Smith News

June 23rd, 2022

Achieving Excellence One Student at a Time

A Message from Our Principal
Andrew Herre

Smith School Community,

As we complete the 2021-2022 school year, a year of change and constant adaptation, we would like to take a moment to celebrate the amazing resiliency of our Smith children. Their ability to rise to the challenges of new ways of learning, be a constant source of optimism, and show unconditional empathy and compassion towards others is second to none. The Ramsey community has again shown the uncanny ability to persevere in the face of adversity and support one another like brothers and sisters. This year's 8th grade class has faced an entirely unprecedented middle school experience, but nevertheless they persevered through a global pandemic, virtual learning, cohort alternating learning schedules, and finally a return back to full, in-person school days. We are truly inspired by our students' tremendous grit and focus on what is important. We thank you all for entrusting the growth and education of your children to us!

To the students of Smith School - thank you for all your hard work throughout the school year. I am so honored to be your principal; you make me proud to be a Ram! You keep me laughing and young at heart. I am grateful for our family environment we have at Smith, all of your love of learning, and your amazing talents. Best wishes to our graduating 8th graders, whom we all will miss greatly—please come back and visit.

Everyone have a safe and happy summer break!

Mrs. Christine Davis

Supervisor of K-8 Education and Student Welfare

Well, that’s a wrap - the 2021-2022 school year is in the books!


We can’t thank our school community enough for the endless hours of volunteering, chaperoning, organizing, donating, and doing whatever was necessary to support students—both at home and at school. Special thanks to our PTA who, as usual, went above and beyond to provide whatever was necessary to add to our students’ already rich school experience.


That experience could not occur without the endless energy, talent, skills, and devotion of the Eric Smith School staff. Thanks and well done to an incredible group of professionals.


A word to Smith students: Thank you for all your hard work throughout the school year. You keep us laughing and young at heart. We are grateful for your joy, astute insights, and amazing talents.


And finally, best wishes to our graduating eighth graders! We will miss you!


Best wishes to all a safe and happy summer.

STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARDS

MATHEMATICS

8-1: Paige Berger, 8-2: Christian Altadonna, 8-3: Marguerite Wang


INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Payton Ashworth


BAND

Marguerite Wang


SPANISH

Luciana Bellapianta & Paige Berger


FRENCH

Madison Francis & Grace McIntyre


MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

Cynthia Chetaitis & Chirag Ramchandani


CITIZENSHIP SERVICE

LilyAnn Kriz & Marguerite Wang


MICHAEL C. REILLY

Colin Dougherty & Francesca Scalia


RAMSEY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (REA)

Jack Schreiber & Megan Weir


WORLD CULTURES

8-1: Colin Dougherty, 8-2: Michael Asselta, 8-3: Yuto Takeda


SCIENCE

8-1: Jack Schreiber, 8-2: Reese Connell, 8-3: LilyAnn Kriz


ENGLISH

8-1: Grace McIntyre, 8-2: Renee Hroncich, 8-3: Mia Kim


DIGITAL MUSIC

Colin Davison & Tyler Tosi


VOCAL MUSIC

Maria Papson & Austin Stefanelli


STEM EDUCATION

Charlotte Auty & Vincent Kozlik


DIGITAL DESIGN

Grace McIntyre & Junior Omondi



ENRICHMENT

Jalen Hu & Megan Weir


PHYSICAL FITNESS AWARD

Reilly Fehmel & Grace Tateossian


CHARACTER EDUCATION

Advanced Gizmos & Gadgets - Payton Ashworth, Vincent Kozlik,

Massimo Randazzo & Marguerite Wang

Morning Madness Basketball - Michael Ledlow

Morning Madness Soccer - Owen Morycz

Smith Scoop - Megan Weir

Code Club - Grant Dabaghian & Luciano Zizza

Smith Scramble Squad - Greysen Silverstein

Mock Trial - Alyse Lorusso & Marguerite Wang


ART

Juliana Piccolo & Evelyn Yeu


JAZZ BAND

Austin Stefanelli


WIND ENSEMBLE

Connor Behrmann


PERSEVERANCE

Katelyn Arcaro & Violet Rispoli


MATH COUNTS

Marguerite Wang


BUSINESS

Giannis Nissirios


ENVIORNMENTAL CLUB

Colin Dougherty


LIBRARY ENTHUSIAST

Molly Earls


PHYSICAL EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT

Luciana Bellapianta & Patrick Walsh


CULINARY ARTS

Adrian Stancescu & Grace Tateossian


COMMUNITY SERVICE

Alyse Lorusso & Megan Weir


STUDENT COUNCIL

President: Jack Moorhouse

PRINCIPAL’S AWARD: Lamp of Knowledge

The following students have made Honor Roll for all marking periods for three years (Marking Periods 1-2-3 of 8th Grade, and all of Grade 6 and 7)

