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December 2023 Update
From the Office of the Superintendent
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Dear Families and Staff,
Whew! We all made it to winter break! December is always such a frenzy and it's easy to feel overwhelmed with an ever-growing things to do list. I found myself feeling exactly that way earlier this week as the task list grew. Then, there was a knock at the office door and I was surprised with a class of first grade students stopping by with Mrs. Bach to sing a couple of carols. It was such a joy to stop and just enjoy their singing and, even more, the excitement that seemed to emanate from each one of them. It was the perfect reminder of why we do what we do - for the kids. So many staff had to move rooms over the past couple of weeks as renovation projects came to fruition and we prepare to welcome two new classes of children to Wolf Hill School; it was no easy task. However, when you walked in the rooms a day or two later, no one would have known that the classrooms hadn't been set up that way for months; the teachers and support staff worked so the children didn't skip a beat. There are so many examples of how our staff is always ensuring that the children of Oceanport and Sea Bright have the best possible educational experience, and it's nice at this time of year to take pause and simply notice. The motivation of these acts are all the same - for the kids.
I wish each and every one of you a healthy, happy holiday and blessed new year. As we "charge" into 2024, I hope the new year brings much joy to all of our lives. And, if you want a little of the joy the children brought me this week, check out a clip of their caroling below!
Best,
Laura Godlesky, Ed.D.
Congratulations to the Oceanport School District Teachers and Educational Specialist of the Year!
Each year, the district forms a committee to review the many nominations for Teacher and Educational Specialist of the Year. Congratulations to all that were nominated as we are proud of the accomplishments of our staff. However, there are only a few winners, and the committee rated each nomination to determine the outcome. We were thrilled to announce the winners recently and I wanted to take some time to share some things about each winner with our staff and community.
Wolf Hill Elementary School
2023-2024 Teacher of the Year: Mrs. Elizabeth Mistretta
2023-2024 Educational Specialist of the Year: Mrs. Alyssa Lynn
Maple Place Middle School
2023-2024 Teacher of the Year: Mrs. Corey Billy
2023-2024 Educational Specialist of the Year: Mr. Andrew Becker
Mrs. Elizabeth Mistretta
Mrs. Beth Mistretta has been a teacher at Wolf Hill since 2001. After spending ten years in third grade and ten years in fourth grade, Mrs. Mistretta transitioned to the role of STEAM teacher. She has worked closely with Mrs. Martinez to write a curriculum and build the program from scratch. Mrs. Mistretta loves interacting with the whole school community and fostering a love of all things science, technology, engineering, art, and math. She feels so lucky to work with such an amazing staff, supportive administration, and a PTO that has invested in the growth of STEAM at Wolf Hill.
Mrs. Mistretta's home life consists of driving her 12 year-old triplets to all of their activities and watching their sports and performances. She is thankful to her family for their support, especially her son Cole, who has been her partner in obsessively learning about coding, robotics, and 3D printing. She is looking forward to many more years of growing and learning with the students of Oceanport.
Mrs. Alysa Lynn
Mrs. Alysa Lynn has been working as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) within the Oceanport Public School District since 2016. She values the strong, collaborative team approach within our school district, the ability to support parents and work alongside dedicated staff members as they assist students in growing to their greatest potential. It is her continual goal to be a lifelong-learner as she teaches, cultivates, and improves each student’s individualized speech and language capabilities through educationally-enriching activities that are meaningful, interactive, and of course- fun!
Mrs. Lynn is passionate about providing support through personalized modeling and strategies that can be utilized to strengthen the carryover and generalization of functional speech and language capabilities within the classroom and home settings. She admires the highly skilled staff members that make up our Oceanport family, who are deeply committed to learning from one another and growing with one another, as they educate our students to Charge Ahead to great things!
Mrs. Corey Billy
Mrs. Billy has been working as a teacher for over 20 years. When Mrs. Billy had her second child, she decided to leave the field of education to take care of her daughter, Abby. When Abby entered school at 3 years old, Mrs. Billy and her family moved to Monmouth county and Mrs. Billy decided to restart her teaching career. That decision landed her a part time job at Maple Place in January of 2019. Within a month of employment, Mrs. Billy was asked if she was interested in a full time position; of course she said yes as she already knew she had found her “family”.
Mrs. Billy has taught students from 5th through 8th grade with a diverse group of learning needs and has also taught students in homework club, home instructions and ESY. Mrs. Billy loves teaching at Maple Place because she is always learning something new from her students and coworkers. When not teaching Mrs. Billy spends all of her free time with her family including her extremely helpful husband, Bernie, her 17 year-old Andrew, and her 8 year-old daughter Abby.
Mr. Andrew Becker
Mr. Becker has been employed as Paraprofessional with the Oceanport School district since 2019. During his tenure, he has worked with students across all ages. He is thrilled to be the Educational Specialist of the Year from Maple Place School. Mr. Becker has a strong passion for learning, educating and enjoys reading Stephen King, getting lost in Wikipedia rabbit holes and 1990’s pop culture. He has a wonderful support system including his wife, Meghan, daughter Zoey as well as his parents, in-laws and dog, Harley. Mr. Becker’s passion is being an educator and not only being a role model for the students he works directly with, but along-side as well. He believes that this is the most rewarding job he’s had because of the growth he can see and foster with his students. He is ecstatic to be recipient of this honor for the 2023-2024 school year.
New Renovated Spaces at Wolf Hill Open! Attic Expansion Opens in 2024!
Over the past four years, the district has underwent significant renovations as well as two additions. Maple Place's major renovation was completed for the start of the school year, but Wolf Hill's were a bit more significant and our completion date for those was early January 2024. I am thrilled to share that the second floor renovation at Wolf Hill was complete last week, and our attic expansion passed all inspections and will be issued a CO imminently. The remaining construction walls from these projects will be removed over winter break, and once the CO is received, the new classrooms on the top floor will be ready for use! New stucco at Wolf Hill has been installed (and is almost complete for that half of the building), and the oldest part of the building (with the Oceanport School sign) has been repainted. The interior has been looking better for some time, but now the outside is also getting the update. We hope you are as thrilled with the progress as we have been.
Check out some photos below of the latest completed projects at Wolf Hill School. Right after the new year, the next major renovation project at Wolf Hill, the elevator project, will commence.