MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Advanced art students at Columbia High School recently had an opportunity to push their personal and artistic boundaries thanks to performance-drawing demonstrations by CHS Artist-in-Residence Jennifer Wroblewski.

With performance drawing, the act of creation is turned into part of the art itself, forming a show for spectators. After seeing live demonstrations from Wroblewski and videos of other performance-drawing artists, the students from the AP Studio Art and AP Art 4 classes were given an opportunity to create their own pieces to be exhibited in the Domareki Gallery at the high school, and visitors from the school and the community were invited to visit the gallery as the students crafted their creations.

Wroblewski is an artist, curator and adjunct assistant professor at the SUNY Purchase School of Art and Design. Her work is comprised mainly of large-scale drawing installation and performance. She is a recipient of a 2009 NYFA Fellowship in Drawing, Printmaking and Book Arts, and her work has been reviewed and discussed in the New York Times, the Brooklyn Rail, Hi-Fructose and the Star-Ledger. Group exhibitions include “Timeless: the Art of Drawing” at the Morris Museum and “Contemporary Mark-Making: Blurring the Lines Between Drawing and Writing” at the Alpan Gallery.

Wroblewski’s work with the students started the last week of September, when she initially met with them and spent some time showing them YouTube videos of different performance-drawing artists.

The following week, on Oct. 6, Wroblewski conducted her own demonstration of performance drawing in the Domareki Gallery, allowing the students to see the process in person, and to participate in an in-depth discussion about the artwork.

“We talked about the diminished role of drawing the world. If you think of drawing for architecture or design, we’re still drawing, but because of technology we don’t use drawing the way we have culturally for thousands of years,” Wroblewski said in a recent interview with the News-Record.

“Drawing was probably the first human language; you can still do it and make the art about the act of drawing itself,” Wroblewski continued.

After discussing the art of drawing, the students made a series of proposals to Wroblewski based on how they felt about drawing. Armed with background knowledge regarding the process, the students then took to the Domareki Gallery on Oct. 8 to create their own pieces.

“I wanted them to understand drawing as something much larger than an aspect of describing something,” Wroblewski said. “It can be a performance or a behavior or a ritual, I just wanted them to disentangle drawing behavior from all of the things they normally associate it with. An implied part of the process is that the outcome did not matter. The only thing they should worry about is the performance.”

In an interview with the News-Record, Mara Rubin, the school district’s fine arts supervisor and Ellen Weisbord, the CHS AP Art teacher both expressed excitement about the work the students produced, but more importantly, about the students’ willingness to rise to the occasion for a project that required them to show vulnerability and trust in both themselves and their peers.

“Many students submitted their proposal ideas via email,” Weisbord said. “We asked them to do a minimum of half an hour, although some students used all three hours. We had to be able to balance floor vs. wall space, music vs. no music, and also the size of the pieces the students were creating.”

Due to the fact performance drawing is many times more concerned with the process of creating the piece than the actual finished product, Weisbord also arranged for Columbia’s film teacher to record the students at work. The video will be played in the gallery during the exhibit.

Altogether 17 students participated in the project, their pieces ranging in size, medium and inspiration. One thing common to every student experience is the challenge to explore what their art means to them.

“We just kind of threw them into this. We weren’t sure how they were going to rise to the occasion but they did,” Weisbord said. “This was one of the highlights of my teaching career, and I don’t say that lightly.”

Rubin echoed this sentiment, attributing the impressive results of the demonstration to the safe space Weisbord created for them.

“Ellen really created an opportunity for them to be very vulnerable and very challenged. The only way to fail was simply not to try and not put their whole selves into the experience,” she said. “One-hundred percent of them had a great time, and we’re expecting that this will open them up to greater possibilities.”

The students’ artwork will be on display in the Domareki Gallery at CHS through Oct. 23.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — More than 75 seniors attended the second Senior Citizens Forum on Sunday, Oct. 11, to hear from village officials on progress being made to enhance senior services and to participate in various workshops to give input on what they would like to see improved. Discount cards for seniors were also distributed to attendees.

The forum was hosted by the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee.

Mary Whithed

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Performing Arts Center recently announced that Mary Whithed has been appointed as director of development. Formerly the director of audience services, Whithed has been on the SOPAC staff for the past five years.

The Maplewood resident has always had a love for the performing arts, according to a release from SOPAC. She has worked for nonprofit arts organizations around the nation, including at Lobero Stage Company in Santa Barbara, Ballet Tech in New York City and Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston. She worked for the education department at New Jersey Performing Arts Center before she began her tenure at SOPAC in 2010.

Whithed hails from New Hampshire and received her B.A. in theater from Hampshire College. She continued her education at Keene State College where she earned an M.Ed.

Whithed brings an eclectic and diverse background to SOPAC. In 2013, she traveled to Ghana for a monthlong volunteer position through Global Volunteer Network, and worked with students in grades one through three in Abokobi, a village approximately 25 miles northwest of Accra.

Her interest in writing led to two items that bear her name in the Library of Congress. One, a Storycorps interview she recorded with her family in 2014. The other is a book she worked on in 2005 celebrating the Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, N.H., where she spent many summers.

“This is such an exciting time for the South Orange Performing Arts Center. We are realizing the vision of SOPAC as a cultural destination known for variety and excellence in programming, a warm and welcoming customer experience, and the amazing intimacy that brings you face-to-face with incredible artists. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.” Whithed said in the release.

South Orange resident Celina Herrero will fill Whithed’s former position as director of audience services. She has volunteered for many South Orange committees and events and her commitment to South Orange has led her to serve as secretary of the South Orange Village Center Alliance. A Florida native, Herrero relocated to South Orange in 2006. Herrero’s experience has primarily been within marketing and management fields. She worked as marketing manager of Verifone Inc. in Miami and was an event-marketing manager for Chase Marketing Group, also located in Miami. Herrero shifted gears when she moved to New Jersey where she helped create and manage Sparkhouse Toys in South Orange.

“We are so lucky to have SOPAC here in our community and I am very excited to have joined the team,” Herrero said in the release. “I look forward to continuing and growing the tradition of excellent customer service and hope that my passion for South Orange will be evident in all of our audience experiences.”

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The Essex County Tax Board has ordered both Maplewood and South Orange to undergo a property revaluation in 2016, though the two towns hope to pursue a more cost-effective alternative.

South Orange Trustee Howard Levison confirmed to the News-Record in an Oct. 17 email that the Tax Board told the two communities that they will need to perform a revaluation, though they are still waiting to receive official letters. If they are sent, he said both communities will propose conducting a reassessment with 100-percent review, which he described as being almost the same thing as a revaluation but at a lesser expense.

Additionally, Levison said South Orange is preparing a Request for Proposals on behalf of both towns to find an outside firm to conduct the inspections in both communities under one contract, which he said could be less expensive. Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca explained in an Oct. 16 email that the cost will be split based on the number of properties in each town.

DeLuca said the home inspections — either for a revaluation or a reassessment with 100-percent review — will take place after the first quarter of 2016, with new property values taking effect Jan. 1, 2017.

The mayor added that every home will be inspected, including interiors. According to the Essex County Tax Board website, revaluation inspectors take note of all factors relative to a property’s true market value, including the type of interior walls, the number of bathrooms, the percentage of finished attic and basement areas, and the building size. Homeowners are encouraged to alert inspectors to anything they believe will affect the market value.

The website also states that property owners unsatisfied with a revaluation finding can arrange for a personal informal hearing with a representative of the revaluation firm to discuss the new values. If the dispute is not resolved before the tax-list filing and certification on Jan. 10, property owners can also appeal to the Tax Board on or before April 1.

The upcoming revaluation was ordered as a result of both towns’ assessed property values differing from market values. Levison said the village’s ratio has fallen below 85 percent, while DeLuca said home sales in Maplewood are above assessed values by an “increasing amount.” The mayor and the trustee agreed that getting up-to-date property values is essential for determining the allocation of costs for the communities’ joint school board

Previous revaluations took place in Maplewood in 2010 and in South Orange in 2008. More recently, Maplewood undertook a regular property reassessment — as opposed to one with 100-percent review — in 2012, and South Orange underwent a reassessment in 2011. According to the Tax Board website, the difference between a revaluation and reassessment is that a revaluation involves the inspection of both interiors and exteriors and is usually conducted by an outside vendor.

WEST ORANGE / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The eastbound lanes of South Orange Avenue between Cherry Lane/Brookside Drive and Wyoming Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic from Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 a.m. to Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m. The eastbound lane closures are necessary so the road can be repaved, according to a release from the county. The westbound lanes will remain open. This is part of the ongoing $30 million federally-funded project to flatten the curves in the road, enhance motor vehicle safety and improve storm drainage.

