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Health & Fitness

West Essex News November 21, 2011

West Essex Regional Schools newsletter

Hello everyone! This is a special edition of the West Essex News combining news for last week and the upcoming shortened week with the Thanksgiving holiday. The next issue will come out on December 2, 2011.

Thank you for all of your submissions.  Submissions can be sent to afreeman@westex.org. Any questions, feel free to call me at extension 101.  

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West Essex Regional Board of Education

The West Essex Regional Board of Education will hold a Regular meeting on Monday, November 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the middle school. The next meeting is scheduled for December 12.

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Important Dates:

  • November 23: Early Dismissal for holiday
  • November 24 and 25: Thanksgiving Recess, no school.

District News:

The West Essex Regional Board of Education named West Caldwell resident Gary Suda, an assistant principal at Livingston High School, as the new Principal of West Essex Regional High School and Ryan Gupta, the West Essex Supervisor of Science and Industrial Arts, as the new Director of Curriculum and Instruction at its meeting earlier this month. Suda replaces Barbara Longo, who became Interim Superintendent of Schools over the summer and was appointed as Superintendent on August 24, 2011. Longo had served as West Essex High School Principal since 2003. Assistant Principal Juliann Hoebee will serve as Acting Principal until Suda assumes his new position in January. Gupta, who lives in Lincoln Park and began his career at West Essex as a high school physics teacher in 2006 and became science supervisor in 2008, assumed his new position last week.

Supervisor of Guidance Vincenzina Shane announced that grades for the first marking period were posted on November 18, 2011. The grade book will reopen November 28, 2011 at 9 a.m.

Eighth grade students and their parents are invited to a “High School Orientation” on Dec. 6 in the high school auditorium. The program will include an optional tour of the high school beginning at 6:30 p.m. with the regular program beginning at 7 p.m.

Athletic trainers from throughout Essex County participated in a special training workshop Nov. 9 at West Essex Regional High School. Seventeen trainers from the Super Essex Conference of high schools spent a half day listening to presentations by physical therapists, physicians and weightlifting coaches. West Essex Athletic Director Damion Macioci designed the workshop to help educate trainers about preventing and recognizing different sports injuries as well as to help them satisfy their training requirements.

The West Essex Middle School Student Council will honor school support staff at its annual Thanksgiving Luncheon Tuesday in the cafeteria. The West Essex High School Student Council will honor high school support staff at an Italian Feast Wednesday in the high school cafeteria.

A Teen Dating Abuse Program, which was scheduled to be presented to high school students during health classes November 18 and 21, has been postponed until April. The program will be presented by the National Council of Jewish Women, a leader in combating teen dating abuse for 20 years. For information, visit www.centerforwomennj.org/teen_dating_abuse.html. A free parent workshop can also be scheduled. Call Linda and Rudy Slucker at 973-994-4994.

Yearbooks may be purchased online at www.Jostensyearbooks.com through December 31. Ads may also be purchased and can be designed by the yearbook staff. For information, visit www.westex.org/domain/68.

West Essex Regional Middle School and High School students read the Twilight books and celebrated the new Twilight "breaking dawn" part 1 movie opening with a party in the high school library on Nov. 15. Students feasted on cupcakes, popcorn and red "blood" licorice, watched the last movie in the series and answered trivia questions about the book series for prizes including Twilight posters, bookmarks and T-shirts. The party was planned and organized by West Essex High School Librarian Rosemary Rich and West Essex Middle School Librarian Catherine Spinella who posed with life-size cardboard cut-outs of characters Edward and Jacob from the films. 

Staff News:

West Essex Head Baseball Coach Scott Iliano has written and published a memoir of his life, beginning as a waiter in a chain restaurant to 2010 Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The book, titled “Our Time: A High School Baseball Coach’s Journey,” was published last month by iUniverse and focuses on the 2006 Greater Newark Tournament Championship team, which defeated a team with Major League-bound pitcher Rick Porcello. “Our Time” also looks at how a coach deals with parents and players and is available on Amazon.com or at Barnes and Noble for $18.42.

The Officers and the Board of the New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education selected Janice Emering of the High School Business Department as one of the two nominees to represent New Jersey in the 2011 Jumpstart National Educators Conference on Financial Education. Mrs. Emering attended the conference November 4-6 in Washington D.C. The program offered classroom educators an opportunity to see, review and try out educational resources that can be integrated into lesson plans. Participants also had the opportunity to attend informative workshops, meet with financial and educational leaders and network with colleagues from across the country. The event was sponsored by Experian and the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Student Achievements:

West Essex Regional High School junior Jason Ajmo will celebrate Thanksgiving marching down the streets of Philadelphia and playing his clarinet as a member of the Tournament of Bands All-Star Band in the 92nd Annual ABC/IKEA Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Jason, a 16-year-old clarinet player in the West Essex Marching Band, began playing the clarinet in the fourth grade at Gould School in North Caldwell. Jason will rehearse with the group the day before Thanksgiving and the day of the parade and then spend Thanksgiving morning marching and performing. The band will perform “Holiday at the Art Museum,” a piece by Thomas Beebee, who is also conducting the band. The percussion in the piece is by C. Miller.

