The Personal Injury Attorney in Upper Saddle River, NJ, You Can Trust

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — U.S. News & World Report just released its 2024 Best Elementary and Middle School rankings, based on student proficiency scores in core subjects. The data was obtained from the U.S. Department of Education, they said.

Besides math and language arts achievement, U.S. News also crunched numbers on student backgrounds and student-teacher ratios.

Aside from creating national lists, they also listed the top 10 elementary schools and middle schools in each state.

On New Jersey's top 10 lists, one elementary school and two middle schools in Bergen County were listed among the best.

As far as elementary schools, Clara E. Coleman School, a K-5 school in Glen Rock, was listed 4th out of the top 10 public elementary schools in the state.

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US News said: "At Clara E. Coleman School, 82 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 77 percent scored at or above that level for reading.The school’s minority student enrollment is 31 percent. The student-teacher ratio is 13:1, which is worse than that of the district."

In New Jersey, the top 10 public elementary schools on the US News list are:

Middle School List

Cresskill Middle School in that town, and Emil A. Cavallini Middle School in Upper Saddle River, made the cut.

At Creskill, a 6-8 middle school, "65 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 77 percent scored at or above that level for reading," said US News.

In Upper Saddle River, "At Emil A. Cavallini Middle School, 72 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 72 percent scored at or above that level for reading."

The top 10 public middle schools in New Jersey are:

The U.S. News list includes data on more than 79,000 public elementary and middle schools nationwide.

LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News, said the state and district-level rankings are intended to give parents a snapshot of their child’s school and how well it’s doing within its community.

“Easily accessible data on student-teacher ratio, district spending, and the number of school counselors available at the school can keep parents informed and involved,” Jones said.

To be included in district-level rankings, at least two of the top performing schools must rank in the top 75 percent of the overall elementary or middle school rankings to qualify for district-level recognition.

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Editor Michelle Rotuno-Johnson contributed reporting to this story.

Distinguished Account Leader Adds Scientific and Medical Services Team to Her Oversight

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., Oct. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Health & Wellness Partners, LLC (HWP) has announced the promotion of Jessica Cini, formerly Managing Director of Account Services, to President of HWP, in recognition of her outstanding achievements in growing the company's business and managing the full HWP account team.

In her new role, Jessica will oversee Account Services as well as the Scientific and Medical Services team, enabling her to provide true end-to-end leadership from project conceptualization through completion.

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Jani Hegarty, CEO and founder of HWP, commented, "Jessica has truly distinguished herself here at HWP over the past 8 years. Her promotion to President is well-deserved and I have no doubt will result in real growth for her personally and for HWP."

Jessica is a trusted leader who has mentored and motivated her team of more than 25 account professionals to grow HWP's business portfolio, while maintaining the superior level of service HWP clients have come to expect. During her 17 years in the industry, Jessica has consistently delivered creative, novel solutions that drive the advancement of patient care.

Jessica's core strengths include cultivating strong client relationships, supporting brand strategy and tactics, maintaining strict compliance, and providing superior customer service—all while using her proven judgment and management skills to ensure projects are delivered on target and on schedule. Jessica has gained experience on multiple client accounts in diverse therapeutic categories, including psychiatry, neurology, and rare diseases. Her success has made her well-known and well-respected among clients, key opinion leaders, and other industry stakeholders.

About HWPEstablished in 2005, HWP is a women-founded, women-led provider of medical communications solutions to global life sciences companies, across a multitude of therapeutic areas and disease states, from early preclinical to patent expiry. Headquartered in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, with a satellite office in San Diego, California, HWP currently provides three synergistic service offerings: medical affairs, medical marketing, and speaker bureau. Each offering is seeded in expert strategy, scientific content, and proprietary technology, enabling solutions that allow HWP to deliver tailored, high-impact educational engagements.

In 2023, HWP partnered with NMS Capital, a private equity investment firm focused on driving sustainable growth for middle-market companies in business and healthcare services. Earlier this month, HWP announced the strategic acquisition of Hybrid Healthcare Communications, LLC (Hybrid)—combining HWP's longstanding reputation for the highest-caliber medical/scientific communications with Hybrid's proven expertise in state-of-the-art digital and interactive media. This new partnership reflects HWP's vision for the future.

For more information about HWP, visit thehwpgroup.com.

CONTACT: Jani Hegarty, Jhegarty@thehwpgroup.com

SOURCE Health & Wellness Partners

In a recent study, we analyzed and identified the richest cities in New York state based on scoring several key financial factors. This time around, we’re looking at New York’s neighbor to the south — New Jersey, the Garden State.