“Closing South Orange Avenue will be an inconvenience for motorists traveling to work or school or going about their daily business. However, it must be done to maximize safety for drivers, pedestrians and construction crews,” County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said in the release. “We ask motorists to follow our detour, plan alternate routes and give themselves additional time to travel. We appreciate the public’s cooperation and look forward to a new and improved South Orange Avenue.”

During the road closure, motor vehicles traveling eastbound on South Orange Avenue will be detoured north on Cherry Lane to east on Northfield Avenue to south on Wyoming Avenue before returning to South Orange Avenue. The westbound lanes of South Orange Avenue will remain open and there will be no detour.

Photos Courtesy of Noelle Deihl-Harteveld

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Cougar S.C. Wildcats GU12 soccer team of South Orange-Maplewood did not let the chilly weather hold them back this weekend. They earned two wins with a 4-3 victory over the Summit S.C. Comets on Oct. 17, and a 2-1 victory over the Metuchen Travel S.C. Lightning Speed on Oct. 18. The team is coached by Vlad Stelmak, Billy Ordower and trainer Danny Smith. Top, Cassandra Ratkevich keeps the ball out of her opponent’s reach. Bottom, Lyra Graff takes command of the field.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTN ORANGE, NJ — Joining a growing list of administrators leaving the district, Clinton Elementary School Principal Patricia O’Neill announced earlier this month that she is resigning her post.

O’Neill told the News-Record via email last week that she was leaving due to “personal reasons.”

“For me, spending more time with those I love especially now is a priority and the catalyst for my decision,” O’Neill said.

To further explain her decision to leave Clinton, O’Neill quoted Harvard professor and physician Dr. Anthony Komaroff, who said: “For me, happiness has always boiled down to four things. First is productivity at a task that I think helps others — things I can count and that I am responsible for.

The other three: learning more about the things that interest me most, having fun and spending time with those I love. Each of these things takes time. Therefore they all compete for that time. I think it’s fair to say that, for me, ‘productivity’ has won the contest during most of my career. Recently, however, I decided to give more time to the other three.”

O’Neill has been part of the SOMSD for nearly 20 years, teaching at the elementary school level from September 1997 through June 2002, teaching at the middle school level from September 2002 through June 2007, and then serving as Clinton principal from July 2007 to the present.

Before that, O’Neill attended Columbia High School as a student, graduating as senior class president.

O’Neill’s last day at Clinton will be Jan. 31, 2016.

According to Suzanne Turner, the district’s director of strategic communications, the district has already posted the principal’s job; the deadline for applications was Oct. 19.

“There is a wealth of talent both within and outside the district and we expect to find a worthy successor to build upon the wonderful work Ms. O’Neill has done during her tenure at Clinton School,” Turner told the News-Record last week via email.

When asked what she would miss most about Clinton, O’Neill said: “Everything.”

“I am honored and so proud to have worked with such an amazingly talented and dedicated community of teachers, staff members, family members and administrative colleagues,” O’Neill wrote in an Oct. 2 letter to Superintendent of Schools John Ramos. “My hope is that our vision will continue and our community members will always remain cohesive, vibrant and dedicated to our Clinton kids and each other.”

The past year has seen much change in the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s administration, and replacing administrators has become routine in the SOMSD, as six schools have changed principals in the past two years. Clinton joins CHS, Maplewood and South Orange middle schools, and Jefferson and South Mountain elementary schools in needing to replace a principal. Also, the district has been helmed by three superintendents in the past two years: former Superintendent Brian Osborne, acting Superintendent James Memoli and now Ramos.

Photo Courtesy of Laurie Pine
Discussing criminal justice requirements for use of force at Seton Hall University are, from left, Somerset County Police Academy Director Richard Celeste, student Rebecca Starner, professor John Paitakes and student Charles Tobias.

By Joshua Siegel, Correspondent
Seton Hall University took part Oct. 23 in an in-depth and interactive examination of police officer protocols for using force against assailants. Richard Celeste, the civilian director of the Somerset County Police Academy and author of a manual on police training used throughout New Jersey and the nation, led the session.

The recent cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray have left society, police departments and communities grappling with the divisive issues of use of force and its application by police. These incidents motivated John Paitakes, a SHU criminal justice professor, to convene the seminar and interactive session. The session was geared toward the entire community, not only criminal justice majors. Paitakes opened up the program to the wider community, explaining that the information was of value to anyone who wants to actively contribute solutions to these recent deaths.

“There have been a number of controversial incidents by law enforcement during arrests,” Paitakes said. “The media when reporting on these incidents does not always have a complete set of facts and circumstances, and may not be aware of when force can be initiated.”

Celeste has 26 years of law enforcement experience, including more than 13 years as deputy chief at the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. As a certified witness and consultant, Celeste reminded participants that it is important to be “fair and impartial to both parties in court, and determine whether the actions of the officers were reasonable.”

Celeste argued that officers should be judged with regard to how they respond the moment they use force based on the context of their environment and threats faced.

“Dr. Celeste explained the current laws and policies for the use of force excellently, including his knowledge of Supreme Court cases,” student Charles Tobias, who aspires to attend law school and pursue a career as a criminal prosecutor, said. “His passion for law enforcement was encouraging. At Seton Hall, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple lectures from leaders in the field of criminal justice, which provided me with knowledge and skills that I will take throughout my professional life.”

Celeste’s most poignant lessons came from his discussion of the consequences for improper use of force.

“The three deadliest and costliest riots in U.S. history emerged from miscommunication and unlawful practices, and misunderstanding between the police and public,” Celeste said.

Student Rebecca Starner shared that Celeste’s lesson in use of force, as well as his discussion of the conduct of leadership and personal conduct provided critical insight into police procedures. She is currently considering a career in either the military or federal law enforcement.

“I always believed in leading by example. I want to make a difference, to symbolize leadership, honor, integrity, discipline and everything that law enforcement stands for,” Starner said. “I want to save lives, and for people to be able to look at me and realize they are in good hands and the safety and security of each and every person will be upheld.”

Joshua Siegel is a student at Seton Hall University.

SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD — Historical fiction likely brings to mind sweeping battles and headline-making proclamations for many. But history is in the details, and those details are movingly and meticulously caught in Peter Golden’s second novel, “Wherever There Is Light,” to be released by Atria Books on Nov. 3. Golden will appear at Words Bookstore in Maplewood on Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Peter Golden, above, who grew up in South Orange-Maplewood, will be at Words Bookstore on Nov. 5 to discuss his most recent book, ‘Wherever There Is Light,’ which tackles issues of race and the effects of war in the early to mid-1900s.

In his novel, Golden, who grew up in Maplewood and South Orange, tackles hefty issues such as race, religion, crime, war, despair and love. Whittling them down to the human emotions that stem from them, the novel follows the on-again, off-again love affair of Julian Rose, a Jewish immigrant bootlegger from Germany living in South Orange, and Kendall Wakefield, a black artist whose family went from slavery to affluence in South Florida, from the 1930s through the 1960s. Through Golden’s artful writing, the reader sees the Jim Crow laws of the South, the Jewish mob scene in Newark, the artsy yet restricted Greenwich Village, and post-World War II Paris — all through the eyes of these two likable and intriguing characters.

As an award-winning journalist and historian, Golden brings realism and impeccable research to “Wherever There Is Light.” He also brings a bygone South Orange to life; the novel even opens with Julian eating ice cream at Gruning’s, which had a life in the village for more than 80 years.

“I’ve wanted to explore South Orange and Maplewood and various issues from that era for a long time,” Golden told the News-Record last week in a phone interview. “I had these characters in mind for a very long time. I always knew I was going to do something about race.”

Golden explained that he wanted to show aspects of the past that seem to take a backseat in the history books. He wanted to show Newark in that era, incorporating bootlegger Longy Zwillman, while staying true to the Jewish immigrant experience. As his grandparents were European immigrants to Newark, Golden grew up hearing about the complexities of life then and the shades of gray involved.

“In my father’s and grandfather’s generation, Jews were like nothing else,” Golden said. “These guys came back from the war not scared of anything.”

Agreeing with sentiments expressed by writer Leon Uris, Golden wanted to portray a full-blooded Jewish character from the Newark area, especially in response to author Philip Roth’s literary view of Jews, which Golden, like Uris, finds anti-Semitic.

And he knew he wanted this well-rounded Jewish character to be a citizen of Maplewood and South Orange, where Golden lived from 1954 to 1971, when he headed off to college.

