Anti-Bullying Coordinator - Mrs. Sarah Badillo
Contact Information:
sbadillo@clarkschools.org
Valley Road School
150 Valley Road
Clark, NJ  07066
732-428-1639 or 732-388-7900

Kindergarten Student “Pen Pals”

Students in Melissa Sakowski’s Kindergarten Class at Valley Road School in Clark hold up a banner to welcome their Skyping pen pals from Millburn. The students will be Skyping with the other kindergarten class a couple times a month for special events, discuss writing projects, as well as to share songs, poems, and stories. Skype is a service that allows users to video chat and make phone calls over the internet. 

Lorraine Coyle, Jennifer Wilkinson, and Amy DiFrancesco received a grant to purchase materials to help guide and differentiate instruction for the Basic Skills students. These materials have already been implemented and the students and teachers are enjoying working with them!
Jenna Stafford received a grant called "Celebrating Literacy with Miss Stafford's Second Grade Class."  It is a program that is part of the celebrations unit in the second grade literacy curriculum.  The grant allowed her to buy many books from the "Celebrations in My World" series, blank books for publishing books, and a few fiction stories about celebrations.
Jaqualena Grigoli received a grant for 800 guided reading books and pouches.

Featured in the picture from Left to Right:
Mr. Beltramba, Jaqualena Grigoli, Lorraine Coyle, Amy DiFrancesco, Jennifer Wilkinson, and Jenna Stafford

Ms. Czarnecki won a grant for Valley Road School from the University of Phoenix.   The topic was “Technology Integration.” Ms. Czarnecki explained that she would supply teachers and students with FREE interactive resources to bring their curriculum's to life. One piece of this vision included the creation of a “Safe” website for grades Kindergarten through Fifth grade. The website address she created is below:
Ms-Czarnecki.org
She focused on the Core Curriculum Standards for each grade level and updates it daily. Another piece of her vision was to have each class participate in collaborative project with a class outside of their district.
Valley Road School has won a cash prize of $200 and a Flip Camera. The cash prize of the grant was used for a yearly subscription to ZooBurst.com, DVD+R’s for student projects, as well as paid for the hosting of the new website.  The Flip Camera is pictured below:-)

Valley Road School hosted their second Breakfast Bunch Club meeting.  This meeting featured former competitive figure skater and our current Elementary Supervisor, Mrs. Janeen Allmendinger.  Mrs. Allmendinger shared her passion and past experiences of figure skating with the fourth graders of Valley Road School.  She showed the group her competition skates, figure skating dresses, and actual video clips of her performances.  Mrs. Allmendinger also explained the amount of dedication and determination required to compete at a professional level.  She competed as a figure skater for roughly 12 years until she attended college.  At one time, Mrs. Allmendinger even competed against the 2002 Olympic Gold Medalist, Sarah Hughes in Lake Placid, New York. 
Featured in the picture from Left to Right:
Bottom Row:  Emma Hilton, Ashley Jimenez, Mackenzie Oyola
Top Row: Benedykt Kosiek, Tara Viafora, Amanda Kefalas, Mrs. Allmendinger, Gianna Romeo

Mrs. Sakowski uses a smart board for a math game called, Roll and Record.  Using the smart board, the children roll a dice; identify the number, and then place a counter in that number slot.  The game continues until a number reaches the top of the board.  Pictured are Mrs. Sakowski and student Ian Auriemma.

Suggested Reading Titles
Listed by Grade level and level of difficulty

Library Closed?  World Book online is now available as a resource to Valley Road Students! 

World Book Online 

(Please see your teacher for login information)

Target donated 500 dollars to Valley Road School. The school will be able to use this donation to purchase reading books. In the photograph Howie Greenbalatt gives the check to Joe Beltramba, the school principal and Kenneth Knops the superintendent of schools.

CLARK — Erin Reilly, a special education teacher at Valley Road in the Clark School District, was the recipient of the prestigious “Innovations In Special Education” Award through the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Reilly received the award for her self-esteem building, inclusive, and visionary program “Lunch Monitors.” Through this program, students, both general and special education, assume the role of lunch monitors to assure each classmate is included and participates in both lunchroom and recess activities. The program was created by Reilly, who is now in her third year of teaching at Valley Road School.

Reilly was selected for this statewide recognition from 565 districts in New Jersey. A total of 62 programs were nominated throughout the state, and the New Jersey School Boards Association selected the 10 programs they viewed as best practices throughout New Jersey Public Schools. New Jersey School Boards Association anticipates that by highlighting these innovative programs, other districts throughout the state can adopt them into their schools.

As part of her recognition, Reilly is invited to an awards ceremony in Princeton during Special Education Week in New Jersey, on May 13. Present at the awards ceremony will be the governor, commissioner of education, and members of the state Legislature. In addition, Reilly’s “Lunch Monitors’ Program” will be written about in the New Jersey School Board Association’s School Leader Magazine, which is mailed to every school in New Jersey.

In commenting on Reilly’s award, Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Knops remarked, “As a district we are extremely proud of Erin Reilly. She is a very hard-working, innovative, and creative teacher who gives countless hours above and beyond the school day to create programs for her students and is always in search of new and innovative ways to deliver the curriculum. She is well respected by all facets of the school community, and her award is very deserving.”








Valley Road Teacher Erin Reilly shares her award winning program “Lunch Monitors” with Board of Education Member Henry Varriano, Interim Supervisor of Special Services Marie Sarosy, Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Knops, and Valley Road School Principal Joseph Beltramba.