MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Residents of both towns can drop off used electronic items in South Orange or Maplewood, according to a release from South Orange Village. Proof of residency is required.

The Saturday drop-offs are from 8 a.m. to noon and will be: Sept. 12 in South Orange; Oct. 3 in Maplewood; and Dec. 19 in South Orange.

The South Orange drop-off location is the South Orange Recycling Depot, 300 Walton Ave., South Orange. The Maplewood drop-off location is the Maplewood Public Works Department, 359 Boyden Ave., Maplewood.

Computer monitors, CPUs, keyboards, printers, mainframes, fax machines, scanners, telecommunication equipment, speakers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, DVD players, toasters, irons and old cell phones are eligible for drop-off. Commercial and large-quantity electronics users may not drop off equipment.

If circumstances prevent a drop-off on a scheduled Saturday, items may be dropped off the Thursday beforehand in South Orange; call first at 973-378-7741.

Items may be dropped off the Friday beforehand in Maplewood; call first at 973-762-1175.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ —

Photos Courtesy of Robin Patric
Two South Orange jitneys now have bike racks mounted to them, allowing riders to stow their bicycles while traveling through the village. While only two jitneys have the racks, they will be rotated throughout all jitney routes.

Cell phone parking now villagewide
Cash-free parking has come to the whole village. “Mobile Now,” the pay-by-cell parking- payment option, piloted for the last two years by the South Orange Parking Authority, is now available throughout town.

Mobile Now was introduced in 2013 at South Orange and Mountain train stations. As of Aug. 7, it is available at all pay stations and single-space electronic meters.

Drivers pay by phone for the maximum time allowed or less. A cell phone warning is emitted when time is about to expire. Time is not displayed on meters themselves, and any add-on must be completed before the current session expires.

The system works with any cell phone. Simple instructions for setting up a Mobile Now account appear on every meter. Once the account is established, simply park and phone in the space number displayed on the meter. There’s no need to use coins — though all meters continue to take dimes and quarters. In a rush? Pay while already walking to the next destination or the train.

Every meter bears a prominent identifying number in a red, white and blue label, which also lists a phone number and website should you require assistance.

Officers enforce the meters by logging onto the Mobile Now website to determine payment status.

New jitney route covers Audley, Lenox, W. Montrose
The South Orange Parking Authority is adding a south-to-north jitney route serving two previously uncovered neighborhoods in South Orange. The route will launch Tuesday, Sept. 8, with morning, evening and late-night service.

The new route connects the Audley and Lenox side of town with Wyoming Avenue stops previously served by the Newstead bus. It ends with pickups on the north end of town at West Montrose and Vose avenues.

The new route brings changes to the Newstead schedule, which is now slightly shorter. New and revised schedules are available on the bus, online or in the SOPA office.

Bring your bike on the South Orange jitney
Bike riders can now use the South Orange jitney and bring their bicycles along for the ride. The South Orange Parking Authority is expanding options by combining two popular modes of transportation, according to a recent release.

Bicycle racks are now mounted on the front ends of the No. 734 and No. 735 jitneys and no additional cost is incurred for using them. Jitneys with racks are rotated throughout all jitney routes, and more could be similarly equipped in the future.
The stainless-steel racks, made by SportWorks, hold three bikes each. Only single-seat, two-wheeled bicycles are permitted. If the rack is full, cycling customers should be prepared to wait for the next bus with a rack.

Cyclists are responsible for loading and unloading their bicycles from the rack. Jitney drivers will not be permitted to assist. To use the racks, cyclists must remove any large baggage from their bikes. All baggage must accompany the rider on the bus.
Before boarding a jitney, cyclists must first alert the jitney driver that they will be loading their bicycle. If no other bicycle is in position, they must lower the rack by squeezing the center handle; load the bike into the empty wheel well closest to the bus, with the front wheel facing the curb; pull the spring-loaded support arm out and upward, and fasten it over the front tire at the highest point of the wheel to hold the bicycle in place.

Locks cannot be used to secure bicycles to the racks, but the front wheel can be locked to the bicycle frame before the bus arrives.

On leaving the bus, cyclists should tell the driver they’ll be removing the bicycle, unload the bike and, if no other bicycles remain, stow the rack against the bus in the upright position.

For details, contact the South Orange Parking Authority at 973-378-7715, ext. 2037, or at SOPA@southorange.org.

2016 parking fees announced
With the new Third Street garage set to open in January, the South Orange Parking Authority has announced revised parking fees for 2016. The new schedule was approved by the Parking Authority Board on Aug. 18 as follows:

• Garage Permit, resident: monthly $70; quarterly $210, semi-annual $420, annual $700.
• Garage Secondary, resident: monthly $50; quarterly $150, semi-annual $300, annual $450.
• Jitney Daily Fee: $2 each way.
• Annual Resident Jitney Pass: $300.
• Garage/Jitney Combo Pass: garage permit $700, jitney fee $150.
• Secondary/Jitney Combo Pass: secondary permit $450, jitney fee $150.
• Daily Garage Fee, general public: $1 per hour, or $7 maximum per day up to 6 p.m.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — To no one’s surprise at the Aug. 24 South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting, Sage Consultant Thelma Ramsey outlined several disparities in the school district between black and white students.

Ramsey explained that there are many more white students in higher classes than black students, that black students are overwhelmingly suspended more than white students and that there are a lot more white district employees than there are black employees.

The district is working with Sage Consultants to obtain feedback from students, parents and staff, and has conducted a self-assessment of its current programs and courses to identify any potential barriers.

Back in October 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA filed a complaint with the OCR, urging an investigation into the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s practices of tracking and school discipline. According to a release from the ACLU-NJ, the SOMSD practices of tracking — which groups students with similar achievement level in classes together — and its methods of discipline affect students differently based on race and disability status.

The district and the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights entered into an agreement shortly after the complaints were filed, although the two entities had been in talks long before that. As part of the agreement, the district agreed to several criteria in an attempt to shrink the racial disparity in higher level courses. The school district has been corresponding with the OCR to report the its progress, and has agreed to provide training for relevant district and school site administrators and personnel.

According to Ramsey in her Aug. 24 presentation, 50 percent of the district’s students are white, 35 percent are black and 15 percent are other races; however, at Columbia High School, black students outnumber white students in every grade.

The first of Ramsey’s findings was that the staff does not mirror the schools’ racial composition. Among all district personnel, approximately 81 percent are white; only approximately 11 percent of staff is black. Studies have shown that it can be discouraging to students not to see teachers who look like them.

This issue has been brought up many times in the past, as has Ramsey’s second finding that there is a disparity between white and black students in high-level placement in math and language arts courses, beginning in the middle schools.

One of Ramsey’s greatest concerns was that the course descriptions are vague. She pointed out that, although the middle schools were de-leveled except for math, the new course titles are still levels, with the lowest level being general for children who need more help, then college preparatory, honors, advanced honors and Advanced Placement. Ramsey asked what exactly “college preparatory” means and what skills parents can expect their students to learn in such classes. She also pointed out that having an advanced honors class and an Advanced Placement class could be confusing, obfuscating for parents what the levels truly represent.

The report notes: “Although the placement does not explicitly state that middle school students are placed in ‘levels’ the practice of level placement is evident.”

That being said, Ramsey found a vast disparity in math course makeups at the middle schools. In the college-prep courses at Maplewood Middle School there are in the sixth grade 73 black and 40 white students; in the seventh grade, 68 black and 24 white students; and in the eighth grade, 61 black and 34 white students.

At South Orange Middle School there are in the sixth grade 50 black and 42 white students; in the seventh grade, 46 black and 24 white students; and in the eighth grade, 49 black students and nine white students.

These numbers are drastically turned around in the honors math courses. In all grades combined, MMS has 53 black students in honors math with 202 white students; SOMS has 61 black students in honors math with 202 white students.

The number of black students in higher-level courses continues to drop. In the seventh grade advanced honors courses, MMS has 45 white students and one black student, while SOMS has 63 white students and six black students. In the eighth grade geometry advanced math courses, MMS has 24 white students and three black students, while SOMS has 17 white students and three black students. In the eighth grade geometry honors math courses, there are six white students and two black students at each middle school.

Ramsey again pointed out that having geometry advanced classes and geometry honors classes is confusing.

After looking at the middle school course distribution, the report concluded that students are clearly being academically tracked beginning in sixth-grade, and that it is difficult for black students to move to higher levels, setting the groundwork for disparities in the high school.

At Columbia High School, there are 495 white students taking at least one AP course, whereas there are only 170 black students taking at least one AP course.

As in the middle schools, black students are more often placed in “college prep” classes while white students are in AP classes, with honors classes being fairly mixed, though there are still more white students in those.

BOE member Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad pointed  out that black students in honors classes are only in the tracks that include AP classes, which are predominantly filled with white students.

“There appears to be within-school segregation. It is possible that a white student or black student could, in their core classes, not see a student of another race,” the report read. “It is possible that a white student in a college prep course may be the only white student within a class.”

As for discipline, Ramsey’s report found that of the 73 incidents of suspension at the high school last year, which concerned 52 students, most of those suspended were students of color, with 45 being black, five being white and two being other races.

First Vice President Madhu Pai pointed out 52 high schoolers being suspended is not a huge number, and represents only approximately 2.75 percent of the school population, but Ramsey countered that the problem is not the number of suspensions, but rather the racial makeup of those being suspended. Pai added that she would like to see data explaining why each of these children was suspended, and Ramsey agreed that they should also look into which teachers refer students for discipline and why.

According to Ramsey, all of the above data was collected from March through June through school visits to the middle and high schools, meetings with administrators and central office staff, meetings and surveys of school staff, two public community forums and from personnel records. All the data was manually compiled.

Ramsey did find that certain data was unavailable and she recommended that the school district create data teams at the middle schools and high school to collect and process information throughout the year.

Among other recommendations, Ramsey suggested that the district hold more informational workshops for parents about the different levels, allow students to sample various class levels, institute transition programs for students entering the middle and high schools and improve professional development for teachers.

While the BOE members indicated they appreciated Ramsey’s work, they seemed to have expected more, especially since they had already had access to many of these numbers following the ACLU complaint.

“We all know these numbers,” Pai told Ramsey. “The data you got doesn’t really help us figure out how to solve it. It doesn’t have the data we need to fix it.”

