The fall season is in full swing on campuses across the Middletown Township Public School District. School are communities coming together to enjoy a variety of festive frights and delights while our educators work to deliver engaging themed lessons. Check out some of the best photos from our fall festivals, spook-taculars, High School North’s annual Haunted Woods event, and more.

On Friday, Oct. 14, the Fairview Elementary PTO sponsored the school's second annual color run, a perfect way to celebrate the community's spirit and create some wonderful memories. Students and their families made the colorful quarter mile dash to contribute to Fairview’s community initiatives for the 2022 -2023 school year.

Garden of the Week

The High School South Environmental Club has rolled up their sleeves to clean out the campus’ garden bed in an effort to create a sustainable horticultural center in the heart of their community.

“I’m happy we can finally clean the garden out and put it to good use,” Environmental Club President Zach Pappas told the Middletown South Eagle Eye.

Students are working to clear the weeds and overgrowth from the area and plant a variety of items, including vegetables like carrots, lettuce and tomatoes that can support food preparation in the cafeteria and South’s culinary arts students.

Pup of the Week

This week, Mrs. Carin Kuzmin’s applied arts class used their multimedia skills to develop works that focused on their own family pets. Amongst the many wonderful works that were generated, including dogs, cats, hamsters and more, comes this sleepy pup.

Our “Pup of the Week” comes from High School North student Jocelyn Beza Salas, who used pen and ink to capture the different textures of their fuzzy friend, whose name is Chulo.

While Chulo took a snooze at home, Salaz snapped a reference photo and recreated the moment in class. Keep up the great work Jocelyn!

This space is dedicated to the promotion of mental health resources in our schools and local community. Please refer to the district site for a comprehensive list of resources: Mental Health & Community Resources

Mental health supports for students and adults are listed below and available to the MTPS community. When classes are is in session, your student's guidance counselor is available to provide support during regular school hours. 

• Perform Care/Children’s Mobile Response (24 hours) 1-877-652 -7624
• Monmouth Medical Center-Psychiatric Emergency Screening  Services (PESS)  732-923-6999
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988   The national 3 digit call line  for Crisis and Suicide Prevention
• 2nd Floor Youth Hotline
• 888-222-2228 Talk Line
• 908-280-0235 Text Line
• Trevor Project  1-866-488-7386
• Crisis Text Line  741741

In recognition of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Lincroft school community came together in a campus-wide display of solidarity, as staff and students alike sported pink attire. The community photo above accentuates a fundraising event organized by Lincroft Nurse Mary Fisher. All proceeds from the fundraiser will support resources for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Thank you to the Lincroft community for their incredible efforts.

Fashion and Home Decor students in Mrs. Meaghan Hanson’s class recently worked through the process of planning and designing an interior concept. As part of the lesson, students were prompted to develop a tangible element of their design and collaborate with High School North educators to create desk-organizer containers from recyclable materials.

The skills learned in this semester course are valuable to the career-minded individuals enrolled in the class, but the practical application of those skills is an exemplary model of authentic learning and assessment that helps establish deeper understanding and content mastery.

Learn more about the Fashion and Home Decor course and the variety of Career and Consumer Science courses offered in the district by visiting the MTPS Course Selection Website. 

Middletown Township Mathematics educators presented at the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New Jersey (AMTNJ) Conference this past Thursday, October 20. The topic of the conference was "Teaching Matters!" This event was open to K-12 and higher education professionals across the state and beyond. The District is proud of our staff's willingness to grow the mathematics education community and share best practices that have been used in Middletown. Middletown staff, including Lisa Cashin (Leonardo), Ashley Connors (Bayview), Taylor Zaborney (Ocean Ave), Nick Corrado (HSN), Kara Teehan (HSN), John Kerrigan (Central Office), Audra Ryan (Thorne), Deanna Houlihan (HSS), and Andrew Rosenboom (HSS) presented on topics such has intervention, co-teaching models, flipped classroom, ele, entary mathematics teaching, and more. All staff received positive feedback from attendees.

New Monmouth Elementary School students celebrated the emergence of fall and the forthcoming Halloween holiday with a pumpkin picking session at their on-campus patch. Courtesy of the school’s PTA, pumpkins, scarecrows and other decorative fare were transported to New Monmouth playground for students to peruse and choose their favorite festive specimen. Some classes chose to decorate their pumpkins, while others, like the first grade students of Mrs. Kimberly Callas, used their pumpkins as the centerpiece of a mathematics lesson about measuring the length and width of an object.

In recognition of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month, High School North hosted a pink pumpkin decorating contest, which helped raise funds and awareness for the local non-profit organization Breast Intentions. All proceeds collected from the contest will aid the group’s mission to help individuals diagnosed with breast cancer navigate the day-to-day finances of cancer care. Thank you to everyone who participated in this wonderful fundraiser. For more information about the group, please visit the Breast Intentions website.

Mornings can be a little crazy…and sometimes breakfast takes backseat to catching the bus.

Thanks to Whitsons School Nutrition, breakfast is now served at school to provide your student with a healthy start to their school day. A nutritious breakfast helps students be more alert so they can learn more in class, and has plenty of vitamins and nutrients for a strong and healthy body.

Breakfast at school is affordable, too. If you qualify for free and reduced price meals, you also qualify for the breakfast program, with no additional paperwork.

Breakfast Pricing:

• High School Paid Breakfast - $2.00
• Middle School Paid Breakfast - $2.00
• Elementary Paid Breakfast - $1.75
• All Schools – Free or Reduced Breakfast $0.00

Help your child start the day right with school breakfast! For more information please visit the Food Services section of the district website.