Westfield Board of Education Announcements

The following announcements were read at the Board of Education meeting held on Tuesday, April 23:

NEW JERSEY STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION RECOGNITIONS
The State Board of Education will be recognizing the Westfield High School Community Service Club in Trenton on May 15 at the Annual Student Recognition Ceremony.  According to the invitation received by Westfield High School, “the State Board recognizes students who have made a significant contribution to school, community, family or other groups.” Advisor Warren Hynes and Principal Peter Renwick will be among those accompanying the students. In addition, Master Technology Teacher, Jeanine Gottko, will be honored at the event for her selection by the National School Board Association as one of “20 Educators to Watch” and an emerging education technology leader for 2012-2013. We are extremely proud of these honorees and their well-deserved recognitions.

FINE ARTS

Congratulations to Fraser Weist, a Junior at Westfield High School and member of the Concert Choir, who is the grand prize winner of the Harmonium Society Choral Composition contest. His piece will be performed by the Harmonium Society Chorus in early June. As part of the award, Fraser will receive $1000 and additionally $100 will be given to his sponsor, music teacher John Brzozowski, who will donate his share to the Westfield High School Music program 

Congratulations to the cast of Roosevelt Intermediate School’s fall production of Get Smart.  It has been nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Middle School Production by Montclair State University.  Also on the list of nominations is Westfield High School’s A Little Hotel on the Side for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Michaela Tropeano, and  Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. 

LANGUAGE ARTS

Congratulations to the following Westfield Public School students who are winners in the Woman’s Club of Westfield 2013 Youth Poetry and Short Story Contest:  For Poetry: Emily Mautone  - 4th grader at McKinley elementary school; and Cassandra Teschner – 9th grader at Westfield High School. For  Short Story: Isabella Gelfand – 9th grader at Westfield High School; Dori Kaplan – 6th grader at Edison Intermediate School, and Katherine Wistner – 4th grader at McKinley.

ELEMENTARY 

Two Westfield Elementary School Teams are advancing to the World Finals of the Odyssey of the Mind competitions at Michigan State University.  The teams took first place honors to earn entry to the creative problem solving competition's World Finals. Ranging from third grade to fifth grade, all of the elementary school students are part of the Westfield Public Schools Gifted & Talented program based at Edison Intermediate School. Each Odyssey team takes on a "Long Term" problem in one of five categories – mechanical/vehicle, technical performance, classics, structure or performance – and presents their solution before a panel of judges. In the "Spontaneous" portion of the competition, teams need to use their quick thinking skills to provide on-the-spot solutions to brain teasers that test verbal skills, mechanical skills or both. Students work under the guidance of parent coaches for months to prepare the Long Term presentations, devising working models, building sets and creating costumes within a small budget, as well as writing scripts and rehearsing presentations. The students include: 5th graders -- Aidan Kilbourn; Noah Dengler; Kurt Hu; Nathan Lam; Aidan Orr; Omay Edekar; and Julia Tompkins; and 4th graders Madeleine Learner; Natalie Lee;  Mira Mehta; and Eric Palia;  and 3rd graders Vivian Jeckell and Catherine Orr. 

Congratulations to Tamaques Elementary School which was notified that it will be this year’s recipient in the K-8 Category of the Garden State Green Awards.  The Presentation will take place at the Garden State GreenFest on Saturday, May 18, on the Main Stage of the Harwood Arena on the campus of Kean University.  In the letter of congratulations to Principal Michael Cullen, the GreenFest Director noted that the actions of Tamaques School will surely be an inspiration to all the attendees. Conservationist, reporter and Animal Planet star Jeff Corwin will be participating in the ceremony. 

WESTFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

Marie-Laure Hoffmann, French teacher at Westfield High School, was awarded the 2013 Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey recognition award "for outstanding contributions to world language education." The award took place at the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey's convention luncheon on Saturday, March 16.  This is a wonderful honor for Marie-Laure Hoffman who is well regarded by her students and as demonstrated by this award, has been recognized by colleagues in the field -- all languages combined.  We all are truly fortunate to have Madame Hoffman with us in the Westfield Public Schools and congratulate her on this well- deserved award.

ATHLETICS

The National Federation Coaches Association recently recognized New Jersey’s outstanding coaches with Coach of the Year honors at the 2013 Hall of Fame Awards Program, which was held on April 14.  The 2013 NFCA Coach of the Year at the Section One Level includes Jeffrey Knight, coach of our girls’ and boys’ state champion swim teams.  Congratulations to Jeff on yet another significant honor.

Congratulations to Bev Torok, Westfield High School girls’ volleyball Coach and 9thgrade Coach of the WHS softball program, who will be inducted in May into her High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame in Clarence, New York.  She played field hockey, volleyball, basketball and softball in high school and was a softball catcher for Division I at Rutgers University. She has amassed over 300 wins in one sport – volleyball --at Westfield High School. 

SPECIAL EDUCATION

On WHS-TV36, three presentations at the Awareness Expo hosted by the Special Education Parents Committee are now being televised. The first part includes introductions to the Expo and the “Make a Difference Award" to Andrea Lo, Special Services Supervisor, Pre-K – 12 in the Westfield Public Schools. The second presentation is called "Diagnosing and Treating Developmental Problems" by Andrea Richards, MD. The third is "Helping Children Cope with Anxiety in an Uncertain World" by Andrew R. Eisen, Ph. D. They are airing on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays beginning at 11:00 AM and 9:00 PM.

NEXT BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING – will be held Tuesday, May 7. At that time we will honor the Philhower Elementary teacher of the year.  As is tradition, we will hold our meeting at the school of that teacher.  When the winner of the award is announced, we will post the meeting place and time on our website.