School district personnel recognized by K-8 board
BY REBECCA MORTON Staff Writer

MARLBORO - Cindy Barr-Rague, the business administrator of the Marlboro K- 8 School District, was recently awarded her sixth certificate of excellence by the Association of School Business Officials International's certificate of excellence in financial reporting program. The certificate was presented to Barr-Rague for excellence in the preparation and issuance of the fiscal year-end 2006 school system report.

Barr-Rague's honor was announced during a Board of Education meeting on Oct. 9 when an audit report was being discussed. Barr-Rague was also applauded for having the audit completed at such an early time.

"The award, the highest recognition for school district financial operations offered by ASBO, is only conferred to school systems that have met or exceeded the standards of the program," according to a press release from the school district.

Board President Terry Spilken congratulated Barr-Rague and told her to continue her good work.

Sharon Witchel, the school district's public information officer, won several awards. Witchel's accomplishments were noted during the Oct. 16 board meeting. In the New Jersey School Boards Association's 2006-07 annual communications competition, Witchel was awarded certificates of excellence for School Notes, for the School Notes special budget issue and for the superintendent's annual PowerPoint budget presentation. She received honorable mention for the 2006-07 calendar and information guide.

Superintendent of Schools David Abbott thanked Witchel for her hard work on behalf of the district.

Spilken said Barr-Rague and Witchel have set the bar very high with their job performance.

Recognition was given to 35 district employees on Oct. 16 for their perfect attendance during the 2006-07 school year. The employees recognized were David Abbott, Bela Amin, Michael Ballone, Cindy Barr- Rague, Nadera Berry, Sara Burt, Jennifer Caga, Theresa Cardaio, Mark Cary, Michael Conkling, James David, Joan DePaolis, Margaret Dugan, Andrew Facey, Doreen Finnell, Pamela Galgani, Marc Gaswirth, Patricia Grehl, James Higley, Dara Kaplan, Michael MacDonald, Todd MacNeill, John Manziano, Joanna Mavuro, John McCormick, Patricia Mehlem, Maxine Otto, John Pacifico, Owen Reagan, Lisa Rivieccio, Lisa Scalici, Michelle Siringano, Howard Spruill, Nancy Walker and Elizabeth Walsh.

A reception with refreshments donated by Chartwells was held to honor those staff members who achieved perfect attendance.

A presentation on tessellations was given to the board by students of the Marlboro Memorial Middle School. Now eighth-graders, the students' tessellation projects were completed while they were in the seventh grade with the help of a grant from the Marlboro Educational Foundation.

Students volunteered to give a demonstration of what they had learned with teachers Pat Grehl, Dara Kaplan, Lori Levanda, Richard Pagliaro and Robin Zegas.

Nineteen students were chosen to attend the board meeting for the presentation and the room was packed with their family members. The students gave their presentation by using the district's new Activeboard. They explained how a tessellation is created when a shape is repeated recurrently by covering a plane without showing any gaps or overlaps. This led to the students learning about symmetry, rotation, translation and reflection.

The children thanked the Marlboro Educational Foundation for its generosity and Spilken thanked the students for their "beautiful demonstration" and also for showing how the new whiteboards work.

The students taking part were Laura Alcaraz, Annamarie Atoria, Stephanie Deats, Andrew Gould, Zachary Kastner,

Rebecca Laufer, Morgan

Ling, Stephanie Puthumana,

Kai Rau, Scott

Reeves, Saurin Shah,

Douglas Stringham,

Tiffany Sun, Steven

Tretyakov, Shaina Villalobos

and TaylorMarie

Zembricki. Three of the 19

students who participated in the presentation cannot have their names published.

In other board business the council went over the superintendent's report dated Sept. 27. The report mentioned enrollment numbers, which have remained flat for the second year in a row. Spilken attributed the district's flat enrollment to the slow housing market.

According to information provided by the board, the K-8 enrollment on Oct. 15, 2006 was 6,129 pupils. The K-8 enrollment on Oct. 15, 2007 was 6,087 pupils. The current number is unofficial until it is certified by the state. The enrollment figures exclude students who are placed at out-of-district schools.

Abbott spoke about the Garden State Coalition of Schools' press conference which was to take place at the State House in Trenton on Oct. 22. The coalition is working to have the state Legislature come up with a new funding formula for the state's public schools. Abbott asked people to get involved in what he called an important issue.

The board accepted donations at the Oct. 16 meeting. The Marlboro Educational Foundation gave $5,000, which is the second payment of a $15,000 donation. The Marlboro Middle School PTA donated $3,629 for the purchase of an LCD television, speakers, cables and additional related supplies.

The Robertsville Elementary School PTA gave two donations to the board. One was for $10,824 to go toward the purchase and installation of a sound system for the gymnasium. The second donation was for $1,176 for the purchase of a Dell laptop computer.

Accepted with regret was the retirement of John Lewis, head custodian at the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School.

"The board expresses its appreciation and enormous gratitude to John Lewis for his 27 years of faithful service to the children and the district," the board said in a resolution.

Assistant Superintendent Marc Gaswirth said Lewis started working for the district at the Robertsville School and quickly moved into the position of head custodian. Gaswirth noted that Lewis took the position of head custodian at the Dugan School and has been the only head custodian at the school since it opened in 1987. Lewis was wished a happy and healthy retirement.

Board member Raymond Eng informed those present that the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education announced that if enough students were interested, classes in Chinese would be offered. Eng said there would need to be about 30 students in each school interested in order to start the program.

Board member Michael Lilonsky mentioned complaints relating to the district's new telephone system. He said he had heard that people calling in were getting a busy signal. Lilonsky said he tried the system and also received a busy signal. Barr- Rague said Verizon will be addressing that issue.

Board Vice President Joseph Waldman pointed out that a campaign flier that had been mailed to Marlboro residents mentioned a sum of money the Marlboro School District had received in school aid. Waldman declined to name the candidate but wanted to clarify that the school aid came from the state and not from one particular individual.

The board will have a regular meeting on Nov. 20.