But Ramsey responded that this is only an initial step and that the district must compile data on the instruction in the classrooms to see what is causing black students to be held back.

Board member Beth Daugherty pointed to one factor that may be causing disparity in the core classes. She reasoned that although the middle schools were de-leveled except for the math classes, there is still an undercurrent of leveling due to scheduling, in effect.

“Because there is leveling there, it has an impact on classes which aren’t meant to be leveled, but by-and-large are,” Daugherty said.

Board member Elizabeth Baker and student representative to the board Nina Kambili both asked Ramsey about her assessment at the elementary school level. Ramsey replied that she will be looking at the elementary schools this coming year, as right now the only elementary school data she has is NJASK results.

Photo by Sean Quinn
Above, South Orange, Essex County, state and federal officials gather Aug. 26 to announce South Orange being awarded $1 million to complete the River Greenway Project. The final phase of the project is to create bike paths connecting the northern and southern parts of South Orange, as well as connecting South Orange to Maplewood, among other plans.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Village, county, state and federal officials came together for an Aug. 26 press conference in New Waterlands Park to announce that South Orange had received a $1 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program to fund the fourth and final phase of the River Greenway Project, the ongoing plan to revitalize the east branch of the Rahway River while also linking the village’s northern and southern borders through a single trail of pedestrian paths and bike lanes.

This particular grant, among the largest South Orange has ever received, will largely pay for Phase IV of the project — the construction of a 3,600-foot off-road path and the addition of on-street bike lanes connecting the southern border of South Orange at Maplewood’s Chyzowych Field to Third Street near the South Orange Train Station in the Village Center. Upon the project’s completion, the northern and southern sections of the village will be linked to each other and to neighboring Maplewood, allowing residents easy access to downtown businesses and services, the station, village parks, Columbia High School and more.

The route will be a great asset to the community, according to village President Sheena Collum, who she said she is excited to see the project on the verge of completion after being in the works for 15 years. Receiving one of the 28 TAP grants given out by the NJDOT is what has made its final phase possible, and for that Collum said she is grateful.

“It’s amazing,” Collum told the News-Record following the press conference. “Especially with budgets being so tight for municipalities, finding new sources of funding to complete a project as aggressive as the River Greenway Project is no easy task. And $1 million is a tremendous amount of money.”

That amount will cover most of the $1,396,401 that this phase of the project is estimated to cost. According to the grant application, that price includes $750,000 for the pathway construction and installation of 55 lampposts; $89,000 for benches, trash bins and bike racks; and $3,750 for signage and historical markers noting significant locations throughout the southern area of the village including the trolley line. The additional $396,401 will be funded through the village’s Open Space Trust Fund, the application read.

Just as big a factor in the plan’s coming to fruition is River Greenway Committee member Janine Bauer, the former village trustee who first proposed the concept more than a decade ago. Collum lauded Bauer for her passion in pushing for the project, pointing out that Bauer’s drive is the reason it has gotten so far.

“Janine Bauer is a rock star,” Collum said. “When I met Janine about 10 years ago she was talking about this project, and she has been a relentless advocate and champion of this project since its inception. Without her, we would not be having this presentation today.”

Bauer told the News-Record that it feels “terrific” to see her vision receive the needed funding for its last phase, adding that she is now just looking forward to attending the final ribbon cutting for the trail once it is finished. It has certainly been a long time coming — the committee member recalled that she first got the idea for the River Greenway project in 1998 after having to walk to the train station through Meadowlands Park, which meant stepping though goose feces and mud since there was no path.

From there, she got Main Street South Orange, the precursor to the South Orange Village Center Alliance, to take on the concept. And she has never looked back, with the village eventually adopting a master plan and obtaining grants for the project.

Bauer is passionate about the project because she believes in how beneficial it will be for the village. In addition to the simple convenience of having one central trail connecting the northern and southern sections of town, she believes this accessibility will help the local economy by making it easier for residents to visit the shops and restaurants in both South Orange and Maplewood. And, since more people will be walking and biking to get to those places, she said the need for parking will be reduced, meaning the village can use surface areas for tax ratables rather than build more parking decks.

Aside from financial benefits, Bauer said the trail will help the environment by keeping vehicles off the roads. And that is not all.

“It provides a pretty recreational path that’s good for enjoying life and keeping healthy,” Bauer told the News-Record after the press conference.

But nothing would have happened without the support of county, state and federal officials, Bauer said. She lauded the outside legislators who advocated for the project through the years, holding them up as examples of lawmakers who defy the common notion of a dysfunctional government.

“The relationship with the county and state and federal representatives has been critical to the success of the project,” Bauer said. “They’re very supportive. Whenever we need them, we call and they write letters and make phone calls. They do whatever’s necessary. It’s a true partnership.”

Indeed, the county, state and federal officials in attendance at the press conference seemed just as enthusiastic about the plan as the residents themselves. U. S. Congressman Donald Payne Jr., who represents New Jersey’s 10th district, told the News-Record he was happy to write a letter endorsing the River Greenway Project’s grant application, as he believes the project will have positive effects on the community.

Payne — whose father, Congressman Donald Payne, also supported the project prior to his death in 2012 — said it was “common sense” to bring South Orange and Maplewood closer together as communities while also reducing the village’s carbon footprint.

Payne added that he was proud to play a role in bringing the project to reality for residents.

“A lot of times government is criticized for spending, but I’m very glad that I was able to bring dollars back to this community in order to enhance quality of life,” Payne told the News-Record after the conference ended. “These are your tax dollars at work.”

Essex County Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake agreed that supporting the project was the “right thing to do” because of the good it will bring to South Orange. And Timberlake said working with the village to make it happen has been a “seamless” process, which she said indicates the positive type of leadership it has.

“It’s been a pleasure working with all of the trustees as well as Village President Sheena Collum,” Timberlake told the News-Record. “It’s great whenever government of all levels can work together for the collective good of the people. And that’s what you’re seeing throughout Essex County.”

N.J. Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, who represents the 27th Legislative District, said she is excited to see the plan come to fruition as both a state legislator and as a South Orange resident eager to ride her bike along the completed trail. In fact, Jasey told the News-Record that she has been impressed to see the improvements made to the village in recent years, from the development of New Waterlands to the improvements to Floods Hill.

The important thing now is to continue that progress so that South Orange remains a destination, Jasey said.
“We just have to keep it going,”

Jasey said. “It’s important to preserve our public space and create recreational opportunities for our residents. And this is a perfect example.”

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — South Orange has stopped sending stray and lost animals to the Country Lakes Animal Clinic in Mine Hill, a facility owned by Dr. Kimani Griffith, who also served at the East Orange Animal Hospital before resigning in August after receiving an unsatisfactory report from the New Jersey Department of Health following an inspection.

Deputy village administrator Adam Loehner told the News-Record that the village stopped sending its animals to the clinic a month ago, shortly after the July report brought to light issues of neglect in East Orange, including animals not being provided with adequate water, and mold-covered food and dried feces being left in an isolation room for approximately two weeks; additionally, injured animals were allegedly not receiving prompt medical care, as is legally required. Loehner — who stressed that South Orange had only sent animals to Country Lakes and not to East Orange — said that report, coupled with residents’ strong response to it, has led to the change.

“The board heard some of the concerns from the residents,” Loehner said in a Sept. 3 phone interview. “We wanted to make sure that we were addressing some of those and we wanted to make sure that we were doing what residents wanted.”

Village President Sheena Collum did not respond to request for comment before press time Sept. 8.

Since cutting ties with Country Lakes, Loehner said the village has been sending most of the animals it collects to local veterinarians, such as Dr. Marc Levine of the South Orange Animal Hospital, for medical and sheltering services. Meanwhile, he said, the village is still deciding how to manage sheltering moving forward. A “minimal” number of animals were picked up by South Orange Animal Control Officer Melanie Troncone in August, the deputy village administrator said, but he added that the village will reach out to other clinics if a facility becomes necessary.

There remains the possibility that a shelter could open in South Orange — namely at 298 Walton Ave., the former Jersey Animal Coalition building. It has been more than two months since South Orange and Maplewood residents spoke out both in favor and against the idea of opening another shelter at the site during the village’s public forum. But Loehner said the South Orange Board of Trustees remains in discussion about how best to use the property. Specifically, the board is weighing the opinions of residents with the village’s needs, while examining its Master Plan. As a result, he said there is currently no timeframe for releasing a Request for Proposals regarding the building.

“Because (the trustees are) having to deal with all these issues on facilities and land and shared services, I think it’s a much larger discussion than they had realized,” Loehner said. “I think they’re trying to make the most knowledgeable decision by trying to collect as much information as possible before moving forward. So, unfortunately, I do think it’s just taking longer than anyone ever expected.”

Loehner added that the village is also working closely with the township of Maplewood, which contributed to the construction of the former JAC building, in planning what to do with the site. Though the trustees will make the final decision, he said it will be agreed to by both towns.

Whenever that decision comes, many residents from South Orange and Maplewood are holding out hope that the building will reopen as a facility for animals. Maplewood resident Claire Roberts said using the property as another shelter would be convenient for community members since they could pick up their lost pets minutes away from their homes rather than having to travel to other towns. Residents can also keep a better eye on what is going on inside the shelter if it remains local, Roberts said, and volunteers could ensure the animals are being looked after there.

Above all, Roberts stressed that any shelter that takes over the site must not be anything like the JAC, which was evicted last year after a joint inspection of the New Jersey and South Orange health departments found numerous alleged problems, including not keeping animals with communicable diseases isolated and a lack of adequate ventilation. Roberts said it is vital that any potential shelter be run responsibly while also satisfying nearby residents who complained of issues such as noise.

“A poorly run animal shelter is not something that anyone wants to have again,” Roberts told the News-Record in a Sept. 3 phone interview. “A properly managed shelter should prevent the problems that were so troublesome to the residents who lived in the neighborhood from the outset. Everything is in the execution of how a shelter is managed. And if you don’t have effective management, then you have problems.”

Two animal shelters previously toured the building, but they both later told the village that they were not interested in taking it over.

South Orange resident Tamara Schraiber also feels strongly that the building should be used to help animals, pointing out that numerous residents donated money to its construction for that very purpose. And while many opponents to the idea argue that the low number of animals collected by the village does not warrant a shelter, Schraiber said there are more lost and stray animals in the community than people realize; residents just do not report them for fear the animals will be taken to a kill shelter.

