GOODNEWSThe Ewing Public SchoolsJune 2005

Due to budget restraintsNO Summer School Programs

will be offered by the Ewing Public Schools

during the Summer of 2005.

Safety TownJune 30 - July 11

Contact: Jean Conrad609-538-9800 x1302

for application

On April 18, 2005 Ms. Chiavuzzo, Mrs. Walker and 30 Ewing High School freshmen joined several Mercer County high school and college students, and politicians to hear a presentation given by Mikhail Gorbachev at the Sovereign Bank Arena. Gorbachev was the last communist leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. During his term he instituted various policies including his political policy of Glasnost and economic policy

Ewing High Students Attend Gorbachev PresentationWhitney Lewis, EHS Freshman

Have a Happy Summer!!GoodNews will resume

with the September issue of the Observer

The recipients of the 2005 Teacher of the Year Awards were honored at a luncheon on April 29th. Jan Fay, 2004 Mercer County Teacher of the Year, was a guest speaker. 1st row (L to R): Joan Zuckerman, Principal Antheil; Sharon Solomon, Lore; Jan Fay, 2004 Mercer County Teacher of the Year; Inetta Emery, Principal Parkway; Danielle Miller, EHS; Superintendent Ray Broach. 2nd row: Darrell Jackson, Principal FMS; Donna Andreas, Antheil; Don Barnett, FMS; Betsy Turgeon, Parkway; Rodney Logan, Principal EHS.

Nearly sixty years since Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps, the now elderly survivors of the Holocaust are turning to a new generation to preserve their testimony about their wartime experiences for future generations. Holocaust survivors are steadily dwindling in number. Many have made it their mission to educate the world that anti-Semitism and racism easily lead to murder, and to speak about the horrors they and their families suffered. With the passing of time, it has become urgent to find a new generation to continue the survivors’ mission and tell their stories after the survivors can no longer do so. On April 12, the Adopt-a-Survivor (AAS) program was introduced to the Trenton area at Ewing High School. Six Holocaust survivors were adopted by twelve Ewing High sophomores. The adopted survivors—Moshe Gimlan, Vera Goodkin, Marion Lewin, Ruth Lubitz, Charles Rojer and Jack Zaifman—were originally from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Belgium. The AAS program pairs a survivor with one or more students. The students embark on a joint journey with the survivor through discussions about life before, during and after the Holocaust. Participating students will be able to represent the survivor and tell the survivor’s story with accuracy and feeling in the years to come. In addition, each student makes a commitment to tell the survivor’s story in a public venue in the year 2045, a hundred years after the liberation of Auschwitz. The twelve student adopters are Dave Angebranndt, Tyler Barnes, Annie Cook, Liz Dunham, Emily Everett, Curtis Fornarotto, Vildana Hajric, Devon Jones, Jen Meade, Billy O’Callaghan, Nikyta Sharma and Melysa Wilson.

Adopt-a-Survivor Program Begins at Ewing High School

Teacher of the Year Recipients are Honored

of Perestroika. His policies reopened churches, released political prisoners, and lifted bans on previously censored books. The 20th anniversary of Perestroika was one of the essential themes of Gorbachev’s presentation. The policy’s main goal was to make the Soviet economic system more efficient. Perestroika involved the transfer of control from the government to the business owners. This policy

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The Ewing Public SchoolsApril 2012

April is Autism Awareness Month and the Ewing Township community will again recognize and sup-port this great cause by hosting the annual Walk for Difference. Tucked in among all the signs of spring, including the sound of baseball bats, birds chirping and flowers blooming, is one of the nicest days of the year when the Ewing community comes together for a wonderful cause.

Parents Educating Parents (PEP) and the Ewing Board of Education, in conjunction with Kiwanis Club of Ewing, the Ewing Public Education Founda-tion and the Ewing Township Education Association will hold the Fourth Walk for a Difference on Satur-day, April 28th at Ewing High School. The groups are again combining to support POAC Autism Services.

Fun for the whole family, this event will include a community-wide Walk-a-Thon, carnival rides and slides, DJ, costumed characters and food! Student athlete volunteers from The College of New Jersey

and Ewing High School will also be on hand to assist with the Walk. District Supervisor David Hauserman states, “This is the fourth year that we have partnered with these great community groups to run the Walk for a Difference. Kiwanis, the EPEF and the ETEA

Ewing Community Supports Autism Walk for a Difference

have been phenomenal in their support of families of children with special needs. POAC is a tremendous group to support as it reaches out to help families and educators at absolutely no cost to the participants.”

