Superintendent Steve Forte told the Board of Education on Tuesday night that Verona High School has seen a substantial improvement in its position on a list of America’s most challenging high schools.

The list, published by The Washington Post, ranks schools by looking at the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at the schools each year divided by the number of graduating seniors. Verona has been pushing more students to take AP courses and their accompanying tests, and their ranks have increased dramatically. Last fall, the BOE honored 23 students AP Scholar Students, a distinction granted to students who receive scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams, while six were named AP Scholars With Honor (an average of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams), and 17 were named AP Scholar with Distinction (at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more tests). Two students, Benjamin Jung and Jenna O’Connell, the co-salutatorians of the Class of 2013, received the top honor, National AP Scholar, which is given for scoring an average of at least 4 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. 

Verona High School has risen from 1,704 on the Washington Post list in 2011 to 817 this year. It is one of 122 New Jersey high schools on the list, which includes local public high schools, regional high schools and private and charter schools. VHS is 21 on the list of New Jersey schools and compares favorably to other schools to others in its so-called District Factor Group: Cresskill is number 12, Madison is 14. Glen Ridge, also in Verona’s DFG, was 25. Among the other public and private schools around Verona, Montclair Kimberley Academy was 32, West Essex was 52, West Orange was 103 and Montclair was 112. Elizabeth High School was ranked number 1 in New Jersey; the top school nationwide was the American Indian Public Charter school in Oakland, Calif.

Superintendent Steve Forte and BOE Presiden John Quattrocchi at a Board meeting earlier this year.

“Mr. Helb, I know, has told many people that the light poles are going to be a hundred and some odd feet high. Different than what our designs have,” Quattrocchi said. “A lot of that is a surprise to us. I wish that I was the resident he called with that info, but I wasn’t. Somebody else was.”

Quattrocchi’s remarks came during a lengthy comment on the project by Dan DePalma, a Dodd Terrace resident who is part of Be A Good Neighbor, a group of homeowners opposed to having any lights on the field. DePalma interrupted Quattrocchi after he spoke of the “surprise” to say “as it is to us.” But Be a Good Neighbor’s Web site says, in the second paragraph on the home page that, “The design plan includes 80-120 foot light poles and borders right up to neighboring homes on Franklin Street.”

MyVeronaNJ.com called Helb on Wednesday morning and read him Quattrocchi’s remarks. Helb declined to address them saying, “I have no comment on what the Board says.”

There is, as yet, no formal design plan for either the upper or lower fields. Last night, the BOE approved a contract for that work with French & Parrello, which did an assessment of the problems on Sellitto Field last year.

“Whether there are six light poles or 12 has never been a secret Board conspiracy,” Quattrocchi told DePalma. “The designs, including how the fields are going to orient on the space as a whole, were just sort of sketched out.” The Board has repeatedly tried to get project opponents to understand that referendum projects are not fully engineered before they are put to a vote to save taxpayers the cost of that work if the referendum fails. Verona’s March 11 referendum passed by 710 votes, compared to just a nine-vote margin of victory for the 2005 referendum.

“But whether the light poles are 10 feet high or 1,000 feet high,” Quattrocchi added, “whether they are this much wattage or that much is going to make no difference to you unless they’re turned on.” He stressed that the BOE is working with a committee to develop a policy on field usage; DePalma is a member of that committee.

Though the BOE and town officials have frequently highlighted the closeness of their working relationship, there have been points of tension over BOE access to funds from the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes made by the Hilltop apartment development and, more recently, over having the town share the cost of resurfacing the track behind H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, which is used by residents and Verona Recreation Department programs. Steve Spardel, a member of the BOE’s Buildings & Grounds Committee, said at last night’s meeting that the Board is anticipating it will have to spend $90,000 for track refurbishments, and $40,000 to $50,000 on correcting drainage behind the school that has contributed to the track’s deterioration. Montclair Kimberley Academy, which developed the track in partnership with Verona more than a decade ago, will split the cost of the resurfacing, though perhaps not the drainage repairs. Joe Bellino, who said at the March 25 meeting that the town seemed disinclined to participate in the repairs, said last night that the BOE had not gotten any further response from the town on the project.

Kiera Murphy and Gabrielle Ayala at the United Nations

From March 8 to the 14, I had the opportunity to attend, along with junior Kiera Murphy, the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York and learn what it really means to be a feminist.

CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Every year, global representatives gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide.

It is through the organization Girls Learn International that young, aspiring feminists are given the opportunity to be a part of this internationally known event.