Sabrina Angulo

Payton Ashworth

Charlotte Auty

Kylie Bahn

Matthew Barrantes

Katherine Barry

Luciana Bellapianta

Paige Berger

Emma Cabrera

Emma Cengarle

Cynthia Chetaitis

Elizabeth Clare

Reese Connell

Benjamin Dong

Ashley Donofrio

Colin Dougherty

Molly Earls

Reilly Fehmel

Madison Francis

Christopher Goulet

Donovan Gretchen

Yulie Harada

Samantha Holden

Mia Jean

Mia Kim

Vincent Kozlik

LilyAnn Kriz

Michael Ledlow

Ethan Lee

James Lepori

Jaden Leung

Anna Lynch

Grace McIntyre

Sofia Nadeem

Giannis Nissirios

Maria Papson

Massimo Randazzo

Jenna Regan

Karina Rosenberg

Joseph Russo

Sean Sailer

Isabella Santonocito

Jack Schreiber

Suhani Sharma

Keira Simons

Lucy Sobel

Nikolas Stamas

Emma Steele

Marissa Stinelli

Anne Sutherland

Yuto Takeda

Grace Tateossian

Laura Turner

Marguerite Wang

Haley Wang

Megan Weir

Smith Scoop, June Edition!

Click HERE for the final Smith Scoop edition of the 2021-2022 School Year!

Smith Scoop wants to wish everyone a restful Summer vacation! Thank you to the Ramsey Public Education Foundation for allowing Scoop to be an avenue for students to express themselves this year.

Environmental Club Earns County Grant

Smith School's Environmental Club has been awarded a grant from the BCUA (Bergen County Utilities Authority) Environmental Awareness Challenge!

The BCUA introduced the Environmental Awareness Challenge Grant Program in 2007 as a way to reinvigorate recycling and environmental awareness in Bergen County schools. This program, now in its 15th year, continues to offer educators in all Bergen County public and private schools the opportunity to apply for grants of up to $1,000.

With the grant, the club led by Ms. Hanratty will be able to install recycled raised garden beds in the courtyard to grow food that can be used in the culinary arts classes.

The Ramsey Public School District is dedicated to encouraging young people to see reading as a meaningful way to better understand our passions, curiosities, and the world around us.

We feel that reading now, more than ever, is an essential outlet for our young people, as it provides a medium to grow creativity, critical thinking, communication, empathy, reflection, and the essential literacy skills that they will need in the future.

To do this, we feel that choice is essential to finding the right book to pique our students' curiosity during the summer months; therefore, students will choose at least two books, fiction or nonfiction, which they feel would be engaging and appropriate for a middle school audience.

Although the minimum is two, we hope that students will read more. While reading, we encourage students to continue using all the skills and strategies they have learned this year to be active readers, including jotting, using post-its, and writing about their reading in a reader's notebook.

During the week of September 19th, students will need to be prepared to demonstrate their understanding of their chosen works.

Below, we also have a list of student-generated recommendations. We encourage you to read as a family, draw upon common interests, and have conversations that create deep and lasting connections with literature. Please review the titles to decide on the best fit for your child. One resource to help with this is Common Sense Media.

We wish you a healthy and happy summer!

If you have any questions about the summer reading, please feel free to call Carmen Lacherza, English Language Arts Supervisor, at 201-785-2300 Extension 21572 or email clacherza@ramsey.k12.nj.us.

Click here for links to summer reading suggestions and Click here for information on the Ramsey Public Library Summer programming!


Smith Students- Don't forget to download the Sora App on your phones, kindle, or any Smart device!

You can listen to audiobooks by the pool or grab your kindle and read at the beach! Click here to access a brief tutorial on how to set up Sora on your personal devices.

For more information or questions about the Sora reading app, email Ms. Kelly at kkelly@ramsey.k12.nj.us

Goodbye 2021-2022 School Year, Hello SUMMER!

Smith school Soars! Earlier this month, our students had the opportunity to learn about heat transfer first-hand in witnessing a hot air balloon take flight on our upper field!

Our very own Ms. Meyers, Mr. Herre, Ms. Davis, Ms. Barthelemy, and Ms. Kelly got a hot air balloon piloting lesson they're sure to remember forever.

6th grade then got an in-depth look at the science behind piloting hot air balloons.

