West Orange High School Tech Department Earns Prestigious Award

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange High School Technology Department will receive a prestigious “Program Excellence Award,” sponsored by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEAA), the district recently announced.

According to West Orange school administrators, the award is one of the highest honors given to technology and engineering programs and is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession and students in superior K-12 technology and engineering education programs around the world.

The district stated:

“As a result, award-winning programs serve as a standard for comparison and models for the development of other programs. This underscores the importance that each program selected reflects contemporary technology engineering education. Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and leaders in their region, province, or state as proponents of advancing technological literacy for all.”

“We had to submit an application to our local NJTEEA first and then be chosen from all the New Jersey applicants to go on to the ITEEA recognition,” Technology and Engineering Supervisor Ryan DelGuercio said.

“Elements of the application included our program main objectives, what the program is designed to do for students, the nature of our daily activities, examples of activities, how the program is integrated within the overall and school curriculum, and how we are preparing our students for the future,” he added.

On Sept. 29, NJTEEA Executive Director Frank Caccavale notified DeGuercio that “our local association's awards committee met and discussed many fine candidates from across our state for this year's High School Program Excellence Award presented by the International Technology & Engineering Educators Association.”

“I was pleased this morning to submit the necessary paperwork to present the Program Excellence Award to West Orange High School,” Caccavale said.

The award will be presented during March's ITEEA conference.

DelGuercio was excited to share the news.

“Much of our success can be attributed to our amazing teachers that possess content knowledge and skills across several different subject areas, and our students that continually step up to the challenges that we present to them on a daily basis,” DelGuercio said. “These project-based challenges focus on real-world problem-solving situations taking place through authentic learning experiences.”

The Technology and Engineering staff includes teachers from West Orange High School and Edison, Liberty, and Roosevelt Middle Schools.

High School Technology and Engineering

• Deb Coen
• Cindy Celi
• Anthony Prasa
• Rudy Petrella
• Catherine Gardner
• Max Grossman

6-8 STEM

• William Fatica
• Charlotte Ayes
• Anne Zhang

"I am very proud of Mr. Del Guercio and the teachers who work in our Technology and Engineering Departments in the West Orange School District,” West Orange High School Principal Hayden Moore said.

“Our departments have become outstanding examples of the progressiveness that embodies our West Orange Schools,” Moore said.

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