Superintendent and Parent, Hillsborough Township Public Schools
This account is for a "peek" inside the district, not for official news and correspondence.
Members of my staff winning awards has become a regular occurrence! Anjana Iyer, HHS teacher, is a New Jersey state finalist for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. This is NOT a first award for Ms. Iyer! Good luck as you move forward!
As Superintendent, you know you’re getting old when you offer a contract to a “kid” who attended elementary school when you were their principal. Congratulations to Louis DiGirolamo, who will be the newest member of the HHS Social Studies department this fall!
Where does the 2023 Somerset County School Counselor of the Year work? Right here in Hillsborough at our high school! Congratulations to Ms. Cindy Povall for her outstanding work with students and for achieving this wonderful recognition. What a great way to start my Monday!
I had a difficult time getting work done today. My desk was completely cluttered with State Sectional Championship trophies from this past week!!! I guess that’s a good problem to have!
Congratulations to HHS teacher Bob Fenster who is being recognized with the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Secondary School Teaching and will be honored at Princeton University's commencement this month. He will receive $5,000, as well as $3,000 for the HHS library!
Charlotte Bruchey, a recent graduate, submitted her final paperwork to her Girl Scout Council. Her project was to refurbish the ARIS outdoor classrooms so teachers could use them again. I can't wait for Charlotte to give me a tour! Thank you to her and our Girl Scouts!
Let's BUILD BORO BACK together!
Please be on the lookout for further information and feel free to view my BOE presentation document here:
More videos are coming! We can do this!
Still out there hiring the next great generation of Hillsborough teachers! Thanks to Ms. Cooper and Mr. Callahan for going out to Rider University today!
Out at the Hillsborough Hop this morning and was happy to see HES teacher Stephanie Moore supporting efforts for the YMCA and the Hillsborough community! Teachers do more for our community than just Monday through Friday!
Thanks to all of those teammates who solve problems that people don't even know exist! Bill Gibson, Kevin Rodgers, and Noah Duncanson were treated to pizza by Mr. Handler and me today for working extra hours this week solving a problem... that never actually became a problem!
A true leader! I’m so happy to have someone like Dr. Feltre presenting at the NJASA Spring Leadership Statewide Conference. If anyone knows her “why” it’s her! Thanks for representing Boro!
I love celebrating our staff! Cassandra Shannon, HES ESL teacher, has been named the Grand Prize winner of the nationwide “Teach the Love” contest from Chase. This outstanding educator will be sent to Hawaii this summer due to her efforts with children. Aloha, Ms. Shannon!
How about those RoboRaiders??? This past weekend, they won the FIRST Impact Award - the most prestigious award of their competition. It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams. Now it's off to Lehigh for the Mid-Atlantic Championships! Good luck!
Congratulations to these HHS seniors who are taking their talents to the next level! We look forward to watching your future academic and athletic success!
Got 90 seconds?
#BuildBOROBack
Listen to Principal of Woodfern Elementary School, Dr. Steve Kerrigan, speak about the need for Security personnel at Woodfern and throughout all of the Hillsborough Schools.
Two of our HHS Raiders just received a huge honor! Jennifer Dong and Riddhima Medatwal are 2023 Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Women in Engineering award winners. Congrats and keep up the great work! It’s tough keeping up with the success of all of our students!
HHS Senior Pole Vaulter Ella Karolewski took first place at the New Balance Nationals Rising Star Competition. She set a new personal record of 13’ 3 1/2”. Congrats to our National Champion!
Special thanks to the Hillsborough Township committee and Mayor Lipani for honoring some of our outstanding educators last night - Jane Caliguari, Rebecca Barajas, and Bridget Cunnane!
It’s Saturday morning at Montgomery HS with Hillsborough Committeeman John Ciccarelli and Board of Ed member Jane Staats cheering on the RoboRaiders! Come out today or tomorrow to see this award winning group!
We are looking for the next generation of great Boro teachers! We started our recruiting season aggressively and early today with Dr. Jenkins and Ms. Smedley at Cheyney University, while Dr. Trybulski and Mr. Rathjen were at TCNJ.