According to Loehner, Troncone picks up an average of one dog and five to seven cats per month that need sheltering. But Laura Himmelein, a board member of the Maplewood-based Furry Hearts Rescue shelter, reported that her organization has taken in a total of 124 cats alone since January at the Sept. 1 Maplewood Township Committee meeting.

Schraiber, however, does not feel that a shelter would necessarily be the best use for the building. Rather, she said that her preference is for the property to be used as an animal intake facility for Troncone so that local residents would know exactly where to find their lost pets. Additionally, Schraiber said the village could use the space to provide licensing and vaccinations as well as host low-cost spaying and neutering. It could also rent out the building to a business offering pet grooming and day care services, she said.

“There are so many opportunities there that you could bring in revenue for the town as well as do justice for our animals,” Schraiber told the News-Record in a Sept. 4 phone interview. “There’s so much potential for that building,” she added. “I think they’re just missing this great opportunity.”

But not every resident agrees that using 298 Walton Ave. as a facility for animals is best for the village. Farrell Field Park Conservancy President Richard Bell told the News-Record that, although he and the other conservancy members are animal-lovers, they do not believe South Orange needs an approximately 5,000-square-foot shelter, especially one so close to a residential neighborhood. Instead, Bell said Essex County should build an animal shelter, situated at least 400 yards from residents, for all its communities to use. Meanwhile, he said residents could simply use social media to keep track of and return lost pets, while taking advantage of veterinary offices, shelters and businesses within a 15-mile radius for animals that need sheltering.

As for the former JAC building, Bell said he hopes the village rents the space at market price to a service that will be compatible to the park-like setting of the nearby River Greenway Project as well as to the residents who live in the area. This leaves a wealth of opportunities, he said, including using the space to house some of the Village Hall offices. But the conservancy would most like to see the property become a child day care center, the president said.

“We’re looking at what is needed in town,” Bell said in a Sept. 3 phone interview. “There are so many young families moving into town, and there’s a shortage of day care. So if the village plans to actually issue an RFP to rent out the building, day care would be one of the primary businesses that would have a business model that would afford to pay market rent.

“To me, the sound of children playing in a day care center is something that would fit in well,” he added.

Janine Bauer, who has spearheaded the River Greenway Project since its inception, said she would not be opposed to a day care center at the site, though she questions whether there is enough room for one. Like Bell, though, Bauer said the village does not need such a large animal shelter.

What is most important to her, Bauer said, is that any service that occupies the property be consistent with the project’s vision while also not attracting too much traffic to the area. And though she does not have a particular preference, as she pointed out, those are wide parameters.

“If the building were repurposed, I think that almost any use would be complementary to the River Greenway,” Bauer told the News-Record in a Sept. 4 phone interview.

“There’s a lot that could go there,” she continued. “Really, the ideas are limitless.”

Lynn Irby

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — In her new role, South Orange Middle School Principal Lynn Irby plans to bring a passion for the arts along with a sincere desire to see students and teachers succeed. Irby replaces Joseph Uglialoro, who resigned suddenly at the beginning of the summer.

A South Orange native, Irby attended Montrose Elementary School and South Orange Middle School before graduating from Columbia High School. From there she went on first to SUNY Purchase, intent on pursuing a degree in dance — her first love. Though she transferred to Rutgers to obtain an English degree, Irby never forgot her love of dance and the arts in general. After being graduated from Rutgers, she pursued a graduate degree in educational leadership and administration from Fordham University.

In a recent interview with the News-Record, Irby shared that her first experiences in education were working with middle school students, a population with which she is eager to renew her connection.

“I started out as a middle school teacher, and then went on to teach middle school teachers,” Irby said. “Through the Striving Readers Grant, I was able to collaborate with some of the leading educators around the country and hear about what worked and didn’t work, and bring that information back to my teachers.”

As part of the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program, Irby was responsible for overseeing a multimillion-dollar grant that studied how middle school students learn, especially those with disabilities or who are not native English speakers.

Irby also served as the principal of Thirteenth Avenue Elementary School in Newark, and her most recent position before coming to SOMS was as the principal of Newark Arts High School, the nation’s first high school of visual and performing arts.

The combination of the arts and academics is one that Irby believes works well, and it is a recipe for the success she plans to bring to her home district.

“I promised my father that I would come back to the SOMA School District one day, whether it was as a teacher or in some other capacity,” Irby said. “I knew I was coming full circle when I recognized the last name of one of the current special education teachers and realized after speaking with him that his father was my second-grade teacher.”

Irby says the timing and the position were right, and the warm welcome that she received from the community during her first few days in the role confirmed that she had made a good decision.

Though this will be her first time in a formal role with the South Orange-Maplewood School District, Irby had been returning for years to work with the special dance class at Columbia High School.

“My first love is dance, and I was able to come back to Columbia and help choreograph numbers for the students, so I always stayed connected with the school district in one way or another,” she said.

In fact, Irby and her sister used to run a dance studio in the area, and some of the children they taught then are now students in Irby’s school.

Bringing a robust performance-arts repertoire to SOMS is a main component of Irby’s agenda, and is an area in which she has proven successful; while principal of the Thirteenth Avenue school, she brought a Dance Theatre of Harlem artist-in-residency program to the school, giving members of the school’s dance club a unique opportunity to meet renowned dancers, take trips to performance theaters and attend workshops.

“I want to elevate the arts. In today’s world, they are ignored in schools because of budget cuts, but this school district has always had a phenomenal arts program,” Irby said.

One of Irby’s ideas includes hosting an event for International Jazz Day on April 30 that invites middle and high school jazz bands from outside the SOMSD to play at the middle school.

“I want to establish artist-in-residency programs, write grants; I’ve contacted several prominent dance companies as well as a former student who became a student with Alvin Ailey dance company, and he will come back to do a master class,” she said.

“There is an incredible world in art. So many times you have parents that think that you can’t find a job in the arts, but there will always be an orchestra or a band to play with,” Irby said. “My first stop will be to walk over to South Orange Performing Arts Center and introduce myself as principal and make some connections happen. Why can’t my kids in SOMS benefit from that? All it takes is someone getting out there trying.”

Irby is swift to acknowledge that even the most ambitious plans she may have for her students benefit from the support and involvement of both teachers and parents.

“The staff at SOMS, from what I have seen, is incredibly talented and very knowledgeable and caring about kids,” she said. “The expertise that we need to elevate the school and its academics is right there in the building and we need to tap into everyone. We need to collaborate and have conversations about best practices and share as a family without anyone feeling embarrassed to ask a question.”

A parent herself, Irby also desires to build strong relationships with the parents of her students, and believes it is paramount to their individual and collective success.

“One of the things we have to work on is parental involvement, not just at the school, but communications. There should be complete transparency. I want them to know I have nothing to hide,” she said. “It’s going to take all of us to educate our kids. Parents are the biggest advocate and without them I can’t do anything.

“Parents need to feel that their voices are being heard, teachers want to know that their voices are valid, kids want to know their voices are valid,” she said. “They have a right to be heard, it’s a different world than when I was in middle school.”

Irby hopes to encourage both students and teachers to succeed, and in the process help pursue their passions full steam ahead.

“I want to ignite whatever fire they had that brought them to this profession, because they didn’t do it for the money,” she said.

When asked what best qualities she brings to the role, Irby does not hesitate to respond that it is her undying devotion to the children.

“My passion and love for children, that’s the best thing I can bring. I am going to give my best for the children of South Orange and Maplewood,” she said. “I have watched kids I have taught come back and be successful. All 800 kids in SOMS are now my children.”

Photo courtesy of Teresa Conklin
Seton Hall University’s Department of Health Services has been given the 2015 Bernard A. Kushner Innovations in Quality Improvement Award by the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care Institute for its work in alcohol abuse education and prevention and its commitment to improving students’ lives.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Seton Hall University’s Department of Health Services has been recognized with the 2015 Bernard A. Kushner Innovations in Quality Improvement Award for its work in alcohol abuse education and prevention and its commitment to improving students’ lives.

The award, given by the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care Institute, is named after Bernard A. Kershner, a leader in ambulatory health care and a past chairman of the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care Institute Board of Trustees.

Organizations were asked to submit descriptions of completed quality improvement studies and their resulting interventions, which led to positive outcomes. Two winners were chosen among the submissions to be honored for their excellent quality improvement studies.

Seton Hall University Health Services, the primary care winner, was recognized for implementing a comprehensive improvement study to refine current alcohol screening methods and interventions in collegiate health centers.

In an email, Naomi Kuznets, vice president and senior director of the AAAHC Institute for Quality Improvement, told the News-Record about the criteria for the award, describing what stood out about Seton Hall’s submission.

“An expert panel composed of health care professionals and performance measurement experts reviews the goal of the applicant’s initiative, interventions, the data collected to show progress toward that goal and the overall outcomes from the initiative,” Kuznets said. “Our panel also looks for innovation, the teamwork involved and whether the program can be used as a model for other organizations.”

Seton Hall’s submission focused on alcohol abuse and education in the college setting, a demographic that is surprisingly unaware of both the short- and long-term effects alcohol can have.

“Seton Hall University Student Health Services developed a program that addressed an important public health problem, alcohol misuse on a college campus, did an excellent job implementing activities to increase detection and decrease misuse, and then demonstrated with ‘hard’ data that the program was successful,” Kuznets continued. “The Seton Hall program could serve as a model for universities across the country.”

The Seton Hall study featured two components: extensive staff training on alcohol education and the inclusion of a screening tool into the routine health questionnaire students completed when visiting Health Services.

First, Health Services staff underwent extensive training on alcohol misuse among students. This taught clinicians
to adequately provide information to

students who were at risk for hazardous drinking behaviors in order to raise awareness and offer beneficiary strategies for reducing alcohol misuse. This training program was a collaborative effort with the Counseling and Psychological Services.

Secondly, Health Services staff integrated alcohol screenings into electronic health records to identify and provide support to students. Each student was asked to fill out an electronic form at a private kiosk before their appointment.

The surveys consisted of visual references of standard drinks, and emphasized confidentiality to enhance the honesty and accuracy of answers. With the students’ permission, Health Services staff then offered feedback to “at risk” students about the student’s drinking patterns in relation to healthy living. Counseling and Psychological Services then offered brief interventions that combined motivational interviewing and personalized normative feedback.