Girls Learn International (GLI) is an extracurricular club that is designed to educate its high school and middle school participants about human rights while focusing on girls around the world. This girls advocacy group has now been a part of VHS for two years and has grown rapidly. There are now 15 enthusiastic members who are eager to learn about real world problems such as poverty, child marriage, human trafficking, media literacy, and other topics.

The week Kiera and I spent featured a trip into New York City every day via bus.  We left Verona no later than 7:30 and usually arrived home each evening around 10 p.m.   Days were filled with speakers, panels, and activities conducted at various locations, including the U.N.  A teacher-chaperone accompanied us each day.  Each of us was given an assignment – Kiera as a blogger and reporter; I was a speaker, given such assignment as introducing speakers.

High school students were able to learn from experienced individuals as well as express their own feelings about topics that they thought were important. One of the most prominent topics that encompassed many other pressing issues was the importance of equal education for all.

“Education is the vaccine of the 21st century,” stated one of the Australian UN representatives. Achieving universal education for both genders is at the base of all other human equality goals. She made the point that many are deprived of their human rights because they are not educated enough to know that they have any.  Sixty one percent of the world’s 175 million illiterate youth that do not attend school are females. Reasons why the number of girls in schools is so low include lack of transportation, school fees, lack of self confidence, and cultures that do not value women becoming educated. Somewhere in the world every two seconds a girl under 18 is forced to marry and every four seconds a girl under 18 becomes pregnant, preventing her from receiving a proper education and fulfilling her full potential.

Most people our age will listen to these statistics and assume that these things would never happen in a country like our own. Unfortunately this assumption would be incorrect. Here in the United States we are far from achieving gender equality. The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a convention adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly. This international bill of rights for women has been ratified by 187 of the 194 U.N. member nations. The seven countries that have not ratified CEDAW include Somalia, Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, the Pacific island nations of Tonga and Palua, and the United States of America. What does being in this group of seven countries say about America and where our priorities lie?

After our experience and all we learned during our week as delegates through Girls Learn International at this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, Kiera and I find it stranger than ever that anyone would view being a feminist as a bad thing. Why is it a bad thing for someone to advocate for equal basic rights for all?

“My week at CSW has been the best and most enlightening experience of my life. I really have a better understanding of global issues and am proud to call myself an active feminist,” said Kiera.

Nicky Fifth’s Garden State Adventure is a favorite on the Verona public schools’ “Battle of the Books” lists.

So you can understand why there was applause last week at Laning Avenue School when Nicky Fifth’s author, Lisa Funari Willever, stopped by for a visit. Willever, the author of 10 picture books and eight Nicky Fifth chapter books, talked to students about writing and what it’s like to be an author.

On March 27, many of Verona High School’s top students weren’t in VHS. They were in a bus in Boston, where the high school’s music program had gone for its spring trip. But at 5 p.m. that day, the last thing they were focused on was music. It was deadline time for Ivy Decision Day, the moment at which eight prestigious colleges announced their admissions. The seniors pulled out their smartphones and held their breath.

“When Natalie [Wertz] said she got into Princeton the whole bus started cheering,” says Dan Smillie says of a senior flute player. “It was the same with Dan Li and Brown.” Li, a saxophone player and National Merit Scholarship finalist, was accepted to Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education, which will combine his undergraduate degree and med school into a single eight-year package.

Defying the college admissions odds, the Verona High School Class of 2014 has posted an impressive list of acceptances. Its students have been chosen by many of the Ivies (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Yale) and by top schools across the U.S., including Boston College, Bucknell, Carnegie Melon, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Lehigh, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Rice, Stevens Institute of Technology, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Rochester, University of Virginia, University of Washington, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. There have also been acceptances at two top Canadian schools, McGill and the University of Toronto.

How did they do it? Through hard work in school and equally hard work on the college applications. “We have a crazy class of really diverse people,” says Matt Carroll, a trumpet player and runner who is headed to Carnegie Mellon to major in astrophysics. “There are a bunch of us who do well in band and sports. I expected our class to do well in college.”

Dan Li (center) was accepted to a Brown University program that combines an undergraduate degree and med school into a single eight-year package

“It’s hard now, you don’t know which ones will like you,” says Wertz, who will major in chemical and biological engineering at Princeton. She was also accepted at Cornell, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Michigan, and UVA’s Rodman Scholars Program (the top 5% of its engineering acceptances), but rejected at Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia and UCLA. When she adds in the three schools who wait-listed her, she believes she spent 48 hours on college applications.

