Jackson schools have new principals in place

BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

JACKSON — The Jackson School District will welcome students to class with open arms and high hopes for passage of a $44.2 million referendum to be held Sept. 27.

“We spent the summer cleaning the buildings, repairing some of the trailers, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of physical changes,” Superintendent of Schools Thomas Gialanella said. “The referendum is about providing more classroom space through the construction of a new elementary school as well as elimination of many of the trailers.”

Gialanella indicated that the few changes made in preparation for the new school year are in keeping with the district’s goal of preparing students to meet federal No Child Left Behind standards as well as making them good citizens.

There will be new faces and familiar ones at different schools in the district this year.

Anthony David Gaita is the new principal at Jackson Memorial High School. Gialanella said Gaita served as principal of North Plainfield High School the past three years and for 10 years prior to that as principal of Keyport High School.

“We’re happy to have someone of his expertise,” the superintendent said.

The district promoted from within to fill an opening at the Johnson elementary school, while rotating its other elementary principals to fill a vacancy left by retiring Crawford-Rodriguez School Principal Marsha Inzelbuch.

Former Rosenauer School principal Robert Rotante succeeds Inzelbuch as principal at Crawford-Rodriguez. Rotante is succeeded as principal at Rosenauer by Barry Rosenzweig, who is in turn succeeded by former district elementary mathematics supervisor Dan Baginski, who was promoted to principal of the Johnson school this summer.

Cynthia Montes, a fifth-grade teacher at the Switlik School, is the new elementary math supervisor (pre-K to fifth grade).

Jennifer Zavacky, who is new to the district, succeeds Marion Conrad as the secondary math supervisor (grades six-12).

“I think you have to hire good administrators to improve test scores for the [No Child Left Behind] program,” Gialanella said.

He also said that Jacqueline Somodi, an English and drama teacher, will be directing Jackson’s drama club. She succeeds Laura Terranova, who retired last year. Gialanella said Somodi, who has a background in theater and in directing students, would continue Jackson’s tradition of providing excellence in the arts.

According to district spokeswoman Allison Erwin, last year the social studies and music department curricula were revised as part of an ongoing program. She said that recommendations for new textbooks and teaching materials were made based the state’s core curriculum standards and an approach to teaching that is tailored to the individual needs of each child.

The study that resulted in the changes being implemented was made during the last school year. After one year of implementation, the changes will be reviewed to further fine tune them and make any needed changes that are deemed to be necessary, said Erwin.