Teresa Conklin, a Health Services nurse, spoke about the department’s focus on alcohol abuse as the subject for their study in a recent phone interview with the News-Record.

“Seton Hall’s Health Services is accredited by the AAAHC and part of the program is meeting four standards and being surveyed every three years where possible risks are reviewed and we can see if there are any areas that we can improve and deliver better health care,” Conklin said. “Health care is constantly changing and they recommend that alcohol training be integrated into primary care, and we realized that we didn’t have a formal tool for that.”

So the Health Services Department set out to change that, adding a three-question screening tool to the health screening that each student filled out, electronically and privately, at a kiosk inside the Health Services Center.

If results indicated that a student screened positive for alcohol abuse concerns, the staff at the Health Services Center would ask if the student were open to more education about alcohol abuse and, when necessary, provide a referral for additional counseling services.

“I think a lot of people don’t know what heavy or moderate drinking is and this allows us to have a conversation with them,” Conklin said. “We can educate about what is healthy and what isn’t. We realize that they aren’t going to abstain, but at least they have the knowledge.”

Dr. Jude Uy, formerly of Seton Hall’s Counseling and Psychological Services, echoed the same sentiment about the need to educate students and also provide them information about resources that exist right on Seton Hall’s campus.

“Oftentimes, there is a belief that drinking is normal and expected, but the truth is that majority of students do not drink excessively,” Uy said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “For my part with the study, we talked a lot about the intervention that we would have afterward, particularly motivational interviewing.”

As with any life-changing intervention, a willingness to learn and take steps to change is the most important factor in the process, and per Uy, college students learning about the effects alcohol can have on them is no different.

“The motivational interviewing serves to help move them from precontemplation to understanding effects of alcohol on their bodies and their academic performance,” he said. “But you don’t enter into discussions if the patient/student isn’t interested and we have to ask if it’s OK to share information. The goal was to plant the seed for people to get an idea and think about it and revisit it later on. We’re not forcing information on anyone and we also gave a referral if they wanted counseling.”

The results of the study showed a significant improvement in the way alcohol education was received and delivered on campus. The screening rate for alcohol misuse increased to 75 percent at Seton Hall University Health Services after the program was administered. Within two weeks of implementation, 55 students were categorized as “binge drinkers” and 50 students were proposed a brief intervention.

A student survey revealed that 43 percent of students reported decreased alcohol use and 29 percent reported that the program influenced their decision about alcohol. In addition, at the conclusion of this program, informational materials related to alcohol consumption were made readily accessible to students through both community and campus resources.

From a quality-improvement perspective, Conklin also noted the new screening tool will help Health Services better gauge what meets the needs of students.

“This gave us a chance to do something psychometrically and gave us a sound formal tool that we can use,” she said. “It also helps us to document more accurately, because the screening is embedded in the electronic health record.”

The need for performance measures to gauge the success of programs such as the one being implemented at Seton Hall are also important for showing strengths and weaknesses in service delivery.

“Performance measures gauge how effective and efficient we are at accomplishing the best health care outcomes for the patient and where we have opportunities to improve health care,” Kuznets said. “Taking advantage of these opportunities — continuing to find ways to improve health care for patients — is a goal of all health care providers. The aim is always to provide the best care to help people live healthier, happier lives.”

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — PSE&G is scheduled to work in South Orange on Tuesday night, Sept. 22.  PSE&G will be milling and paving where they did some work in a few areas on South Orange Avenue by Seton Hall University and  at the intersection of Centre Street and South Orange Avenue.

Photo by Mike Lavoie
Comedian and former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Colin Quinn brings his unique brand of humor to the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Sept. 26.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — In today’s politically correct society, a white man joking about ethnicity could set off a proverbial powder keg of offensiveness. But Colin Quinn does not care.

The former “Saturday Night Live” star has made a career out of speaking his mind without fear of repercussion, no matter the topic. And while culture is a subject many comedians veer far away from to avoid any potential backlash, for Quinn, it is simply too intriguing to resist.

“I’ve always been interested in it, since I was a kid,” Quinn told the News-Record in a phone interview on Friday, Sept. 11. “But it’s especially interesting nowadays, when it seems like everybody’s horrified by it. Then it really gets interesting when you’re like ‘Wait a minute. Why do people not want to talk about it?’ Now it’s really interesting to me.”

The topic was so interesting to Quinn that he wrote both a book and a one-man show — “The Coloring Book” and the Jerry Seinfeld-directed “New York Story,” respectively — each humorously examining how his hometown of New York City has been influenced by the legion of ethnic groups and races that have settled there. His points are illustrated with stories from his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn, with reflections on how political correctness has turned a once-bold community, proud to celebrate its diversity, into a city afraid to acknowledge its differences. Now that “New York Story” has closed, Quinn is taking much of the material on the road, and will perform at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Sept. 26.

More venues may seem like more opportunities to offend the politically correct types, but Quinn said creating controversy is not something he ever worries about. That is because he is not trying to antagonize, even when poking fun at stereotypes, as he explained. And he said the vast majority of people understand this.

“If you know what you’re talking about and you’re being funny, that’s more important than anything,” Quinn said. “It never comes down to trying to make some preachy point. I’m trying to be funny when I say things. That’s what I do — I write jokes, I write comedy. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to feel, how to think.”

“As long as it’s done artfully, with humor, people don’t usually complain,” he said.

Quinn has certainly perfected that process, as evidenced by the reception his book and show have received. “The Coloring Book” has become a New York Times bestseller while “New York Story” garnered critical raves. His other recent one-man shows, the historical satires “Long Story Short” and “Unconstitutional,” received similar acclaim.

Part of the reason his topical comedy is so fine-tuned can be attributed to his stints as anchor of “Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update,” as well as two-years hosting Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.” Yet, according to Quinn, what also had a big impact on his humor was simply growing up in New York City, surrounded by an eclectic mix of ethnicities, when no one was afraid to talk about their differences.

“It does teach you the old cliches, that there’s good and bad with everybody,” Quinn said of growing up in such an environment. “But it also teaches you that everyone has their own style, too. It teaches you that people are all the same, but they’re also different. That’s just the way it is. It’s just so funny to see people brainwashed into thinking ‘Hey, if I mention any diversity other than a general one, I’m racist.’ It’s very weird. People sound programmed to me right now.”

That type of political correctness can have a negative effect on society, Quinn said. As he explained, enforcers of political correctness are really more concerned with controlling what others think than actually promoting civility.

That hurts everyone in the long run, he said.

“There’s no racial dialogue at all,” Quinn said. “It’s basically people tiptoeing around all these issues and subconscious feelings and it never really gets done. If we had a whole conversation or a Constitutional convention on it every year or something that we really go out of our way to make it a thing — that’s the way to do it. But it’ll never happen.”

What is sure to happen is Quinn’s SOPAC show, and the comedian said he is excited for it. Having performed “Unconstitutional” at the local venue a few years ago, he said he loved its New York City vibe and intimate setting. And he looks forward to returning Sept. 26.

“It’s a great space to do what I do — it’s theatrical, but it’s also stand-up,” Quinn said. “It’s my kind of place.”

To order tickets, call 973-313-2787 or visit www.sopacnow.org/colin-quinn.

Bisa Butler, a 1991 graduate of Columbia High School, has returned to her alma mater to join its fine arts teaching staff.

MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Bisa Butler, the newest addition to Columbia High School’s fine arts teaching staff, is solid proof the student can become the teacher.

Butler, a 1991 graduate of Columbia High School, joins the staff of her alma mater with much excitement and a great deal of appreciation for the teachers who believed in her when she a student.

“I went to school with a really creative group of people,” Butler said in a recent interview with the News-Record. “There was, of course, Lauryn Hill, Zach Braff, A.J. Calloway and so many others.”

Butler also credits the dedicated teaching staff at Columbia High School with developing and nurturing her artistic talents, and that is exactly what she hopes to bring to her new students.

“I had some really great teachers at Columbia,” she said. “Larry McKim was amazing and always let us have a lot of freedom in our projects.”

Butler was also very close with former Columbia High School art teacher Onnie Strother, who served as an advisor for the Martin Luther King Association club, which still exists at Columbia High School.

“Mr. Struthers was always organizing events and easygoing, and he really gave kids the space to say who you are.”

Perhaps in a sign Butler was destined to return to her roots, one of the murals that she and her fellow classmates created one summer with the direction of Mr. Strothers is still prominently displayed in the high school.

The three-dimensional mural depicts African-American history, starting in the motherland of Africa, and progressing through history to modern-day scenes.

In a phone interview with the News-Record, Strothers spoke with great pride about his former student returning to Columbia High to teach.

“Bisa was always one of my best students, and very talented,” Strothers said. “I came to the school district in 1980 and served as advisor of the Martin Luther King Association for 15 years and Bisa was one of the early members of the organization.”

Although Butler knows she is walking in the footsteps of two beloved art teachers, she is excited about the new challenge that awaits her.

“I always wanted to come back and I interviewed 15 years ago, right out of college. I knew how good Columbia was,” Butler said. “I knew they had an actual art studio and supplies and the support of administration, and it’s every teacher’s dream to have students who are interested in the subject they teach and have students who are well-equipped to learn.”

It was just six months ago that Butler was giving a presentation of her quilts in the library of the high school, as part of an art series through the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School.

“This time, everything worked out. I was asked to come speak at the Adult School and came back as a visiting artist,” she said. “I was lucky that I got to speak to AP art as part of that visit and then, later on, they asked why don’t you work here already? My response was, I don’t know, but let’s make it happen.”

As a teacher walking the halls she once roamed as a student, Butler admits she still experiences moments of deja vu.

“It’s weird walking around between classes and realizing that I don’t need a hall pass,” she said with a laugh. “It’s interesting being on the other side, being the teacher instead of the student.”

And as the teacher, Butler hopes to bring that same spirit of encouragement and expression she had access to in the very same classrooms where she once sat.

“A lot of the traditions, they have held on. The average CHS teacher has been there for 15 years. The arts are really respected in the building; their plays are award-winning; they have an a cappella group,” she said. “It hasn’t really changed that much; they still support the arts. They have a lot of talent in the student body and I think that speaks to South Orange and Maplewood being very art-centered towns.”

A well-known fiber artist whose profile is rapidly rising, Butler can certainly attest to the fact that the local community strongly embraces the arts.

