Ocean City Schools Honor Retirees

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City Board of Education recently honored Ocean City School District teachers and faculty who retired at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Kathleen Byrne-Musick, Terri Lashley, Georgia Di Lorenzo and Craig Mensinger each received a gift, a certificate and many words of thanks from Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Taylor and other district administrators during a recent Board of Education meeting, the district announced.

Byrne-Musick retired after 31 years of teaching in Ocean City School District’s health and physical education program.

“A highly effective educator, Kate has been an integral part of the High School, the School District and the community, touching so many student’s lives over her 31 years,” Taylor said. “During her tenure, Kate was the ‘Teacher of the Year,’ a CORE group member to the Student Assistance Program, and a member of the AL-Anon teen group-counseling program. She also served as co-team leader from 2006-2011. Kate has served as an overall mentor to the health and physical education program by actively seeking opportunities to encourage student to develop their full potential and positive self-image and establish a comprehensive health and physical education curriculum.”

Lashley retires after dedicating 34 years to Ocean City School District’s Spanish program.

“Terri’s tenure at Ocean City resulted the initiation of the AP Spanish program in 1989 that she taught for 26 of 29 years,” Taylor said. “Terri’s students were exposed to variety of cultural experiences including trips to NY City, Spain and Mexico. A sampling of Terri’s innovative, instructional projects are the following: Initiated and implemented the ‘Immigration Project’ in conjunction with the Social Studies department. Initiated an exchange ‘Fiesta Day’ with Wildwood High School. Initiated and implemented a program to go to the Primary School to have the AP and Spanish 4 Honors students read books to the ESL students in Spanish.”

DiLorenzo retired after being with the district for 33 years.

“Gina has taught various level of Spanish, including Advanced Placement,” Taylor said. “Gina has a great rapport with students, effective discipline practices, constantly evaluates and reflects on teaching while searching for new technologies and techniques for teaching. She is open-minded to new ideas, believes in a rigorous curriculum and has high expectations of her students. She is known to be persistent, patient, funny, business-like and passionate. She has been instrumental in curriculum writing and helped to prepare the course outline for proposed sixth grade Spanish Program. Gina was nominated for Teacher of the Year in 04-05. She has served as an interpreter for parents at the guidance department and has translated documents for the Child Study Team.”

Mensinger has enjoyed a teaching and coaching career in the Ocean City High School for 40 years.

“Craig exemplifies an educational professional in how he conducts himself at all times, he exhibits the right blend of ethics, values and manners that make him an outstanding educator, coach, colleague, he is a role model who is held in high esteem,” Taylor said. “During his tenure with the Ocean City School District, Craig served as the team leader for Arts/Business/FCS Departments, he created new curriculum for vocational, business and special needs students, and was a member of the CORE Team participating in student interventions.In addition, Craig was the assistant boys’ basketball coach for 4 years, the assistant boys’ baseball coach for 6 years and the head baseball coach for 32 years retiring after last season.”

Kim Jesperson, Alice Wolf, Wendy Tribulski and Karen Wallenstein, Marianne Naddeo, and Judy Winfield also retired this year, but were not at the board meeting.

Jesperson retires after 31 years in the Ocean City School District.

“During her tenure at Ocean City High School, Kim has been an Algebra 1, Algebra 2 Honors and Advanced Pre-Calculus and Advanced Calculus,” Taylor said. “She has been listed in the ‘Who’s Who’ of American teachers, has been a homebound instructor, freshman transition project, chaperoned the prom and school dances, a class council advisor for all high school grade levels. Kim participated in the annual student –faculty talent show, helped with graduation ceremonies, participated in curriculum writing as well as served on the National Honor Society Selection Committee, Scholarship Committee and was a mentor for Honor Society students. Additionally, Kim is a member of the Association of Mathematics Teachers in NJ, the Ocean City Education Associate, the NJEA an Auxiliary Services member and served on the Mathematics Committee during the Middle States evaluation period. Kim is a student-centered teacher who is always there for her student whether it was after school tutoring, or just to chat.”

Wolf has spent the last 25 years as the school nurse in the Primary School; servicing students, staff and the community.

“During Alice’s tenure with the Ocean City School District, she has planned health-based assemblies, visited classes to deliver age appropriate information, a Health Committee member, Student Assistance Committee member, PAC meeting participant, Character Education Committee member and involved in co-curricular activity meetings,” Taylor said. “Alice is a school nurse for the High School Extension program and has been a summer school nurse. She is the chairperson of the Assemble committee, has served as a 504 medical manager, coordinator of the CAP program, served as the co-chairperson on the IR&S Committee and School Safety Team member. Alice was instrumental in implementing the mobile mammography, the staff Weight Watchers program, free vision screening along with the Lions Club, established a clothing distribution center organized the H1N1 vaccination clinic, coordinated and scheduled dental and hearing screenings, trained staff in emergency medical procedure training, and helped with kindergarten registration.”

Tribulski has taught science at the Ocean City Intermediate School for 25 years.

“During her tenure with the Ocean City School District, Wendy was a science club advisor, a member of the Professional Development Committee, assisted in the Children At Risk Program, served at the honors dinners, instituted a global warming unit which integrated persuasive writing and social studies content into the science curriculum, she served on the science task force, was a student council advisor, helped organize the student-faculty basketball game, and chaperoned school dances,” Taylor said. “Wendy received a $500 grant for the Solar Car Project; she was selected to conduct a workshop for teachers at the Franklin Institute, shared an online data-sharing project with classes around the world, and assisted her students plan and teach lessons at Headstart.”

Naddeo joined the Ocean City School District as a part-time food service worker in the Intermediate School in January 2003.

“Always willing to learn and improve, Marianne quickly moved up to a full-time food service worker in both the Intermediate and High Schools,” Taylor said. “Marianne possessed excellent skills, was efficient, reliable and took great pride in her work. These attributes led to her promotion as the Intermediate School Cafeteria Person-In-Charge. Marianne served as the Cafeteria Person-In-Charge for 9 years. During that time, she implemented training methods to improve time management and reduce waste. Marianne helped to organize changes in the menu, which included the addition of a salad bar, more “mature” meals for our middle school students, and a breakfast program. She made a huge difference and was a valuable asset, always flexible and willing to make adjustments to accommodate for pep rallies, or supplying students with morning snacks prior to statewide assessments. Marianne’s skill set also included painting, which she did in the summers as a substitute custodian in the School District.”

Winfield joined the Ocean City School District as a part-time food service working in the Intermediate School over 19 years ago.

“Always willing to accept responsibility, to step in when needed, volunteer to learn and accept new responsibilities led to Judy’s promotion to a full-time food service worker,” Taylor said. “She possessed the skills needed to produce quality items in an effective and efficient manner. Judy’s experience and ability to handle all assignments her ability to communicate with her supervisor’s and co-workers were instrumental in making improvements to the Intermediate School cafeteria. Judy was a well-respected member or the Intermediate School family and a real asset to the Ocean City School District. Judy is known to be a joyous person in the cafeteria and could be found assisting students in making choices for their lunch or a smiling face at the cash register. Judy was always happy to help a student and always welcomed them with a smile. She was truly a kind a caring person.”

The attached images were provided by the Ocean City Public School District