Torey J. Sabatini
School
February 2012
February
11
14
14
15
17
20-24
28
March
1
7
12
14
15, 16
19-23
22
23
23
27
28
28
30
April
3
4
4
4
5
9-13
20
Important Dates
TJS Adult Social
Valentines Day—class parties PM
BoE
Family Wellness Night – 7:00 – 8:30
Healthy Heart Walk to School
Schools Closed – Winter Recess
BoE – 7:30
Family Fun Night
Cultural Arts “Country Coast to
Coast”
PTO – 8:45
Gr. 1 “What’s the Matter” 9-2:15
Single Sessions/Conferences
Poetry Workshop
5th Grade Orientation @ MJS
Students@9:00AM/
Adults@7:30PM
Gr. 3 “Funomena” 10:30-2:30
Drama Club—Alice in Wonderland
Gr. 1 “Creepy Crawlies” 9-2
2-Hr Delayed Opening
TJS Science Fair
Gr. 4 “Edison’s Workshop” 9-1:30
BoE – 7:30
Gr. 5 “Lewis & Clark” 10-11
Pomptonian Sushi Lunch
Arts Matter Concert – 7:30/MHS
END 3RD MARKING PERIOD
Schools Closed – Spring Recess
3RD MP REPORT CARDS distributed
Thank you, PTO!!!!!
Have you ever wondered how Torey J. has been fortunate enough to have its own climbing wall? A fantastic sound system in the Jaguar Jungle? Smartboards in each and every classroom? A line up of
amazing cultural arts presentations? Well, the answer is the Torey J. PTO has funded all of those
items and activities...and many more incredible assets
to the school.
Not only does the PTO donate materials, equipment
and services, but they provide volunteers to support
many school activities and events. Awesome art,
playground and cafeteria assistants, hospitality for
many school events, the holiday workshop, family fun
night, the Torey J. Adult Social, the Jamboree, library and bookroom assistance, student photos, the
Torey J. Book Fair and school beautification are all
examples of projects that require large amounts of
our volunteers’ time.
All of this activity is generated by the leadership of
the PTO. Co presidents Karen Tom and Louise Pierce,
co vice presidents Colleen Taddeo and Janet Cleaves
and a wonderfully supportive leadership team have
been responsible for organizing and focusing the
myriad activities the PTO has engaged in this year.
Please do your very best to support the PTO. If it is
time you have, please volunteer and help out, if you
prefer to donate resources, that is also much appreciated. Either way, the PTO makes our school tick
and it requires our support.
Valentine’s Day
Thank you!
As Valentine’s Day approaches, we’d like to
clarify particular aspects of the BOE approved Food Allergy Guidelines as they apply
to school celebrations. These guidelines
represent a sincere effort to develop a balanced approach to dealing with food allergies in our schools. We intend to keep all of
our children safe, physically and emotionally,
while encouraging celebrations and opportunities for fun.
Thanks to all of our volunteers that assist us
on a regular basis with some very unglamorous
tasks.
A primary aspect of the guidelines that will
affect our Valentine’s Day celebrations is
that cards which contain any goodies (i.e.,
lolly-pops, candy, or gum) will not be permitted to be distributed in school. This
also pertains to goodie bags. All food must
be distributed and consumed at school.
This is to ensure that students only consume food while in the classroom under the
supervision of adults. Though we understand that these cards have been a popular
item for sometime at Valentine’s Day, excluding the sweet from the card and concentrating on the message will not be a significant omission, particularly since there
will be celebrations at school consisting of
all sorts of goodies.
To gain a more thorough understanding of
the food allergy guidelines, please go to the
Madison Public Schools’ website, where you
can download the entire document.
We are looking forward to a Valentine’s Day
that is as fun as it is safe. By following our
district guidelines, we feel that both can be
achieved.
There is a schedule for parents to assist in
the cafeteria and the playground for lunch and
recess duty. It is a terrific help and much appreciated by staff and students.
There is also a group of parents who assist in
our bookroom, keeping it organized and easy to
use for our teachers. This help is invaluable
and makes our reading program tick.
There is also a group of parents who help to
shelve books in our library. With the variety
of roles Mrs. Taylor fulfills, this makes it possible for her to concentrate on things beside
shelving books.
Our volunteers are the greatest!
TJS Adult Social
The 2012 Torey J. Adult Social, “Jokes –n–
Notes” is taking place this Saturday evening
(2/11/12) from 7:00 to 11:00 PM. It is going
to be absolutely wonderful!
The evening is a time of community support,
fun and terrific entertainment. There is a silent auction and the opportunity to bid on both
staff outings with students and special events
of all kinds.
