Student Successes Celebrated At Manchester School Board Meeting

MANCHESTER, NJ — The Manchester Township Board of Education celebrated students across the district at its April meeting.

Students are celebrated for their various achievements. The April recognitions included:

Ewaade Aderogba, from Ridgeway Elementary, and her artwork have been selected to appear in the 16th Annual Mental Health Awareness Calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. The poster she created highlighted how everyone can improve mental health through friendship and other enjoyable activities. Ewaade will be honored by the committee on May 3rd at the Ocean County Library. Congratulations Ewaade!

Rebecca Fonte and Joseph Murray from Manchester Township Elementary School were recognized last evening for their outstanding musical talents. Both students have been chosen to be a part of the Region III Elementary Honors Band and will perform at their festival on April 29. Congratulations!

Sofi Sliwowski and McKayla Luttrell from Whiting Elementary were honored last evening for contest submission awards. Sofi is the second-place winner of the annual county-wide Public Health Awareness competition. She will be recognized later by the County Superintendent's Office in a special ceremony.

The Ocean County Library, in partnership with the Mental Health Awareness Committee of Ocean County and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is recognizing McKayla Luttrell. She is one of 12 fifth-grade students across the county who will be honored for their artwork from the “What a Difference a Friend Makes” contest. Her picture will be featured in this year’s calendar and she will be recognized at a special ceremony at Ocean County Library on May 8th. Congratulations to you both!

Myrtle Reed is recognized as the Regional Day School Student of the Month. Myrtle always goes above and beyond to assist students and staff at Regional Day School selflessly and with a smile on her face. She truly brightens everyone's day. Congratulations Myrtle!

Sam Garcia represented Manchester Middle School and the Ocean County SBA presentation of "8th Grade Dialogue"- This student recognition program honors 8th grade students whose character, determination, school spirit, leadership, and community service inspire all of us and Sam was an excellent representative. Great job Sam!

We are extremely proud to have Michael Fink and Kassandra O'Neill represent MTMS as our Student Athletes for the Month of April. Michael and Kassandra are both a great representation of what it means to be a student athlete. Michael plays baseball during the Spring Season and Kassandra is on the Cross Country Team in the fall and she plays softball in the spring. They both work just as hard in the classroom as they do in the athletic arena and serve as an excellent example to our younger student athletes.

The Talon, Manchester Township High School's student journalism news website (talonnews.org), would not exist without co-editors-in-chief, seniors Val Kohan and Samantha Verdi. Both are four-year journalism students who were inducted into the MTHS Chapter of the Quill and Scroll International Honor Society for High School Journalists in November 2021.

Val and Sam helped bring the new website to life in September, complete with its own domain name, by helping to design its look and select its interactive features.

Congratulations to Manchester Twp. High School Athletes of the Month Junior Juliana Cackowski and Senior Joseph Sclama. Juliana is a duel athlete for the Hawks helping the fall gymnastics team to consecutive division titles and who also plays softball in the spring. Joseph came on to the Hawk’s baseball team to save the State Title s. Delran as a Sophomore. He currently plays 1st base, leads the team in multiple stat categories and is a Shore Sports Network Player of the Week Nominee. In addition, they are both excellent students and role models. Congratulations!