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MONROE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Falcon Flyer Email Newsletter
APRIL 2018
Your Monthly News & Updates
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A Message From The Superintendent's Office...
Dear Falcon Community,
I believe spring has finally arrived. As we move forward, many of the spring student activities, such as academic competitions, musicals and, of course, spring sports, have begun. Please see inside this edition for more information.
An online survey regarding the failed Referendum for a new, additional middle school was sent to all recipients of the Falcon Flyer. If you have not yet completed the survey, please take time to complete this survey, as we want to use the information from the survey to see how we can better address the community's concerns before proposing a new referendum to the community.
Recent lobbying efforts to the NJ Senate and NJ Assembly by representatives from Monroe Township and other communities from Central and South Jersey have let the Governor and legislators know that, although we appreciate the additional $344,629 in State Aid we received for next year, we will continue our lobbying efforts until Monroe Township receives its fair share of State funding.
PARCC testing began on April 16th. Schedules for each school are linked to this edition, and with the addition of additional laptops and tablets, we are hoping to reduce the amount of time needed to administer PARCC to our students; thus, allowing more time for instruction.
In this edition of the Falcon Flyer, you will find information regarding the incredible learning opportunities taking place everyday in our schools. In addition, you will find information about school and community events. Please also visit our website, District App Facebook and Twitter to stay informed of District happenings.
Respectfully yours,
Dr. Michael Kozak
Superintendent
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Stay up to date on events and happenings in Monroe Township!
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STAY CONNECTED with the Monroe Township School District:
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IMPORTANT DATES:
(*Additional changes to the 2017-2018 calendar will be available on the district web page AFTER the April 2018 Board meeting)
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Regular School Day Schedule Times:
| Applegarth |
9:05 am - 3:34 pm |
| Barclay Brook |
9:05 am - 3:34 pm |
| Brookside |
9:05 am - 3:34 pm |
| Mill Lake |
8:50 am - 3:19 pm |
| Monroe Township High School |
7:27 am - 2:00 pm |
| Monroe Township Middle School |
8:10 am - 2:39 pm |
| Oak Tree |
8:55 am - 3:24 pm |
| Woodland |
8:10 am - 2:39 pm |
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Monroe Township High School Auditorium
Tickets available at the door with general admission seating
Students: $7.00
Adults: $10.00
Senior Citizens: $8:00
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Dr. Seuss takes over Barclay Brook's STEAMaker Lab
By: Stacy Blum & Nicole Midura
March was a busy month in our STEAMaker Lab. Students have been very excited about our month long STEM challenge to celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss's birthday. They worked in small groups in every class to make the tallest "hat" using only red solo cups and index cards. This was a challenge! Many of these "hat" towers fell down until the students learned how to build a taller tower. They truly had to use the design/build process to see what worked and what did not. Each class will submit their class average for the tallest tower and each grade level will have a winning class. 1 winning class from every grade will receive a special Dr. Seuss prize.
There were other activities going on the The Lab as well! Students in Mrs. Wasdin's class listened to
If I ran the Zoo
, then designed their own animals made out of materials scavenged from the STEAMaker Lab!
Students in Mrs. Yates and Mrs. Battistelli's class listened to
The Lorax
and designed their own truffula trees using various materials.
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STUDENT COUNCIL
If leadership is defined by results, then Brookside's Student Council members are true leaders! Nearly 50 fifth grade students volunteered to spend their time this school year selecting, organizing, and running important school efforts. So far, the hard-working students have led:
- 9 snack sales to date, benefitting Mano-a-Mano in Puerto Rico, local food recipients, and Karma Cat/Zen Dog animal rescue (2 snack sales remain)
- October fundraiser for Puerto Rico
- Pie-in-the-Face Halloween Assembly for winning teachers in Puerto Rico fundraiser
- November Food Drive for local recipients
- Assistance for Brookside's Empty Bowls Souper Bowl
- A school-wide survey for the PTA on graduation celebration
- A panel of representatives meeting bi-weekly to develop Brookside's Maker Space
- Read-Across-America representatives, reading to younger students
- M.C.F.O.O.D.S food drive
The goal of Brookside's Student Council is to build responsible leaders and promote the values that represent good character. The work of this year's student council proves that these students are off to a successful start as leaders! (Student Council Advisors - Stephanie Arons & Laura Horoszewski)
Photo: Many of Brookside's Student Council members applied to be Maker Space representatives. Those selected worked on a bi-weekly basis with Librarian Chien-Ju Lin, providing ideas and organization for developing Brookside's Maker Space!
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Stay up to date on township/district concerts, sports & special events!
Check out the Monroe Township PEG Channel with videos on demand!
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MTHS ECONOMICS & FINANCE TEAM
The Economics & Finance Team had 12 members participate in the 2018 Wildcard Division of the National Personal Finance Challenge. This event includes teams from more than 30 states in the country in which their state does not host a state-level event. This is a highly competitive event that challenges students to showcase their knowledge of income and Money Management, Spending and Credit, and Saving and Investing.