West Essex Regional High School seniors Nicole Pigott and Gina Morello have the distinction of representing West Essex in two different All-State choral groups. Nicole rehearsed and performed with the New Jersey All-State Mixed Chorus in Atlantic City during the annual teacher’s convention earlier this month as well as on stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark this past weekend. The group will take the stage later in November at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Gina will represent West Essex in the New Jersey All-State Women’s Chorus in February and will also perform on stage at NJPAC.

The West Essex Robotics Club is in the semi-finals of the Zero Robotics Massachusetts Institute of Technology Competition and will participate in several competition events this month and next month. The team is called Team Estonia and has competed against 149 teams including nine European teams. The finals are scheduled for January 23, 2012.

The West Essex Regional Marching Knights came in fifth place in the Tournament of Bands Atlantic Coast Championships November 6th at Hershey Park. The band scored 92.90, tying its West Essex record for best place and score in the event, which featured 30 of the top bands from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia.

Students in Cathy Collins’ and Janice Emering’s Technology Applications classes created Anti-smoking newsletters for the Great American Smoke-Out held November 17, 2011. The smoke-out is a day for Americans to give up smoking for 24 hours with the hope that they can give it up forever. The newsletters included articles written by the students about the dangers of tobacco use, the smoke-out and ways to quit smoking and have been posted outside the classrooms and in the nurse’s office. Students also wrote morning announcements about the smoke-out.

Four West Essex Middle School students have starring roles in the Roseland Performing Arts Company’s annual production of “The Nutcracker” Dec. 3 and 4 at 2 p.m. at West Essex Regional High School. The student performers are Sophia Wenzke, who plays Clara, Brianna Crummy, who plays the Snow Queen, Rachel Hamburger, who portrays a Dew Drop, and Caroline Lanfrank, who portrays Chinese Tea. Tickets are $15 in advance and $25 at the door. Group discounts are available. For tickets, call 201-444-6210. Information is also available at www.roselandpac.com.

The students in the classes of Mrs. Seton Ahearn and Mrs. Gabe Bauer have established a business, known as WECAN Enterprises, which will include a variety of activities throughout the school year. The purpose of WECAN Enterprises is to help students strengthen their vocational, communication and social skills in an effort to develop greater independence. The first effort of WECAN will be a gift wrapping service for administration, faculty and staff, which will collect fees for the Patrick Flaherty Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarships are awarded each year to deserved special education seniors who exemplify the qualities of character, competence, service and perseverance. For information, contact sahearn@westex.org or gbauer@westex.org.

West Essex Middle School Principal David Montgomery has recognized the Students of the Month for November 2011. They are seventh graders Cole Morrone and Madison Sylvestri, both from team 7B, and eighth graders Mike Morelli and Cathryn Kessler, both from Team 8B.

Kira Shabbab, a seventh grader at West Essex Regional Middle School, was cast as “Annie” in the musical “Annie” at the Smiling Rhino Theatre, 247 Wanaque Ave. Pompton Lakes. Kira is in the silver cast. Show times are Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25; $22 seniors and $20 students and children. Call 973-248-9491. Visit www.smilingrhinotheatre.com.

Athletics:

Congratulations to our own who defeated Lenape Valley Regional High School 48-8 in the second round of the NJSIAA playoffs! The Knights will travel to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford Saturday at 1 p.m. where they will face River Dell in the State Football Finals.

Congrats also to the West Essex Freshman Football Team! The team was undefeated this season with a 9 and 0 record.

The West Essex Field Hockey team defeated Shore Regional 4-1 in the Tournament of Champions semi-finals. The team came in second place in the Tournament after losing the championship game to Eastern Regional Sunday at the College of New Jersey in Ewing.

PTO News:

The West Essex Regional PTO will host its next meeting Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. The meeting will include reports from each grade’s student council on their plans for the year. All parents are welcome to attend and find out what is going on at West Essex.

PTO Membership forms will be mailed out to families in the near future. Each family is encouraged to make a $35 donation to the organization. In the past, the money has been used to purchase a mascot costume, a new speaker system for the stadium, equipment for the fitness center and contributions for the beautification committee’s efforts. The PTO also supplies refreshments for special events including class breakfasts, teacher in-service days and funds special teacher projects. The PTO is also looking for volunteers to help with these events. If you would like to volunteer, contact Jenifer at jpetrocca@optonline.net

West Essex Volunteers:

The English National Honor Society will host a Book Drive to collect new and gently used books for students in grades 5-8 who attend Public School Number 7 in Paterson. The book drive will run through December 23 and be delivered by honor society members in January. Age-appropriate books may be sent into school and given to English teachers or to Ms. Macaluso in room 713 or Ms. Zuppa in room 708.

Members of the English National Honor Society will wrap gifts at Barnes and Noble at the Livingston Mall on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Come out and do some holiday shopping and have your gifts wrapped by our students. Donations to support the society are appreciated. Give the gift of literacy this holiday season!

Special Note:

We are asking parents to fill out a new Student Publicity Authorization form posted under general forms on the website and send them in to school with your child. This is different than the original form you filled out in September. The form will allow your child’s photograph or name be used in a press release for the District website and the local media. Please take a few minutes to fill it out now.  Click here for the form: www.westex.org/cms/lib6/NJ01001533/Centricity/Domain/1/Forms/publicityauthorizationform.pdf.

If you do not receive the West Essex News and would like to have it e-mailed to you, please e-mail afreeman@westex.org.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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