On Monday night, the Belleville School District honored faculty, students and staff for a variety of hallmarks, including retirements and superlative academic and extracurricular achievement.
Those honorees are:
KENDRICK MOREIRA, a student at School 5, who won second place in the Essex County Essay Contest.
School 3 students MAYCK CALLE, who won third place in the Essex County Bar Association Essay Contest, and ZACHARY ABRAMSON, who earned honorable mention in the same contest.
ARMANDO ALVARADO and JUSTIN CANDELARA, School 7 students who each won the My Essex County poster contest, and JUSTIN COVIELLO, who earned honorable mention.
Belleville High School students DONALD ROCK who won first place in the FBLA state competition for public speaking, and ALI HAJIHAIDARI, who won first place for word processing.
Belleville High School students who belong to the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, including ARIEL COLON (silver, bread basics; silver, entrepreneurship); DERRICK CORTES (silver, food innovations); MELISSA MIELE (silver, manners matter; silver, storybook ethics); GEORGE PEREZ (bronze, applied technology, as well as a $3,000 scholarship); DANIELA RAMOS (gold, cake decorating; bronze, successories); STEPHANIE RAMOS (silver, storybook ethics; silver, entrepreneurship); ATHENA RONQUILLO (silver, cake decorating; silver, luncheon menu); DANIELLE SANTIAGO (bronze, bread basics; gold, interpersonal communications); and DAISY URGILES (gold, F.A.C.T.S.).
Several district teachers were honored under the Governor’s Teacher Recognition Program in 2009-10 and 2010-11,including School 3’s GABE NAZZIOLA; School 3’s LORRAINE BRAY; School 4’s ROSEANNE LAMBUGO; School 5’s MELISSA BERLOCCO; School 5’s MARY CHESSERI;* School 7’s LINDA NICODEMI; School 7’s BARBARA DOUGHERTY; School 8’s LORI GEORGEVICH; School 9’s CAROL KANE; School 9’s CAROL SPINA; School 10’s DANIELLE DIGORI; Belleville MIddle School’s PATRICIA MOONEY; and Belleville High School’s SUZANNE LEWANDOWSKI.
A number of Belleville High School students in music programs took part in the 2011 Inaugural Essex County Honors Concert Band, including DEVEN DESAI (tuba); BERNADINE FLORES (flute); AMANDA GOMEZ (clarinet); SHALIER JACKSON (baritone horn); JAVIER RENDON (trumpet); RAYMOND SENTINA (baritone sax); RAHNIEL SIMON (alto sax); JEFFREY VINCENT (trumpet), and DANYANG ZHOU (piccolo).
Students at School 3 participated in an educational program paid for with a grant from the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association and obtained by teacher Debra McDonagh. Those students are JUSTIN ALFIERI, MOZES BERROPSI, HECTOR CAMACHO, CHRISTOPHER HURLEY, EMMANUEL MARQUEZ, ALVARO NIEVES, KIMBERLY BANE, ARACELIS BUSTOS, DONTAE GONZALEZ and MARIO LOPEZ.
A number of teachers and staff said goodbye to the Belleville schools following long careers. Those retiring from the district this year are KENNETH BURDE, LORRAINE BRAY, JOANN CICCONE, DEBORAH DASARA, WANDAMARIE DAVIS, GERALDINE DI SANZO; SANTO FARONEA, LEWIS FELDMAN, ANNA JANNICELLI, KAREN KIRK, LORETTA LA CORTE, WEI-CHONG LAI, JOY LAYNG, MARLENE LEMONGELLO, MARIE MATTHEWS, MARY LOU MELE, ELYSE PEPOSE, JOSEPH PETRILLO, MICHAEL POLLARD, JAMES RISOLI, GLEN SENATORE, DAVID STEIN, MATTHEW SWAJKOWSKI and PATRICIA VOGEL.
Members of Belleville High School’s New Jersey Science Teams were also recognized. Those include the Biology I team, which placed 39th out of 144 teams statewide and whose members are AVIE HINOHAN, MOHAMMED KHAFAGY, KAYLA SICA and DANYANG ZHOU. The members of the Chemistry I team (41st out of 144 statewide) are JOSE TABAGO, MIHIR SHAH and SWAPNIL MEHTA. The Chemistry II team (39th out of 127) comprises ELISA KAM, CYNTHIA MONTALVO, POOJA PATEL and DANIEL ROBAINA.
ARMANDO ALVARADO was one of two grand prize winners out of 7,000 entrants in an art contest sponsored by Verizon. Armando’s work will appear on a folder that will be distributed to grade school students across the state next year; the folder urges students to avoid drugs. Armando is a student at School 7.
The New Jersey State Bar Association held a Law Day 2011 YouTube video contest, which had a number of winners from Belleville High School. Taking first place statewide was BHARGAV TARPARA. The second-place entry was prepared by JACKIE RENARD, KELSEY GRAHAM, NAYOMIE FONTANEZ and NOLANI VELASQUEZ.
Also honored was Belleville High School wrestler JUSTIN COLON, who was ranked in the top 10 in New Jersey this season and recorded a pin in just ten seconds, among other achievements during a stellar year.
*This article was corrected May 26 to indicate that Mary Chesseri is a teacher at School 5, not School 7.
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