New member on Hardyston School Board Brings New Hope To Area

It’s been a rough and tumble time for many involved with the Hardyston Elementary School, which faced a string of complaints from parents after beloved former Principal, Dominic Festante, lost an appeal for reinstatement after a 5-4 vote, but things seem to be getting back on track now.

“I’m pleased that the whole process went as it did,” says, Christine Clavin, an integral member of the Hardyston recall committee.

The whole process that Clavin is referring to is the ousting of former Hardyston Board of Education President, Marbeth Boffa, who would not return calls for this article.

Mrs. Boffa, had 1,137 signatures against her from registered voters to remove her from her seat after many complained that Festante’s lost appeal was a personal matter that was never explained fully to the community.

In a statement written by Sue Murdock, a parent who lives in Hardyston, she writes, “This recall, though an arduous process, serves to remind all elected officials that the will of their constituency must be a prime consideration in their decision making.”

Mrs. Boffa is only the second successful recall in the history of New Jersey, the first being in 2003 in the Woodstown-Pilesgrove Regional School District, encompassing five communities in Salem County.

Still, it’s not all animosity for Mrs. Boffa, as Murdock writes, “We would like to thank Mrs. Boffa for all the positive contributions she has made to our school district, as both a teacher and School Board Member.”

Filling in for Mrs. Boffa is Anita Collins, who has two children in the Hardyston Elementary School.

Collins, whose first meeting with the board takes place on April 29th, says that “everyone’s been very supportive,” and feels that she has a lot of plans she would like to implement once she gets fully started in her position.

“[My main goals as President are to have] open communication with the community…and new and innovative approaches to solving money issues,” says Collins.

Also on her agenda is a wish to finish the playground at the school.

“It’s my intention to help,” says Collins.

And as for former Principal, Dominic Festante, he’s currently taking on the role of Principal yet again in Hampton.

Looking back on the whole incident altogether, he feels that the parents who petitioned for him showed “pride and determination,” in their education system, and believes that everything that was done was in the students’ best interest.

“Everybody has to take part to initiate a high quality education system,” Fesante says, “That goal cannot be self-serving. It’s we who have to work, not I.”

Mountain Creek Ski Resort Pedestrian Village Finally A Go

After years of plans to construct the Mountain Creek Ski Resort pedestrian village in Vernon, it looks like things are finally underway after the unanimous approval by the Vernon Planning Board last week on Wednesday the 28th. This is a decision that has been seven years in the making, as a string of lawsuits from an environmental group and state officials prevented any building to be done on Hamburg Mountain, which was the original location outlined for the village.

“We had a different master plan in 2000,” says Jeff Patterson, the ski resort’s director of development who expects the project to be done in the next ten years.

The 20,000 square-foot-village had actually received a lot of flak prior to this approval, mainly due to its new location, which will be right along route 94 next to the Appalachian Hotel. But township engineer, Louis Kneip, says this isn’t too much of a concern right now: “These problems have been rectified,” says Mr. Kneip, “What we’ve settled on [is that] people are directed to a pedestrian bridge.”

This huge undertaking, set to cost $625 million, has a 20 year protection period for the project, and is set to include 1810 resort/lodging hotel units, 100,000 square feet of commercial space for restaurants and various shops, and also 100,000 square feet of conference space. All of this designed by Intrawest, the world leader in destination resorts and adventure travel.

And according to the resort’s fiscal consultant, Richard Reading, the construction of this new resort would open up about 430 new jobs in Vernon, most of them construction. And there will be an estimated yearly income of 1.3 million to the township, $5.9 to the Vernon Township School District, and 1.7 million to the country, making it a huge money maker and also like nothing else currently on the East Coast.

Look for construction to begin in the next few months.
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Kids Share Stories To Get Stories

In these modern day times, if it doesn’t say, Harry Potter and the whatchamacallit, or, The Chronicles of Narnia: insert the subheader of your choice here, on the cover, then many kids across the country are probably not going to read it.

