School Highlights May 2018 In This Issue Spring Youth Summits Burlington Township ..........................................3 Burnet Middle School .........................................2 Cinnaminson High School .................................12 Clayton High School .........................................10 Frank J. Smith Elementary School ....................11 Hamilton Township (Hamilton High School West and Steinert High School – East) ..........................13 Holmdel Reframe the Game was the theme of the 2018 Spring Youth (Holmdel High School, Indian Hill School, Summits. The North Summit was held at Randolph High School Village School & William R. Satz School) ................ 5 and the South at the RiverWinds Community Center. Nine Kawameeh Middle School ...................................4 schools with over 165 attendees participated. The Central Sum- mit takes place in June at The College of New Jersey in Lyndhurst (Memorial Elementary School, Lincoln conjunction with the SONJ Summer Games. Middle School, Jefferson Middle School and Each school presented to the group and showed how they Roosevelt Middle School) ................................7 spent the school year as a Unified Champion School (UCS). From sports tournaments, to club events, to Respect Week, the Mainland ............................................................8 schools did amazing activities to promote inclusion. Montgomery Township High School ...................4 Action plans were completed for the three pillars of UCS: 1) Morristown High School ...................................12 Inclusive Youth Leadership, 2) Whole School Engagement and 3) Unified Sports, as the students had fun and worked hard to Mt. Olive High School .........................................6 come up with new ideas to “Rally the Team and Take the Field” for the “Inclusion Revolution.” Other activities included: videos, Mullica Township Middle School .......................10 ice breakers, team building, idea sharing, mix it up lunch, games North Hunterdon High School ............................6 in the gym and outside on the field. Overbrook High School .......................................2 Pond Road Middle School ...................................2 Rivera Middle School ..........................................8 Sayreville War Memorial High School ...............12 Spring Youth Summits ........................................1 Voorhees High School .........................................9 Woodrow Wilson Elementary School ..................8 Office of Special Education Programs Page 1 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Overbrook High School Burnet Middle School Overbrook High School met to discuss what The month of May was full of many events for they want from their club next year. After the Burnet Middle School. Their club worked hard meeting, they practiced bowling in the gym. at creating a district-wide Respect Week and The students also went to RiverWinds for the providing a Pep Rally to kick off Respect Week Spring Youth Summit. in which they shared their video with the en- tire school. Following is their Respect Week schedule. Monday Sweat Pants Day - “To Step Out of Our Comfort Zone When Accepting Those Different Than Us” Tuesday Erase Discrimination White & Black Out Day - Let’s Show Our Unity Wednesday Workout Wednesday - Wear Your Workout Clothes To Show We are Working Hard Towards Accepting Students With Disabilities Thursday Maroon Madness - TEAM WORK DAY “Together Everyone Achieves More” Friday Wear Orange - To Show Unity Against Bullying Those Different Than Us In addition to Respect Week, they planned for their Unified Track Event. They attended the Youth Summit in which they helped to plan for Pond Road Middle School the following year and they participated in the Rutgers Unified Field Day. Students were also Pond Road Middle School students were presented awards for the Unified Bowling teamed up to play card and board games competition. together. These interactions helped the This year, the Unified Club members also got students learn to communicate their needs to the unique opportunity to present their Pep their typical peers. The peers did a great job Rally Respect Week video to the board of working with the students to play the games education. Their Unified Club continues to effectively. Pond Road Middle School students work towards promoting awareness of their also discussed their upcoming field day and Unified program throughout their community more students signed up to attend. and schools. Office of Special Education Programs Page 2 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Burlington Township Burlington Township held a Strider Bike Night for young school students. Forty-three students attended includ- ing approximately 10 with special needs. In addition, students, 3rd grade and up, practiced track and field. Office of Special Education Programs Page 3 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Kawameeh Middle School In an effort to continue to educate people at Kawameeh Middle School, Kawameeh hosted their second Disabilities Awareness Week. They hope to promote awareness to their student population to help spread awareness and understanding of acceptance of disabled and non-disabled peers. Montgomery Township High School Montgomery Township High School’s after school event was on May 24th. Their theme was Super Year, Super Heroes. First they en- joyed snacks and talked out- side, because it was sunny and hot. Then they played a game before going in to make super hero shields. They had fun! Office of Special Education Programs Page 4 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Holmdel (Holmdel High School, Indian Hill School, Village School & William R. Satz School) The Holmdel Township School District held its sixth annual Unified Game Day Monday, May 14th at Cross Farm Park in Holmdel. In addition to children and young people from Holmdel, students from Colts Neck, Keansburg, Middletown and Upper Freehold school districts were invited. The hundreds of participants worked on developing soccer skills through multiple games at stations, with student athletes from the Holmdel High School Boys and Girls Soccer teams and Holmdel’s Play Unified acting as trainers, alongside professionals from Holmdel’s Special Services department. Click here for an article about the event at TAPinto Holmdel & Colts Neck – Your Neighborhood News Online. Following are pictures from Holmdel’s last Unified Sports session. They worked with students who plan to participate in the state track event. Office of Special Education Programs Page 5 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 North Hunterdon High School During May, North Hunterdon High School experienced four noteworthy events: 1) Play Unified formed a team for Relay for Life, 2) Final day of Unified Social Club…a little Dance, Dance Revolution, 3) Week of Respect!!! and 4) Youth Summit at Randolph HS. Mt. Olive High School Track meet participants. Office of Special Education Programs Page 6 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Lyndhurst (Memorial Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School, Jefferson Middle School and Roosevelt Middle School) The students in the Lyndhurst School District Unified Club participated in a 4 Hoops Tournament against other Unified Clubs in their district. Over 150 students participated in this after school event. Students have been learning and practicing the 4 Hoops game throughout the winter in preparation for the first of many 4 Hoops tournaments. Office of Special Education Programs Page 7 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Mainland Mainland Unified Sports members enjoyed track practice. Rivera Middle School Woodrow Wilson Elementary School GET IN THE GAME! This month was crazy with testing at Woodrow Wilson (WW) Tuesday - Thursday, 4:15-6pm Elementary School. However, the staff was asked for nominations for next year’s Leadership Council. They then had two rounds UNIFIED SPORTS of interviews. During the first round, staff and HS leaders did the interviewing and during the second round, WW Play Unified CLUB @ Rivera leaders did the interviewing. They started with 36 nominations and selected 18! Six are students with special needs and 12 are without. The current leaders worked as a group and individually to prepare for the presentation at the SONJ Youth Summit on June 8th. Also in May, they had 41 students attend the Rutgers Unified Game Day and their Unified prom was held at the New Brunswick Recreation Center! It was all so exciting! Office of Special Education Programs Page 8 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights May 2018 Voorhees High School Voorhees High School was very busy during May. Unified Track and Field has been practicing. They had their first Unified Track meet on May 1st at Delaware Valley High School. Their Unified Track and Field team participated in four meets throughout the season. Voorhees hosted a Unified Invitational Meet. The schools that attended were Hopewell Valley, Moorestown, Franklin, Delaware Valley, and Hillsborough. Prior to the meet there was a community day where all friends and families were invited to come and hangout with the Unified Track and Field teams. The Unified Club participated in the Voorhees Relay for Life. Club members and families fundraised and attended the event. They also helped out with their Invitational Track and Field Meet Community Day by setting up for the meet, hanging signs and decorating.