Congratulations to the MTHS teams for their efforts!
10th Place
Team Monroe Elite:
Sahil Parikh, Rhea Bandaru, Sanjana Belthur & Shivan Suratia
Honorable Mentions:
Team Wei$$ Army:
Nishant Nagalia, Waheed Zafar, Kevin Senkus & Ritik Patel
Team The Capitalists:
Saahithi Dantuluri, Saanya Lingieri, Jasmine Yang, Ranjita Suresh
The Economics & Finance Team had 19 members participate in the 2018 New Jersey Economics Challenge. This is a highly competitive event that challenges students to showcase their knowledge of macroeconomics, microeconomics and current events.
Congratulations to the MTHS teams for their efforts!
ADAM SMITH DIVISION - State Honorable Mentions
Wei$$' Army Team: Nishant Nagalia, Sahil Parikh, Ritik Patk and Waheed Zafar
The Capitalists: Rhea Bandaru, Megha Purohit, and Saanya Lingeneni
Monroe Elite: Justin Murray, Shivan Suratia, Karan Nayak, Sohum Patel
EZ Money: Kevin Senkus, Will Tong, Pranay Narag
DAVID RICARDO DIVISION - State Honorable Mentions
Monroe Elite: Neal Thacker, Anirudh Suresh, Zachary Pandolfi, Rohan Shirupalli
Mahanimmala: Hanna Zelcer, Mahi Purohit, Saahithi Dantuluri, Anjali Nimmala
Outstanding Individual Performance [based on top individual scores]
Rhea Bandaru, Justin Murray, Ritik Patel, Pranay Narag, Megha Purohit, Neal Thacker, Waheed Zafar
The Economics & Finance Team is directed by Ms. Terri Weiss and operates within the Department for the Applied Arts and Careers Technology
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MTHS STUDENT -
RISHUB HANDA
RECOGNIZED AND AWARDED AS A JEFFERSON SCHOLAR
CONGRATULATIONS to Rishub Handa who will attend the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar with almost $300,000 in scholarships!
Rishub is the first student from New Jersey to receive this in the last three years and the first student ever from Monroe Township, as well!
This is a worldwide program with an acceptance rate of approximately 1.8%, which is three to four times lower than an Ivy League School.
CONGRATULATIONS, RISHUB!
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MTHS COMPETITION CHEER
Congratulations to the Competition Cheer Team for an undefeated season and winning the State and National Championships!
GO FALCONS!
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MTHS GIRLS LACROSSE
CONGRATULATIONS to Ashley Patten and Liz Skobelev!
Ashley scored her 100 career point against Delaware Valley
Liz scored her 100 career point goal against JP Stevens
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American Legion Oratorical New Jersey State Competition
Ria Patel, Monroe Township High School Junior, finished 2nd out of 5 New Jersey competitors in the American Legion Oratorical New Jersey State Competition.
Ria received a $1500 scholarship for her effort. Ria has worked incredibly hard over that past few months and has reached new heights by being one of the brave Monroe Township High School students to bring back our involvement in this competition!
Ria's involvement, along with Amanda Pena and Manan Shah, showcased what is great about our school and it means a great deal to the American Legion members who support us and whom we support.
Congratulations Ria!
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- On March 14th, the entire District instrumental music program came together to perform their biennial District band concert and the high school. All band students in grades 5th to 12th performed together in a massive celebration of music in Monroe. Parents and staff enjoyed the wonderful performances and we thank our fantastic band teachers for their dedication and guidance.
- Congratulations to Anshul Chandaliya who represented Monroe in the Region II NJAJE Jazz auditions on Monday, March 12th. He competed against other 7th, 8th and 9th grade musicians from around Central New Jersey to earn the top trumpet spot in the jazz ensemble. MTMS is proud of our students and the staff that support them.
- Students in Ms. Montgomery's 6th grade Computer Literacy class recently had the chance to learn about Microsoft OneNote. They were able to explore the content library and their own personal notebooks. In addition, they learned how to use the Immersive Reader in their notebooks.
- On the last day of the marking period 6th grade Computer Literacy students practiced their critical thinking and problem solving skills while trying to break out of the game Caught in the Code. They had to cooperate with their teammates to solve puzzles to discover combinations to open a box.
- MTMS Olympics! Did you know grammar is an Olympic event? At MTMS, Mrs. Pace, Mrs. Levier, and Mrs. Graziano/Mr. Stanziale's classes participated in the 2018 Grammar Olympics for two weeks recently. These events were assisted by Ms. Sheppard, 8th grade LAP teacher. The students were assigned country groups, and after a lesson on symbolism designed their own flags to represent their unique personalities through symbology. Students participated in events like quiz games on grammar skills, subject-verb agreement, and parts of speech. Students also participated in Bobsled Boggle, a high pressure word game. In the end, Mrs. Pace's class walked away with the most medals and was declared Olympic Grammar champion! Medals and certificates were awarded to the winners of all events.
