Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Regional school board approves option for Mendham, Chester students to attend West Morris Central due to high enrollment.
With the attendance at Mendham and Central High schools unbalanced, a resolution was adopted to ameliorate the situation. The problem can be rectified if students residing in the Chesters and Mendhams have the option to enroll at Central. It will be on a voluntary, first-come, first-served basis with a maximum of 100 students. The West Morris Regional Board of Education unanimously approved the measure, which was formally introduced by Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast earlier this month. "Saying the Mendham and Chester residents can come (to Central) really is to mainly alleviate potential population problems that we have over at Mendham over the next couple of years," Pendergrast said. The resolution states that transportation will be …
Sunday, March 24, 2013
First annual technology summit held at Mendham High School, with progress as a main topic.
Technology is here, and it needs to be embraced. That was the central theme at the first-ever Technology Forum hosted by the West Morris Regional High School district in front of a near-capacity crowd at Mendham High School. "If Bell Edison showed up to the town today and said they were going to chop down a couple thousand or so tree trunks and spring wires from them we would not have widespread electricity or telephones based on people fighting it," Bill Davidson said. Davidson, senior vice president at Qualcomm, was the first of three guest speakers and drove home the point that technology is advancing and changing the world in which we live. "Say I get off the plane in Tokyo, I have no idea how to read Japanese and I need to get to my …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Leading experts in technology, community will gather Thursday, March 21 for first-ever event.
It’s about the community coming together and discussing the value of technology in education. That’s the reason West Morris Regional High School District Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast has championed the upcoming technology summit, scheduled for Thursday, March 21 at Mendham High School. Since he took over as the district’s top administrator just a year ago, Pendergrast has been beating the technology drum consistently, overseeing the implementation of a District Supervisor of Technology and a new policy that will allow students to bring in their own electronic devices to the classroom. “I’m very excited about the tech summit. When I interviewed for the (superintendent) position, I said I didn’t really believe in a five-year long-range …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Graduation scheduled for June 20; excess snow days to be pulled from Spring Break.
The West Morris Regional Board of Education approved its 2013-14 school calendar this week, which includes an unorthodox start date and lengthy winter recess. The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah falls on Thursday, Sept. 5 in 2013, closing the high schools. The two days prior–Sept. 3 and 4–will be used for professional development days for faculty and staff, according to Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast. This leads the district to start its school year on Friday, Sept. 6 for a one-day school week. Winter recess begins with Friday, Dec. 20 being a half-day, and students not returning to class until Thursday, Jan. 2–a 12-day break including weekends. The calendar notes four snow days are being allocated to the school year, and if additional …
Monday, March 4, 2013
Board will vote on giving Chester, Mendham residents ability to go to West Morris Central as enrollment packs Mendham High School's classes.
Mendham High School is “bursting at the seams,” according to West Morris Regional High School Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast, and has proposed to the board of education a measure that has never been approved in the history of the district. At its March 25 meeting, the board will decide to give Mendham High School students the option of attending West Morris Central High School if they are interested in doing so. Mendham High School currently has its largest enrollment ever, Pendergrast said, and has noticed in the past few years that the approximately 20 to 30 students who would normally go to private school after graduating eighth grade have not done so. “We’re looking at a situation where we just won’t have the classrooms to put the …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Administrations take preemptive strikes ahead of winter storm Nemo.
All Chester and Mendham schools have announced they will be closed for Friday, Feb. 8 ahead of what is expected to be a monster-sized storm hitting the northeast. All four school districts–Mendham Borough, Mendham Township, Chester Consolidated and West Morris Regional High School–announced early dismissals Thursday night ahead of the impending storm, but went the extra step just after 4 a.m. Friday. The storm is expected to dump between 10 and 16 inches of snow on the area over a 24-hour period. For more on the forecast, go here.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Neighboring Mt. Olive High School on cusp of hiring full time, armed retired police officer.
The security of students in school has become a national issue in the past month, after a 20-year-old man opened fire in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people before turning the gun on himself. Locally, steps have been taken to enhance security measures in various school districts. In Marlboro, New Jersey, the school district’s board of education approved the implementation of armed security guards in each of the town’s nine school buildings less than a week after the Connecticut shooting. On Thursday, it was announced by neighboring school district Mt. Olive that the high school there is one board of education vote away from installing an armed, retired police officer in that building. The topic has now been brought up…
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
West Morris Central hosts Japanese education delegates for proficiency in academic program.
At a recent West Morris Regional High School District board of education meeting, Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast said, “In order to be the best district, we need to have the best programs available,” for students. As an established International Baccalaureate (IB) district, West Morris Central and Mendham High School are among just a handful in New Jersey with the offerings. And it’s those offerings that piqued the interests of educators from the other side of the globe. In the fall of 2012, Rutgers University professor Karen Pickering reached out to West Morris Central’s Debbie Gonzalez, the school’s IB Coordinator. Her inquiry was as flattering as it was random, Gonzalez said. Delegates from the Japanese Ministry of Education would be…
Monday, November 5, 2012
Outages, impassable roads to blame for seventh day without classes.
Students and faculty from the West Morris Regional High School district will have another day to sleep in, as both high schools have been forced to close their doors for a seventh consecutive day on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast confirmed just after 1 p.m. Monday that outages and impassable roads were again the reason for classes to take a back seat to safety Tuesday. The district began the school year with four allotted inclement weather days, and now has used seven. Meteorologists are forecasting more bad weather, unfortunately, to hit the area on Wednesday in the form of a Nor'easter. Learn more here.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Additional school closures are possible.
Due to the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, West Morris Regional High School District has cancelled school through the end of the week. The district said schools would remain closed through Friday of this week. District officials said they will update parents and faculty through the Honeywell Alert System and the school websites.
LVMom
12:32 pm on Friday, April 26, 2013
Gee Matt and you wonder why the central kids hate the mendham kids so much... wow nice to know we are that sucky! I wish we would dump mendham and just be our own school district. then dump the IB go all AP (and I mean offer a TON of AP options) and have the freedom for kids to take a variety of classes yet dig deeper into the areas of their interests. Nothings better then seeing as STEM kids do … more ›