Students, Teachers and Retirees Honored at Tuesday Board of Education Meeting

The Board of Education took a break from it's usual business as usual meetings on Tuesday to host the annual recognition ceremony for high achieving students, district retirees and teachers of the year.

ESL Specialist Tommie Shider, the founder of the New Brunswick Academic Hall of Fame, said the criteria for acceptance is for seniors to have a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.8 or higher by the end of their first semester in 12th grade.

Several of the seniors recognized on Tuesday night have been inducted before, Shider said. Their names were engraved on a plaque that will hang in their respective high schools, now former high schools, as the district graduation ceremonies were held Monday.

11 students from the New Brunswick Health Sciences and Technology High School were inducted. They are:

• William Quindipan
• Grymeldy Gonzalez
• Astrid Salas
• Alisha Cook
• Katherine Gomez
• Wilma Quintana Montalvan
• Lesley Ortega Maldonado
• Patrick Maroun
• Alexandra Rodriguez
• Sean Beard Hutty
• Cyntia Mendoza Olvera

Quindipan, Gonzalez and Salas have all been inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame multiple times before, Shider said.

From New Brunswick High School, three students were inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame. They are:

• Hannah Boettger
• Henry Trujillo Luna
• Rocio Garcia

Shider also recognized the three student winners of the recent district fifth grade spelling bee: first place winner Javier Martinez, of Roosevelt School, second place winner Zuni Reed, of A.C. Redshaw School, and third place winner Ashley Mae Catibog of Lord Stirling Community School.

The Teachers of the Year from each school were recognized with kind words from their principals, read by Assistant Superintendent John Anzul.

Mary Gesso, a math teacher at New Brunswick High School, said she has logged more than 39 years in the district.

She said that she was humbled to be teaching in the district.

"I'm the one (who is) blessed," she said. "The students bless me, but make me feel really happy with all I have to do."

24 retirees were recognized from all over the district, including New Brunswick High School principal James Christman who is retiring after serving as principal of the high school for two years and nine months, and New Brunswick Adult Learning Center principal Scott Bollwage, who is retiring after 14 years and eight months of working in the district.