West Milford opens middle-school esports lab at Macopin, plans curriculum and county competition

The West Milford Board of Education on May 20 heard a presentation and tour of a newly built esports and robotics lab at Macopin Middle School and discussed placing esports classes in the middle-school cycle schedule beginning in September.

The lab presentation, led by Tom Santoro, a Macopin language-arts and special-education teacher who coaches the district esports team, showed seven gaming stations, green-screen broadcasting space and a separate robotics field. “Esports is not just for the gamers. It’s for anyone who wants to get involved because we need people, to do social media management and marketing,” Santoro said.

Board members and administrators described the project as a relatively low-cost, in-house build. District staff reported they received outside quotes of about $492,000 to build a high-school arena, and that the local-build described to the board was completed for an estimated $169,000 in materials and local budget cost; technology equipment was paid for using computer-science grant funds and Title funds that administrators said were allowable for the planned pathway.

Assistant Superintendent Dan Novak said the lab is intended to be both a club and an academic offering and that the board had previously approved an esports curriculum at an earlier meeting. Novak said the middle-school rollout is being targeted at students with high absenteeism rates as part of an action-research effort to measure whether esports participation improves attendance and engagement. Chronic absenteeism was defined during the presentation as missing 10 percent of the school year, or roughly 18 days.

School operations staff described how the former wood-shop/storage room at Macopin was cleaned, repurposed and outfitted with epoxy flooring, a green-screen wall, air conditioning and data cabling by maintenance staff. District staff and outside partners who worked on the build were thanked by administrators during the presentation.

Administrators and Santoro described classroom activities that will accompany gameplay, including teamwork training, public speaking, content creation, streaming (Twitch), shoutcasting (play-by-play commentary), basic IT and introductory game-design exposure using tools such as Unreal Engine. Santoro said the program links to high-school pathways in computer science, broadcasting and multimedia and that it is intended to give students tangible career and college-readiness skills.

District staff told the board they plan a middle-school interscholastic match at Macopin and noted that Garden State Esports and the New Jersey School Interscholastic Athletic Association now recognize scholastic esports competitions at middle and high school levels.

No additional vote on construction funding was taken at the May 20 meeting; administrators described the lab as completed and said the curriculum will be finalized over the summer and placed into the cycle schedule for next school year. Board members said they would publicize and host a ribbon-cutting and competitive event once scheduling and networking of the lab is complete.

The presentation closed with a brief walk-through plan for board members to view the lab in person after adjournment.