pick up some conversational phrases in a variety of tongues.

Fort Lee residents can now learn Cantonese Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, Haitian Creole, Irish, Levantine Arabic, Norwegian, Urdu, and ESL for Mandarin Chinese speakers from the comfort of their own home. Full Story

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No action was taken at Thursday’s Mayor and Council meeting, an executive session, but there was plenty on the agenda worth talking about. Full Story

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The Fort Lee Bridgemen and Lady Bridgemen basketball teams’ seasons came to an end this week. The girls lost 55-35 to Rutherford.

The Lady Bridgemen finished the season 10-15, but coach Stacie Zafiris looks back positively on the program’s jump this season.

“I’m extremely proud of my girls,” she said. “One thing that I’ve never had to worry about is them playing hard and they played hard tonight … . They played with all heart and that is something that we lacked in Fort Lee for many years.  I’m proud to say that these girls have set the way for Fort Lee athletics.”

Before the final minute ticked off the clock, coach Zafiris removed senior starters Brianna Mattessich and Bindi Parikh to an ovation from the Fort Lee fans in attendance. The two players sat weeping on the bench as their high school careers came to an end as the remaining seniors finished their careers in the closing seconds as well. Full Story

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Meanwhile, the Fort Lee High boys basketball team's offense never really got going in their 61-36 loss at Madison High on Monday night, eliminating a young Bridgemen squad in the first round of the North II, Group 2 State Tournament. Full Story

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