POAC is an organization that provides free training to parents, teachers and related personnel who pro-vide direct services to children with autism. POAC also provides free recreational activities and events for children with autism and their families. The carni-val opens at 11:00am, with the Walk-a-Thon kicking off at noon. There are many walk teams registered and registration remains open for anyone wishing to start a team, join a team or make a donation. Donors can qualify for various prizes based on giving.

Mike Tucker, President of the Ewing Township Education Association stated, “This event keeps get-ting bigger and better every year! The extraordinary part of being involved has been how the entire com-munity has grown closer through this effort. We’re proud to be a part of it!”

To register to create a team, join a team or make a donation, please visit www.mercerwalk.org.

To learn more about POAC, please visit www.poac.net.

Safety Town is a program designed for children who are entering Kindergarten in September 2012 and is open to all children in Ewing Township. It is co-sponsored by The Ewing Board of Education and The Kiwanis Club of Ewing Township. Safety Town will be held in the gymnasium at Antheil Elementary School. We urge you to enroll your child as soon as possible as registration is limited. You are responsible for your child’s transportation. We request that parent(s) do not attend the daily sessions, but invite them to attend the Safety Town Graduation on Friday, July 6, 2012.

Safety Town begins on Monday, June 25th and ends on Friday, July 6, 2012. There is no session on Wednesday, July 4. There is a non-refundable fee of $75.00 per student for the nine day program. The children receive T-shirts, coloring books, certifi-cates, and go on field trips. We teach pedestrian and street safety, as well as what to do in case of a fire, in meeting strangers, how to play safely, emergency vehicles, dangers of household objects, medicine bottles, and much more.

Checks payable should be to Ewing Kiwanis Club. Send the registration form and your check to Brian S. Falkowski, School Business Adminis-trator, 2099 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08618 (Phone 609-538-9800 X1302). The closing date for Safety Town registration is Friday, June 15, 2012.

Remember to Register for Safety Town of Ewing

The Ewing Public Schools

Mrs. Fay and Mrs. Deal’s second grade class at Antheil has been busy raising money to save the diamondback terrapin turtles which make their home in the salt marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Ms. Kushla, retired teacher from Antheil, volun-teers at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ. She shared the plight of the terrapins with the 2nd graders. These turtles are extremely important in keeping the ecological balance in the marshes. In the early 1800s and 1900s, these turtles were hunted for their meat. The biggest threat still comes from man. Building at the shore is taking away nesting areas and the increasing traffic is especially danger-ous when the female terrapins attempt to cross a road to find a nesting area. At the Institute, volun-teer patrols help turtles cross the road. If a female is injured, she is taken to the Institute for medical attention. Sometimes only the eggs survive, and the Institute will hatch and release the turtles.

Our class rose to the challenge. The students collected $130.32. We have adopted three turtles that will be released this spring into the wild. Their names are Skippy, Tom and Jazz. We are also adopting 12 turtle eggs. Ms. Kushla communicates with us by email, keeping us up to date on our

Save the Turtles!turtles and answering all of our questions. Here are some fascinating turtle facts that we learned:

- There are over 250 kinds of turtles.- The terrapin is neither a sea turtle nor a land

turtle. It is the only species of turtle to live in or near brackish (salt and fresh) water.

- A tortoise is a land turtle.- Females are much larger than the males because

they carry the eggs.- A female will lay 3-18 eggs in a clutch and up

to 3 clutches a year.- The male’s tail is longer and wider.- A hatchling’s shell is soft until it is 3 inches

long, which takes several months.

Ewing High School Science teacher, Christopher Heywood, has been awarded a $2,527 PSE&G Envi-ronmental Grant involving a research project where a group of high school students, working along with AmeriCorps volunteers, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the New Jersey Department of Envi-ronmental Protection Watershed Management Divi-sion, the Mercer County Soil Conservation District and the Ewing Township Advisory Council, will study the effects of storm water runoff on the water quality of Assunpink Creek in Ewing Township. Experts will join students in the classroom, teaching them about proper scientific testing techniques, data collection and scientific analysis protocols. Students will turn this learning into meaningful application.

Throughout next year, students will collect me-teorological data, such as ambient air temperature, dew point, humidity, wind speed and direction,

Ewing High Science Program Receives Environmental Grantcloud cover and precipitation. They will also col-lect water quality data from the Assunpink Creek, including levels of dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, copper and ammonia, as well as moni-tor pH, salinity, temperature, turbidity and bacterial concentrations. Students will then put together a picture of the effect storm water runoff has on the water quality of our local creeks. Using the data collected, students will see how well the current management practices are working. From this, they will determine if changes are needed and will be able to propose possibilities based on the data. Students will transition from scientific researchers to scientifically literate citizens.