Smillie, who will attend Johns Hopkins this fall, was also accepted at Stevens, Bucknell and Lafayette, wait-listed at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard and Yale, and rejected at UPenn, Cornell, MIT and Princeton, but he believes he made the right decision in making his applications. “I feel like there are kids who have said ‘I won’t get in’, so they don’t even try,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been wait-listed or accepted to the schools I got into if I hadn’t tried. The acceptance rate may be only 5% at Stanford this year, but that’s still higher than zero percent if you don’t even apply.”

Smillie and the others say they pushed themselves to take a very demanding schedule at VHS, including advanced placement classes. VHS 2014 was in its freshman year when the Verona Board of Education revised the high school curriculum to direct more students into higher level courses, over the objection of many parents. Last September, Smillie, Wertz, Li, Carroll and fellow senior Chris Sweeney were among 17 students named AP Scholar with Distinction, which is given to students getting an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more exams.

Dan Smillie, Natalie Wertz, Chris Sweeney and Matt Carroll (photo left, next to VHS Principal Glenn Cesa) were honored last September for the scores that they got on AP tests

“AP Computer Science was a turning point in how I envisioned myself,” says Sweeney, who believes computers will be part of whatever he does at MIT. “As a freshman, I was set on going into music,” adds the trumpet player. “Then over sophomore year, I started to lean toward math and my future goal shifted more toward STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] and engineering.” BOE take note: Sweeney wishes that VHS’ curriculum had included more engineering, particularly hands-on classes in applying physical concepts to building.

Though Sweeney will not be majoring in music, he still credits the VHS music program for some of his success. “Band lets us all collaborate and work together, and the bond we all have helps with school too,” he says. “I think that makes us the high-power students that colleges look for.”

Carroll echoes those sentiments. “Get involved,” he advises underclassmen. “Find something you love, even if it’s not in school. Schools like Princeton, Harvard and Brown look for interesting candidates, even if they are not the smartest in school. Most of my class they all have something they love.”

Adds Smillie, “One of the biggest mistakes people make in high school is that they don’t push themselves enough,” he says. “There’s something called ‘strength of schedule’ in football rankings and the same thing applies for a high school transcript. I tried to take as many hard classes as I could. Everything got better because I tried to go that extra push.”

Verona High School has made U.S. News & World Report‘s 2014 Best High Schools list.

VHS was ranked 913 nationally out of 19,400 high schools and 32 within 398 schools in the state of New Jersey, earning a silver medal overall. This is the first time since that Verona has appeared on the list, which has been published in six out of the last eight years.

To be ranked by U.S. News, a high school must first have high scores on state standardized tests and then have a large percentage of its students successfully taking Advanced Placement exams. In 2011, VHS revised its curriculum to push more students into AP classes and testing. VHS’s work on AP tests earned it a 36.6 out of 100 on U.S. News’ “college readiness” index. The top-ranked New Jersey school was Biotechnology High School in Freehold, which scored a 100 on college readiness.

Only two other schools in Verona’s group of comparable high schools made the U.S. News list. Glen Ridge was ranked 22 with a 52.3 score on college readiness, and Mahwah at 31 with a 36.9.

Earlier this month, Superintendent Steve Forte announced that VHS had seen a substantial improvement in its rank on the Washington Post’s list of America’s most challenging high schools.

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) has announced that Erin Percevault, a student at Louisiana State University and a 2010 graduate of Verona High School, was selected as the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar and winner of the $15,000 undergraduate prize.

Percevault is pursuing a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at LSU and expects to graduate in May 2015. She plans to use the award to investigate how thorium extraction in Lemhi Pass, a National Historic Landmark along the wildlife corridor between Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, can be tailored to local ecologies to minimize exposure of both wilderness areas and local communities to toxic externalities. Following detailed field research and community engagement, she intends to propose viable solutions to enhance energy efficiency, minimize negative environmental and social impacts, and strengthen local communities.

Jeremy Smith taught Percevault computer-aided design at VHS and celebrated her scholarship award on Thursday.”I had Erin for her first three years at VHS,” he said, noting that she was unable to take CAD her senior year because it conflicted with her Advanced Placement classes. “I added additional sections of CAD specifically for Erin and future students that would benefit from four years of hands-on experience with Autodesk software. She was a delight to have in class and will be my second student to become an architect.”

An independent jury of leaders in the landscape architecture profession selected the national winner and three finalists from a group of 30 undergraduate students who were nominated by their universities for being exceptional student leaders. The jurors were: Mark Dawson, FASLA, managing principal at Sasaki Associates; Thomas Tavella, past president of ASLA; Skip Graffam, partner and director of research at OLIN; Jim Laiche, business manager at The Toro Company; Jody Rosenblatt-Naderi, chairperson of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Ball State University; Bill Marken, editor-in-chief of Garden Design magazine, ASLA; and McKenzie Wilhelm, 2013 National Olmsted Scholar (Undergraduate) and student at Ohio State University.