- The Builders Club sponsored the MCFOODS drive that was a huge success. The Builders Club would like to thank everyone for their support during the MCFOODS Drive. Through everyone's efforts, they presented 1,100 food items to our friends in Middlesex County. The homerooms with the highest ratio of items collected and will receive a Builders Club dessert treat include:
6th - Mrs. Chip & Mrs. Tafrow
7th - Ms. Sarcone & Ms. Mortillar
8th - Mrs. Basmajian
- Congratulations to eight MTMS chorus students who performed in the National Youth Choir in Oklahoma City. The students worked with internationally renowned conductor, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, for four days before performing at Oklahoma City's Civic Center Music Hall. Congratulations students and Mrs. Schmetterer for a job well done!
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Kapel
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Priscilla
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Karasala
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Apurva
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Rios
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Arielle
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Kumar
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Meghana
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Sivakumar
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Tanvi
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Gudipaty
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Mahitha
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Kaur
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Arshleen
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Potluri
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Deepshika
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- Select eighth grade students enrolled in the Engineering, and the Computer Science electives represented Monroe Township in the state-wide middle school TEAMS competition (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, Science). The results are pending but the participating students are as follows:
Kaitlyn Yan
Pranjay Kumar
Ayushi Kumar
Samaara Jain
Dhru Desai
Vivian Van
Divit Endal
Mansi Shah
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On Wednesday, March 28
th
, fifty-two students from the Technology Student Association (TSA) attended the State TSA Competition at The College of New Jersey where they competed in specific events against other Middle Schools in the state. Our students have spent time after school all year preparing projects for different events. Special congratulations go to: Chapter Team for winning 2
nd
place, Construction Challenge 2
nd
place, Dragster 2
nd
place and Microcontroller Design 3
rd
place. Everyone who attended had a wonderful experience!
- Congratulations to Anshul Chandaliya who represented Monroe in the Region II NJAJE Jazz auditions on Monday, March 12th. He competed against other 7th, 8th and 9th grade musicians from around Central New Jersey to earn the top trumpet spot in the jazz ensemble.
- Wednesday, March 14th, was the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school tragedy and there was a national movement to give students a voice in support of those lost and to assemble against school violence. MTMS administration met the week before with our student representatives to gather their input as to how they would like to be heard. They came up with some wonderful age appropriate ideas. This was a completely voluntary activity and any student who did not wish to participate was not required to do so. It was our hope that the students use this as a learning opportunity to see how their voices can be heard in a peaceful and respectful way, which they did. Thank you students and staff for such a fantastic acknowledgement to the memories of the fallen students in Florida and what we can do here in Monroe to support one another.
- Seventh and eighth grade students in Mrs. Williams' art electives collaborated to design a kindness-inspired display. Highlighting our school spirit and the empowerment of positivty, students worked together to create a work of art that will brighten our hallways and our spirits.
- The MTMS PTO is hosting Kids Paint Night on April 13th in the cafeteria from 7 pm to 9pm. It is always a fantastic, fun night, thank you PTO!
- MTMS PARCC testing will be from April 16th through May 11th with makeups after. However, we will take a break on April 26th to allow our students the opportunity to recognize "Take Our Children to Work Day".
- On May 8th MTMS will hold our Spring Concert Band Performance and Art Show in the PAC and PAC lobby. The art show will begin at 6 pm and the Concert at 7 pm. Come out for a wonderful evening at MTMS.
- MTMS Spring Jazz Band & Percussion Performance will take place on May 10th in the PAC at 7 pm. Join us for foot-taping, body-swaying evening!
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OAK TREE OSMO MONSTER FUN!
Reading specialist students in Mrs. Kappus's class are exploring new vocabulary words while using Osmo Monster on their iPads. The monster asks them to draw a specific item and then they watch in amazement when the monster pulls their actual drawing right on the iPad screen! The monster then uses the student's pictures to create a story that the monster acts out. What a fun way to apply vocabulary skills!
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Join us to Learn More about Family Scouting with Cub Scouts!
Bring your whole family to our Open House events!
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Check Out What's Happening At The
MONROE RECREATION CENTER
APRIL 2018
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ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
We are excited to present to you the
2nd annual
MTHS Hall of Fame induction.
We would like to pay tribute to the many individuals from our high school who have been a part of the MTHS athletic programs and part of the Monroe Falcons
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If you would like to nominate or re-nominate anyone who you feel is qualified, and meets the criteria, please click the link below.
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MTHS College & Career Counseling Center (CCCC)
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GOT SCHOOL SPIRIT?
Check out
FALCON ZONE
School Store for all of your FALCON merchandise!
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STAY CONNECTED with ATHLETICS
Get the latest information on the
Monroe Township School District Sports Programs
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MTHS ATHLETICS ON "SCHEDULE STAR"
View
"SCHEDULE STAR" to keep current with upcoming athletic events at Monroe Township High School!
Enter Monroe Township HS in the search box for daily, weekly & monthly schedules.
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Student Registration & Documents
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Monroe Township School District | 423 Buckelew Avenue | Monroe Township, NJ 08831
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