We analyzed over 700 cities in the state in order to identify the richest cities in New Jersey. The way we evaluated and scored each city’s ranking is detailed below. Read on to find out what the richest city in New Jersey is, plus the top 50 wealthiest cities in the state overall.

What Is the Richest City in New Jersey?

In order to assemble a list of the richest cities in New Jersey, we pulled data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, and we constructed a four-factor scoring system to help identify the wealthiest cities in New Jersey:

When it comes to Census data, for certain factors its numbers have upper limits. For example, for median household income, the Census Bureau has an upper limit of “$250,000+”. For median home value, the upper limit is “$2,000,000+”. And, lastly, for median property taxes paid, the upper limit is “$10,000+”. For these reasons, the mean or average household income dataset is crucial because the Census Bureau has exact figures for it. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities’ combined scores.

Below you’ll find a table detailing the top 50 richest cities in New Jersey and their respective dollar figures for each metric:

The No. 1 richest city in New Jersey in our ranking is Rockleigh, a very small town of just 74 households, situated in the far north of the Garden State, along the border with New York state. It borders Palisades, New York, whose name comes from the steep cliffs of the eastern bank of the Hudson River, which resemble palisades. Not surprisingly for the richest city in New Jersey, according to Data USA, the main occupation by employment is Management Occupations, accounting for 31.5% of the workforce. The top three industries in Rockleigh are Health Care & Social Assistance (21.3% of the workforce), Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (20.4% of the workforce), and Construction (10.2% of the workforce). The median household income in Rockleigh is $201,500, while its average household income is the second highest out of the 700+ cities in New York we analyzed, at $413,309. The reported median home value in Rockleigh exceeds $2 million and the median property taxes paid by households is in excess of $10,000 per year.

The second richest city in New Jersey is Saddle River, which, like Rockleigh, is located in Bergen County, not far from New York state. What is particular cool about Saddle River is that it has retained a very rustic, natural appearance, filled with forests, rivers, and farmland. The median home value in Saddle River is a little over $1.94 million, and its median property taxes paid exceeds the limit of $10,000. Similarly, the median household income in Saddle River also exceeds the $250,000 Census Bureau limit. Saddle River has an average household income of $330,303 and is notably much larger than No. 1 Rockleigh, having more than 1,300 total households. Compared to some of the other richest cities in New Jersey, the top industries in Saddle River are an interesting mix: Health Care & Social Assistance (20.2% of the workforce), Wholesale Trade (11.1% of the workforce), and Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (10.4% of the workforce), according to Data USA.

Coming in as the No. 3 richest city in New Jersey is Short Hills, a sizable unincorporated community of more than 4,500 households, located in Essex County, which is notably the county with the highest income inequality in New Jersey. Like Saddle River, the median household income in Short Hills is over $250,000 and the median property taxes paid also exceeds the Census Bureau’s upper limit of $10,000. Short Hills stands out the most by having the highest average household income in New Jersey, at $428,352. Meanwhile, its reported median home value is nearly $1.39 million.

Out of the top 50 richest cities in New Jersey, the largest is Westfield, which has 10,514 households. Westfield, like many of the wealthiest cities in New Jersey, is in the New York City metro area, located in Union County. The median household income in Westfield is $185,319, while its mean household income is $259,377. Although its median home value is only $810,400, the median property taxes paid in Westfield still exceeds $10,000 because New Jersey has notoriously high property tax rates.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER — A year after the borough was "close" to an affordable housing settlement, its compliance hearing was again delayed, this time until Friday.

The hearing before Judge Christine Farrington in Superior Court is expected to confirm plans in progress and future affordable housing development sites in the borough, mostly on the Ramsey border on or near Route 17.

The borough's 54-page 2020 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan is posted for viewing on its website, usrtoday.org. Three sites with affordable housing have been built, one is under construction, and three more are proposed.

The completed sites include the 19.6-acre Pinnacle development on Mountainview Road (154 rental units, 18 affordable); the Lancaster development on Skymark Court off East Crescent (35 town houses, seven affordable); and Crescent Village on Chapel Lane off East Crescent (24 affordable units).

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The former Pearson Education campus at East Crescent Avenue and Lake Street is under construction for 208 units (186 market, 22 affordable). A 16-unit Alzheimer's facility is proposed for 172-175 E. Crescent Ave. Another 25 affordable units are proposed for 160-168 E. Crescent Ave., south of the Crescent Village site.