Two years from now, students will have the opportunity to present their findings to Ewing Township’s Environmental Advisory Council and the public in general through events such as Com-munity Fest. But the plan doesn’t stop there! These high school students will be reaching into class-rooms throughout the district, making our younger students aware of the study.

The hope is to excite the younger students into taking up the mantle and continuing the study through future years. The dream is to have future high school students become active, scientifically literate citizens involved in shaping the future of the Ewing Township they will inherit.

The FMS Peacemakers Club was created 15 years ago with the goals of building a peaceful atmosphere in Fisher Middle School by holding school-wide unity activities and guiding students to be peacemaker role models. The students participate in peacemaking activities, design posters and signs that are displayed throughout FMS to create awareness, and organize non-profit fundraisers that benefit our local commu-nity and the world.

One of the wonderful unifying projects the Peace-makers created many years ago was the red Fisher Peace shirt. With the Fisher Parents Association’s financial support, for the first time in many years, the Peacemakers Club was able to provide every student and staff member with a red Fisher Peacemakers shirt free of charge. Students and faculty members are now able to demonstrate unity and pride through-out our school and the Ewing community by wear-ing these shirts on school team days and field trips, at recognition assemblies and school functions, and community events such as Community Fest. On January 20th, Fisher held their first Peace Shirt spirit day, and it was impressive to see everyone in the building proudly wearing their red shirts.

FPA and the Peacemakers Club

Teacher as Hero Award

The National Liberty Museum has announced that Danielle Hickey, O’Brien Academy teacher, has been selected as a recipient of The National Liberty Museum 2011 Teacher as Hero Award generously sponsored by State Farm®.

The Teacher as Hero Award honors the outstand-ing work of dedicated educators who give their best every day to inspire, nurture and mentor the students who are the future of our country. Congratulations, Ms. Hickey!

“Providing A Foundation For Life”

English as a Second Language students at Park-way Elementary School are now looking forward to doing their homework, thanks to volunteers from Ewing High School and The College of New Jersey.

Ewing High School’s Rotary Interact Club mem-bers are giving back to the community by helping younger students with their homework after school. For some of them, the motivation is to explore education as their field of choice in college and, for others, the motivation is simply knowing they are making a difference in a younger student’s life.

Recently, Parkway School partnered with Dr. Jean Wong, Associate Professor in the Dept. of Special Education, Language and Literacy at The College of New Jersey, who assigns tutoring as part of her class curriculum. The Adopt-a-Student Program came to Parkway in September 2011. Tutoring ESL students provides aspiring TCNJ teachers with hands-on experience. Additionally, Urban Education students and members of the TCNJ DREAMS Club also participate in the tutor-ing Adopt-a-Student Program.

Local Students Help Parkway ESL Students

Mr. Lynn’s fourth grade class at Antheil Elemen-tary School set their textbooks aside for a few days to learn about another culture by “word of mouth”, so to speak. Mr. Lynn’s sister, Jennifer Slotnick, currently works in Rwanda, a small country in central Africa.

Ms. Slotnick is a health care professional who coordinates projects which teach people how to live healthier lives. She is emailing the class in response to questions the students have asked as part of their Ethnic Pride Unit in Social Studies.

The children have learned many things about Rwanda and about Ms. Slotnick. “I like my job because I get to help people,” she explained to the students in an email. The children have learned in-teresting facts about the diverse animals and plants of the country, the Rwandan education system and traditional dress, as well as the hardships that affect the Rwandan people. “Things are slowly getting better here though,” Ms. Slotnick told the class.

“It’s interesting to learn about another country that you’ve never been to,” says Stanley Riley, a student in Mr. Lynn’s class. “The most interesting thing I’ve learned is how it’s a small country, like Maryland, but millions more people live there.”

Antheil Students Learn About Rwanda

The research study conducted at Lore Elementary School by The Ewing Public Schools and The Col-lege of New Jersey has been published in Pediatric Exercise Science, an international professional research journal. The research was a joint project conducted by Lore HPE teacher Tracy Radler, TCNJ Professors Avery Faigenbaum, Anne Farrell, Nicholas Ratmess, Jie Kang, and TCNJ graduate student Marc Fabiano.

Two second grade classes at Lore served as the participants in the study, performing workouts twice a week for eight weeks. Links to the pub-lished research and other information on the Bal-loon Fitness Research can be found on the district’s home page and Athletics page.