With video game sales at an all time high, and the internet providing ample entertainment for children, both parent-friendly and not, it would take a miracle to get children back under a lamplight and absorbed in the latest book from their favorite author.

Or maybe not.

Enter Storytube, a national contest that utilizes the internet itself to get kids back into books, similar to ye olden times when cable modems and Playstation 3’s weren’t so prevalent.

“We’re hoping that it’s pretty successful,” says senior librarian, Debbie Jack, who happens to be promoting the event. “It’s a way to get children interested in books.”

This is all part of the Sussex County Library’s sponsorship of Storytube, which has involved putting up flyers and informing members of the library of its presence. But since it’s so widely spread out across the country, from town libraries to schools, there’s no telling how far any of the Sussex County Library children will go, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

“Because it’s a national program, we don’t know what our chances are,” says Ms. Jack.
But while judging the overall outcome of the winners of Storytube might be difficult, the general rules of the competition are simple. Using the video friendly site, YouTube, as its start-up hub, kids, from grade levels 1-6, upload two minute videos of themselves reviewing books they might have recently read. These books can include poetry, graphic novels, and everything in between.
There’s a twist though that lies in the categories that can be reviewed. Out of the four categories that are eligible, there’s, “Hair-Raising Tales” (Think R.L. Stine’s, Goosebumps), “From or For the Heart” (Sentimental stories), “Of Heroes and Heroines” (Stories about heroes, real or fake) and “Facts, Fads, and Persons” (This is where non-fiction fits in).

After the kids post their review on Youtube, they then send the web-address to Storytube where the voting begins on May 5th all the way through June 1st. The deadline for submissions ends on April 20th.

Kids better get on the ball though for submissions, especially if they want to win that $500 prize of free books that the competition is offering. The Sussex County Library is also set to receive $1000 in books if somebody registered with the library happens to win the competition.

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Sticky fingers in Sussex: One Man’s Quest to Rob all his neighbors blind

It seems that Matthew Milone-Clapp, age 25, of Hamburg, was on a mission to break into every last one of his neighbor’s houses and make a break for it, as his arrest by Dt. Paul DeMott would prove as much.

Charged with 32 counts in one day in Village Drive where he lived, Milone-Capp was recently released when he promised to appear at his June 5th trial at the Hamburg Municipal Court. There, officials will know why he decided to go on such a strange spree to burglarize his fellow neighbors and also perhaps why he thought he might have gotten away with it.

“He attempted to get into 11 houses,” says Hamburg Captain Jan Wright, who alerted the paper about this felon’s actions. “So out of the four burglaries, the other seven are attempted burglaries.”

His count rate spiked with each individual action he took to intrude on his neighbor’s privacy.

“When he broke into his neighbor’s house, that was breaking an entering. If he stole something, that was burglary.”

And the counts just kept on adding up.

For every house Mr. Milone-Clapp broke into, he wound up breaking something, which adds even more points to his tally. And, when he could, he also stole credit cards and used them the next day, which is yet another crime that won’t be looked upon too kindly come June 5th.

But if anybody is furious about all this, it’s his neighbors, who are more than a bit miffed that one of their own residents is to blame for all these actions.

“They’re not too happy about this,” says Capt. Wright, who can’t confirm whether Milone-Clapp has a previous criminal history or not.

Educational Maven steps down next year

Dr. Fred Podorf probably won’t get any medals, Nobel prizes, or sashes that say, “All-Star” across them when he steps down from being Assistant Superintendent of Vernon Township at the start of the next year.

But, like many educators who dedicate their entire lives to the grander goal of helping a child succeed in life, Dr. Podorf deserves many of those accolades and more as he departs from the field of education on January 1st. As he puts it, after 35 years of dedicating his life to the children, it’s finally “time to retire.”

Even so, starting out, education was always Dr. Podorf’s dream job, even back to when he was a student himself.