“To me, what was so remarkable about South Orange-Maplewood is it was a Norman Rockwell town — two of them — filled with very ambitious parents, ambitious for their children, and a great school system,” Golden said. “It was diverse, racially and economically. It’s the kind of town that encourages you to look under the surface.”

Golden was drawn to the urban aesthetic of the two towns, despite their suburban location. “I’ve never found another place like it, in fact,” he said.

As for Kendall’s character, Golden had her in mind for a long time and wanted to shed light on early 20th-century black universities.

“There were so many remarkably successful African-American universities in that era. It’s an underexplored topic,” Golden said. “And I knew I wanted to get (Kendall and Julian) together somehow.”

He found his way while reading “From Swastika to Jim Crow: Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges,” by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb.

“I read this small book about German Jewish professors rescued by African-American colleges,” he said, “and then I knew how they met.”

Kendall’s mother, Garland Wakefield, a character whom Golden said he admires greatly, runs a black college in South Florida and she brings Julian’s parents to the United States from Germany so his father can teach there. And the two main characters meet.

Although the first part of their interracial relationship stayed on the East Coast facing the American prejudices of the 1940s, later in the novel, Golden brings them to Paris.

“I was very curious to see what would happen to them in Paris, to examine their relationship from a place that didn’t forbid it,” Golden said. “I wanted to see who they were in Paris. Turns out they were the same that they were in New Jersey and Florida.”

He used the Parisian environment, which was artistically freer and yet facing the privations of a formerly occupied country, to hone in on Julian and Kendall’s convoluted characters and relationship.

“I love shades of gray. When writing a novel, you live in a wonderful world of gray,” Golden said, explaining that the same complex emotions that revolve around choices and actions today influenced people back then, too. “People see historical characters as bloodless; novels make them come alive.”

The greatest strength of “Wherever There Is Light” is its ability to compare the atrocities of Jim Crow and lynchings with those of the Nazis during the Holocaust, without diminishing the impact and evil of either.

“The African-American press at the time was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and they saw the connection between Nazism and violence,” Golden said. “The African-American press saw that the problem was the Nazis’ ideology, because they couldn’t get anti-lynching laws passed into federal law.

“It was same ideology that was stringing them up in trees.”

But by examining the thriving arts scene in postwar Paris, Golden was able to use “beauty as an antidote to tragedy.”

While he enjoys writing, Golden said the research for the novel was his favorite part. With an on-the-ground approach, Golden visited all the places about which he wrote. He walked through Paris, taking “notebook upon notebook of notes.”

“Doing the research was so odd, like walking in a time machine,” Golden said, noting that his walking research was the easiest in Paris because it is such an old city — one that has many World War II monuments. “You’re closer to it. You can see the bullet holes.”

As for his South Orange and Maplewood research, some of it was supplemented by his memories of growing up in the two towns.

“I’ve been looking up weird South Orange-Maplewood facts for ages,” Golden joked, saying that he even found reports of an illegal gambling operation being run out of South Orange in the 1950s.

As for getting a feel for the diversity in the two towns, Golden reached out to a former South Orange Junior High classmate, Karen Robinson, to discuss the challenges black students faced in the 1960s.

“African-Americans have been in South Orange for a very, very long time,” Golden said, stressing that the two towns have had black residents at every economic level since the early 1900s. “Given my age and Karen’s age, by the time we were in school, race was something on the front page of the newspaper every day.”

Golden feels that racism and anti-Semitism are used as excuses, as reasons to hate in order to cover up other problems.

“They’re the curtains that people hide behind when they have other issues,” Golden said, echoing the sentiments of author James Baldwin. Golden gives the example that anti-Semitism in wartime Germany was an extension of a fear of industrialism; Nazism focused on the beauty of nature as opposed to factories, and Jews were seen as businessmen and city folk.

“Unfortunately, these issues are always going to be with us,” Golden said. “If we’re still talking about race in 2015, it’s always going to be with us, just in different forms.

“People love and they hate and these are the cultural stereotypes we are given. Race and religion are easy reasons to hate someone,” Golden said, pointing out that racism and anti-Semitism are reacted to so strongly because of the dark history associated with them. “No one cares if you hate redheads.”

While Golden believes things are certainly better today than they were in the 1930s, he thinks society has a systemic problem in that advocacy groups use issues to raise money and therefore work to combat issues, not eradicate them.

“Our society has more investment in the problem than in the solution,” Golden said. “It’s all maneuvering for advantage today.”

Keep an eye out for Golden’s third novel, which will be set in South Orange and Maplewood during the beginnings of the Cold War.

Photos by Sean Quinn
The nine Board of Education candidates appeared at the debate sponsored by the Maplewood-South Orange League of Women Voters on Oct. 21. from left, are Elissa Malespina, Madhu Pai, Marian Raab, Shannel Roberts and Chris Sabin.

Photos by Sean Quinn
The nine Board of Education candidates appeared at the debate sponsored by the Maplewood-South Orange League of Women Voters on Oct. 21. From left, are Wayne Eastman, Margaret ‘Peggy’ Freedson, Dorcas Lind and Annemarie Maini.

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — This year’s South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education race features nine candidates running for just three open seats, making the 2015 election especially heated. But the large number of candidates may make it difficult for voters to keep track of who is in favor of what when they head to the polls.

Fortunately, each of the nine — incumbents President Wayne Eastman and first Vice President Madhu Pai, along with their running mate Margaret “Peggy” Freedson; Elissa Malespina, Marian Raab and Shannel Roberts, who are running together on the Team SOMA 2015 ticket; Annemarie Maini and Chris Sabin, who comprise yet another ticket; and Dorcas Lind, the election’s sole independent candidate — individually sat down with the News-Record to discuss what they plan to do if elected to the board, particularly concerning the issues of taxes, communication and closing the achievement gap.

With a $20 million deficit looming on the district’s horizon, taxes are understandably a hot topic for BOE candidates this year. And, according to Eastman, his ticket is the only one with the commitment necessary to make sure the board is fiscally responsible. If re-elected, the Rutgers University professor said he would continue to be responsible with taxpayers’ money by keeping tax rates below the state-mandated 2-percent cap. To do this, he said he would hold district spending to a certain number while providing overall fiscal guidance and accountability to the administration and respecting its decisions on what to cut.

Pai said she is proud of her consistent voting record to hold the board to the 2-percent tax levy of the operating budget. If re-elected, the senior vice president and group director for Publicis said she wants to push the administration to handle the budget process differently, particularly the notion that the board’s sole choice should be what to cut or whether to raise taxes, based on the budget from the previous year. Pai said the board should present the administration with a set of focused goals and expect that every line item in the budget will be scrutinized in search of efficiencies. Additionally, she said she wants to make sure the administration is looking for revenue growth beyond the tax base.

“I am committed to making sure that we have a more rigorous budget process,” Pai said in an Oct. 23 interview. “I need board members who will align with me on that. Right now, I don’t have a majority.”

Though she lacks the board experience of her running mates, Freedson said that, if elected, she would be just as committed to fiscal responsibility as Eastman and Pai. The Montclair State University professor said she would look into professional development opportunities that would allow teachers to share their expertise and work collaboratively to create an enhanced learning atmosphere instead of spending for outside programs like the failed middle school International Baccalaureate program. She added that she would also continue to re-examine the teachers’ health benefits package for potential savings and look at how the district can get more funding from the state.

While Malespina admitted that there is “no magic bullet” to solve the school district’s financial woes, she argued there is plenty to be done to save money. First, the Somerville Middle School librarian said she would bring in an independent auditor to review the budget line-by-line because “we have a tendency and we were cited for not spending our money correctly,” referring to the district’s Title IX spending violations in 2013. Both of Malespina’s running mates, Raab and Roberts, also cited this as a goal, saying that the district “needs to be careful about every dollar we spend,” according to Raab.

Malespina also said she would not continue with expenses that are not working, pointing to the IB program — which she spoke out against while still a teacher-librarian at South Orange Middle School — and the special education consultant. Lastly, Malespina said she would work with South Orange, Maplewood, Seton Hall University and the South Orange Performing Arts Center, among other groups, to avoid duplicating services while pushing the board to lead the charge in calling on the state to change its school-funding formula.

Raab, a veteran legal and financial journalist, said the district is not being as careful as it should be, spending thousands on the discontinued IB program while paying an outside company for custodians and supplies when it could have kept its own maintenance staff for less money. She additionally stressed that she would ask tough questions of the administration regarding its spending instead of just rubber stamping everything it says.