A 7.8-acre wooded site behind the Porcelanosa kitchen/bath corporate offices and showroom at 600 Route 17 north was purchased by the borough in 2005 for affordable housing. It has been approved for 70 units, all affordable, originally assigned to the Upper Saddle River portion of the Apple Ridge Country Club site.

Instead, the Upper Saddle River portion of the country club site is now being developed with 44 single-family homes off Carlough Road.

Anyone who wants to attend the 9 a.m. Friday hearing remotely should call 888-912-8925 and use code 3350600.

Marsha Stoltz is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER — Retired interior garden designer Roger Wohrle has spent 56 years perfecting the house, greenhouse and bamboo forest on his 5-acre Hillside Avenue property.

At 81, his quest is for the buildings — and, if possible, their sprawling collection of housewares, oddities and architectural memorabilia — to survive him.

"Anything to preserve the house and greenhouse after I am gone," Wohrle said. "It's a tropical garden environment with plants that are 30, 40, even 50 years old. It would be a shame to just turn off the heat and let all that die."

The house is not for sale, Wohrle said.

"I can't leave and start over," he said. "I want to stay here."

The lifelong bachelor has no immediate relatives to inherit the property, and he says his extended family has already indicated they do not share his interest in preservation. Further complicating his search, the state border runs through his property, so part of it is in New Jersey and part in New York.

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His attempts to interest an area school or nonprofit on his terms have so far been unsuccessful. But he still hopes to find an organization to which to donate the estate after his death, to preserve it for public use.

"A horticulture center, a place to study architecture," Wohrle said. "It's a strange request. Sometimes I have a problem with it myself."

The greenhouse is a riot of tropical plants, including ficus, orchids, allamanda, ferns, night-blooming jasmine and two colors of bougainvillea — raspberry and orange. Cissus vine drapes from the ceiling, its tendrils growing 4 inches a day.

And then there are the collectibles.

Candlestick holders. Oil lamps. Glassware. Dishes. Shells. Steuben glass and Tiffany lamps. Antique cars. Vinyl records. Wine. Furniture. The front gates from the Straus family mansion. An exercise bicycle from the Andrea Doria. A saddlemaker's stool. Even a fiberglass hippopotamus head.

"I never got any satisfaction out of holding a stock certificate in my hand," Wohrle said. "Much better to hold something beautiful. I had a lot of dinner parties. I always wanted to have the best dishes for every occasion."

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Wohrle was born in New York City but grew up in nearby Spring Valley, and studied horticulture at Farmingdale State College on Long Island. He and a partner eventually formed the Wohrle & Waite interior garden design service, planning and caring for plants in office towers such as the Seagram Building in Manhattan for 48 years.

"Once you got a good building, the next one followed," Wohrle said. "We started at $95 a month and ended up at $60,000 a year. There's no way that would be possible now."

His Upper Saddle River home was built in 1950 and had just four rooms when Wohrle bought it in 1964. The first thing he added was a 93-by-35-foot greenhouse from a Port Chester, New York, estate. He added a swimming pool and a koi pond, as well as a collection of doves, parakeets and finches.

"The greenhouse cost $90,000 to build in 1927, and $120,000 to reerect it," Wohrle said. "I added living areas at the front and back; two bars, including part of the bar from the St. Regis Hotel" in New York.

The original Nantucket-style cottage was expanded with a contemporary addition by Saddle River architect Eleanore Pettersen and built into the side of a hill with a two-story open well in its center.

Another addition was designed by New York architect Frank Hall. A third bar and adjacent billiard room are behind a door off the front hall, retrieved from an Indian temple. A stairway landing features a wooden telephone booth installed for making private calls.

"It was perfect for entertaining groups of about 20," Wohrle said. "The last group we had here was the Yogi Berra family about five years ago."

Among Wohrle's clients were the Richard Nixons, when the former president and his wife lived in nearby Saddle River. Wohrle recalled their visiting his greenhouse to select plants for their home.

"Pat Nixon asked what was the oldest bottle of champagne I had, and I said 1920-something, and she said they had been given a bottle of Chateau Lafite 1913 because it was the year her husband was born," Wohrle said.

He now oversees his domain with little assistance except from his dog Teaser, who keeps the chipmunks at bay in the greenhouse.

"I had a cleaning lady, but she gave up," Wohrle said. "She said after three months, you can't tell the difference."

Marsha Stoltz is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.