Balloon Fitness Research Published in Pediatric

Exercise Science

Front Row – Shane Smith, Matthew Bearden, Amaria McMiller, Evan Johnson, Cooper Csillan. Back Row – Shelby Elonis, Stephanie Garrison, Nakia Hylton, Ashley Haynes, Marissa Santiago

Lore School hosted the annual 2012 Lore School Foul Shooting Spectacular! Thirty-eight contes-tants from Grades 3, 4 and 5 competed in a contest where they shot baskets from grade appropriate foul lines. Nineteen of the shooters earned their spot in the contest by using their skills making the most foul shots in their class. The other half of the athletes earned their spots by their outstanding ef-forts and participation in physical education class, earning opportunities to be a Wildcard shooter! Facilitated by PE teachers Ms. Radler and Mrs. Ro-manchuk, the contest was fun for all who attended and excitement was in the air throughout the build-ing. The contestants entered a spot lit gymnasium through a tunnel, bursting through paper to music and a roaring crowd of grade level mates and fami-lies! Mrs. Womelsdorf and Mr. Byrne stepped up to the base line to throw out the official “first ball” in each round. The shooters took a practice shot, and then five more free throws. They rotated around until every shooter had two turns at the foul line totaling 12 foul shots. The players were all awarded ribbons and certificates for their participation and the first and second place shooters were awarded an additional certificate for their skills.

Lore School Foul Shooting Spectacular

Fisher Middle School Varsity Wrestlers attended the Cinnaminson Pirate Tournament in January. Congratulations to our medal winners! Shown left to right – Scott Price, first place; Tyson Barnes, third place; Stephen Ettenger, second place and Nyjeir Johnson, third place.

EHS 2012 Hall of Fame Scholarship Winners

?Superintendent’s Office609-538-9800 ext. 1102

E-mail: cpankiewicz@ewingboe.orgWebsite: www.ewing.k12.nj.us

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GoodNews is an official publication of The Ewing Public Schools

©2012 GoodNews

Design and Layout by Daniella Crescente

The Ewing Public SchoolsApril 2012 Schedule in Ewing SchoolsApril 2-6 Schools Closed – Spring BreakApril 9 EHS - Ring & Sing @ 7pmApril 10-12 ESL Access TestingApril 10 Class of 2012 Parent Meeting @ 7pm Candidates Debate Night @ 7-9pmApril 11 EHS - TEMPO Ex Board Meeting @ 7:30pm Parkway - Spring PicturesApril 12 Family Math Night for Grades K-1April 17 Schools Closed – Staff DevelopmentApril 18 EHS - TEMPO Meeting @ 7:30pmApril 19 EHS - Junior Parents Night @ 6:30pmApril 20 Parkway - School StoreApril 23-26 NJASK Grades 7-8April 23-27 Grade 2 TestingApril 24 Parkway - 5th Grade Parents Meeting @ 6pm Parkway - PTA Meeting @ 7pmApril 26 Antheil - PTO Meeting @ 6:45pmApril 28 Autism Walk for a Difference @ EHSApril 30 NJASK Grades 5-6 NJASK Grades 7-8 Makeup BOE Meeting

Please visit our website daily for up-to-the minute information.

The Ewing public Schools TweetThe District uses Twitter as a means of sharing “what’s happening now” information. The Twitter page for The Ewing Public Schools can be found at www.twitter.com/TheEwingSchools.

Board of Education Mrs. Karen A. McKeon, Dr. Ruth Palmer, President Vice President Mr. Carl Benedetti, Jr. Ms. Maria Benedetti Mr. Kenneth J. Bradley Mr. Kevin J. Ewell Mr. Anthony D. Mack Mrs. Stephanie Staub

Mr. Bruce J. White

Instant AlertInstant Alerts are one of the ways in which the District communicates

with the Ewing School Community. An Instant Alert link is available on our website under Site Shortcuts/School Closings/Instant Alert at www.ewing.k12.nj.us. Categories, updates and logon information are also listed.

If you are receiving alerts and are not a member of The Ewing Public Schools, please notify us by calling 538-9800 x1102 (leave your name and the phone number where you are receiving the alerts).

Virtual BackpackPlease visit our Virtual Backpacks and Headlines pages daily for up-

to-the minute information! We continue to use the VBP as part of our “paperless” initiative. If you do not have computer access, notify your child’s principal.

As a courtesy to our Ewing/Mercer County neighbors, the VBP Community Information page contains Ewing Township Recreation and other community events and information.

Residency Investigation Hotline 538-9800 x8999 Anonymous Tip Hotline 538-9800 x1199

Policies and RegulationsAll current policies and regulations for The Ewing Public Schools are

available on our website under the Board of Education/Board Policy/Regula-tion tab. Documents under review by the Board of Education are also listed.

Ewing Twp Recreation InfoPlease check the Virtual Backpack link under our website homepage headlines for important information pertaining to Ewing Rec opportunities and events. Details and registration forms are posted on the virtual backpack/community information page of the website.