Roberts plans to look into why the state has taken money away from the district. But above all Roberts, the executive assistant to the CEO and executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey, said she wants to make sure that any budget approved by the board would be best for the student population.

“We need to invest in the child,” Roberts said in an Oct. 23 in-office interview. “We need a budget that is centered on the child, and when you do that it becomes a win-win situation. When the child wins, we all win.”

Maini has several ideas about how to save money and increase revenue for the school district, starting with presenting the state with a case on why suburban districts, like SOMA, deserve increased funding. The South Orange Country Day Preschool owner also suggested re-examining whether outsourcing is paying off, getting high school supervisors more involved in the classroom, charging tuition for the district’s arts program to outside schools that do not have such classes and working with Essex County College to offer courses. In addition, she said the district should be spending only on what is necessary.

“The first thing we need to do is align our current budget to what our priorities are,” Maini said in an Oct. 15 interview. “Right now, even though I’ve studied the budget and even though I’ve looked at the vast majority of the documents, there is no clear alignment between what we say our goals are and how we’re spending our money. And I think we, as a community, should demand that and make sure that every dollar that we’re spending today is getting us toward our goals.”

Sabin said that, rather than raise taxes, the board should become more efficient with the money it already has. For example, he said that he would look into providing higher-level education to gifted middle school students instead of sending them to Columbia High School, lowering transportation costs. The marketing and promotions executive also said he would pursue grants and other sources of revenue for the district.

If elected, Lind said she would work with the administration to ensure the schools were implementing all policies effectively without exceeding the 2-percent cap. She said she would also review the budget to see where funds are being allocated and how waste could be cut. Additionally, the founder of Diversity Health Communications said she would look to utilize teacher expertise rather than hire outside consultants, as well as partner with local institutions to save money.

While taxes remain a hot-button issue, “communication” is the key word this election. Communication has become a subject of frustration for many South Orange-Maplewood parents who feel they are not being heard by the BOE, prompting the Malespina-Raab-Roberts ticket to call for a change. The three candidates said that “Let’s Talk,” the recently implemented program meant to improve customer service, is not a “magic fix” for this issue, pointing out that it will actually cost the district between $40,000 to $50,000 if its use is extended beyond the initial trial period. In fact, Raab said the program would not be necessary if the district simply mandated that administrators respond to emails within 48 hours. Other communication quick fixes, according to Malespina, could include streamlining the district’s website and relying more on social media to spread information, providing child care at events so more parents can attend, and offering times to talk during gatherings like school dances, when many parents are already at school to drop off their children.

The board should take the time to address issues at BOE meetings that are brought up by parents during public comment, according to the Team SOMA 2015 candidates. They said answering residents’ concerns promptly after they’ve been raised in meetings — even if it means telling residents the board will look into it — will clear up confusion and eliminate frustration.

Coupled with that, the candidates stressed that holding two meetings per month rather than one is essential; with more meetings, parents will not have to wait a month just to voice their concerns, thus lessening frustration. Malespina pointed out that holding two shorter meetings, with speakers split between them, benefits the decision-making process.

“When you have a meeting that goes until one in the morning,” Malespina said in an Oct. 16 interview, “how can you make
a decision at one in the morning after you’ve worked all day and then you’re sitting on the dais for five hours? Nobody can do that. And that’s the time when they’re passing the budget line items and all of that. So we have to move to two board meetings.”

Eastman and Pai agreed that communication can stand to be improved, but said responding to each issue raised by a resident in a meeting would only make a long meeting longer, and added that a BOE meeting is not the right place to engage in a potentially emotional or volatile dialog. Instead, the Eastman-Pai-Freedson ticket touted the new “Let’s Talk” as a program already showing signs of success, with residents hearing back about their concerns within two business days. And Pai pointed out that the goal is to do away with the program eventually — after quick response times become the district standard.

Aside from “Let’s Talk,” Eastman said he plans to continue the positive manner in which he has conducted board meetings as president, while Pai said she would reinstate her office hours as long as people actually took advantage of them. Freedson, unlike her running mates, said she would be interested in making the public comment a more informal interaction in addition to holding informal meetings between board members and stakeholder groups. In addition, she said she would always be available by phone or email because it is important to her that parents know she is there for them.

“I certainly understand because I’ve been on the other end of that,” Freedson said in an Oct. 16 in-office interview. “I’ve been the parent reaching out to administrators and teachers and having very slow response times or no response, and I’ve felt the incredible frustrations that that brings. So every parent needs to know that yes, there is another person there at the other end of that communication, listening and responding.”

Running mates Maini and Sabin also had ideas about how to resolve communication issues in the district. In addition to streamlining the district website, Maini wants to add an online graphic organizer that would list a resident’s issue while respecting privacy, the person responsible for resolving it, the estimated response time and eventually the solution. She also advocated for posting individual committee minutes on the Internet as well as allowing residents to address concerns to committee members at the beginning of meetings. Sabin said “Let’s Talk” is a good tool for the district to use as long as administrators respond proactively, but called turning the public comment time in board meetings into a dialog “wonderful.”

Lind agreed with this, saying the fact that no issues are addressed during meetings is a “real breach in transparency and communication.” She added that, instead of spending money on “Let’s Talk,” administrators should get back to people quickly through social media at no cost.

Closing the district’s achievement gap is perhaps the third most pressing issue in the district. Following a complaint filed with the federal Office for Civil Rights and a report from Sage Educational Consultants, many residents have expressed concern about the marked difference in test scores between whites and blacks, males and females, and special education and non-special education students.

Eastman said he has worked to close the gap by bringing up test scores for all demographics since he joined the board in 2006, and he intends to continue doing so if re-elected. He said a key to this is implementing the recently passed Access and Equity Policy, a measure to allow students to choose their own class level. Eastman said he is proud the policy he has championed for so long has finally been approved, but stressed that he does not intend to put the policy into effect on his own — working with teachers to figure out how to best go about doing so is a must.

“To make it work, it’s going to have to involve an extensive level of collaboration working with our teachers,” Eastman said. “I’m very optimistic that we can get this to work as a process of culture change in the district toward access and toward empowerment that would include students and parents but also very much teachers.”

In fact, every single candidate applauded the recently passed policy, though stressed that it must be implemented well to be effective.

Pai pointed out that the district has been shrinking the achievement gaps since she has been on the board, saying she believes the elementary reading intervention program she pushed for has been a critical contributing factor. Moving forward, she said she hopes to see a better delivery model for special education services, further closing the achievement gap and ensuring parents do not have to fight to get what their children need.

Similarly, Freedson advocated for all students to have a strong educational foundation. If elected to the board, she said she would focus on enhancing the elementary and middle school curriculum by expanding the reading intervention program to the fourth and fifth grades while also exploring how to improve the language arts curriculum, a process she said will be benefited by her background as an early childhood language arts education specialist. She also said she would look into emphasizing writing at earlier ages and incorporating study skills, such as note-taking, into classes.

Malespina said she is particularly passionate about closing the achievement gap — after all, she was part of the Sage
Educational Consultants team that studied it and she saw the disparity firsthand when she taught in the district.

She said that the Access and Equity Policy is well-intentioned but broad, which means implementation will determine its effectiveness. And she said that the board clearly has a “problem implementing things” — pointing out that the measure would not have been necessary in the first place had the district effectively pursued the similar contract for choice policy already on the books — which means success in not ensured.

Raab agreed that leveling is not working; one student had told her that they could go into any classroom in the district and determine the class’ level based entirely on students’ skin color. She said her goal upon being elected would be to “dismantle” the current system and start anew so that no children are left stuck in a level from which they cannot move on. She also said getting input from parents and children would be essential moving forward.

“We need to hear how parents and students think we can really do this before we sit down in a closed session and make these God-like pronouncements on how we’re going to open up AP courses to minority children,” Raab said. “Clearly we’re not doing it now. We are failing our children, and we need to listen to our parents and we need to listen to our children to figure out how to fix this.”

Roberts agreed with Raab about the Access and Equity Policy implementation, saying “the devil is in the details.” Additionally, she said a culture shift from the top down is necessary to focus on supporting each child’s learning instead of only benefiting the high achievers or students who need extra help. She said there should be an expectation of success in every classroom, otherwise students will fail.

To combat the achievement gaps, Maini suggested looking at what each student is passionate about and giving them multiple assessments to provide them with an educational path and an action plan. She said the district should also talk with students about where they currently are and where they wish to end up while holding them, their teachers and their parents accountable for their success. Even the larger South Orange-Maplewood community can help, Maini said, suggesting that the district could find people from the two towns to mentor students.

