·      The State Department of Education has asked us to participate in a State Special Education Advisory Council discussion. Two of our high school students who have been using assistive technology (as part of the State’s assistive technology initiative), will make a short presentation to the Advisory Council on June 12, 2008. This is very noteworthy for two reasons: (1) the students’ use of assistive technology and their willingness to share their experiences with the Advisory Council and (2) the fact that we have been recognized by the State for our proactive policy on the use and identification of assistive technology for many of our students. I’d like to thank Mr. Anthony Gattini and the Technology Department for working with our students and staff on assistive technology.

·      Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of spending most of the morning at Village School to see three wonderful activities taking place:

Ø     Mrs. Simpson’s first graders wrote, illustrated on the computer, and narrated their own fairy tales and produced a multi-media slide show. The stories and drawings were adorable. They were “recreated” without violence and everyone really did “live happily ever after”!

Ø     Ms. Panzella’s and Mrs. Bennett’s classes hosted two Keyport kindergarten classes for the reading of stories they wrote together and finished with a pizza luncheon and arts & crafts. This was as a result of mini-grant from the HFEE.

Ø     As a culmination of their unit of study on Colonial Times, the third graders celebrated Colonial Day where they participated in a variety of colonial activities such as games, weaving, cross stitch over the course of two days.

·      I also spent time visiting Indian Hill School last Thursday to see the fourth graders celebrating Patriotic Day.

·      Three wonderful concerts took place since our last board meeting which I attended – the Band & Strings Concert at Satz, and the Chorus & Bells Spring Concert and Spring Instrumental Concert, both at the High School.

·      At their last meeting, the Satz School’s PSG voted to approve spending up to $14,500 on sound equipment and chairs and racks to refurbish the stage. This donation will appear on an upcoming agenda.

·      A poem written by a High School student will be published in Creative Communication, Inc’s anthology – A Celebration of Young Poets.

·      A High School student was among “the select group of 91 Judges’ Picks” in the New Jersey High School Poetry Contest. There were nearly 850 submissions from 163 schools in New Jersey, the largest number the contest has received in over a decade. Her inspiration is poet Frank O’Hara.

·      Mrs. Josephine Blaha just received the results today from the Merck Science Day competition. We fielded three complete teams in Bio, Chem and Physics and a half a team in Integrated Science (includes Bio, Chem, Physics and Earth Science). Holmdel High School did very well, both countywide and statewide.

The top three scorers in the state in each category are Merck Scholars and Holmdel has two – both in Chemistry! One earned the top score in the state while another earned third place. We also had a student who placed fifth statewide in Physics.

We also placed very well countywide: first in Biology, first in Integrated Science and second in Physics.

·      The induction ceremony for the World Language Honor Societies was held on May 19^th with a total of 113 new inductees!