Education Day, Cheer Team Recognized

By

Vosseller

tificate from Mayor Michael Reina. “I want to acknowledge the Jackson Liberty High School competition this year 2023 accomplishments. Eight-time local champions, four local grand champions, next (Cheer - See

By Bob Vosseller JACKSON – School

Superintendent Nicole Pormilli often notes at School Board meetings that the staff of the school district are

─Photo courtesy Jackson Schools McAuliffe Middle School Secretary Robin Linke has been awarded the Ocean County Educational Support Professional (ESP) from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). She is among the winners that will be featured in the April edition of the NJEA magazine. talented, innovative and dedicated. Administrators shared that two of their members are also award winners. McAuliffe Middle (Honored - See Page 8)

Women: Continued From Page 1 member Samara O’Neill to spearhead a women’s initiative to focus on and support the successful strong women of our community. We had an invite-only event at The Edge Restaurant. About 30 people participated and provided feedback on what they would like to see at future events,” Canderozzi said.

He said, “it has grown to a four-person committee - Samara O’Neill of Porter Plus Realty, Bernadette Seda of Lakeland Bank, Sarah Cascarina of Creative Financial Group and Tina Clark of Santander Bank. They have just celebrated a successful first event of 2023.”

“Among the three speakers was historian Victoria Kunz, wife of Jackson Police Chief Matthew Kunz, who discussed women in history and the history of Jackson Township,” Canderozzi added.

“I am thrilled to have co-chaired this new initiative, EmpowHER Networking Group,” Seda said, noting that her fellow co-chairs are Tina Clark, Samara O’Neill, and Sarah Cascarina.

Seda added, “we aim to provide a space of support, mentorship, collaboration, and shared experiences. We wanted to give a platform to elevate the female voice, whether leading in their industry or just starting the journey.”

“In attendance were 55-plus successful professionals. The event’s win is attributed to putting ourselves in the position of our audience. We sought to attract how we wanted to be impacted by the content, and thus our topic was born – celebrating women’s inner and outer wellness,” Seda said.

“We placed ourselves in the details, the beautiful venue – Mathis House, the food we chose, and the speakers. We utilized our Jackson Chamber online social media and personal pages to promote as well as the deep relationships we have within our Jackson community and beyond,” she added.

Seda noted the success of the event “is a reflection of our initiative, EmpowHer Networking Group, and the dedication of my fellow co-chairs who, in our own right, are successful women blazing our path within our industries.”

O’Neill said, “our EmpowHer initiative hit home with so many women the ability to network and build each other up from a place of encouragement and growth is something we all need a little more of. We need to focus on the positive in today’s times. Too many people feel that they need to bring someone down to build themselves up or look away from someone who is struggling or just starting.”

“That’s not the way. We need to build each other up, cheer for each other, encourage one another and let people know they are not alone and if they are feeling alone, they don’t need to be anymore. I love my fellow co-chairs and the differences and energy that we bring to the table because we all feel it, that collaboration and shared experience from young, seasoned and the like, extends to the professionals that join us,” she added. EmpowHer, fueled by the Chamber, plans on hosting quarterly events. The next is planned sometime in June.

“We saw a dip in membership during

COVID due to COVID protocols and of course a lack of events. With many businesses shifting to work from home models, we tried to identify those workers and invite them to be a part of our business community,” Canderozzi added.

Canderozzi said the Chamber has been making progress through a number of changes such as partnering with EmpowHer, adding an online renewal and new registration for members, having online registration and payment for events and creating a community calendar “that will support all Jackson events as a one-stop for what’s happening in Jackson.”

He added that the Chamber has also established a partnership with Jackson TV (JTV) a

“hashed out with myself, Samara, and Ethan Noble - the head of JTV. With their help we are building videos for business spotlights, new member intro, and special events.” level national champions.”

“The students are gaining internship-like experience adding to their resume and the Chamber has committed additional scholarship funds available to JTV students,” Canderozzi said..

Upcoming Chamber events include networking breakfasts that are held at 8 a.m. at Bubbakoo’s on Countyline Road on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Their next big event will be the second annual golf outing on June 12. For information about that visit jacksonchamber.wildapricot. org/event-5127908.

