Belleville Parents Raise Playground Funds

Belleville School No. 4 parents hope to improve children's lives by sprucing up the school playground.

Marleni Muniz, president of the Belleville School No. 4 Parents Association, displayed the check totaling $4,680 to the Board of Education at the May 15 meeting, and thanked  her sister Inelda DeLeon, for help  raise the funds.

More funds were raised Saturday, May 19, when the Parents Association hosted a Tricky Tray fundraiser at the Belleville Senior Citizens Building, located at the corner of Mill Street and Franklin Avenue in Belleville.

School No. 4 is located at 30 Magnolia St. in Belleville’s Silver Lake District.

She said new blacktop and modern equipment benefits children in two ways.

“If the kids have a better place to play, not only will they have better health through exercise and be safer from injuries from playing, but there is less chance of kids bullying other kids,” Muniz said at the meeting.

The early efforts must now turn to finding an exact price for the work needed before plans can be drawn and construction started.

Still, the check represents a good start, Muniz said.

School No. 4 Principal Paula Cummis did not return calls for comment, but a school spokesperson said nothing official has been done yet.

Board of Education Trustees thanked Muniz for her efforts, with several saying that parent involvement is key to improving schools at a time when school budgets are tight because of a poor economy.

School No. 4, also called James G. Shwager School has a mission statement that says officials want to, “provide a positive, safe learning environment in which all of the children within its diverse population achieve academic excellence in the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards, and develop respect for themselves and others, along with responsibility, pride in their achievements, good citizenship and positive decision making skills.”

The school’s stated vision is to, “be a school of academic excellence in which children achieve the goals of high standards, love of learning and personal, positive character development through superior instruction and parental and community support.”