Recently, she has exhibited her quilts at the Newark Academy in Livingston and, in November, she is scheduled to exhibit at both the Firehouse Gallery in Orange and the Gallery Aferro in downtown Newark.

Butler’s work is also featured as part of the Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Collection, at the Smithsonian American History Museum in the African American gallery. Thirty of her pieces from the Kinsey collection are at the Epcot Center, where her artwork is hanging in the American House.

The Atrium Gallery in Morristown, as well as the Arkansas Museum and the Louis Armstrong House Museum, all have Butler’s work, and she has also exhibited at the Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Perhaps the most important current exhibit of Butler’s is displayed right on her home turf at the Domareki Gallery in Columbia High School.

“Art is already a part of all of our lives and we have a choice in how we use it. We can surround ourselves with images that uplift or transform you or with images that limit you and hold you back,” she said. “Some of the students will go on to be artists or art collectors and being able to identify what the artist was trying to get across and decide if they want this in their space. I feel like art is a tool and has been with us since prehistoric times and will be with us until the end. It’s empowering to know how to use it.”

Butler will be teaching classes in design, drawing and art, and is excited to show her students the professional and personal opportunities that come with the arts.

“Art is something you can do right out of high school and you don’t need a degree to do it; your art teachers can get you connected with the right people,” she said. “But getting a degree can only help you because you meet more people in the industry and have the opportunity to develop connections with professors.”

As a teacher, Butler is hopeful she will inspire her students in the same way she was inspired by her own art teachers, with whom she is still in contact.

“It’s really cool that the murals that I made with Mr. Struthers are still up,” she said. “I feel like my imprint and our legacy are still there in the halls.”

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Board of Health announced at its Sept. 17 meeting that it intends to form a subcommittee to explore the possibility of adopting a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Manage program, thereby reconsidering its previous position that the village should not pursue such an initiative for fear that allowing feral cats to remain on the streets will lead to the spread of disease.

BOH member Antonio Thomas said the board, which has sole authority to approve a TNVM program, will “probably” create a subcommittee consisting of Health Officer John Festa, Animal Control Officer Melanie Troncone, one board member and two members of the public to contemplate solutions to the village’s feral cat problem, including TNVM. Thomas said the group will likely meet over the next few months, all the while reporting its progress back to the rest of the health board.

“This is not something that’s going to be solved overnight,” Thomas said. “But I think that’s a start.”

The announcement came after Jane Guillaume, executive director of animal-welfare organization People for Animals, made a presentation urging the board to adopt TNVM as an effective and humane way to reduce the feral cat population in South Orange. Guillaume explained that many animal lovers like herself do not want to see cats on the street, but ferals have a right to live just as squirrels and other neighborhood dwellers do. TNVM is the best way to control the issue of overpopulation, she said, as the village’s current methods of removing them from residential areas and fining anyone who feeds them will not help in the long run.

“Is what you’re doing now working? I don’t think it is because we wouldn’t be here discussing it if that were true,” Guillaume said. “This is an opportunity to explore a different approach that may be more successful. There is very little in life that’s guaranteed. But this is a program that has worked when it’s been implemented well and managed well in a number of municipalities.”

Guillaume explained that the root of the problem is the high number of feral cats within the community. Using a mathematical model, she estimated that South Orange has around 1,000 feral cats. To stabilize the population, the village would have to remove 75 percent, or approximately 750 cats, every year or the feral cats will just reproduce enough to make up the difference, she said. And as the executive director pointed out, that is quite a lot for Troncone to handle alone.

As for why the village’s feeding ban will not work, Guillaume said it is a misconception that cats stay in an area and reproduce because they are being fed — they settle in places they find suitable for survival long before anyone starts feeding them. Once settled, they become territorial, she explained; that means if they are not being fed, they will remain on their home turf and find food through other means, such as scrounging through garbage cans. She added that they will also continue to reproduce even when malnourished, which leads to an increased number of dead kittens.

Additionally, Guillaume pointed out that many animal lovers continue feeding feral cats even when a ban is in place, resorting to discreet methods such as leaving plates of food out at night. The problem with that, she said, is the food will also attract other wild animals to the neighborhood, which could spread disease. She said just the fact that the cats are not being fed as much will cause them to become sickly, which may spread disease as well.

Also, Guillaume warned that feral cats should not be taken in as house pets.

“Just like you wouldn’t want a wild raccoon or a wild skunk in someone’s home, you wouldn’t want a feral cat because it’s not safe,” Guillaume said. “There are people out there who work with feral cats trying to socialize them, but it’s a long process. It’s not a quick fix, and with the numbers of cats out there it’s not always an alternative that we can do on a large scale.”

With that said, Guillaume recommended establishing a TNVM program for South Orange in which feral cats are humanely captured, spayed or neutered, vaccinated and released back to the area in which they were found, where they will be monitored by trained caretakers. She also suggested adopting a TNVM ordinance like the one in Hillside — where People for Animals acts as the town’s program sponsor — that prohibits the abandonment and roaming of reproduction-capable pets off the owner’s property and requires anyone who feeds a feral cat to get it spayed or neutered and vaccinated, among other measures.

To best manage the TNVM program, Guillaume suggested the sponsor-based approach in which an organization is appointed to oversee the program and its caretakers; Maplewood is currently taking this approach with the nonprofit Furry Hearts in a three-year pilot program.

She said the sponsor organization, typically a nonprofit, would provide training and assistance to caretakers, maintain records with reports to the town, respond to complaints and fundraise to help support the program financially. That way, she said South Orange is saved a lot of administrative and animal-control work. And while town funding is always helpful, she said the sponsor can otherwise be funded through grants, donations and cat-licensing fees.

By doing all of this, Guillaume said South Orange will see fewer cats roaming the streets as feral cats will no longer have the ability to reproduce and friendly adult strays and kittens can be removed and adopted.

“So you’ll have an immediate reduction in the number of cats that are out there,” Guillaume said.

Neutering cats through the TNVM program will also result in fewer nuisance complaints regarding feral cats, because many of the problems associated with them — including smell, noise and roaming — are caused by mating, Guillaume said. People will be less likely to be exposed to diseases like rabies since the cats will be vaccinated, she said. Plus, the executive director added, residents will be able to locate lost pets more easily since caretakers closely monitor the cats for which they care, while the village will get a better sense of how many feral cats are actually present in the community.

And TNVM really does work, according to Guillaume, who pointed to Hillside as an example. In the first six months of its program, she said the town saw a 28-percent reduction in the registered cat colonies. In that time she said PFA responded to only nine complaints from residents as the program sponsor, and in each case the problem was resolved without further incident. The executive director explained that PFA works with the Hillside Board of Health to enforce the TNVM ordinance, issuing fines to anyone not in compliance.

Len Twist, who oversees Kearny’s TNVM program, said during the public comment portion of the meeting that he has also experienced “huge progress,” reporting a 50-percent reduction in the number of cats in November through December of 2014, compared to the previous year, and a 60-percent reduction during the first quarter of 2015. A one-time dumping ground for cats in the town’s industrial section has even been reduced to less than 12 cats that still need to be fixed, he said.

“It’s been working tremendously,” Twist said, adding that his program has grown to include 37 caregivers working in various capacities. “You’d be amazed at how you can get a handful of people together, and it grows and grows.”

A South Orange TNVM program would not have to look too hard for volunteers, judging from the turnout of animal lovers at the meeting. In fact, several residents stood up with signs in support of the initiative after Guillaume asked if anyone in attendance was an advocate.

Still, the board had some questions for Guillaume regarding the implementation of TNVM. Chairman Dr. David Pitman in particular seemed interested in the length of time the sponsor would have to resolve complaints of cats being on someone’s property. Guillaume explained that Hillside’s ordinance calls for a 45-day window to address issues, though she said that PFA recommends 60 days since it takes a while for cats to be deterred from an area. She said if a cat refuses to leave after the deadline, the ordinance allows for the feral cat’s removal.

Dean Kameros also questioned Guillaume on the size of cat colonies. She said colonies typically consist of six to eight cats, though they can span from two to 30. When Kameros asked about the latter number, she said that only one property in Hillside accumulated 30, and that there actually were no complaints from neighbors in that case. The crucial thing is not to place any limits on colony size, she stressed.

“If you put a limit on colony size and you require caretakers to choose which ones are going to live and which ones are going to die, they’re not going to participate in the program and you’re going to have a lot of noncompliance,” Guillaume said. “A limit on the number is a big problem.”

When asked how many caretakers would be needed to run a TNVM program, Guillaume said a village South Orange’s size would only require two to three people to oversee it. She said Hillside has one person in charge of its program, along with some volunteers.

Overall, Guillaume said TNVM is a viable solution with the potential to satisfy everyone in the community.

“This kind of a model gives equal respect to both sides of the argument — the people who want to feed the cats on their property and the ones that don’t want them in the neighborhood,” Guillaume said.

“We can try to help them keep them off their property, and it’s a humane solution that people can accept. It promotes good relations between governing bodies and their constituency,” Guillaume continued. “It’s a cooperative approach.”

Lucy Schmidt, 17, will be playing Puppy, a leading role ‘The Tall Girls,’ which explores gender equality issues through a 1930s women’s
basketball team.

WEST ORANGE/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Though it is set during the 1930s Dust Bowl, “The Tall Girls” is a play to which contemporary audiences can easily relate.

That is because the show — which is set to make its East Coast debut at West Orange’s Luna Stage on Oct. 8 — centers on a 1930s girls’ basketball team dealing with issues of women’s equality, which many would argue remains a problem today. Just as females in 2015 struggle with a lack of opportunities and the setbacks unexpected pregnancies can cause, so too do the main characters in the play, which inspired director Jane Mandel to take on “The Tall Girls.”

In a nation where women are paid 78 cents for every dollar a man makes and where the House of Representatives recently voted to defund Planned Parenthood, Mandel said she appreciated the opportunity to tell a story that illustrates women’s issues. And by doing so, she said she hopes audience members of both genders will wonder what society can do to help those in circumstances similar to the ones presented in the show, which happen to this day.

“We’ve had a lot of progress, but we haven’t really broken through,” Mandel, who founded Luna Stage in 1992, told the West Orange Chronicle in a Sept. 17 phone interview. “Women always have to fight harder for what they get because there are not a lot of things that are really in place (to help them). We make progress, but then it still seems like we’re fighting for things that we shouldn’t have to be fighting for.”