“I remember back when I was in high school,” says Dr. Podorf, reminiscing on his luminous past. “I always wanted to be a school principal.”

He had to go the long route like everybody else, though, and began his career as a junior high teacher in Brooklyn, New York, where he taught English to the youth. This is something he would go on to do for quite some time in other schools for a multitude of children before he would eventually move on to Montville in ’76, and then finally to Vernon Township where he is now.

And where he’s been since 1981.

“I have no regrets,” says Dr. Podorf of his life-long adventure.
But his resume doesn’t just offer a long blank dash from 1981 to now in regards to his 26 year stint in the district. Along with his work as assistant Principal, director of personnel and policy, and assistant Superintendent (which he became in 1995), Dr. Podorf also worked to open a brand new school in 1987 called the Cedar Mountain Primary School, which still stands to this day on Sammis Road.

“My heart is [still there] in the building with the children,” says Dr. Podorf.

Shortly after his stint as principal of the school he founded, the higher-ups came a calling and requested that the good doctor move up a spot on the educational totem pole.

But it wasn’t as easy as just packing up a suitcase and moving on as he had already formed a strong bond with the building as well as the people inside it.

“It took a lot of consideration, but I took [the job]” says Dr. Podorf. “The interaction with the people is what I missed the most.”

Be that as it may, he still stands by his decision that he feels no regrets with any of the actions he took to get to where he is today.

“Vernon’s been very good to me,” he says, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts, “I just hope I did a good job for Vernon.”

With that kind of humble attitude, who needs a sash that says, “All-Star” on it?

School of Rock AllStars rock Mountain Creek

March 16, 2007

Rock music doesn’t have an age. From the moment a child can pick up a pencil, they can pick up a guitar and start jamming away. Or at least, that’s what school of rock founder, Paul Green believes, who brought his All-Star band along with him to perform at the Mountain Creek Vernon Base again for the second time. The show took place on March 11th at 1 p.m., and it was free to the public.

“We had a great show the last time we were there, and it’s just a great place to play on a nice, balmy day,” says Mr. Green.

Accompanied by a nicely sized horn section along with the standard guitars, basses, and drums, the band played tunes from Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, and even Radiohead, all of which were chosen by the founder himself.

“Next time, we’ll play Blue Oyster Cult,” he promises, the song “Seven Screaming Diz-Busters,” being a great challenge for the kids to master, some of whom can actually play Jimmy Paige’s “Stairway to Heaven,” solo flawlessly.

After graduating college in Philadelphia, it was in 1998 that Mr. Green came up with the idea for a rock school for kids. Having faith that anyone can play in a band as long as they put their heart and soul into it, Mr. Green set the age bar low and the standards high, with kids from five all the way up to 18 being a part of the movement.

His goal was to make rock music an educational tool, similar to how some choose to go to the Julliard to study classical music. So instead of Chopin, there’s Alice Cooper. In exchange for Mozart, there’s Metallica. So the dedication to music is the still there; it’s just played to the beat of a different drummer.

Including this concert, the touring All-Star group, which usually consists of the older, from 13-18 set, has also played or will be playing at the now closed CBGB’s, The Knitting Factory, and even this year’s upcoming Lollapalooza.

But if the concept of children turned rockers turned concert performers sounds a bit familiar to you, you’re not going crazy. The story, and even the very title, “School of Rock,” was used in the 2003 comedy of the same name, starring Jack Black.

“I thought it was pretty lame,” says Mr. Green, who made his own little documentary called Rock School a few months before the big theater release came out.


“They just ripped us off and didn’t even come to me,” his sentiments for the film being less than stellar.

Still, any press is good press, and with more of Mr. Green’s schools of rock popping up all over the country, the movie could only have done the school more good than harm. So, if you’re wondering how the kids have already been elevated to rock god status, Mr. Green has the answer: “We make them.” It turns out rock has an age, after all: timeless.
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Picture found here: http://www.schoolofrock.com/