The jury admired Percevault’s ambitious project, which addresses the timely and far-reaching issue of resource extraction. Percevault and the other 2014 nominees join the growing community of over 300 past and present Olmsted Scholars.

Now in its seventh year, LAF’s Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier national award and recognition program for landscape architecture students. The program honors students with exceptional leadership potential who are using ideas, influence, communication, service, and leadership to advance sustainable design and foster human and societal benefits. The program is made possible with support from Lead Sponsor: The Toro Company; Annual Sponsors: EDSA, HOK, OLIN, Sasaki Associates, and Thomas C. and Gerry D. Donnelly; and Promotion Partner: American Society of Landscape Architects.

We stand at the crossroads of one of the most important bastions of democracy–public education. There is a calculated and lucrative attack on our schools by corporations that wish to profit from their failure. There are many ways that they wish to achieve this: through media (actually owned by these very same entrepreneurs); lobbyists, politicians, pundits and biased bill writers.

The main engine for this takeover is standardized testing. Not just any standardized testing but contentious high risk ones like PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). To procure federal funding for education, many states were mandated to give these tests as part of Race to the Top, a nationwide initiative to improve the education of our children. Or more correctly, to improve their scores. The tests are connected to a nationwide curriculum called Common Core in an attempt to have a syllabus that standardizes all that our children learn and circumvents any local community or local school or teacher input.

These assessments, and others like them, are untested. As Jane Watson, a Washington state educator says in her article “Rotten to the Common Core”, it’s like flying in an airplane while it’s being built. People with no teaching experience developed both Common Core and the flotsam tests connected to them. After they were developed, a few teachers were involved as advisors.

To be able to take these tests, as many of you know or will soon know, computers are involved. Many districts are deficient in the number of computers necessary and staff that have to be trained to give the test. Those who do not have enough computers must make arrangements that involve losing valuable teaching time.

Speaking of accommodations, many schools have essentially jettisoned other curriculum areas like gym, art, and physical education, etc. to prepare the students. These “other areas” have been proven to not only add to the overall education of our children but also improve content area curriculum in math, language arts and science.

In addition, our most vulnerable school population, those children who live in impoverished areas, English Language Learners (ELL) and students with special needs will be negatively impacted, due to lack of school monetary funds to prep them to tackle the challenges of the tests that have already shown to be overly difficult for the whole school population.

This testing will also unfairly evaluate, compare and penalize students, teachers, supervisors and schools.

Teaching is more than a standardized test. It is an art. Teachers nurtures the growth of their students during the time they are with them. Part of that growth is assessment. Assessment comes in many forms and should be tailored to each child. It can take be a collection of their work in portfolios, performance assessments (skits, plays, interviews by the teacher), anecdotal notes and yes, a reasonable standardized test based on the community, content and school.

Teaching is a journey not a destination.

So, the testing engine is part of the machine that will roll over many students, demoralize teachers, and damage children’s egos. Many psychologists have documented the effects of this particular test stress on children. Michelle Rhee, one of the founders of Students First, a lobbying organization for so-called school reform, when commenting to The New York Times on kids who are stressed out and suffering replied, “So what? Life can be stressful: it can be challenging.” In other words, tough it out, my little friends.

But most insidious, is the “school reform” movement, including charter schools, which will swoop down on the schools, urban, rural and suburban, who do not reach the appropriate aggregate of scores and take them over. They can and are doing it by setting up charter schools with the state’s approval and financial backing (your taxes) or by co-habitating another school, often shifting children to other schools, surely not a climate conducive to learning.

The charter school movement is a complicated and contentious one. There are a few good charters, because in some cases they skim the better students from the public school or refuse to accept and sometimes reject ELL students or students with special needs. Mostly the research shows that a few charter are on par but many are below par. We don’t know, since there is no need for transparency like the traditional public schools.

I’m running out of words but not anger. Fight back. Read Diane Ravitch’s best selling book, Reign of Error and have a book club discussion. Go to her blog: http://dianeravitch.net. Get with other parents. Many have decided to opt out their children but there are other ways to protect your children and our schools. Go to United Opt Out, the movement to end corporate education reform. Ask your principal how much money is being spent to administer the tests in Verona. How much time is being used to prepare and take these tests and what programs have been either slimmed down, cut or eliminated?

