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Volume XIX • Number 8 • March 1 - 7, 2012 •
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Stella D’oro shopping mall begins to take shape By MIAWLING LAM Specialty grocery supermarket Trader Joe’s and Petco are being wooed to Riverdale Crossing, the new shopping center to be sited at the former Stella D’oro cookie factory. A flyer posted on Ripco Realty’s website last week suggested both businesses were the latest additions to the yet-to-be-built mall at Broadway between West 236th and West 238th Streets. An accompanying picture even had the Trader Joe’s logo superimposed on a mock sign alongside the mall’s anchor tenant, BJ’s Wholesale Club. However, it is now understood neither Trader Joe’s nor Petco has formally committed to joining the ranks of Riverdale Crossing and both are simply on a “wishlist” of desired tenants. Ripco Realty is currently re-
cruiting retailers to set up shop at the mall and is acting as a leasing agent for the Long Island-based owners Metropolitan Realty Associates. According to the three-page Ripco brochure, which has since been pulled down, Trader Joe’s was to occupy a 4,992-squarefoot parcel facing West 238th Street, directly across from Putnam Avenue West. Petco was housed further west on a 9,303 square-foot space. Floor plans showed four other smaller spaces ranging from 2,900 square feet to just over 20,000 square feet are being leased. Up to 514 spaces of street-level and rooftop parking will also be offered. As of press time, repeated calls to Ripco Realty and Metropolitan Realty Associates for comment were not returned.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said Trader Joe’s would be a welcome addition to Kingsbridge, even though there are already a considerable number of supermarkets within a 10block radius. “I think it’ll be great to have Trader Joe’s in the neighborhood,” he said, adding that he lobbied for the grocer to open a store in Continued on Page 9 At right is an artist’s rendering of Riverdale Crossing’s anchor tenant BJ’s Wholesale Club.
Attack on Engel, others in Israel fizzles
Question local teacher ratings
By MIAWLING LAM Seven out of 36 local teachers were rated above average in math and English instruction, new statistics shows. Controversial data reports for more than 18,000 teachers was released by Department of Education officials last Friday. At P.S. 24, just one of the school’s 10 teachers (10 percent) was deemed ahead of the curve in effectively helping students learn the math syllabus. The school fared much better in English, where four instructors (40 percent) were rated “above average” or “high” in their instruction. One fourth-grade teacher even scored in the 95th percentile, meaning he added significant value to student test scores. Further north at P.S. 81, in mathematics, two of the school’s eight teachers (25 percent) and one in English (12 percent) were rated as “above average” or “high.” At the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, one math teacher scored in the highest two bands (14 percent). None of the 11 English teachers at M.S/H.S 141 scored a percentile ranking of 75 or above.
In all, seven of 36 teachers (19 percent) at Riverdale’s three schools were judged to add value in student test scores. Under the city’s controversial scoring system, teachers placed in the 75th percentile were deemed to be “above average,” while those in the 95th percentile were rated “high.” Teachers in the 25th to 75th percentiles were ranked “average.” The ratings, known as teacher data reports, are intended to show how much value individual teachers can have on student progress and the extent to which their instruction boosts test scores. The data covers three school years ending in 2010, strictly encompasses students in grades 4 through 8, and is limited exclusively to reading and math. Around 80 percent of teachers aren’t even covered by the data analysis. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said he didn’t place much weight on the ratings and believed they were inherently flawed. City officials last week said the margin of error is so wide that the average confidence interval Continued on Page 5
By MIAWLING LAM Vandals hurled a large rock at Congressman Eliot Engel in a dramatic turn of events during his recent visit to a Jewish cemetery in Israel. Engel, fellow Congressman Jerrold Nadler and Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein escaped unscathed after they dodged a large “baseball-sized” rock at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives last Friday. In a statement issued after the incident, Engel said he went to visit the site after learning that vandals were desecrating Jewish graves. “As we were about to board the bus at the conclusion of our visit, I heard a rock hit a car not far
from us,” he said. “I don’t know if the rocks were thrown at us or at the police. All I know is we heard a thud and later someone brought over the rock. “We were told that incidents happen like this all the time, but it is disconcerting to actually have been a part of it.” It is understood police are still searching for the assailant who threw the rock. Engel was in Jerusalem to speak at the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim’s Emergency Forum on Violence. Engel has since returned to the U.S. and is currently in Washington, D.C. where the House of Representatives is in session.