The evening is our PTO’s primary fundraiser,
with proceeds supporting the activities and
grants that our PTO engages in each year.
Many thanks go to the organizers and volunteers who contribute to this awesome evening.
Thank you!
Teacher of the Year
Torey J. Sabatini School is very proud to announce our teacher of the year , Mrs. Carolyn
Rommeihs, for the 2010-2011 school year.
Mrs. Rommeihs graduated from Kean University
in Union, NJ and taught middle school in Elizabeth, NJ for 7 years. After working as a teaching assistant at KRS, she has been a special education teacher in the Madison Schools for the
past 12 years, initially in the self-contained LLD
class and for the past five years with collaborative teaching teams in the “inclusion model” at
TJS.
Mrs. Rommeihs lives in Madison with her husband Bob and son Matthew. She had the wonderful opportunity to stay home with Mathew
until he was in first grade and feels strongly
that her experiences as a parent informed and
enriched her work as a teacher.
Mrs. Rommeihs is a teacher who, in addition to
her extensive training in academic areas, is
blessed with an empathetic, kind approach to
every student and adult in her orbit. She is the
consummate professional and the ideal colleague. We at Torey J. are very proud to have
her as our teacher of the year!
Madison Public School District Mission Statement
The Madison School District will inspire
and challenge all students to be life-long
learners, empowered with the knowledge,
skills, and character to shape their futures, realize their dreams, and contribute positively to the world.
Mrs. Figarella
The Madison elementary schools have had a
very exciting and long needed addition in our
elementary guidance counselor, Megan Figarella, who was hired last October.
Mrs. Figarella balances her time (she is a parttime employee) between the three elementary
schools, doing her very best to be equitable
while reacting to the needs that often arise
without deference to schedules. She serves
as the elementary schools’ anti-bullying expert
and school level HIB contact in addition to
performing the many duties a guidance counselor performs.
At Torey J., Mrs. Figarella has already become
a reliable and assuring presence to students
and staff. She runs lunch groups, checks in on
individual student needs and is a liaison with
parents and staff. Her influence on our school
has been significant and the role she plays in
the little time she has at TJS is invaluable.
If you have the need to contact Mrs. Figarella,
feel free to connect vial e-mail
(figarellam@madisonpublicschools.org) or call
our main office. Even if she is not at our
school when you call, she will reply in some way
in short order.
NJ ASK 2012
Dates for the administration of this year’s
NJ ASK are May 7th through May 11th.
If you are parents of students in grades
three, four or five, please remember this
week. Attendance is crucial for this very
important assessment.
.
Parent Portal
All parents have received log-in information
for a “parent portal” within the district’s
student information system. This should
have arrived to you via the report card
given out on Friday, 2/3/12.
At present, the elementary students’ parent
portal will be relatively empty. You will be
able to check your child’s attendance at this
time. At MJS and MHS, however, the parent portal will offer parents a wealth of information regarding your child and how they
are doing. Checking on week to week progress, homework assignments, scheduled
quizzes and tests, grades and many other
types of up-to-date information will be
available.
At the elementary level, the parent portal
will not expand to include a wider assortment of information until the 2012-13
school year. As we approach next school
year, TJS parents will be informed of the
spectrum of information available on the
parent portal and how to access that information.
This is an exciting development for our parents and students. It is another step toward creating a more transparent relationship between home and school so that parents and students are fully aware of expectations, events and assignments at all times.
World Language
The World Language program at the elementary schools in Madison has been transformed.
After visiting other schools and learning the
positives and negatives in other schools’ programs, the Rosetta Stone Spanish Language
program has been introduced for the third and
fourth marking periods in grades three
through five.
At Torey J., a world language computer lab has
been established with laptop computers. This
lab will serve students for other uses when it
is not being used for world language, so it is a
tremendous plus for our students.
The program is very exciting. Students will
learn through an online program that can also
be accessed at home using a password to log
in. Each student will use an earphone/
microphone set to interact with the computer
program.
This program extends the potential of world
language learning at TJS. By having the capacity for students to use the program at
home, it is our hope that motivated students
will bring extended language skills to the more
sophisticated programs at MJS and MHS.
Not only that, but the program assesses at
various intervals, ensuring that students never
advance without passing the previous units assessment.
Last week the students started by logging in
and becoming accustomed to their headphones
and the system in general. It is going to be a
learning curve, but it is a very exciting process.
TJS Family Wellness Night
For the fourth straight year, TJS is celebrating
Family Wellness Night. It’s going to be great!!!!!!!
Developed and organized by our school nurse, Mrs.
Crescas, and our physical education teacher, Mr.