And now comes the pitch. Three events that are happening, one in New Jersey, one in the metro area and one across the country:

• Attend the reading of the play A Noble Failure on May 5 (Teacher Appreciation Day) at Luna Theater in West Orange
• Go to a  rally in Manhattan’s City Hall Park on May 17
• Learn how to use Teacher Appreciation Week to ask parents to take a stand if they truly appreciate their teachers, children and school

Get angry. Fight back. You won’t be alone.

Verona resident Terry Moore is the New Jersey Information Coordinator for Save Our Schools March, one of several nationwide organizations trying to reclaim public education from any high-stakes standardized testing, especially the new ones attached to the Common Core Curriculum. Verona’s public schools will administer the NJ-ASK starting April 28.

On Tuesday, more than 80 students at Forest Avenue elementary school participated in an Earth Day book swap by bringing gently used books to school.

The event was called “Give a Book, Take a Book” and was designed to encourage reusing and sharing books with friends. Students wrote letters with book reviews to include with the books that they turned in.

Ann Marie Ruggiero’s kindergarten brought the most books to the book swap and won two books for their effort, “When Is It Great to Turn Green? – An Environment Q & A Book” and “Thump, Quack, Moo – A Wacky Adventure”.

The Verona Board of Education put the bonds needed to finance the March 11 referendum out to auction and the winning bid was much lower than expected.

BOE Business Administrator Cheryl Nardino said at last night’s BOE meeting that the lowest of the seven bidders was 3.0359%, which was well below the 3.65% rate that the BOE’s advisors had estimated the bond would fetch. That drops the annual cost of the debt service by about $10 per household. Verona’s public schools have a AA- bond rating, which is considered high grade.

The BOE said last night that French & Parrello, the firm hired to reshape the upper and lower fields at Verona High School as part of the referendum, had begun to do its surveys of the area. Superintendent Steve Forte said he did not know yet when the firm would submit its designs to the Board. The BOE postponed three resolutions that would have awarded contracts for other referendum work to the Mylan Architectural Group to clarify how subcontractors should be identified in those contracts.

In other action, the BOE approved a budget for the 2014-2015 school year that is a 2.5% increase over the current budget, down from 2.78% when the tentative budget was approved in March, in part because teachers are paying more of their healthcare costs. In the 2011-2012 budget teachers were switched out of a high-cost insurance plan and required to pay 1.5% of their salaries toward their benefits. Now teachers pay a percentage of the premium according to their salary: A single teacher earning $40,000 to $45,000 now pays 6% of the premium; with higher salaries, the payment could be up to 35% of premium. As a result, some teachers have opted out of the schools’ insurance plan, cutting its cost to taxpayers. BOE President John Quattrocchi noted that the Board is talking to teachers about other changes that could further blunt healthcare cost increases.

What is this?

Last night’s meeting lasted until almost 11 p.m., largely because of a lengthy public comments session spurred by opponents to the field renovation. The “Be A Good Neighbor” group once again mis-characterized several aspects of the project and launched a personal assault on BOE member Steve Spardel for what it asserted was a conflict of interest. Spardel and fellow members Jim Day, Joe Bellino and John Quattrocchi repeatedly refuted erroneous information and statements. You can watch the meeting in full below.

It’s the season of high-stakes standardized testing in New Jersey and there seems to be discontent in the air.

Montclair has sent out a memo to teachers supervising the test explaining what they need to do if a student shows up for school but declines to take the NJ-ASK or if the student’s parents tell the school that their child will not be tested.

Bloomfield’s Board of Education, meanwhile, is stating its flat-out opposition to the tests and telling parents what they need to do to oppose them. In a note posted on the Bloomfield BOE’s Web site, its president, Shane Berger, says in part:

We believe that every child should have an equal opportunity to prosper and be provided the skills to be a successful member of society. Every child deserves a full curriculum in a school with adequate resources. We are deeply concerned that the current overemphasis on standardized testing is harming children, public schools, and our nation’s economic and civic future. It is our conclusion that the over-emphasis on high-stakes standardized tests is threatening public education, as we know it.

It has become a significant burden on our school system to provide the required mandated programs that are not funded by either the state or the federal government. The cost of funding these programs has negatively impacted on our ability to provide a thorough and efficient educational experience for all our children.

The note asks parents concerned about the tests to send it letters which it will send to the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, which is being urged to hold hearings on high-stakes standardized testing.

What is this?

And not all is rosy in the world of New Jersey’s next generation of testing, the PARCC. NJSpotlight.com, which covers education and politics in New Jersey, had a story yesterday on the trial runs of the test that are being held around the state, particularly the unintended consequences. Here’s what one teacher told the Web site:

Teachers and nontesting students have no access to computers and media resources during the testing days. This is getting to be a real problem, since the amount of testing days can approach 30 and administration has not indicated that there is going to be an improvement in access next year.

