Dear Millburn Families and Staff,
DISTRICT UPDATE - May 22, 2025
At Monday’s BOE meeting, we heard from some of Wyoming School’s Wildcats who taught us about a Wyoming tradition, the Whole School Meeting.
Lead Nurse and District Wellness Coordinator, Patricia O’Gorman, shared a presentation about the district’s health and wellness initiatives for the 2024-25 school year.
Mr. Connolly and I shared some data we have pulled together to report on enrollment trends, and reasons that parents withdraw their children from our schools. See the presentation here.
Hiring Updates
I am pleased to report that our hiring for the 25-26 is almost complete. The three assistant principals were approved at Monday’s BOE meeting. We welcome Patricia Policastro (Deerfield/ Wyoming), Jennifer Baldassari (Glenwood and Washington), and Kimberly Bostory (Hartshorn and South Mountain).
James Shriner was also approved on Monday as the Interim Vice President of the high school. Mr. Loughran (Interim Principal) and Mr. Shriner will have transition days in June with the current high school administration.
Mr. Connolly and I have met with Washington School teachers and staff, as well as parents, to solicit input and feedback on the characteristics and qualities they would like to see in their next leader at Washington. Interviews are taking place in the next two weeks, and we hope to have a candidate selected by June 16th.
In addition, we welcome Mrs. Terri Hecht, who will be our new Public Information and Community Outreach Officer beginning on July 1, 2025. We look forward to Mrs. Hecht’s talents in using social media, organizing our website, and promoting the great things happening across our schools and district.
Finally, we welcome Maria Cota-Robles to complete the hiring of our elementary counseling team at the Elementary level. She comes to us with an extensive background in elementary counseling- She holds a Master's in Social Work from NYU. She is a licensed clinical social worker with a school social worker certificate.
We look forward to finalizing the remaining hires—a High School guidance counselor and a World Language and ESL supervisor—at an upcoming board meeting.
Elementary School Principal Transition
Incoming principals have been visiting the students and staff at each elementary school and attending as many events as possible, including the strawberry festivals, as they are available. We have set up school visits with the current principal, and a meet-and-greet for staff and the community is being planned for late Spring or early June.
🌟 Good News
🌟 Essex County Math League Champs
Congratulations to our 30 Middle and High School "mathletes" who, for the 3rd year in a row, won the Essex County Math League Competition held yesterday at Caldwell University. They competed against students from eleven other schools in the county.
Our Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Statistics teams won first-place trophies and our Advanced Math (Pre-Calculus) and Calculus teams won second-place trophies, which placed Millburn in first place overall in the county!
🌟 Lemonade for Teacher Appreciation!
For Teacher Appreciation week Deerfield 4th grade student Calliope Schwartz and her friends Camryn and Emma, set up a lemonade stand, for the 2nd year, in honor of Deerfield teacher, Ms. Katie Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell was their third-grade teacher and has had a profound impact on these students. Both lemonade stands raised money for Tunnel to Towers, a charity with personal ties to Ms. Mitchell. The girls were adamant that they repeat last year’s teacher appreciation stand because Ms. Mitchell is still beyond special to them. They wanted to remind her that her impact does not end when her students leave her classroom. Similar to last year, they had a great turnout from both Deerfield students and staff, raising $656 for the Foundation. Calliope’s mom, Natalie Schwartz, says, “It was very touching to see all the support for Ms. Mitchell from the community. She is magical and the district is so lucky to have her here!”
🌟 AP Art Library Exhibit
The Millburn Art Advisory Committee is holding its annual Point of Origin show at the Millburn Library. This exhibit honors 12 Millburn High School AP Art students with scholarships and a display of their work at the library in a juried art show. The opening reception took place on Tuesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m., where the students were presented with their awards. Get more information about the artists and the Committee here.
All of the AP Art students will display their work at the annual AP Art show at Millburn High School, next Thursday, May 29 at 5:30 pm in the gym. All are welcome!
🌟 Voter Registration DriveThis week was voter registration week at Millburn High School. Thanks to Juniors Kat Gluck and Linda Zhai, and Sophomore Ryan McCallum, for spearheading this civic effort to get their fellow students registered to vote in all of our local and state elections this year.
Make sure you are registered too: Register to Vote Online - https://voter.svrs.nj.gov/register
🌟 Hot off the Presses!
MHS's Computer Science Integration Initiative (CSII) Club has released its inaugural magazine, Catalyst! Catalyst features fifteen articles written by MHS students on topics including applications of artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing. Catalyst is available on the web and physical copies will be distributed throughout the school.
Thanks for reading! Please direct feedback to 25lib@millburn.org and 25guptar@millburn.org.
🌟 Science Stars
Congratulations to Driti Ayinala, Yunyun (Abbey) Hu, and Shriya Iyer who were County Winners in the NJ State Science Day competition, for their project titled "ThermaFume". The team developed a process for safely eliminating the Khapra beetle from grain storage facilities.
🌟
Strawberry Festival Season Continues - It's Glenwood's turn next Wednesday.
Please note, South Mountain has rescheduled their festival for June 9.
Schools are CLOSED tomorrow and Monday for Memorial Day.
This weekend is not only a time to enjoy with family and friends, but also a time to reflect and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. We are grateful for their sacrifice and the freedoms they’ve helped protect.
Don't forget the Millburn Parade on Monday at 11 am.
Wishing you a safe and meaningful Memorial Day weekend.
Best Regards,
Dr. Kate Diskin
Superintendent