Congrats to Aimee Thomson, pictured here with Randy Stamm, President elect of NJACAC receiving her plaque for being Counselor of the Year from 2021-22. She could not be present last year to receive the award because of HHS AP testing! Congrats!
Glad to engage with dozens of our teachers who this week are participating in the You, Me, and the PLC learning opportunity focused on “Teaching to the Edges”. Learning is a lifetime effort!
The NJ DOE has reached out to one of our outstanding teachers, Anjana Iyer, to be part of NJDEAN! Their mission is to build a network of our state’s honored exemplary teachers who are leaders in the improvement of schools, student performance, and the profession! Congrats!
What do you do for fun on Friday night? The HES family participates in the always fun PICTO event! I was happy to be able to stop by and see a group of people ready for some fun… and a lot of loud noise!
Today, I got to visit Ms. Lauri and Ms. Chung’s class at HES. Camila, Adhvik, and Tristan sent me persuasive letters, so we had a good, long chat about three-day weekends, pets in school, and later school start times. Keep up the great writing!
Mental Health Services benefit all students! Jessica Smedley will let you know where we are looking to add such a service as we
#BuildBoroBack
!
Build Boro Back - Mental Health Services for Students - Jessica Smedley via
@YouTube
What a great College Fair! While it is always a team effort, special thanks to Aimee Thomson for making this afternoon a success! Things are just getting started, so stop by!
Extremely proud of our Director of School Counseling, Jessica Smedley, testifying in front of the Senate Education committee today about how schools can help address the national rise in teen suicide.
Congrats to our students in the FBLA who participated in the New Jersey Student Leadership Conference in Atlantic City. In addition to MANY awards, ELEVEN HHS students qualified for the National Conference in Atlanta. Check out the hardware in the picture below! Go Boro!
How do you make Sunnymead's playground more appealing and safer for kids? You simply rely on your hard working B&G crew who are unsung heroes for the district! Check out their work before, during, and after!
Stay tuned to meet some of our B&G crew right here!
Leaders lead! Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Kim Feltre presented “Knowing Your Why” to a packed audience at the School Boards convention to a statewide audience! Board members Jean Trujillo, Jane Staats, Allison Laning-Beder and HR Director Peter Pitucco were in attendance.
Congrats to our Director of Special Services, Dr. Suzan Radwan, for being a featured panelist at the Women’s Leadership Conference sponsored by NJASA/ERF and NJPSA/FEA. Representing Boro!
Earlier this year, she testified in front of the NJ Senate. Just recently she presented at an international conference. Keep up the great work, Ms. Smedley!
This afternoon was filled with trivia, silly string and a whole lot of HEART ♥️ Our panel consisted of Hillsborough’s finest and 4 students who completed Finn’s Challenges with
@American_Heart
. Can you tell how PUMPed everyone was for this event? 🎊
Leaders lead! Congrats to Jessica Smedley who was featured on NJ Spotlight News. She made it clear that while counselors do indeed respect the confidentiality of students, they also follow a duty-to-warn law that requires disclosure about a student’s safety and wellness.
The New Jersey Science Teachers Association and its Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Awards Committee have recognized multiple Hillsborough teachers as "Simmons Scholars". Congratulations to Mary Beth Hughes from ARIS, Sarah Marino, and Allen Lee both from HMS! Well done!
Thank you Somerset County School Boards Association for recognizing Ana Clara Ramirez as an Unsung Hero! Thank you to HHS Principal, Jeff DiLollo, for nominating this outstanding member of the HHS senior class. This is a well deserved award.
Dave Frusco, Director of Building and Grounds, took some time out of his busy day of fixing A/C to host a cookout for our B&G crew, which was very well deserved! I got to eat with them as well. Thanks, Dave!
It’s a bit warm, but a busy day for HHS athletics, highlighted by our state-ranked and undefeated softball team taking on undefeated Hunterdon Central. Go Boro! Come out and see the action!
Are you a Game of Thrones fan? Then you might enjoy this opening sequence which contains some information you've heard before as well as a famous quote from the show! The words move quickly so you may need to watch it twice!
#BuildBOROBack
is coming!
Special thanks to HHS teacher Carol Cieless who hosted a great Preschool graduation with many of HHS’s dedicated students. Congrats to our Preschool graduates and our next generation of teachers - hopefully in Hillsborough!
