Bloomfield students win prizes in DAR essay contest

Bloomfield students win prizes in DAR essay contest

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Two American history essays, written by Bloomfield elementary school students and judged by the Bloomfield chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, will be considered for state honors in the 2022-23 DAR essay competition. The students are Gabrielle Tyre, a fifth-grader at Watsessing Elementary School, and Kirsten Odom, a sixth-grader who […]

Watsessing School in Bloomfield bids farewell to longtime lunch aide

Watsessing School in Bloomfield bids farewell to longtime lunch aide

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Lunch will be a little different today at Watsessing Elementary School because yesterday, Dec. 22, after 42 years, Jean Gomes, 78, lunchtime aide, retired. Before coming to Watsessing, Gomes worked for her in-laws at Kosher Supreme Bakery, in Belleville. Her home was on Harrison Street, smack on the boundary line between Belleville […]

Safe Routes to School recognizes local schools and municipalities

Safe Routes to School recognizes local schools and municipalities

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — This year, the EZ Ride Bike & Pedestrian Program team hosted more than 450 events in 300 communities, including safety presentations, poster contests, bike safety presentations, walk assessments and walk-to-school days to promote safety and biking.  Approximately 40,000 students attended these events. The result: 154 schools and municipalities were recognized as […]

Watsessing students work together on projects

Watsessing students work together on projects

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — September is a busy month for Bloomfield Public Schools students, and several districtwide activities were on display last week at Watsessing Elementary School. Hispanic Heritage Month, a national observance from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, was in full swing for each grade, and the yearlong, student-led Wingman program kicked off with an […]

Longtime Bloomfield HS art teacher set to retire

Longtime Bloomfield HS art teacher set to retire

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Julie Cortese, a Bloomfield High School art teacher, primarily in computer art and photography, will be retiring at the end of this month. In a Friday, June 3, interview at the school, Cortese, who attended Brookdale Elementary, North Junior High and graduated from BHS in 1974, said she began teaching in 1997, […]

Foster selected as Bloomfield’s Teacher of the Year

Foster selected as Bloomfield’s Teacher of the Year

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — After 21 years in the district, Watsessing Elementary School second-grade teacher Laura Foster has been selected as the Bloomfield School District Teacher of the Year. A 1997 Bloomfield High School graduate, Foster attended and was promoted from the Brookdale Elementary and Bloomfield Middle schools. She graduated from Caldwell College in 2001 and […]

Watsessing School in Bloomfield has s-two-pendous day

Watsessing School in Bloomfield has s-two-pendous day

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Pun-tastic vibes brought the Watsessing Elementary School community two-gether on Feb. 22, aka Tuesday, 2/22/22. It was a happy day for numerologists, but Watsessing teachers were jumping for joy, too, because of the profusion of twos and the scholastic possibilities. Some teachers even came to work wearing tutus! On the first floor, […]

Little libraries remain stocked in Bloomfield

Little libraries remain stocked in Bloomfield

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Libraries in New Jersey are just now beginning to open for curbside pickup after months of being limited to online activity. But it’s still not safe to browse through the stacks, a problem that the Little Free Libraries scattered about Bloomfield are here to solve. All nine of them have been being […]

Bloomfield schools go online with threat of coronavirus

Bloomfield schools go online with threat of coronavirus

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — For at least the next two weeks, Bloomfield School District teachers and students have embarked on an educational journey that thrusts remote learning into everyday education. Because of the coronavirus threat, Bloomfield schools will be closed until March 30, with classrooms being replaced by internet connections between teachers and students. “These are […]

Wingman Program builds inclusivity in schools

Wingman Program builds inclusivity in schools

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — An activity encouraging the social and emotional development of Bloomfield public school students was introduced last month and will conclude at the end of the school year. It is called the Wingman Program and was developed by the parent of a victim at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., […]