Photo Courtesy of Sandrine Dupiton
Cast members of ‘The Tall Girls’ at Luna Stage are, from left, Mike Mihm, Daisy Chase, Emily Verla, Lucy Schmidt, Brigie Coughlin and Vanessa Cardenas.

A lack of acting opportunities for women was actually part of the reason Meg Miroshnik wrote “The Tall Girls.” Inspired to write a play about a girls’ basketball team after learning that her grandfather coached one in the 1930s, Miroshnik said she thought such a production would be a great chance for a group of young actresses to explore complex characters — especially when there are so few in the theater.

“Women are seriously underrepresented on stage,” Miroshnik told the Chronicle in a Sept. 17 phone interview, adding that she is a member of the Kilroys advocacy group to combat the problem. “I just think it’s important that (women’s) stories are told. I want to tell them, and I want to see other people telling them too, as an audience member.”

While basketball may seem like an unusual vehicle for discussing women’s rights, Miroshnik said the sport was actually an effective way of showing how each of the teenage girls in the play related to one another despite their very different personalities. It was also a way for them to exert their independence when the rest of society was telling them they should be more “ladylike,” she said.

Mandel agreed that basketball acts as a tool of empowerment in the play, with each character recognizing through playing that they, too, have the talent and ambition to assert themselves, even as females in the 1930s.

The only problem is that playing basketball works much better on the page than it does on the stage with a group of actresses with minimal experience in the sport. The director said she is bringing in a coach to train the cast; but, even with the help, she admitted that all bets are off once it is show time.

“I hope people are ready to throw a ball back on stage,” Mandel joked. “I’m a little worried about this live basketball, but we’ll see.”

Things should go smoothly if the actresses are as good at dribbling as they are at performing. Mandel said she has been quite impressed with her cast, pointing out that they are rapidly becoming as much of a team offstage as their characters are in the show. Plus, she said the fact that they are so young themselves gives them a special insight into their characters.

“I find that the girls are just very thoughtful, very opinionated, very excited about the work,” Mandel said, explaining that she likes holding discussions about the play with the cast. “They really come up with stuff on their own that I might not have ever thought of. They have ideas that really astound me, and I find it very enjoyable to work with them.”

Lucy Schmidt, who plays Puppy, is enjoying the experience of participating in her first professional theater production after years of performing in school and community plays. The 17-year-old Columbia High School senior said she is having a lot of fun working with the “fantastic” cast and is “in awe” of Mandel’s precise direction.

As a performer, Schmidt said it has also been interesting inhabiting a character that has never been seen before by East Coast audiences. Unlike iconic characters that seemingly come with a performance template crafted by all the previous actors who have played them, she said Puppy has only been played and seen by audiences a few times, which has given her the opportunity to make the role her own.

“It gives me a lot more freedom with the character,” Schmidt told the Chronicle in a Sept. 17 phone interview, pointing out that she has never seen a production of “The Tall Girls.” “I’m not going to play her the same way as the original actress did, and no one is going to compare me to her. And I think that’s great because it gives me the chance to explore the role more.”

In order to prepare for portraying Puppy, the sole wealthy girl of the group who is afraid to disappoint her disapproving mother, Schmidt said she researched how both the poor and middle class lived during the Dust Bowl while reading the play repeatedly. Though she did not relate to the character at first glance, she said she soon realized that her own experience playing on a girls’ ultimate Frisbee team — which involved having to scrape together members and often missing tournaments she could not afford to attend, while the boys actually had two teams with a large budget — allowed her to understand the inequality Puppy and her teammates faced.

And many women still face that inequality, which is why Schmidt said she is proud to be taking part in “The Tall Girls.” She explained that it seems that the media tells girls how to live every day, but this play sends a different message — one that every woman should always keep in mind.

“It says ‘it’s OK to be who you are,’” Schmidt said. “What matters is the people who are by your side and what you think of yourself. And I think that’s important.”

“The Tall Girls” opens Oct. 8 and runs through Nov. 1 at Luna Stage in West Orange. To order tickets, visit www.lunastage.org.

Photo by Yael Katzwer
South Orange and Maplewood have agreed to form a joint exploratory committee to look into creating sharing efficiencies between the two towns’ fire departments.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Last week, the governing bodies of both Maplewood and South Orange unanimously passed resolutions approving the creation of a joint exploratory committee to look into shared services for the two towns’ fire departments.

The Maplewood Township Committee passed Resolution No. 180-15 at its Sept. 15 meeting and the South Orange Board of Trustees passed Resolution No. 2015-215 at its Sept. 16 meeting. Both resolutions evinced nearly identical language.

According to both resolutions, Maplewood and South Orange are looking into this as the two towns “have a history of sharing services to achieve economic savings and improved services” and as both towns are “committed to continually reviewing all government operations to deliver the highest level of services to residents in the most cost-efficient manner.”

Both towns have agreed to create a joint exploratory committee to investigate possible shared efficiencies in the delivery of fire protection services with, according to the resolutions, the following goals: providing the highest quality of fire services to residents in both towns; maintaining an appropriate level of firefighting personnel and equipment; and achieving economic and operational efficiencies.

At Maplewood’s Sept. 15 committee meeting, Committeeman Marlon K. Brownlee expressed his support for investigating efficiency options for the fire departments.

“It is our responsibility as members of the Township Committee to ensure we’re running our operations in as efficient a manner as possible,” Brownlee, who is chairman of the Maplewood Public Safety Committee, said. “I, of course, think it’s paramount that we do things in a manner to ensure that we do whatever we can to ensure the safety of all the residents of the town.”

Brownlee acknowledged that there are numerous logistical details to be worked out, but he is pleased with the decision to explore shared services.

At the meeting, Township Committee candidate Greg Lembrich also expressed his support for the resolutions during the public comment part of the meeting.

At the South Orange Board of Trustees meeting the following night, village President Sheena Collum said she was “thrilled to get this started.”

“I’m very pleased to see that the Maplewood Township Committee supported the companion resolution to our 2015-215,” Collum said Sept. 16.

She continued that the next step will be for the joint exploratory committee to craft and issue a Request For Proposal for a third-party consultant, the cost of which will be split by the two towns.

Mayor Vic DeLuca stated Sept. 15 that the committee will be composed of himself, Collum, Brownlee, Trustee Howard Levison, Maplewood Business Administrator Joseph Manning and South Orange Business Administrator Barry Lewis Jr.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Village Committee will be kicking fall into high gear with the return of its highly successful Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 5 to 10 p.m., on Irvington Avenue. The festival will once again spotlight great food trucks, live music and local restaurant specials, as well as a craft beer garden.

The festival was rescheduled from Friday, Oct. 2, due to expected rain.

Patrons of the festival will notice some changes as they make their way onto Irvington Avenue. There will be 15 food trucks this year, up from eight in 2014; they will line Irvington Avenue from Ward Place to Tichenor Avenue.

“Thanks to the unprecedented success of last year’s event, with nearly 2,500 attendees, we had a great response from vendors, and have been able to nearly double the number of trucks we’ll be featuring,” Seton Village Committee Chairman Doug Zacker said in a release. “The offerings will include everything from barbecue to tacos, cupcakes to waffles, and even international foods and farm to truck options that offer healthier alternatives.”

A craft beer garden, sponsored by South Orange’s Gaslight Restaurant and Brewery, will also make a return to the festival. The garden, which will be open to adults 21 and older, will feature local New Jersey craft beers as well as the Gaslight’s own locally brewed selections.

Food and drink are only part of the festivities. This year’s festival continues the tradition of live music on Irvington Avenue, with three local bands — Brother Valiant, Wyland and Random Test — entertaining participants on two different stages. In addition, Seton Village neighbors will be able to purchase T-shirts, magnets and other merchandise featuring the district’s new logo.

Residents are reminded that Irvington Avenue will be shut down between Ward Place and Tichenor on Friday, Oct. 2 between 4 and 11 p.m., and detours will be set up to redirect traffic. All attendees are encouraged to walk to the event if possible as parking will be limited. The village is currently working with the South Orange Parking Authority to provide jitney services to and from the event with more information to come shortly.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Office of Emergency Management is closely monitoring both Hurricane Joaquin and the preceding coastal storm, according to a release from the village. Hurricane Joaquin has been elevated to become the first Category 4 hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic season. The effects of these severe weather events are expected to begin Friday and continue through the weekend, possibly into early next week. The severity of Hurricane Joaquin’s impact on the Northeast region is still unknown. Residents should be prepared for high winds from the storm regardless of its path.

The expected high winds and heavy rains can be dangerous and cause power outages as well as localized flooding and residents are reminded to exercise extreme caution. If you observe downed power lines or other hazards please contact the South Orange Police Department at 973-763-3000, or 9-1-1 for emergencies. If you experience a power outage, contact PSE&G directly at 800-436-7734.

Please monitor the village website, social media, and your email and phone for any updates. To make sure you receive all village emergency notifications, make sure you and your family are signed up for emergency alerts at http://southorange.org/alerts.

Gov. Chris Christie has issued Executive Order 186 declaring a state of emergency extending statewide in preparation for Hurricane Joaquin.

Please take this time to review your family’s emergency plan and stock up your emergency supplies. More information on how to prepare can be found at http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes.

SOUTH ORANGE FORECAST

Friday, Oct. 2: Showers likely, mainly between 11 a.m. and noon, then periods of rain after noon. Steady temperature around 53 degrees Fahrenheit. Northeast wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Friday night, Oct. 2: Periods of rain. Steady temperature around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Northeast wind 15 to 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Saturday, Oct. 3: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Northeast wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent.

Saturday night, Oct. 3: A slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49 degrees Fahrenheit. Chance of precipitation is 20 percent.

Sunday, Oct. 4: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent.

Sunday night, Oct. 4: Tropical storm conditions possible. A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent.

Photo Courtesy of Larry Dell
Filmmaker Gerard Amsellem, left, discusses the Iranian film ‘The Cow’ with political scientist Hossein Hafezian on Sept. 13 at the first in a series of Iranian film screenings.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The opportunity to experience a handpicked series of foreign films, all directed by Iranian filmmakers, about Iranian culture in all its complexities is now available to local residents at South Orange Performing Arts Center as part of “La Cinematheque Film Club,” hosted by South Orange filmmaker Gerard Amsellem.