Where’s Verona in all this? Superintendent Steve Forte told us that Essex County’s Superintendent of Schools has told districts that how they handle so-called “opt outs” is up to them. Earlier this week, Verona resident Terry Moore wrote an op-ed piece about the impact of high-stakes standardized testing and what parents can do about them. That op-ed is here.

Mount Saint Dominic Academy has announced that the following Verona residents have attained first honors for the third marking period: Fiona Ambrosio’14, Elizabeth Cowell’16, Quinn Dunnigan’17, Kaitlyn Finn’16, Jillian Harris’14, Erin Hogan’16, Jillian Kearns’14, Kelly Malanga’14, Hallie Mae Miller’15, Molly Oser’15, Elizabeth Oser’15, Jasmine Spinelli’15, Kaitlyn Staranka’14, and Julia Stusnick’17. Katie Leonard’15, Ciara Negron’17, Jaclyn Staranka’14, Katherine Szeluga’17, and Kahaia Voelkl ’16 attained second honors.

First honors qualifications are comprised of the following: a total weighted average 92 or higher for major courses, all grades for major courses in the marking period must be 85 or higher, including all exam marks in the second and fourth marking periods and a passing grade is necessary in all other courses. Second honor qualifications are: a total weighted average for major courses 87 or higher, all grades for major courses in the marking period must be 80 or higher, including all exam marks in the second and fourth marking periods and a passing grade is necessary in all other courses.

Mount Saint Dominic Academy, established by the Sisters of St. Dominic in Caldwell, New Jersey, is a Catholic college preparatory school, dedicated to the education of young women from a variety of ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds. Since 1892, The Mount has been empowering young women in the Dominican tradition. For more information about Mount Saint Dominic Academy, visit www.msdacademy.org.

What is this?

Ms. Yvette McNeal, principal of H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, is proud to announce the names of those students who have earned academic recognition during the third marking period of this school year 2013-2014. These students have qualified for the honors award by attaining all A’s and B’s during the first marking period for the 2013-2014 school year:

Diana Aleynikov, Britney Allteni, Iviana Anderson, Dylan Bakst, Jaelyn Barkley, Matthew Barnett, Ben Batson, Antonio Belotta, Killian Blitz, Gabriel Breitenbach, Matthew Brown,

Julia Caprari, Christian Castner, Byron Chu, Elyse Chu, Mia Cole, Sarah Cole, Pierce Coppola, Allison Cordero, Brian Curry,

Hannah Davey, Robert DeGennaro, Jessica DeVito, Aidan Dyer, Angel Fauerbach, Isabella Freda, Olivia Garcia, Olivia Gasin, Sarah Greene, Maryclare Hahula, Ryan Hajtovik, Katherine Hipp, Audrey Hoffman,

Claire Jackson, Kara Johansen, Sophia Josephson, Geena Klinger, Woody Klose, Colvin Kramer, Michael Lipesky, Katherine Lonergan, John Lonsinger, Gabriel Lugo,

Hannah Maida, Maida, Sean Giancarlo Maladorno, Cole Martin, Abigail McAneney, Grace McKeown, Andrew Meyer, Jeffrey Monacelli, Thomas Monroe, Megan Moran, Dylan Munjack,

What is this?

Benjamin Niesmertelny, Madison Nigro, Miles Nippes, Kelly Nulty, William O’Donnell, Kayla Oh, Dean Palmer, Thomas Radigan, Jack Raff, Emma Rice, Alexander Rodner, Kathryn Romanyshyn, Natalie Romanyshyn,

Mariam Sabet, Joshua Salerno, Eugene Sarbaev, Renee Schuldiner, Buster Shick, Matthew Siegel, Evan Silvia, Trevor Spinelli, Jordan Stafford,

Nicole Thompson, William Toomsoo, Lia Tortoriello, Joshua Vargas, Olivia Vasalani, Maria Vega, Joseph Visone, Graham Weber, Drew Weisser, Catherine Welsh, Daniel Zamloot, Alison Zanders

The names of some students who qualified for the honor roll do not appear on this list because their parents have elected not to release personal information to the media.

Art from recycled materials!

The students rotated between several different environmental activity stations, organized by Laning’s Environmental Committee volunteers. Students watched a demonstration on water pollution and a slideshow on how to beautify the Earth. They walked away with tips on how to reduce their waste, plant more green, and ultimately leave zero footprint. Students also had a chance to plant an herb to grow in their Laning classroom.