Sabin said his strategy for reducing the achievement gap focuses on improving services for all children at the elementary school level. The candidate explained that making sure students receive a good education upon starting school and that they are reading at the correct grade level will put them on the right track for academic success down the road.

“Maplewood and South Orange is an area where everybody is accepted and everybody is part of the community, but I will say — as far as the delivery of services in the school system is concerned — it’s trying but it’s not hitting the mark,” Sabin said. “We need to make sure that we can change that and have everybody at the table.”

As a consultant specializing in increasing diversity in the workplace, Lind is especially interested in the racial achievement gap; she said the district really needs to address the “unconscious biases” of administrators and teachers, saying that everyone unknowingly has biases against people who are different and, within the school district, that behavior results in the gap. To correct this, she said people must acknowledge their biases through cultural competency training and similar initiatives in order to then consciously ignore them and provide the best help possible to students.

“Difference is real, and it’s valuable and it’s what will lead us to better learning and innovation,” Lind said. “We need to be able to celebrate difference and also manage behaviors and attitudes where difference leads to deferential treatment.”

Remember, the South Orange and Maplewood BOE election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. With nine candidates running for only three seats, residents are encouraged to choose carefully and participate in this election by casting their ballot.

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The principal and PTA presidents of Seth Boyden Demonstration School in Maplewood have decided that the elementary school will not celebrate Halloween this year, a move that has drawn some controversy on a local and national level.

In a letter sent home to parents on Oct. 12, Principal Mark Quiles and PTA Co-Presidents Amelia Riekenberg and Donna Upton said in-school Halloween activities would not take place on Friday, Oct. 30, in an effort to accommodate the feelings of all children. They explained that last year 120 students — or 20 percent of the school’s population — chose not to take place in the holiday festivities. Since the school values inclusion and respect for all, they said they believe not holding the annual celebration would be best for everyone.

“As we all know, one of the strengths of Seth Boyden is that we are such a diverse community, with many cultures represented, and that we truly value each one,” the letter read. “In the past, in-school celebrations of Halloween have made many of our students feel left out.

“As a result, after careful consideration and deliberation, we have decided not to hold in-school Halloween activities on Friday, Oct. 30,” the letter read.

In a statement to the News-Record, Riekenberg clarified that her reasoning for not celebrating Halloween actually had nothing to do with “diversity” in itself, nor did her decision come as a result of parent complaints — in fact, she said she received none. The PTA co-president added that religion also never entered into the discussion as to whether to celebrate the holiday because, to her, it does not matter whether it was the parents’ faith, culture, personal philosophies or inability to afford a costume that were the reasons they chose not to have their children participate in the festivities.

What matters to her, Riekenberg said, is preventing children from feeling like they are missing out.

“I have escorted children out of a classroom getting ready to celebrate Halloween — with candy and other fun items — and I have witnessed quiet, sad faces,” Riekenberg said. “And I have seen tears from children who don’t have a costume or whose mom/dad/guardian cannot come to school like the other parents because he or she cannot take off from work.

“The child who comes to school with the opt-out form filled in by his or her family, most often, knows only that he or she is being excluded from something that looks fun,” she said. “And this is what matters to me. I want every child to feel valued. No child should feel left out in his or her own school.”

Riekenberg pointed out that Seth Boyden students who want to celebrate Halloween will have ample opportunity to trick or treat and attend holiday parties in Maplewood and South Orange on their own time. School district spokeswoman Suzanne Turner also said in an Oct. 23 email to the News-Record that the school did host a general fall celebration of its own — a Harvest Festival on Oct. 17 — that featured a cupcake-decorating contest, pumpkin painting, face painting, pony rides and a bounce house. Meanwhile, Turner said the district’s five other elementary schools will celebrate Halloween as planned.

And unlike last year — when Quiles announced his intention not to celebrate Halloween at Seth Boyden, only to have his decision reversed by then-acting Superintendent of Schools James Memoli amid a public backlash — the South Orange-Maplewood School District is backing Seth Boyden’s authority to govern itself.

“Given the large number of families who opt out of school-based Halloween celebrations there each year, district administrators agreed that this is an issue that is specific to the Seth Boyden community,” Superintendent of School John Ramos Sr. said in a statement to the News-Record. “We respect the decision that has been made at the school level. We understand that many families really enjoy the Halloween tradition and of course are not suggesting that anyone cancel or change how they celebrate Halloween outside of school.”

Board of Education President Wayne Eastman, whose children attended Seth Boyden years ago, agreed that the issue is restricted to that particular school. As such, Eastman said its leaders should be responsible for making decisions on how to handle the situation.

“This individual school decision is in the heart of how public education should work,” Eastman told the News-Record in an Oct. 22 interview. “We in America believe in local control of education at the district level with school board elections and local policy making. And by extension, there should be a great deal of flexibility at the school level to respond to special circumstances.”

Still, many believe that Seth Boyden’s decision was a bad one. With the matter attracting national media attention, numerous people have taken to the Internet to voice their criticism. A thread on the Maplewood Online message board has garnered several posts opposing the school’s decision, particularly concerning the perception that school leaders are putting the interests of a minority group of students over the majority by not celebrating Halloween.

“Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a bit much, which is what it feels like in this case,” one commenter said. “At what point do some people’s private choices begin to dictate public policy for everyone else? At what point is it the community’s responsibility to curtail its normal activities in order to help a small section of children to avoid a situation that might make them feel wistful or uncomfortable because of the paths their parents have chosen for them?”

Others insisted that religion must have played a role in the school’s decision not to celebrate Halloween, which originated thousands of years ago as the ancient Celtic festival Samhain but eventually took its current name as a way to commemorate the eve of the Catholic holiday All Saint’s Day during the eighth century. Some commenters said that Halloween is celebrated in schools secularly, and should therefore be immune to religious objection.

“No secular part of the school curriculum or of school life — academic or otherwise — should be eliminated because of the religious objections of anyone,” one commenter said. “By eliminating the Halloween parade, the principal is imposing on the community the religious objections by a few to a secular, traditional celebration. I find that deeply objectionable.”

Turner confirmed that the district has received complaints about the Seth Boyden decision, but pointed out that most of the phone calls and emails received were from people who are not residents of Maplewood or South Orange.

Even within the two towns, Seth Boyden parent Ian Grodman said he has observed that the vast majority of protest seems to be coming from people outside the Seth Boyden community. Grodman himself said he has no objection to the decision doing away with Halloween, adding that he does not see the reason for such an outcry.

“I think it’s really a non-issue,” Grodman told the News-Record in an Oct. 23 phone interview. “I think the focus of most families at Seth Boyden is making sure that every child has the best education possible, and I don’t see how a Halloween parade really has anything to do with that. I would tell (objectors) to put their energy into creating an uproar about school funding and issues like that. I just think that’s energy better expended.”

Fellow Seth Boyden parent Susie Adamson, a former PTA president for the school, said she is strongly in favor of the decision not to celebrate Halloween and would not mind seeing the policy extend to the rest of the district. That is because, in her view, Adamson said the issue is not a matter of favoring the minority over the majority or robbing students of childhood memories since every child should count and the school offers plenty of other activities to make learning fun. Rather, it is a matter of whether class time should really be used to celebrate something that is not even an official holiday, she said.

“To me it’s logical rather than just emotional,” Adamson, who said this was a topic of debate within the PTA during and before her tenure as president a few years ago, told the News-Record in an Oct. 23 phone interview. “One out of five children are not participating in an activity that we are taking time out of the school day to do. And it’s not just one hour for the parade as some people like to think — it is hours of distraction and preparation and aftermath. It just doesn’t feel like the best use of our time and resources.”

ESSEX COUNTY — Holding onto their seats, Assemblyman John McKeon and Assemblywoman Mila Jasey were re-elected Tuesday night to represent the 27th Legislative District.

Results are unofficial until verified by Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin and Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi.

As of press time Tuesday night, 90.55 percent of Essex County votes for District 27 had been tallied and 100 percent of Morris County votes for District 27 had been tallied.

Although the Republican candidates carried the Morris County voters, they were unable to beat the Democrats, who carried Essex County.

All in all for the Democrats, according to unofficial results, McKeon received 18,118 votes, or 29.39 percent, and Jasey received 17,053 votes, or 27.66 percent.

For the Republicans, Wonkyu Q. Rim received 13,127 votes, or 21.29 percent, and Tayfun Selen received 12,224 votes, or 19.83 percent.

For the Libertarians, Damien Caillault received 525 votes, or 0.85 percent, and Jeff Hetrick received 567 votes, or 0.92 percent.