Boro Softball, my question to you again is - who’s next???
When you are a top ranked team in the state and you beat the number one ranked team in the state in dramatic fashion, you are the top team in the state in my book!
AP Art History student, Prisha Mitra Thakur, nominated her teacher, Patricia Morchel, for The National Society of High School Scholars Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction for excellence in teaching award. Ms. Morchel was a winner! Congrats to Ms. Morchel and thank you Prisha!
It was great to see our softball players celebrating their state championship. Superstar second baseman Kaity LaMotta even took a moment out of her celebration to pose for a picture with me!
All in the family! Lexi Szurkus was lucky enough to have her family come out and celebrate her achievement of being the ESP of the Year for HHS at today’s ceremony at RVCC!
National Custodians Day 2023. Thank you to Mr. G & Ms. H for keeping us safe and organized during the school day. A special thank you to Mr. U, Mr. B, Ms. F, Ms. S, and Mr. T for the work that you do behind the scenes after school and in the evening. We appreciate each of you!
This past month, Natalia Fonzetti was recognized for her outstanding efforts while at HHS by Hillsborough UNICO and was presented with a $1000 scholarship. Congrats Natalia!
The NSTA announced the recipients of its 2023 awards, which honors teachers for their outstanding work in science education. Congratulations to HMS teacher, Konstanze Seifert-Ethier, winner of the "New Teacher" award. She is in Atlanta right now receiving this honor!
15 hits, 10 runs, 19 Ks while taking down the defending Group 4 State Champs, Watchung Hills. I just have one question for Hillsborough Softball… who’s next???
As our Build Boro Back effort awaits official certification, all positions being created have been posted and we are now looking for applicants! Spread the word!
Look who is in DC advocating for special education funding! There is so much work that effective administrators do behind the scenes of which most people are never aware. Thank you Dr. Lopez-Lopez!
The RoboRaiders participated in the Mount Olive District Event. The team made it to alliance selection and won 2 playoff matches before getting knocked out. The team rallied with a huge win at the awards ceremony by winning the coveted Engineering Inspiration Award! Congrats!
Dr. Suzan Radwan has been chosen to receive Wilson Language Training’s Mary Ann Bonneau Administrator Award. She was nominated by Cushla Rullo, recognizing her commitment to teachers, and effective leadership skills that benefit the literacy lives of students. Congrats!
#BuildBOROBack
Do you want to hear about our plan in detail? Do you want to see important Board meeting information condensed to less than ten minutes? Then view the video below about our 8/21 Board meeting!
@Exploratorium
Hey Exploratorium! Take a look at what third grader, Alexander Shih, from Amsterdam built in school! It’s a parabola powered multiplication and division calculator inspired by your museum. Kudos to him for presenting to the entire third and fourth grade class!
Congratulations to Stephanie Moore of HES and Melanie Cella of Sunnymead! This week they were recognized by our Township Committee for being named “Teacher of the Year” at their respective schools.
Special thanks to our Fine and Performing Arts Supervisor, Chris Ireland, a 25 year former EMT and Rescue Squad Chief who trained our entire Transportation department in CPR and AED use for both children and adults. Thanks to everyone in Transportation for participating!
From the Hillsborough Hop to the high school this morning…Pole Vault State Sectional champion Ella Karolewski and the Girls Track team are LITERALLY running away with the State Sectional championship today! Congrats - it’s a formality at this point!
Thanks to our School Counseling department for delivering some great lessons about empathy... and for being the first in the state to partner with OAR!
Our Play Unified program has grown over the years. Today, I am so proud that Boro FC Unified played its first game EVER vs. Summit! Both teams did great!
Build Boro Back - High School Safety - Jeff Dilollo via
@YouTube
#BuildBOROBack
- HHS Principal DiLollo believes that Hillsborough can "pass the torch" to this and the next generation of students. Take a listen!
Based on last night's unofficial election results, job postings for our "Anticipated" School Security Personnel have been posted. Please spread the word!
Team 5A at ARIS, went on a class trip to the NJ State Museum and Planetarium on Tuesday, April 18th. It's the first class trip they have taken since the pandemic. They were very well behaved and received compliments from many of the museum workers throughout the day! Way to go!