Lastly, students were engaged in a school-wide art project. Using recycled plastic tops from containers they collected in weeks prior to the event, students worked together to adhere the tops to plywood sculptures. The result: Colorful, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artwork! This new up-cycled art will be on permanent display at Laning Avenue School. This fun and educational Earth Day celebration could not have been successful without the support of Laning’s principal, Julie DiGiacomo, and a generous donation from West Essex Building Supply.

What is this?

The Laning community hopes that everyone can remember that Everyday is Earth Day!

Ms. Yvette McNeal, principal of H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, is proud to announce the names of those students who have earned academic recognition during the third marking period of this school year 2013-2014. These students have qualified for the high honors award by receiving an “A” in every school subject.

Ronald Arias, Anna Barile, Ethan Beninghof, Grace Boutcher, Kristen Brown, Zachary Bucher, Nia Chesney, Aaron Clarion, Cailan Compierchio,

Matthew Day, Jacqueline DeVivo, Dylan Ferrara, RioMarie Gagnon, Lia Gardner, Katherine Hensal, Paige Hensal, Peter Hoogterp, Andrew Hunt, Isabella Hussar,

Jack Lambert, Luke Lambert, Robert Leland, Jessica Loudon, Kyle McCaffrey, Melanie Naeris, Bridget O’Donnell,

Nikhil Parekh, Emma Ramsthaler, Grace Russo,

What is this?

Taylor Spinelli, Karina Squilanti, Savannah Szamborski, Veronica Valera, Sophia Villani, Mary Wallace, Talia Williams, Griffin Willner, Emily Wynne, Quinn Zebrowski

The names of some students who qualified for the High Honor Roll do not appear on this list because their parents have elected not to release personal information to the media.

Ms. Yvette McNeal, principal of H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, is proud to announce the names of those students who have earned academic recognition during the third marking period of this school year 2013-2014. These students have qualified for the honors award by attaining all A’s and B’s during the first marking period for the 2013-2014 school year.

Ashley Baumgard, Madeline Bello, Xavier Beltran, Erika Boone, Stephanie Boyle, Nikolai Bujnowski, Mikayla Bush, Arianna Canal, Andrew Castillo,

Alexander Cheung, Joseph Ciccolini, Simone Conforti, Nicholas Coppola, Renata Curcio,

Jenna Da Rin, Alyssa Deo, Christian Dionisio, Kiernan Dunphy, Kiera Egan, Meaghan Elliott, Andrew Emanuilidis, Carolyn Feeley, Wyatt Fortgang, Clara Frizzi, Luke Gaccione, Will Gaccione, Kylee Gallagher, Caroline Gault, Maggie Gorman, Julia Grise, Chelsea Gruskin,

Emily Hack, Olivia Hasel, Patrick Hogan, Vincent Hogan, Ryan Huze, Nicole Imbriano, Griffin Jordan, Anna Konrad-Parisi, Nicolas Kozachuk, Sloan Lawless, Margaret Lonsinger, Tess Lucanie, Steven Luehs, Tristan Lugo,

Steven Macawili, Nina Machnowski, Harry Mastrogiannis, Caitlin McKeown, Morgan Michelson, Jasmine Mickens, Gabriella Montagna, Thomas Mulligan, Aidan Murphy, Kathleen Nagy, Nicholas Napoli, David Navarro,

What is this?

Leah Pandian, Liam Patel, Zachary Peronilla, Nickolos Pilauri, Alyssa Raimondi, Caitlin Remler, Adam Renna, Jacqueline Serino, Rachel Seubert, Sara Sexton, Jhil Sharma, Abigail Shorter, Eric Song, Robert Sposato, Catherine Swanstrom,

Arianna Tietjen, Andrew Tracy, Ethan Triggiano, Olivia Vogel, Jordan Warner, Kelly Waterman, Emily Weisser, Henry Wertz, Patrick Yeates, Alexander Zebrowski

The names of some students who qualified for the honor roll do not appear on this list because their parents have elected not to release personal information to the media.

Lucas Konrad-Parisi, an eighth grade student at H.B. Whitehorne middle school, won the New Jersey History Day competition at William Paterson University this past weekend. He was recognized for his research paper, “J. Robert Oppenheimer: Individual Rights v. National Security” and will travel to the University of Maryland in June for the National History Day Finals.

Seventeen HBW students participated in the May 3 event at William Paterson. Alexandra Deutsch, Christine Feeley, Isabella Josephson, Caitlin Klose, and Kitty Pagano were chosen as alternates for their website, “Opposing McCarthy: Protecting Citizens Rights”.

Lucas Konrad-Parisi and Mrs. Barbara Kistner, H.B.W. Social Studies teacher and National History Day advisor.

