Watch It: Island Heights School Staff Sings Carpool Karaoke

ISLAND HEIGHTS, NJ — At the holidays lots of students and families give their teachers and staff gifts to thank them for all they do for the children.

The staff at Island Heights Elementary School decided they wanted to be the ones giving the gift this year, and put together a carpool karaoke video to serenade the town.

"A few months back we came together as a staff to figure out what we could do for the families to let them know how much we appreciate them," said Jessica Christiansen, the sixth-grade teacher and head of the gifted and talented program at the school.

They settled on filming the entire staff singing Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You."

"We filmed it as soon as we came back from Thanksgiving break," she said.

Tim Rehm, the school's principal and superintendent, and school nurse Judy Meldes took turns driving staff members around the borough, which is less than a mile square. Nearly every member of the staff participated, from teachers to custodians to teacher's aides. One secretary and one student aide were absent the day of the filming.

"We drove in circles around Island Heights for four hours," Christiansen said with a laugh. Even the school's DARE officer, Officer Steve Caruso, gets into the act. It filmed in one school day, and then it took her about two weeks to edit the video, working on it a couple hours at a time.

They unveiled it at the school's winter concert.

"It was a surprise for them," she said. After the classes finished singing, they dropped the screen down and played the video.

"They (the students) went crazy," she said. A number of parents urged them to put the video on YouTube.

"We weren't going to put it on the internet, but the feedback was so great we decided to put it up," Christiansen said.

As of Friday afternoon it had been viewed nearly 2,200 times.

"We only have 100 students, so that's a lot," Christiansen said. "It's really a wonderful town."

You can watch for yourself. Chances are if you're not in the Christmas spirit ... this will help.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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