Mine Hill BOE Winter Report
February 2017
Board Members:
Bridget Mauro (President), Jill Del Rio (Vice-President), Katie Bartnick, Karen Bruseo, Peter Bruseo, Debbie Giordano, Dina Mikulka, and Carolina Rodriguez, Board Secretary
$2000 Sustainable New Jersey Grant Awarded to Mine Hill
Mine Hill Speaking at Techspo 2017
New Board Members Sworn In
From the Superintendent
Hello Mine Hill Learning Community!
I cannot believe that we already celebrated the 100th day of school on February 8! What an incredible year of progress and innovation. Our school has been featured in the press, at state conferences, and soon to be on TV! The Canfield Avenue School (CAS) has been recognized for its positive school climate and culture, sustainability efforts, innovative academic initiatives, and providing a unique elementary experience for both our Mine Hill and Choice students.
In January, Mr. Zygmunt and I were invited to speak about CAS's Innovation Time, Mindset, and the Learner-Active Technology-Infused Classroom at the 2017 Techspo conference in Atlantic City. In February, we visited Trenton to accept a $2000 grant from Sustainable NJ on behalf of our Green Team, and the television show Classroom Closeup will feature CAS in May 2017. As a result, Mine Hill is quickly becoming a model for innovation, school climate, and transformational leadership. Several districts have expressed interest in sending administrators and teachers to observe our awesome school, and we're very excited to host them all!
7th and 8th grade has been a hot topic at the board meetings lately. The Mine Hill Board of Education had a public presentation of a feasibility study, which is a requirement of the NJ DOE before petitioning to modify a send-receive agreement. That study has been prominently posted on our website, and a survey was taken shortly after to gather public feedback. The results of the survey are posted (below) in the newsletter and will be presented at the February 27th meeting.
Another topic of discussion has been before and after school child care. There will be three outstanding companies presenting their services to the BOE at the March 6 public meeting. All are invited to attend.
Below you will find pictures and brief highlights of events and programs that have occurred since our last Newsletter. Also, please see the flyers towards the end, regarding upcoming events.
I want to personally thank all of our teachers, administrators, support staff, custodians, food service workers, parents, PTA, volunteers, and our BOE members for making Mine Hill such an incredible place to educate children! As always, should you ever have any concerns, comments, ideas, or accolades to share, don't hesitate to reach out!
Warmest Regards,
Mr. Nittel
Superintendent
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John Dewey
CAS Green Team
Kindergarten is READING
The kindergarteners are actively engaged in Reader's Workshop and are becoming fluent readers and enthusiastic storytellers. These pictures show the children independently practicing reading and retelling a variety of books. Upon independent reading, the students meet up with their partner to share a favorite story element or demonstrate their reading skills or story telling ability.
Gingerbread Wonderland
Working with Clay!
Second Graders Create STEAM Animal Information Books
During library class, our second-grade students authored and illustrated pop-up animal information books and presented them to kindergarten classes, who are learning about animals through information books. Locating information in Rick Jr. magazines, the students utilized research skills like finding the main idea and paraphrasing to compose the text of their pages. They explored paper engineering techniques to create pop-up noses, beaks, and snouts for their animals and used the pop-ups as the basis for their animal illustrations. During the presentation, students shared and discussed together how they used our school-wide five character stances (optimism, flexibility, persistence, resilience, empathy) to successfully complete this project.
CAS Featured on Classroom Close-up NJ
CAS will be featured on the TV show Classroom Close-up NJ. The
CAS's show will air sometime in May 2017 and again in June.
Penny Wars
Lenape Presentation
Chef Day
Random Acts of Kindness
Feedback on New Jersey’s ESSA State Plan
The NJ DOE is looking for feedback on the proposed plan for Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Click below for more information, and how you can help!
http://minehillsuper.blogspot.com/2017/02/feedback-on-new-jerseys-essa-state-plan.html
Mine Hill Township Board of Education
Email: lnittel@minehillcas.org
Website: http://www.minehillcas.org/
Location: 42 Canfield Avenue, Mine Hill Township, NJ, United States
Phone: (973) 366-0590
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MineHillCAS
Twitter: @MineHillCAS