Gerenstein, Family Wellness Night is a wonderful
opportunity for students and parents to learn
about health-related topics and take part in fun
activities together. Students are invited to create
projects that will be displayed in the Jaguar Jungle
during the event and there will be a number of honored guests attending to present on wellnessrelated issues.
TJS Family Wellness Night is being held on
Wednesday, February 15th from 7:00 to
8:30. Bring the entire family!
Presenters include:
• physical therapists from the Madison YMCA
• representatives from the Overlook Hospital
Concussion Center
• Dr. Sam Romano – dentist
• Nutritionists from the community outreach at
Morristown Memorial
A number of other guests to be determined
Come to the Jaguar Jungle for a great time.
Family Wellness Night 2012 will be the best yet!
Book Reviews
Starting in the second half of the school year, our
students in every grade are invited to write book
reviews of their favorite books and submit them to
the office.
Reviews are then chosen and the students will read
them over the morning announcements to the entire school. This is a great way to spread the joy of
reading and give other students ideas of books
their peers have read and enjoyed.
At Torey J., developing strong, enthusiastic readers is one of our major initiatives.
Farm Stand
The Jaguar Jungle has a farm stand! Pomptonian,
our food service provider, has instituted a farm
stand for students purchasing lunch. It has been
in place for the entire year, but we recently moved
it out of the kitchen and it has resulted in a dramatic increase in students taking items from the
stand.
This farm stand contains fruits and vegetables for
students to include with their lunches. It is like a
mini salad bar. Most days there are apples, orange
sections, carrots, pears, broccoli florets and salad
fixings. Students put items on their trays as they
are waiting on the lunch line and also are able to go
back and choose items after they already have
their lunch.
This is Pomptonian’s effort to devise ways for students to vary their lunch diets and include more
fruits and vegetables. In many cases, the cooked
vegetables went uneaten. The items from the farm
stand are definitely being eaten and enjoyed!
So...if your child purchases lunch, please encourage
them to take advantage of the Farm Stand. It is
just outside of the kitchen and brimming with nutritious food. Please also emphasize the necessity
of having a beverage at lunch. Milk is included with
lunch and we have several choices of milk flavors
and types. We also have water and Canada Pure
available.
Through Pomptonian, TJS is constantly striving to
offer a more nutritious, flavorful lunch for our students who purchase it. Each year we meet with
Pomptonian to review the lunch program. This
meeting includes parents and students and has resulted in a number of improvements, including the
farm stand!
Kindergarten Wrap Around Program
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
Starting in September of 2012, the Madison
elementary schools will be having “wrap around “
programs.
The Madison Schools are in their second year of
working to develop dynamic PLCs. This is an initiative created by Rick and Becky DuFour, leading
educators and presenters, who have traveled the
country and beyond working with schools to develop
PLCs.
These programs will enable parents with children in our kindergarten to keep their children
at Torey J. all day instead of sending them to
any of the programs they may be considering
using, or sending them to all-day kindergarten
programs.
The program will parallel the school hours for
grades one through five, starting at 8:40 and
ending at 3:15. Children will be fed lunch and
will also have ample time for recess and physical
activity. The cost of the program is $450.00
per month.
For more specific, extensive information, please
visit the district home page, where you will find
an FAQ report for interested parents.
This promises to be a wonderful service to our
parents and children who may participate.
Honeywell
At Torey J., teams of teachers get together to
review assessment data to guide adjustments in
their teaching practice. This is accomplished during many faculty meetings, grade-level planning
time and the three delayed opening days over the
course of the year.
The thrust of PLCs is to create professional learning communities in which teachers openly share assessment information that enables them to refine
their practice and better serve the students.
Group leaders attended a training by the DuFours
two weeks ago and support for this wonderful initiative will be ongoing.
There are a number of great resources to find
more information regarding PLCs. A great start is
www.allthingsplc.info
This is something we will be reviewing in future
newsletters.
TJS Walk to School Day
The use of Honeywell Instant Alert System as a
way to notify parents of news around the district is expanding.
On Friday, February 17th, Torey J. will have
our Healthy Heart Walk to School Day.
No longer is its use solely to notify parents of
school closings. You can now expect to be notified by Honeywell for a variety of reasons.
Students may walk to school in the refreshing
morning air and enjoy the exercise as they join
schoolmates on their way into school.
Due to this change of use, you may wish to return to Honeywell and adjust your contact preferences and information.
Parents will be posted on various corners and
many parents will accompany students along
the way.
The instructions for making changes in your
Honeywell account are on the district website
This is a wonderful activity for the school to
build community together while avoiding automobiles for the morning.