Belleville Students Honored

Belleville parents and school officials want children with special needs to "Dare to Dream."

Earlier this spring, Belleville Patch featured photos of the schools' Dare to Dream program's poster contest winners.

At a recent Board of Education meeting, those elementary school students and the winner of a separate story/essay contest were awarded gift cards and certificates.

"Dare to Dream" poster winner Ruben Carniero, a five-year-old kindergarten student at School No. 7, and his mom Liliana Carniero were all smiles as they displayed the poster contest certificate of appreciation given at a Board of Education meeting in June. Liliana said she is proud of Ruben, and Ruben held up his certificate for a photo.

The Poster/Story Contest was held by the Special Education Advisory Council in May to celebrate Special Education Week according to Patricia Dolan, one of the parent leaders of the advisory council. 

All students in the Belleville School District, and also St. Peter's School were invited to participate, Dolan said. "Students could either make a poster or write a story about their experience with a special needs child, or as a special needs child," she said. 

There were 14 winners who each received a certificate and a gift card. 

Dolan said she wanted to clarify that Dare to Dream itself is totally separate from the Poster/Story Contest, which was sponsored by the school district. 

Essay contest winner, Kaitlin "Katie" Dolan, a Junior at Belleville High School, was contacted by the Robert Haugh of the New Jersey Deptartment of Education and was asked to to be a keynote speaker at a Dare to Dream Conference. 

The conference was held in June at Montclair University with approximately 400 students in attendance, Dolan said. Dolan spoke about self advocacy and a law that was signed by Gov. Chris Christie in August 2010 forbidding state laws and rules from using the words mentally retarded for those with intellectual disabilities, Dolan said.

Katie Dolan's essay urged that the "R" word, retarded, never be used by people referring to special needs students.. Superintendent of Schools Joseph Picardo said the essay would be put on the district website, and Kaitlin again smiled and said she approved."We are very proud of you," Picardo said at the meeting.

Board of Education President Peter Zangari, Jr. and Board Vice President Patricia Inaugurato both helped present the certificates, and each spoke about how much they admired all of the students involved.

"We are proud to be involved in honoring these students," Zangari, Jr. said.

Inaugurato presided over all of the awards presented, and said one of the most rewarding parts of being on the school board was being involved with the advisory council. "I am so happy to part of all the good things being done for special needs students," she said.

The contest was not the only event for special needs children, Dolan said.

"The Special Education Advisory Council, in conjunction with the Special Education Parents Organization held a dance for our special needs children at Belleville High School," Dolan said.

"At the same time an informational session was held for the parents by the Special Education Department while their children partied with students from the dance class at Belleville High and a deejay, who all volunteered their time," she said.