The mayor noted numerous tournament champion victories before the presentation was made. “Outstanding, well done. Congratulations on a phenomenal job. Don’t stop - this is just another step in your future,” he added.

“I want to congratulate the Lions Cheer Squad for their team spirit and their coaches as well,” Councilman Nino Borrelli said.

Councilman Scott Sargent also congratulated the cheer squad on their “good job this year.”

“Congratulations to our cheerleaders. It is great to see them make Jackson proud with their accomplishments and congratulations to their coaches,” Council Vice President Steven Chisholm added.

Education and Sharing Day (April 2) was also commemorated, and Council President Martin Flemming read the proclamation. The day was established by the United States Congress in honor of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

It calls for increased focus on education, and recognizes the lifelong efforts of the Rebbe for education. Since 1978, Education and Sharing Day, USA, has been proclaimed by the president each year on the Rebbe’s birthday on the Jewish calendar, 11 Nissan, which is four days before Passover and thus generally can fall between March 21 and April 21.

The Rebbe was an advocate for children and spoke about the need for each child to be given an education that would offer them the opportunities to succeed. He also spoke about the need for education to focus not only on academic achievements but also on character building. His emissaries established a network of several thousand Jewish schools and educational centers in the United States and worldwide. The Rebbe often argued that the most important part of a child’s education is instilling in him or her awareness of a supreme being and a law higher than mankind’s or “fear or love of a force greater than man.”

The President issues an annual proclamation which along with local proclamations calls on citizens to follow the example set by the Rebbe and focus on education and betterment of society. and millions of dollars.”

Councilman Nino Borrelli noted in his report that he had joined Mayor Reina and their former council colleague Alex Sauickie, now a 12th Legislative District assemblyman, “in encouraging Governor Murphy to reverse the public school funding cuts which will have a devasting impact on tax payers with school programs and services in Jackson.”

“We lost $6.2 million in aid in our town alone...It is obvious that Republican areas in our state like ours are taking the brunt of these unfair school funding cuts. I urge our fellow residents to call the Governor’s office at 609-292-6000 or e-mail the governor on the State of New Jersey governor’s website to urge him and his administration to stop playing partisan politics and reverse these cuts backing up his rhetoric to make a stronger and fairer New Jersey,” Borrelli added.

“A bright spot was recently announced through a court rule that the State of New Jersey now has to consider transportation costs when calculating state education funding for school districts. Bussing is a big and growing issue in Jackson and this would greatly help.

It would be nice but I’ll believe it when I see it,” the councilman added.

Borrelli said, “ultimately our state won’t turn the corner until our public school funding formula is fixed.”

Council Vice President Steven Chisholm said “a lot of people have a tendency to not pay attention to what is going on in Trenton. The (income) taxes we send out, those dollars go to Trenton. Some of them come back to local towns; many of those are getting redistributed to other towns.”

“It is not going back to our citizens and not aiding our children. We have been cut almost $19 million over the course of about four years. If that is the case, how is it that we can’t find that money in King Philip’s budget? Since he has taken office (a short or long five and half years depending how you look at it), he has raised his budget almost $15 billion, that’s billion with a B, dollars,” Chisholm added.

The councilman said the governor, “can’t find $19 million to give us back our tax dollars? He has not found any shortages of places to spend or waste that money. That is a 43% increase. If you had a $250 billion budget maybe $15 wouldn’t be that much. That is a dramatic increase. This is what we’re stuck with. Mr. Murphy didn’t think it was all that much when he released $25 million to bail out more of his Goldman Sachs buddies in the Silicon Valley Bank which is belly up due to mismanagement.”

“You need to be on the phone with your legislators and your governor and demand better from them,” Chisholm added.

“To step on what Councilman Chisholm said, CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) money is still sitting in the coffers somewhere that they refuse to release,” Mayor Reina added.

The CARES Act established the Coronavirus Relief Fund and appropriated $150 billion to the fund.

Under the law, the fund is to be used to make payments for specified uses to states and certain local governments; the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories (consisting of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands); and Tribal governments.

Mayor Reina said, “I don’t know why the NJEA (New Jersey Education Association) is not stepping forward as every child deserves a proper education and should be funded the same. Level the playing field, governor, and make sure all of our children get a proper education.”