A HUGE thanks to Ms. Meyers and Ms. Barthelemy for organizing such an engaging scientific experience for our students! (Above, Left, Below)

Ms. Meyers’ class modeling how the different types of heat transfer can be demonstrated with a car that was heated in the Sun after being at the beach all day! (Above & Below)

Smith School had 2 students accepted into this year’s Bergen County Band! Congratulations to Hyuna Kang on clarinet and Anna Moon on flute. Congratulations! (Top Right)

Students prepare for summer with locker cleanouts during the final days of school! (Above)

Sixth grade Enrichment students were challenged with the task of making the longest marble coaster ride. Student Joey Cambareri is celebrating his record-breaking design! (Below)

After a 2-year hiatus, our Smith Battle of the Books teams travelled to Saddle River to compete in the Bergen County Battle of the Books Finals! The 6th grade "Bookworms"- Ellie Thumm, Lin Miao, Dylan Lagomarsino, Summer Goodfellow, Dia Nair, and Isabella Chimbay- took 2nd place overall in their division (Left).

The 7th grade "Novel Idea"- Emma Kinch, Eliana English, Abigail Rostkowski, Madelyn Malatino, and Rose Dooley- took 4th place in their tournament (Bottom Left). Congratulations to all!

The culmination of 3 years of learning experiences, hard work, and critical thinking skills- the 8th grade presented their Profile Projects to a panel of invited judges consisting of teachers & administrators of our building. During the week, students chose topics that they felt a passion for, topics included a wide variety of subject areas such as education reform, women's issues, the environment, mental health, and more. They were then tasked with explaining the problem, proposing a solution, and demonstrating an action plan they could reasonable take in order to resolve the issue at hand. What an amazing way to send off our 8th grade students to their high school adventures! (Right, Below)

Smith Staff gets into the spirit! As we send off another successful school year, the Smith faculty & students participate in a variety of spirit days such as Student Council's "Twinning Day" (Right) or donning Red, White, & Blue in honor of Flag Day! (Above)

As its' final project, the Environmental Club planted lots of beautiful native pollinators in the school courtyard! (Below)

Student book clubs wrap up their 2021-2022 meetings in the library! Students meet once a month to discuss a wide variety of middle grade and young adult novels over pizza! (Left & Right)

6th & 7th grade receive yearbooks and wish one another and their teachers a happy summer! We look forward to seeing you all again next year (Above, Right, Below)

The Smith class of 2022 bids farewell and celebrates their middle school years! They partook in yearbook signings, graduation rehearsal, a grade-level pool party, and a slide show of photos depicting their final year at Smith.

Best of luck in high school to all of our 8th grade students! (Left, Below)

Health Updates From Our Nurse

Ms. Laura Spiegelman, BSN, RN, CSN/Health Ed.

Certified School Nurse, Eric S. Smith School

lspiegelman@ramsey.k12.nj.us 201-785-2314

Wishing all a healthy & safe summer!!!

Reminders for September 2022


Incoming 6th grade students September 2022:

Please be aware of the required medical documents for enrollment:

  • Physical Exam- conducted by your physician and dated within 365 days from the first day of school.

  • Immunization Record- including updated Tdap & Meningitis vaccines

Forms need to be submitted by August 1st via mail, 2 Monroe St or email, lspiegelman@ramsey.k12.nj.us

Visit the Smith School Health Services page for more information: https://www.ramsey.k12.nj.us/Page/1555


If you have specific questions,

Contact Laura Spiegelman


Phone: 201-785-2314

Email: lspiegelman@ramsey.k12.nj.us


Smith School Parent Book Club

Interest Form for 2022-2023

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the 2021-2022 year of the Parent Book Club! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and discussing with each of you every month.


May was our final meeting for the year. If you borrowed any books from us, please return those as soon as possible!


Below is a link to a survey in regards to joining the Parent Book Club for next school year. There is no urgency to fill this out, information about the club will be going out in late August/early September, it is just to gauge interest and figure out best times/availability.


Click Here to Access The Survey


Have a wonderful & relaxing summer! We look forward to seeing you all next year :)

Smith School Supply List 2022-2023

Supply Lists for the 2022-2023 school year are now posted. Please remember that all personal belongings should be labeled, such as pencil cases, binders, and backpacks.

Click Here for 6th Grade Supply List


Click Here for 7th Grade Supply List


Click Here for 8th Grade Supply List

...And now we say farewell to the 2021-2022 school year!!!


Have an enjoyable and relaxing summer vacation.


We look forward to seeing you in September!