The series began Sept. 13 with “The Cow,” by director Dariush Mehrjui, a film that premiered internationally in 1969. The screening schedule for the remaining films in the series is: “The Cyclist,” 1987, directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf on Oct. 4; “Close-Up,” 1990, by Abbas Kiarostami on Nov. 29; “The Children of Heaven,” 1997, by Majid Majidi on Dec. 13; and “The Separation,” 2011, by Asghar Farhadi on Jan. 17. All shows will be screened at 2 p.m. in the Loft at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.

The Iranian film series is the latest offering of Amsellem’s “La Cinematheque Film Club,” which specializes in presenting important works of film rarely seen in the United States to a local audience.

An artist, filmmaker and educator who resides in South Orange, Amsellem personally chooses all the films, provides extensive background information and notes on them, introduces each one, and leads a discussion following the screenings.

He is no stranger to exploring the films of other time periods and cultures: Since 2011, Amsellem has curated a film series exploring the diverse facets of culture in Spain, Germany, Russia, France and Japan, to name a few.

After each screening, Amsellem provides a question-and-answer session, in which he discusses the cinematic qualities of the film, its director and their importance, the direction the director’s films take, and the influence the director has had worldwide.

In a recent interview with the News-Record, Amsellem spoke about why he is inspired to use the medium of film to bridge the gap between local residents and and cultures with which they may have had limited exposure.

“I thought that it was a good time for people to have art connect them back to basic human values and concepts,” Amsellem said.

He is also excited about the fact that he is able to have an in-depth discussion with filmgoers after each screening, which allows for additional insight to the viewing experience.

“This is not done anywhere else, and if they do, it’s at a very expensive price because you have someone speaking and not in great detail.” Amsellem said. “I give people articles and talk in depth; it’s really educational. The people in Maplewood and South Orange are very supportive of this.”

An additional piece of this particular film series is the involvement of Hossein Hafezian, a renowned expert in the subject of Iranian culture, who Amsellem enlisted to provide personal insight into each film.

“I thought it would be great to have a professor who has knowledge of the social and political climate, and I would speak about the film,” Amsellem said. “We called around the area and were connected with Dr. Hafezian who agreed to work with us for this series. For each film, he will talk about the political climate and background.”

Hafezian is indeed qualified for this role. He has written extensively on political development, democratization, Middle East politics and women’s issues in various Persian, English and Arabic journals. He has been a member of the board of directors and treasurer of the Iranian Association of Women’s Studies since 2005.

He has also given lectures and participated in numerous international conferences held in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States during the past 10 years. Hafezian served as chairman of the Department of Political Science at Islamic Azad University in Karaj, Iran, from 2006 to 2010 and is currently an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Law at Montclair State University, as well as at the School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University.

The prospect of shedding some light on the undertones in each film is something Hafezian feels is critical to gaining a better understanding to the films.

“For many Americans, all that they see about Iran is what is in the mainstream media, and unfortunately all they see is nuclear negotiations and military conflict,” he said in a recent interview with the News-Record. “Before each film, I give an overview of the Iranian cultural, political and economic conditions, all of which are totally different for each (film).

“Iran is one of the few countries in the Middle East that has an independent film industry,” he continued. “Each one of these films is a great work of art.”

“I’m excited to be able to bring the work of these talented and courageous directors to a wider audience,” Amsellem said in a recent press release. “With Dr. Hossein as our guide this series of films is going to be a unique event that not only explores the filmmakers’ artistic brilliance but a learning experience providing insights into the people, politics and culture of Iran.”

The cost to become a member of the film club and attend all remaining screenings is $65. Tickets can be purchased at the SOPAC box office, 1 SOPAC Way in South Orange. The box office is open from noon to 6 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. Tickets may all be purchased online at SOPACnow.org/education/filmclub. For more information, call 973-313-2787.

Photos Courtesy of Cecelia Cancellaro
Scholarship recipient Mary Okorie, left, speaks with trustee Madeline Tugentman.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Columbia High School Scholarship Fund’s annual cocktail reception, held Sept. 26, brought in $19,000, all of which will go directly to need-based scholarships for the Columbia High School students in the Class of 2016.

The evening’s speaker was scholarship recipient Mary Okorie, who is studying for her master’s degree in chemistry at Seton Hall University. Okorie has three sisters, all of whom benefited from CHSSF scholarships.

Columbia High School Scholarship Fund’s annual cocktail reception on Sept. 26 are, from left, sponsor Alison Ziefert of Keller Williams Midtown Direct Realty, trustee Madeline Tugentman and sponsor Sarah Maloney of Finance of America Mortgage.

Columbia High School Scholarship Fund trustees are, from left, Carl Adrien, Joan Lee and Jean Campbell.

Sponsors for the evening included Sarah Maloney of Finance of American Mortgage, Allison Ziefert of Keller Williams Midtown Direct Realty, AYCO, A Goldman Sachs Company, Robert Graham of Fidelity Investments in Millburn, Dr. James Lee, Robert Northfield of Keller Williams Midtown Direct Realty, Lissette Morales and Omari Frazier of Investors Bank, David Katz and Synergy Home Care, Leah Gomberg and Sweet Life by Design, and Suzy Fryer from Liberty Mutual.

SOUTH ORANGE,  NJ — Education and female empowerment were the themes of the day as the Rho Gamma Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority hosted an Oct. 4 symposium at the South Orange Public Library in honor of United Nations Day, which is Oct. 24.

The panel, which was moderated by South Orange resident Shawn Grain Carter, featured three female participants who hailed from various cultural and generational backgrounds, but were united by one firm belief: Women are capable of anything and that society must work to remove any barriers that hinder their progress.

Grain Carter organized the event in response to a sorority initiative, set in place by the current international president, which focuses on making a global impact with the organization’s community service and educational outreaches.

In order to honor both that initiative and the recent convening of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW, Grain Carter was inspired to hold a mock symposium to explore three issues of high importance to the CSW: prevention of violence against women, women’s equality and women’s empowerment.

The CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council, it was established by a council resolution June 21, 1946.

“This panel is an opportunity for women of color to celebrate the triumphs and address the challenges being faced around the world,” Grain Carter said in a recent interview with the News-Record. “I don’t think that the conversation has to be an ‘us vs. them’ dialog because empowering women doesn’t have to mean that you are against men, but that’s the way the conversation is always framed.”

Grain Carter, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, recalled moderating a similar symposium during Women’s History Month in March, and having mixed feelings about her students’ knowledge of the struggles of women’s rights.

“Many of the students expressed surprise at the professional and personal barriers that used to be the norm for women. Women previously were not allowed to have their own credit cards, bank accounts or property without a man to sign off on it,” she said. “Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — millennials are used to seeing women in powerful positions and they think that these gains were much easier than they are. We have to tell our stories across the generational divide so that people understand.”

The panel featured two fellow FIT professors, Mercy Aghedo and Geetanjali Mehra, as well as Seton Hall University student Jordan James.

Grain Carter began the discussion by asking each panelist to describe what has influenced her work ethic.

Mehra, a Maplewood resident who was born and raised in India, identified her working-class but forward-thinking parents as the catalyst for her own personal successes.

“I grew up learning to work hard for everything that I wanted,” she said. “The principles of working hard and obtaining an education are deeply ingrained in my cultural background.”

Mehra’s professional background is in textiles and production, a sector of the fashion industry she said is largely male-dominated.

“I have to uphold my values, I know that there are people looking up to me,” she said. “Somebody tells me girls don’t study STEM subjects, I’m going to do it. Little things make big changes. My family today, my neighbor’s family tomorrow.”

Similarly, Aghedo cited her cultural heritage as a Nigerian-American as a major driver in her work ethic.

“In my family, there were no handouts or free passes,” she said. “Everything you got was because you worked for it, and you worked hard. I learned at an early age that I wanted to be more than a pretty face and a firm backside.”

James, who is a senior at Seton Hall, credited the decision of her mother placing her in an all-girls school at an early age as a significant factor in her personal and professional development.

“The school was all-girls and focused on engineering, the sciences and mathematics,” James said. “Exposing yourself to something new and uncomfortable is sometimes the way to grow.”

Grain Carter also addressed the topic of violence against women with the panel, eliciting a variety of responses about safety both in the community and on college campuses.

“Awareness and education about human trafficking are key,” Aghedo said. “We also need more mentorship among women. Volunteerism is the responsibility of every woman.”

Mehra added that the education must include both men and women if any real progress on the issue is to be made.

“Violence against women is deeply cultural. I feel that it is rooted in every country’s fabric, whether it is a traditional or modern society,” she said. “If we don’t also educate our sons, this problem will never go away.

“We have to educate not just women but also their families,” Mehra continued. “We can’t just trim the branches, we have to look at the root and then we can have a cultural and a generational shift.”

The conversation then shifted to a question-and-answer session, with attendees asking everything from how the panelists would use a nonprofit organization to empower women to how they would link their local community with the United Nations.

Mehra spoke about educating women in developing countries about theories of microfinance and its application for their own economic situations, while Aghedo advocated for an international mentorship program that would teach women personal and professional skills.

James advised that she would further promote Alpha Kappa Alpha’s ASCEND program, which holds simulated United Nations trials for high school students.

“We have to teach girls to practice being fearless,” James said.

Photo Courtesy of Kristy Ranieri
Residents of South Orange, Maplewood and Millburn gather at the Elks Lodge in South Orange on Oct. 3 to learn about sustainable lawncare.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Green Teams of South Orange, Maplewood and Millburn officially launched an environmental certification program Oct. 3 that they hope will encourage residents to implement sustainable gardening practices on their properties.

The re:Yard program was kicked off with a gardening workshop and party at the Elks Lodge No. 1154 in South Orange, featuring lessons from experts on subjects such as soil testing and rain garden construction.

Attendees also had the chance to take part in giveaways of environmentally friendly prizes, including backyard composters and a free yard consultation.

Above all, the event raised awareness for re:Yard, an initiative funded by a Sustainable NJ grant in which participants earn points for following a set of guidelines to create a sustainable yard.

The more projects — which range from growing a food garden to composting to retaining storm water — community members complete, the more points they earn. And the more points they earn, the higher level of certification they receive, with signs placed in their yards designating the level reached. Residents can attain the following four degrees of certification: member level at 0 to 23 points, bronze level at 24 to 35 points, silver level at 36 to 47 points and gold level at 48 to 58 points.

