Spring e-Newsletter

January featured "The Great Kindness Challenge Week" to facilitate community and social-emotional learning among our students and faculty. Our elementary schools hosted spirit weeks, classroom activities, kindness coloring sheets and prompts for students, and schoolwide projects to spread the love and warm up our halls and hearts. Special congratulations to Roosevelt School, once again a Certified Kindness School for 2023!

The Kearny School District held cozy evenings of “Fun, Frost, and Family” at each of our elementary schools. Families engaged in literacy and social emotional learning activities, including read alouds, games, snacks, and giveaways.

Kearny families enjoyed an evening exploring science, technology, engineering, art, and math at each of our elementary schools. Students and their families worked together on various activities including designing a marble run, building a tower and balloon car, making bouncy balls, creating catapults and making raised salt paintings. They were so creative and had a lot of fun! Special thanks to the teachers and staff for all their support in putting these events together!

Our readers became bookworms this Spring as they celebreated Read Across America Week. With community leaders, staff members, and suprise visitors reading exciting stories with our students, our kids began Spring by cozying up with their favorite reads.

Our PreK-3rd grade families were invited by the PTA to sit and read under warm lighting, listen to a read aloud story, and create a craft.

To celebrate Read Across America, Schuyler School students took a trip to Camp Read A Lot. All students enjoyed a read aloud and then picked their own cozy space from a selection of "campsites" to read their favorite books!

In February and March 2023 the entire student body populations at Franklin and Garfield Schools participated in a Fun Run. Through fundraising efforts through Booster Thon, the PTA and PBSIS, t-shirts were provided to each student, and prizes were awarded to the classes with the highest amount of pledges. The PTA assisted in tracking and processing these pledges.

PTA and KHS student volunteers were on hand to check off how many laps each child ran, via a piece of material on each child’s shirt that functioned as a lap counter. The blacktops and gymnasiums were used to accommodate the students.

In the week leading up to the event, character building videos and activities were provided to students. Titled “Grand Land Adventure,” students "visited" national parks holding themes such as Gratitude, Stewardship, Bravery, Perseverance, Wonder, and Resolution by watching special videos.

The proceeds raised will be applied toward student activity funds at Franklin and Garfield Schools.

The Kearny High School Musical Theatre Academy worked diligently over the course of 3 months to put together their production of "Shrek the Musical." With Ms. Milagros Gonzalez as Stage Director and Choreographer, Mr. John Bednarczyk as Set and Lighting Designer, Mr. Owen Seaver as Vocal Music Director, Mr. Danny Conde as Instrumental Conductor, Mr. David Caravella as Sound Designer, and Mrs. Kathleen Astrella as Business Manager, the cast of 48 students rehearsed, fundraised, and promoted the show making it the highest grossing production Kearny High School has seen since 2016.

Kearny students and staff donned their green and celebrated all things green, including the beloved Bagels and Bagpipes event at Roosevelt school.

In honor of the 100th day of school, district students participated in various theme days including: Wear workout gear to show how hard you worked, dress like a 100 year old man or woman, and wear pajamas to celebrate this milestone. Congratulations to our young scholars on a job well done!

Washington students wore blue and yellow to celebrate friends with Down Syndrome.

On Thursday, March 23rd, Lincoln Middle School hosted a student-faculty basketball game after school. The event was a great success, with students and faculty coming together to organize teams and compete in a friendly and exciting game. We were delighted to see many students and teachers join the fun. The Spirit Squad also brought their A-game, cheering on the players. We are grateful to everyone who participated!

Thank you to the Kearny Police Department for generously donating bicycles to our thriving Washington School Store.

Lincoln Middle School celebrated the end of the second marking period with a fun and exciting Incentive Day! Students had a blast participating in a soccer tournament and Minute-To-Win-It games. It was an excellent opportunity for our students to unwind, have fun, and bond with their classmates.

Schuyler School's Art Club began the Animodule Project in conjunction with the Barat Foundation and the Hudson County Arts in Education. Artist in residence, Heather Williams, has been working with Ms. Astrella and our art teacher, Ms. DiGangi, to provide an opportunity for students to design a large tiger mascot sculpture that will proudly represent Schuyler School. In February, with all parties involved in attendance as well as all our Schuyler School students, we celebrated the unveiling of our animodule. The students were so excited to see the latest Schuyler School addition and such an amazing piece of art!

Held at Schuyler School, the Junior Woman's Club of Arlington invited all fourth and fifth grade students who are enrolled in Hudson County Schools, or who are residents of Hudson County, to participate in their annual Spelling Bee. Special congratulations to our winners:

1st Place: Arthur Cerqueira, Franklin School

2nd Place: Jeremay Santos De Freitas, Franklin School

3rd Place: Dakota Murphy, Garfield School

The KHS Cross Country Girls team were winners of the Wawa Bus Ride Tik Tok Karaoke.

The challenge was to record a video with a song that gets the team hyped before a competition or a celebration song. The team recorded the clip after they won the South Hudson Championship.

Their win earned a $1,000 donation to our school and a catered feast for the team.

The Kearny High K-Birds performed at the Hudson County Spring Fling on Thursday, March 23. The students performed an array of Michael Jackson songs for the attendees at the scholarship fundraiser.