Additionally, there were 37 write-ins.

Lastly, with 92.18 percent of votes tallied, Durkin won re-election as clerk in a landslide against Adam Kraemer and Sheriff Armando Fontoura won re-election in a landslide against Antonio Pires.

SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The people have spoken, and they have elected incumbent Madhu Pai and challengers Chris Sabin and Annemarie Maini to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education. Pai, who is currently the board’s first vice president, will serve an additional three years; Sabin and Maini will each serve their first three years.

Results remain unofficial until verified by the Essex County clerk, Christopher J. Durkin.

According to the unofficial results, with 100 percent of the votes tallied, Maini came out on top with 2,881 votes, or 17.46 percent. Her running mate, Sabin, came second with 2,799 votes, or 16.96 percent.

Pai, who had run a joint campaign with current board President Wayne Eastman and Margaret “Peggy” Freedson, came in third with 2,335 votes, or 14.15 percent.

Eastman received 1,906 votes, or 11.55 percent, while Freedson received 1,881 votes, or 11.4 percent.

None of Team SOMA 2015’s candidates made the cut this election, with Marian Raab receiving 1,493 votes, or 9.05 percent; Shannel Roberts receiving 1,169 votes, or 7.08 percent; and Elissa Malespina receiving 1,231 votes, or 7.46 percent.

Candidate Dorcas Lind received 771 votes, or 4.67 percent. Additionally, there were 38 write-in votes, accounting for 0.23 percent of the votes cast.

Both Maini and Sabin told the News-Record that being elected “feels fantastic.”

“It was hard work, but I am ready to get started,” Maini told the News-Record in a Tuesday night interview. “I would like to thank all the people who got involved, whether they were our supporters or supported other candidates, because it shows a willingness to get involved in the community.

Maini said her first order of business when she takes her place on the board will be “putting some structure around the Access & Equity policy,” as implementation is key at this point. She feels that all students need to be supported if they wish to pursue higher classes.

“This policy needs scaffolding,” she said.

Although he said there are many things on which he would like to focus, Sabin singled out communication between the district and the community. He especially urges all residents of Maplewood and South Orange to attend the education summit to be held at Columbia High School on Nov. 10.

“Keeping the community involved and engaged is how we’re going to be successful,” Sabin told the News-Record in a Tuesday night interview.

“Annemarie and I are very excited to represent the community and to represent both towns,” Sabin said. “We are excited to be a part of this process and to work together.”

While Pai indicated that she was disappointed that she was the sole member of her slate to be elected, she is ready to continue serving the two towns.

“I look forward to working with Dr. Ramos to ensure the successful implementation of the Access and Equity policy,” Pai told the News-Record in a Tuesday night email. “Congratulations to Annemarie Maini and Chris Sabin, and many thanks to all the candidates who were willing to serve our community. A highly contested race such as the one we had is yet another reminder of what a passionate and engaged community we have.”

Rebuilding our site please be patient!

Rickie Lee Jones

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — If there has been one thing consistent about Rickie Lee Jones throughout her nearly 40 years in the music business, it is that she is constantly changing. Ever since her 1979 breakthrough hit “Chuck E.’s in Love,” Jones has made a career out of seamlessly transitioning between musical genres, from pop to jazz to rock and beyond. In doing so, the Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter has reached a wide variety of audiences while establishing her legacy.

Jones’ latest album “The Other Side of Desire” — her first to feature newly-written original songs in more than a decade — continues that legacy, as residents will find out for themselves when she performs at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Sunday, Nov. 22. For this album, she embraced her home city of New Orleans. Jones said she could not help but be inspired by the old-yet-festive sights, the joyful spirit and the natural music of the Big Easy.

“There are many kinds of musics going on here,” Jones told the News-Record in a Nov. 6 email. “The streets, daily life are full of music: the sound of the river, the trains; the tubas and the bars. I have used New Orleans many times, from ‘Danny’s All-Star Joint’ to ‘Woody and Dutch,’ but this is a whole record of using the sounds around me.

“Once I decided to write, it felt exciting,” she said.
Jones listed “Finale (A Spider in the Circus of the Falling Star)” as her favorite song on the album since she feels it is most connected to other pieces she has done in the past with simple yet unfolding melodies, like “Ghostyhead” and “Stewart’s Coat.” Overall, though, the record and its New Orleans sound takes her music in a different direction, just as her other albums have done in the past. And while many fans will surely appreciate the chance to hear her take on yet another musical style, Jones herself even admitted that not everyone always likes her genre hopping. In fact, she said some people have felt “betrayed” by certain records she has done, wishing that she would focus on a preferred style instead.

Still, Jones said she is not willing to be labeled because she loves different influences and is determined to continue exploring those to which she feels she can bring something unique. Doing so is vital to her as a musician, she explained.

“I thrive on creativity, on learning new things,” Jones said. “I must do it to survive. So it benefits me immensely — just not maybe economically.”

No matter what genre she is playing, Jones has developed a reputation for giving it her all during live performances. Whether it is singing quietly or emphatically, she has been praised by critics for infus ing ing her songs with an emotional depth onstage.

The reason for this is simple, according to Jones: The performance of a song is just as important to her as its lyrics.
“The performance is part of who I am, just like the song,” Jones said. “Performing the song brings dimension to the meaning that cannot be conveyed by recordings. It all starts with performance, being in the room with living people, their collective energy, my emotions, my voice. It’s really quite a, well, magical thing. Wondrous.”

Another experience Jones found quite satisfying was releasing “The Other Side of Desire” independently. Though she said she probably will not profit as much from this record after factoring in expenses, she said she much preferred having the chance to keep her finger on the pulse of the business side of the album over leaving it in the hands of a record company. Now that it is out, she said she can also give the album the attention it needs to be successful — as opposed to the roughly 12 weeks a major label would give it.

Plus, “record company owner” is yet another accomplishment that the legendary singer-songwriter can now add to her list, along with her two Grammy Awards, two appearances on the cover of Rolling Stone, and collaborations with the likes of Dr. John and Randy Newman. With all that Jones has done, one might wonder just what there is left for her to achieve.

But Jones has a few ideas, and not just within the musical realm.

“I hope to accomplish conveying complex ideas, writing, drawing, doing new things — new to me and also maybe new in general,” Jones said. “I would love to act. I would like to do a play, score a film maybe. I’d like to travel to the Arctic, to Tierra del Fuego, to Africa and unusual islands along the coast of Russia and South America. I love scuba diving. I like to paraglide. I’d like to also help with some large issue — animals, humans, trees.
“Meantime, I could use some money — I’m running a record company now!” she said.

For tickets to Jones’ show at SOPAC, call 973-313-2787 or visit www.sopacnow.org/rickie-lee-jones/.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Water Committee has chosen American Water Contract Services for the purpose of negotiating a maintenance and operating agreement, according to a Nov. 16 release from South Orange Village. Once a draft agreement has been negotiated, that draft will be the topic of a hearing, the record of which shall remain open for comment for seven days. A transcript of the hearing, with comments and a report prepared by the committee, will be forwarded to the Department of Environmental Protection for review, and to the Board of Public Utilities and the Local Finance Board for approval. The South Orange Water Committee is composed of trustees Howard Levison and Walter Clarke, as well as the village administrator, engineer and counsel.

The underground piping connection to the water system of New Jersey American Water is progressing as scheduled and should be completed this year, according to the village. Construction of the booster pump facility, to be constructed at the DPW yard, will commence early next year. The entire interconnection, including the booster pump, will be operational and ready for testing well before the termination of the current agreement with the East Orange Water Commission on Dec. 31, 2016.

HDR, the water consultant for the village, has completed a system condition study, which includes assets such as the standpipe and water sphere, which pursuant to DEP directive require rehabilitation. An RFQ for consulting services to relocate antenna to permit rehabilitation of the water sphere has been advertised.

Michelle Tillis Lederman

SOUTH ORANGE / WEST ORANGE, NJ — South Orange resident and West Orange native Michelle Tillis Lederman’s communications expertise has afforded her the opportunity to speak in front of some of the biggest corporations and institutions in the nation, from Morgan Stanley to Johnson & Johnson and General Electric. But soon Lederman’s ability to help others practice effective communication will take her outside the United States and around the world to Hong Kong, where she will make a presentation at that city’s most prestigious management event.

Lederman will serve as the guru speaker — also referred to as a “keynote speaker” — for the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management’s 35th annual People First Conference on Nov. 24, where she will discuss the “relationship-driven leader.” Specifically, she will teach the hundreds of business and human resource professionals in attendance about how forming relationships with peers and superiors can drive productivity, engagement and loyalty in the workplace.