Ms. Yvette McNeal, principal of H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, is proud to announce the names of those students who have earned academic recognition during the third marking period of this school year 2013-2014. These students have qualified for the high honors award by receiving an “A” in every school subject.

Abigail Bermeo, Brianna Camp, Colleen Dennis, Monica Egnezzo, Eva Fiore, Ethan Forrest, Amanda Galarowicz, Maximilian Handler, Maxine Haralambiev, Julia Holland,

Antoinietta Johnson, Rebecca Katsios, Christopher Lakin, Chloe Mathewson, Alessandra Newman, Gillian O’Donnell, Emily Osborne,

Erin Petrino, Rebecca Siclari, Jessica Sidrak, Michael Sluck, Rebecca Wenzel-Rideout, Jenika Ying

What is this?

The names of some students who qualified for the High Honor Roll do not appear on this list because their parents have elected not to release personal information to the media.

Ms. Yvette McNeal, principal of H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, is proud to announce the names of those students who have earned academic recognition during the third marking period of this school year 2013-2014. These students have qualified for the honors award by attaining all A’s and B’s during the first marking period for the 2013-2014 school year.

Emily Marie Andersen, Kathleen Ashley, Angelo Benfante, Brandon Cariani, Chloe Conway, Brooke Cooney, Hunter Coppola, Lily Dastis, Jessica Derderian, Julia DiGeronimo, Dean DiPaolo, Ariana Dyer, 

Irene Eremita, Maya Fortgang, Sophia Francullo, Eric Frey, Maria Gabriele, Michael Garcia, Nicholas Giuliano, Emile Goulard, Brian Hipp, Reilly Hughes, Kyle Jacobsen,

Ashley Kenneally, Erin Kiernan, Justin Kobernick, Julia Kosko, Chloe Lamb, Dallas Lamb, Molly Ligon, Michael Maglione, Melanie Matarazzo, Victoria McHugh, Patrick McMurtrie, Matthew Monroe, Jake Morisseau,

Allison Naeris, Abigail Nochimson, Cecilia Pandiscia, Robert Parent, Gabriel Quagliata, Caitlin Richinelli, Lourdes Ricks, Nicholas Riggio, Brianna Rigney, Christopher Robinson, Kathleen Ryan,

What is this?

Nardin Salib, Eliana Salierno, Connor Seawright, James Short, Elise Sidali, Jessica Spinelli, Joseph Trapani, Hector Vega, Nicole Volpe, Colleen Whelan, Emma Yee, Anthony Zamloot, Jack Zickerman

The names of some students who qualified for the honor roll do not appear on this list because their parents have elected not to release personal information to the media.

Kelsey Mitchell, Andrew Capuano and Jessica Parsons will all be attending art schools in the fall.

The event is sponsored by the VHS chapter of the National Art Honor Society and honor society officers Jessica Parsons, Kelsey Mitchell, Paige Gibson, Sam Garrison and Emily Gagliostro will co-chair the evening’s activities. All VHS art and graphics students will participate by exhibiting their artwork, helping with workshops, and by setting up the displays and decorations for the evening. Terry Sherman, the art teacher, is the faculty adviser for the event.

All of the displays will be set up in the new gym. The evening will feature creative projects made in numerous departments at VHS: art and graphics; woodworking and CAD; English literature; world languages; history, business and marketing; mathematics, science and technology.

The art exhibition features observational drawings and still-life watercolor paintings inspired by artist Marilyn Rose’s watercolor demonstration in the art room this past year. Ceramics and glass mosaics are also on display. The colored glass used in the mosaics was donated by S.A. Bendheim, a wholesale glass distributor in Passaic, New Jersey. Anthony Nicosia, a father of two VHS graduates, arranged this generous donation. Clinton Glass in Verona donated the mirror used by students in their mosaics.

Art students will be demonstrating face and hand decoration in the new gym. Art student Andrew Capuano will be doing caricatures. Hand-made ceramic coasters and potted plants will be sold as a fundraiser for the Verona Chapter of the National Art Honor Society.

What is this?

The evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the front lobby with instrumental and vocal performances by VHS band and choral students, under the direction of Amanda Hamilton, Judy Szybist, Max Morden and Erik Lynch. VHS student Ella Yarmo-Gray will be playing the piano in the new gym throughout the evening. At 8:30 p.m. in the auditorium, the VHS Spotlight Players, under the guidance of Fran Young, will perform student directed one-act plays.

The invitation and poster for the Creative Arts Festival was designed by art student Kelsey Mitchell under the guidance of graphics arts teacher Helene McLaughlin. The VHS SCA helped to make this evening possible through its generous donation to the Creative Arts Festival Committee.