West Milford Board recognizes district teachers and school staff at Jan. 21 workshop

The West Milford Board of Education paused its Jan. 21 workshop to honor a series of school-level educators and educational services professionals selected as their schools’ Governor’s Teacher or Educational Services Professional of the Year. Superintendent Dr. Kitchen and building principals introduced the honorees and described their work with students. The recognition program included individual presentations from principals representing several schools across the district. The board also opened the meeting with a moment of silence to remember Julian, a first grader who recently died after a prolonged battle with cancer. The honors highlighted early-childhood and special-education teachers, reading specialists and school nurses. At Maple Road School, Principal Mr. Kane introduced Beth Schafer as Teacher of the Year for her work in the developmental and inclusion preschool program and named Gemma Song as the school’s Educational Services Professional of the Year. Dr. Schwartz presented Blake Visconti as Asheville School’s Teacher of the Year for her work in special education. Other principals named honorees at Marshall, Paradise Knoll, UGL, Mackin, West Milford High School and other schools in the district. Principals described the honorees’ classroom practices, leadership roles and contributions to extracurricular activities. For example, the Paradise Knoll principal said Jessica Cohen “enthusiastically implements new strategies,” noting Cohen’s work on the district literacy committee and as a pilot teacher for the new ELA program. UGL’s principal introduced Holly Miller as that school’s Teacher of the Year and named Kim Walker as the educational services professional recognized for her work as a reading specialist. West Milford High School’s honorees included Heather Burns and educational services professional Noma Steyn Lambo; the high school presentation praised its theater program’s inclusivity and technical training. The recognitions were ceremonial; no policy actions or funding decisions were tied to the awards during the workshop. Principals thanked colleagues, families and members of the administration for supporting the nomination process. The superintendent said kindergarten registration had opened earlier that day and noted the importance of early counts for scheduling and budgeting. A brief photo opportunity followed the presentations before the board recessed for the planned ethics and HIB training portion of the workshop.