Though Lederman has given countless lectures in her capacity as the founder of the communications training firm Executive Essentials, she said this is the first time she has ever been asked to speak internationally. And she is looking forward to the experience.

“I was quite honored (when they invited me),” Lederman told the News-Record in a Nov. 10 phone interview, explaining that the institute actually pursued her for two years for the role. “We’re making a family trip out of it. So I’m honored and excited to be their guru speaker.”

Extraordinary setting aside, Lederman said she is grateful for any opportunity to teach communication skills, because communication is the foundation of every type of relationship. And while much goes into effective communication, she said it is most important to simply be empathetic.

“Look at it from the other person’s perspective,” Lederman said. “What’s important to them? What’s in it for them? What do they care about? Then position what you are trying to convince them of in terms of what’s important to them, and you’ll be more successful.”

Lederman also stressed the importance of adapting one’s own communication style to that of the people around them. Everyone has their own way of interacting with others, she explained, which can lead to friction if two people’s styles conflict. To avoid this, she said people should always be flexible when working with others to ensure there are no conflicts.

At the same time, Lederman said being yourself is also vital — especially during job interviews.

“Authenticity is key in an interview,” Lederman said. “If you put on what we call the ‘interview mask’ and you act the way you think they want you to act, and then when you get the job and show up and they get a different person, everybody’s unhappy. So you need to bring your authentic self to the interview, and the other thing is you have to go in with the confidence of knowing and believing that you bring your skills and capabilities to the table and that they are a valuable asset to the firm.”

Clearly Lederman has much advice to give, enough to fill four books, numerous speeches, multiple training and coaching sessions and many appearances in the national media. But even she said it is impossible to be a perfect communicator. In fact, though she has received extensive training en route to becoming a communications expert — in addition to picking up a lot during her years working in finance, when she would often be the only woman trying to communicate with a room full of men — she said that she is always learning new ways to improve her own brand and message.

Still, Lederman said being the best communicator goes a long way in helping a person’s professional and personal lives. Looking back at her own past relationships, she recalled getting into a lot of arguments with her significant others, believing at the time that conflict was good because communication came out of it. Now that she knows what effective communication truly is, she said her marriage is a completely different story.

“I’ve actually never had a fight with my husband, and we’ve been married over 11 years,” Lederman said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t disagree, it just means we know how to talk through it. Even just communicating ‘I’m cranky’ makes a difference.”

Having established herself as a successful communications expert, Lederman now wants to make a difference philanthropically. Her book “Heroes Get Hired,” which explains how soldiers can leverage the skills they learned in the military to find employment after serving, is free to all veterans and their spouses.

Plus, once she gets home from Hong Kong, the six-year South Orange resident said she is planning on offering her services to the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education, considering that many parents have criticized the board for not being communicative.

Aside from that, Lederman said she hopes to continue giving back to her community moving forward, which she pointed out is an excellent way of becoming a better communicator.

“You’re always networking and you’re always building relationships,” Lederman said. “And for me, there are no stronger relationships than the ones in the community in which you are living and raising your family.”

What made a big difference in Lederman’s life was simply growing up in West Orange. She said she is proud to be a product of the township’s public school system from kindergarten all the way through high school, where she was part of the Class of 1989. It was the education with which she was provided during that time that put her on the path to becoming the person she is today, she said.

“West Orange was a place I thought was supportive,” Lederman said. “It had options. I took a public speaking class in my junior year. I took accounting in my junior and senior years. I was the editor for the literary magazine for the school. So it really gave me opportunities to test out those things that I later applied in life.”

To learn more about Lederman, visit www.michelletillislederman.com.

Photos by Shanee Frazier
Pictured above is the Reservoir Restaurant in South Orange, where generations of people have gone to experience classic Italian cuisine and some great pizza.

Photos by Shanee Frazier
Pictured above is the Reservoir Restaurant in South Orange, where generations of people have gone to experience classic Italian cuisine and some great pizza.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Beloved South Orange favorite Reservoir Restaurant is celebrating its 80th anniversary of providing the community with delicious Italian cuisine and a welcoming atmosphere in which to enjoy it.

“My grandmother, Vincenza Agnellino, started this restaurant in 1935 when she was a widow and had six children,” current owner Bill Agnellino said in a phone interview with the News-Record. “And she was able to put that together and do it well and over the years it kept evolving.”

Reservoir Restaurant was originally located on the corner of 14th Street and 9th Avenue in Newark, and was named for the reservoir located across the street from the restaurant. At that time, the 14th ward of Newark was a bustling, Italian-dominated neighborhood of bakeries, Italian specialty shops and markets.

As time progressed and the neighborhood changed, the Agnellinos decided that a new space was necessary in order to accommodate the growing popularity of the restaurant.

“My grandmother passed in 1955, and my father and his brother left the neighborhood because they were looking to expand and found a space,” Agnellino said.

So Reservoir Restaurant pulled up its Newark roots and relocated to South Orange in 1965, where is has remained for 50 years.

Although the restaurant is on a new block, fans of its food can rest assured that the dedication to thoughtful and well-prepared dishes remains the same.

“We still have a lot of the same pans and use the same products that my grandmother did when she started the restaurant,” Agnellino said. “We call it comfort food because we give large portions and it sticks to your ribs.”

One of Reservoir’s many claims to fame is its reputation as the “home of the original pizza pie,” according to Agnellino.

Agnellino fondly recalls that when they first started making pizza in the old days, they didn’t have pizza boxes — instead they used white butcher paper, folded and tied.

“It evolved to pizza when people started putting cheese on the tomato pies,” Agnellino said.

Though Reservoir’s location has changed since its earliest days, its commitment to providing a memorable dining experience for its patrons has never wavered.

“We had a great experience at Reservoir. Our waitress was very nice, and the food came out quickly was delicious,” Seton Hall University student Heather Keith told the News-Record. “As a self-declared pizza connoisseur, I feel confident in saying that this pizza definitely lived up to my standards.”

The restaurant remains very popular with the college crowd, attracting a number of Seton Hall University students looking to enjoy a well-made Italian dish.

“They have great food in a busy atmosphere and yet they still manage to have quick and friendly service,” Seton Hall junior Julia Beyer said.

Bill Agnellino and his sister, Barbara Cammarata, have been running the restaurant since the early 1990s, and he says that, although they have expand ed the menu over the years, they will always remain true to their grandmother’s original recipes.

“We increased the menu to include healthy dishes like more chicken and seafood dishes,” he said.

“We have a lot of regular customers in the area, and South Orange is making some great changes,” Agnellino continued. “We look forward to meeting a lot of the new people coming in, between the new buildings going up and the people commuting from New York.”

You can sample Reservoir’s 80-year-old recipes for yourself at 106 W. South Orange Ave. in South Orange.

Photo by Yael Katzwer
Seton Hall University professor Mark Molesky, right, shows an engrossed audience where some fault lines in the Atlantic Ocean lie; however, scientists do not know which fault line is actually responsible for the 1755 earthquake that leveled Lisbon, Portugal.

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Though the 1755 earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, Portugal, hit almost exactly 260 years ago, the world is still feeling the aftershocks today.

Seton Hall University professor Mark Molesky details the apocalyptic destruction brought by the Lisbon earthquake, as well as the responses and effects that truly changed the world, in his new book, “This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason.”

Molesky presented his research and introduced his book at a Seton Hall lecture on Nov. 19 to the students, colleagues and friends gathered.

In his masterpiece of nonfiction, Molesky chronicles the effects of the 1755 cataclysm that unleashed a triple-whammy of earthquake, tsunami and firestorm that destroyed Lisbon, then one of Europe’s cultural and commercial hubs.

“Lisbon in 1755 wasn’t the European backwater it is today, but was a premier European city,” Molesky said.

The earthquake, which hit on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, 1755, is believed to have been a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. According to Molesky, the Lisbon earthquake was 1,000 times more powerful than the 2010 Haitian earthquake and three times more powerful than the Krakatoan eruption.

“It is unquestionably one of the strongest earthquakes to hit in human history,” Molesky said during his lecture, explaining that, while scientists are unsure which fault line is to blame, some believe there were several fault lines involved, triggered by the initial fault-line blowup.

This earthquake then unleashed a tsunami that rushed up the Tagus River, sweeping hundreds of Lisboetas into the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, the earthquake and resulting tidal pattern was so strong that there were reports of rising tides across the Atlantic in the Americas; the disaster is believed to have caused deaths on four continents.