According to Neil Chambers, a member of both the South Orange Green Team and Planning Board, re:Yard came about as a comprehensive way of addressing the fact that many yards in the SOMA and Millburn area are “all over the place” in terms of their sustainability.

Though many residents want to be green, Chambers said they simply do not know where to start. The Green Teams’ initiative seeks to remedy that with a detailed list of objectives, all of which he said are beneficial in the long run.

“I think so often sustainability is viewed as such an abstract concept,” Chambers told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “What re:Yard is trying to say is there are some really super practical things you can do that can have both close-to-home impacts that are positive and far-reaching impacts that are positive.”

Trustee Walter Clarke, another South Orange Green Team member, agreed that maintaining a sustainable yard is a win-win situation for everyone in the community. If one person constructs a rain garden in his or her yard, for instance, Clarke said that prevents 50 to 100 gallons of storm water runoff from contributing to flooding somewhere in town — runoff that can spread toxic pesticides carried from lawns along the way. At the same time, he said the homeowner could use those collected gallons to water a garden, saving a fair amount of money on water in the process.

The problem is that re:Yard needs more than one person to participate to fulfill its goal of environmentally impacting the community. So Clarke said the Green Teams are hoping as many people as possible will join the effort.

“It is kind of a numbers game,” Clarke told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “One person can have a sustainable yard, but it doesn’t really make a big difference. But if everybody in South Orange and Millburn and Maplewood cuts back on their fertilizer use, then it does mean something.”

But numerous residents use fertilizer — another hurdle the re:Yard program must overcome. Many people do not even realize that how they maintain their yard can have a negative effect on the environment. Chambers, who runs a sustainable-design company by trade, said too many people have been conditioned to think that a good-looking yard is one heavily manicured through the frequent use of gasoline mowers, pesticides and fertilizers.

In reality, the guidelines dictate that the healthiest yard for nature and human beings alike would include grass cut two to three inches high, depending on the month, with a hand-pushed mower; the growth of native vegetation; and maintenance through natural means such as mulching. This way, less carbon is emitted into the air from gas mowers while the native vegetation absorbs carbon in larger amounts than turf grass, subsequently creating much-needed biodiversity. Plus, the homeowners will avoid exposing people to pesticides and herbicides that could have significant health effects.

Chambers said the re:Yard program will ideally alter the typical idea of what a neighborhood yard should look like so that more people will pursue these measures and numerous others like them listed in the guidelines.

“We wanted to create something that would combat the status quo,” Chambers said. “Let’s create a standard — a new standard of awesomeness for yards in this area so people will see it and go ‘I like that more than what I have right now, and I want to switch over.’”

The re:Yard program is not just for sustainability newcomers though. In fact Chambers and Clarke, a longtime vegetable
gardener, both said they have learned a lot while researching what to include in the guidelines, such as the effects of invasive species and how to calculate one’s carbon footprint. And they are not the only ones.

Maplewood Green Team Co-Chairwoman Sheila Baker Gujral already composts and uses a push mower, but she said she never realized just how much else she could be doing. Gujral, who was not involved in writing the guidelines, said she has already registered for the program and is looking forward to discovering what other actions she can take to make her yard more sustainable.

“I’d be very interested in actually transforming my yard into something different that would require less water and upkeep as a traditional lawn does,” Gujral told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “I want to learn from this program how I can do that, and I want to see what other people can do. We can learn from each other’s experiences.”

Gujral said she knew of several residents who signed up for the program even before the launch event, and there may soon be even more participants. According to Chambers, Irvington and Montclair have both expressed an interest in joining re:Yard. Gujral said she has also spoken to a few West Orange residents who said they would love to have the program in their town as well.

Whether those communities follow through remains to be seen, but Millburn Green Team member Claudia Thornton said any expansion of the initiative would be welcome — individuals from outside townships are even invited to sign up. That is because the environment needs all the help it can get, Thornton said.

And the only way it can get it is if people are taught how to treat nature properly, which Thornton said is exactly what re:Yard was developed to do.

“It’s all about education,” Thornton told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “If we can connect all the communities one by one and we all learn and start participating, we’ll make a better world.

“It just takes a little bit of willingness to care and change,” she added. “It can be infectious once you learn about it and change your ways and see you have a better garden for it.”

To learn more about re:Yard or to sign up for the program, visit www.reyard.org.

Photo Courtesy of Laurie Pine
Seton Hall University Chorus director Jason Tramm, sitting at the piano, rehearses with SHU students, from left, Gabriella Markey, Erin Smith, Augustine Glazov, Sister Mathilda DeLucy and Devin McGuire for their choral performance ‘A Prayer for Peace’ at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 17.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Everyone knows that practice is the way to get to Carnegie Hall. But three local residents will soon be taking the literal way to the prestigious musical institution, where they will perform in a concert dedicated to promoting peace through music.

South Orange residents Sister Mathilde DeLucy and Gabriella Markey, and Maplewood resident Charles Carter will take part in “A Prayer for Peace,” a co-production of the Seton Hall University Chorus and the MidAtlantic Opera, at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Saturday, Oct. 17. As part of the show, they will sing selections from an eclectic mix of composers representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths. They will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and Ahmed Adnan Saygun’s “Yunus Emre,” which is making its U.S. debut. One-third of the proceeds raised through the event will benefit the United Nations Refugee Agency to aid its efforts in helping 13 million refugees around the world.

For DeLucy, the chance to perform at Carnegie Hall is a “blessing,” especially as she has been singing most of her life and even hopes to become a music teacher after graduating from Seton Hall University. The university junior said just having the opportunity to work with so many incredible singers from both the MidAtlantic Opera and the Seton Hall Chorus — which consists of experienced adult performers in addition to students — has been a wonderful learning experience.

But above all, DeLucy said she is proud to participate in a concert meant to spread a message of peace. With the rise of ISIS and the recurrence of tragic shootings like the one that left nine dead at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, she said the world needs to be reminded that everyone should be treated with love and respect, especially those with whom it is difficult to get along. And music is just the vehicle for this reminder, she said.

“Music is basically putting ideas and thoughts into a spectrum where everybody can relate,” DeLucy told the News-Record in an Oct. 2 phone interview. “There’s just something about music that speaks to the soul of every person — it’s like another language almost. It can be used as a dialog between people, between nations.

“It’s obvious that there needs to be a change in just how we treat one another and see one another and respect one another,” she continued. “Music is just that way where you kind of leave your senses and you surrender yourself to this bigger message and this bigger power. You’re able to really bring people together into that experience.”

Markey agreed that promoting peace is an important mission, and she believes that the songs selected for “A Prayer for Peace” will more than live up to the task. The Seton Hall senior, who said she has wanted to perform at Carnegie Hall since experiencing a show there with her fiance, said the fact that each piece is sung in a different language does not lessen the impact of their messages. Even though audiences might not understand exactly what is being said in Latin, Hebrew and Turkish, she said they will be able to feel the emotion coming through the singing.

And as a result, Markey said the concert will bring everyone witnessing it one step closer to a more peaceful society.

“At the end of the day, when you perform what was written maybe 20 years ago, maybe 100 years ago, there are still these very human things that are innate to us (that people can connect with),” Markey told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview.

“Peace really is brought about by just feeling you can relate to somebody on some sort of level. That feeling of unity and togetherness is really the driving force behind peace, and consequently, music is something that brings about unity and togetherness. So I definitely think the two go hand-in-hand.”

As a professor of religious studies at Seton Hall, Carter can certainly relate to the religious aspects of the songs. Considering that wars have been fought between conflicting faiths for centuries, the professor acknowledged that there is a dark side to religion. But he stressed that if people look closely at its true purpose, they would see that all faiths share a common message of peace.

“It’s better to understand the heart of the religious tradition as opposed to what the public perception might be,” Carter told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview.

Carter said the concert pieces demonstrate this, with the “Dona Nobis Pacem” and the “Chichester Psalms” even incorporating selections from Latin liturgy and Hebrew psalms, respectively, in their lyrics.

The show’s message of peace is also made powerful through the talents of its conductor Jason Tramm, according to Carter, who was actually involved with hiring Tramm as the university’s director of choral activities when he served as associate dean of arts and sciences. Carter said the maestro has taken the Seton Hall Chorus to new heights and has especially proven his professionalism and dedication in working on “A Prayer for Peace.” He said the show is “in very good hands.”

Perhaps Tramm has excelled at overseeing the show because he is so passionate about the subject matter. The maestro, who serves as the MidAtlantic Opera’s artistic director in addition to his post at Seton Hall, said making a difference through music has always been a personal mission. And he saw firsthand the power art has to bridge the gap between very different people while conducting a production of the American opera “Porgy and Bess” in the Muslim country of Albania. Despite the fact that he and his performers came from dissimilar backgrounds, he recounted that they all connected over a shared goal, with the Muslim singers relating to the universal themes in the work.

Tramm said he believes “A Prayer for Peace” will open people’s eyes in the same way.

“I think we have an opportunity to break down boundaries,” Tramm told the News-Record in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “I think we have an opportunity to get people to discuss. Art has always been a catalyst for change, for reflections on life. I think that is one of the critical roles of the artist — to reflect on things that are both positive and negative and to foster dialog. I think any time that we can create dialog, the opportunity for change emerges.”

The maestro and his singers have already seen success with the similarly-themed concerts “Prince of Peace” and “Peace and Grace,” which were both well-received when performed in Ocean Grove this summer. “A Prayer for Peace,” the concluding chapter in Tramm’s trilogy, will be an even greater feat both for its revered venue and the fact that the choruses only had since late August to prepare. Still, with two weekly rehearsals each roughly two hours or longer, the conductor said he is confident the chorus will be ready by show time.

Tramm is also confident that the concert will be an evening to remember for his singers, and he said he is pleased to provide them with the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall. The maestro himself is excited to conduct there, calling it a “dream come true” to make his debut at the historic institution.

Above all, Tramm said he hopes audiences will be inspired to think about spreading peace after seeing the show, which he believes will be a real possibility considering its message.

“I think it’s going to be a powerful statement with beautiful music,” Tramm said.

To order tickets, call 212-247-7800 or visit http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2015/10/17/0800/PM/MidAtlantic-Opera/.