Then, after Lisbon had already suffered greatly, that which remained in the center of the city was destroyed by a firestorm, likely caused in part by all the candles lit for All Saints Day. The firestorm, which burned in excess of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, burned in parts of the city for weeks. In his lecture, Molesky humbly offered that his contribution to scholarship in this area is his identification of the destruction as a firestorm, rather than just a large conflagration. Unlike a typical out-of-control fire, a firestorm draws in air creating its own self-sustaining wind system.

Beyond the destruction of a once-thriving capital city, the earthquake affected the world around it, spurring the first international humanitarian aid campaign; cementing Portugal’s alliance with Great Britain in the beginnings of the Seven Years’ War; allowing a brutal yet forward-thinking dictatorship to rise in Portugal; and shaping the philosophies coming out of the European Enlightenment as people struggled to find meaning in the horrible disaster.

“I first heard about the Lisbon earthquake in a lecture on European intellectual history in college,” Molesky told the News-Record. “Intrigued, I wrote my senior honors thesis on the topic, although I put the subject aside during my doctoral studies in history at Harvard.”

Molesky earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Harvard University. Despite setting the Lisbon earthquake aside for a number of years, he returned to the topic while teaching at Seton Hall in South Orange.

“While an assistant professor in history at Seton Hall University, I realized that the earthquake was the perfect topic for my new book. I could use the Portuguese language that I had learned as an exchange student after high school, as well as the other languages — like German — that I had acquired earning my history degrees,” Molesky told the News-Record. “It was also a topic that had an enormous intellectual impact, which has always intrigued me as an intellectual and cultural historian, and because of the inherent drama of the disaster — with its earthquake, tsunami and firestorm — I could write in a narrative style that might appeal to a large popular audience.”

Seton Hall history professor Kirsten Schultz, who introduced Molesky, said that she finds her colleague’s research enlightening in that it focuses on an area that modern scholarship often ignores.

“There is a lack of attention focused on Portugal and Spain, partially driven by the current perception of the world and current events,” Schultz said. “We tend not to study Portuguese history today, but it was a main center of Europe.”

“One of the things I want readers to realize is the size and complexity of the disaster,” Molesky told the News-Record. “It was the largest earthquake to have impacted Europe in historical time and may have been larger than 9.0 on the Moment Magnitude Scale, which has replaced the Richter scale. It also caused an enormous and very rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami, which claimed victims on four continents, as well as a firestorm, which destroyed many parts of Lisbon that the earthquake had spared.

“Another thing that I want readers to know is that it may have been the most consequential natural disaster in history in that it played a crucial role in the decline of the Portuguese empire and led to one of the most important debates of the European Enlightenment on the subjects of God and Nature,” he continued. “The most important story that comes out of the aftermath of the disaster is the rise of the Marquis of Pombal, one of the most important figures in European history, whom no one knows about. He becomes a de facto dictator and both rebuilds Lisbon and terrorizes the country.”

In his book, Molesky goes into minute detail regarding these elements of Portuguese history, giving the reader both the breadth and depth required to understand fully the effects of the disaster. While he does not teach a class at Seton Hall devoted to Lisbon’s destruction, he told the News-Record that he naturally touches on it in many of his classes because what happened in Lisbon is so closely connected with what was happening around the world at that time. Molesky did say, however, that he is planning to “teach a course on several impactful natural disasters during the coming academic year,” which would of course include the 1755 quake.

With a keen eye toward philosophy, Molesky examines how the disaster influenced 18th century thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Kant. Molesky maintains that Voltaire never would have written “Candide” if not for the Lisbon earthquake. Following the quake, many beliefs were strengthened, with some using the disaster to discount science and others trying to view the destruction through a positive lens.

“The earthquake didn’t change a lot of minds, but it made people think more deeply about views they already had,” Molesky said after his lecture.

And not only is studying the 1755 earthquake necessary to understanding Europe and the world in the 18th century, but studying the disaster’s origins is vital to the lives of those living in Iberia today and sheds light on current mindsets regarding natural disasters.

“I do think scientists need to learn much more about the fault — or faults — that caused the Lisbon earthquake, as there’s no consensus on what fault was to blame,” Molesky told the News-Record. “If a similar-sized earthquake and tsunami were to occur in the same general location today, the results might be equally or even more devastating.

“Although modern buildings are more earthquake-proof than they were in the 18th century, the number of people living along the coasts of Iberia and Morocco, who would be vulnerable to both an earthquake and a tsunami, has increased substantially over the last 260 years,” he continued. “In short, we still live in a world affected and shaped by natural disasters. Many of the same debates that I discuss in my book about the meaning and causes of disasters and the proper political and humanitarian responses are still with us today.”

This only touches on the fascinating study Molesky has conducted into the Lisbon earthquake. Anyone whose appetite for European history has been whetted should read “This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason.”

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — It is never too early for budget discussions. At its Nov. 16 meeting, the Board of Education heard from business Administrator Cheryl Schneider, who delivered her annual baseline data budget report.

Several variables — such as enrollment, caring for facilities, transportation, socioeconomic makeup, and salaries and benefits — factor into deciding a school district budget, as they also affect state aid. Schneider reported that in the coming years, the district may need to redistrict some schools to address enrollment changes and also take a closer look at how it uses fund balance and debt service.

According to Schneider, although the overall enrollment numbers stayed flat during the past school year, there were some significant increases at the elementary school level.

“Enrollment is an important element of budget development,” Schneider wrote in her report. “It is used to determine appropriate amounts to budget in several areas including staffing, levels, facility needs, equipment, textbooks, supplies and materials.” The New Jersey Department of Education also uses enrollment figures in the state aid formula.

Schneider informed the board that, since 2007, overall enrollment has increased by 13 percent, approximately 780 students. While a large jump in overall numbers was not seen this school year, kindergarten enrollment has substantially exceeded the district’s projections for the past three years, which has resulted in a high enrollment at the elementary school level. On the other hand, the district has seen enrollment decreases at the middle and high schools, especially in the seventh and ninth grades.

“The continued growth at the elementary levels, with significantly larger than anticipated numbers at the kindergarten level now three years in a row, continue to raise questions about elementary facility needs and questions regarding the need for redistricting, both at the elementary and middle school levels,” Schneider said.

According to the business administrator, the increased elementary school enrollment means the middle schools will be seeing more students in a few years. Similarly, although the current 11th and 12th grade classes are the smallest grades in the district right now, those numbers will burgeon in coming years, too.

Board member Elizabeth Baker questioned whether families opting to go out-of-district to private schools are given an “exit interview” to learn the reason. Schneider said that the district does not do this, but does keep track of where the students are going.

“I hear about a lot of students whose parents don’t feel their (students’) educational needs are being met,” Baker said at the meeting. “I’d like to look to see what drives out-of-district placement, to see why they’re leaving and what we can do to retain them.”

Schneider also said the district has seen a small decrease in out-of-district placements for special-needs students, dropping from 2.5 percent in the last school year to 2.3 percent this school year; Schneider attributes this drop partially to better intervention in the grammar schools and the programming at Montrose.

In its state aid formula, the NJDOE also factors how many students in a district are eligible for free or reduced lunches. According to Schneider’s report, the overall district number has fallen, with 20 percent now being eligible, but that number has also spiked at Seth Boyden, with 46 percent of the school’s students being eligible.

Each year the townships must face the fact that the necessary expenditure on salaries and benefits continue to rise as the cost of living rises.

As for benefits, the district recently switched to Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield from the State Health Benefits Plan, but the numbers are still quite high.

With regard to salaries, earlier this month the BOE and the South Orange Maplewood Education Association, the teachers’ union, ratified an agreement covering the current and the next school years, expiring June 30, 2017.

“The salary increase for the current school year, unknown during the last budget development, was 2.5 percent for certificated staff and 1.8 percent for non-certificated staff,” Schneider wrote. “The increases for 2016-2017 are an additional 2.5 percent for certificated staff and 1.8 percent for non-certificated staff. In addition, increases were made to stipend amounts and to support staff classifications that will further increase the overall salaries in the budget.”

Lastly, Schneider said that the district’s facilities are quite old and that it takes money to maintain them.

“The aging school facilities require major investments of resources,” Schneider wrote.

Schneider also cautioned that using general fund free balance monies and issuing bonds for debt service, while helpful in a given school year, must be maintained, as it is essentially revenue.

“Once you have fund balance going in, it’s very hard for it to just go away; it’s revenue,” Schneider said. She explained that it is important to keep these used surpluses flat from year to year so that the board does not have to raise taxes to cover a hole in revenue in coming years. “We’re expecting $200,000 less this year already,” Schneider said.