(upbeat, happy music)
- We are here today to share great community information
because I feel it's very important to share
what it's really like to live in our local community.
Hi, I'm Judy Weiniger and I'm local resident of Warren
and broker owner of Weiniger Real Estate Firm.
Today, I'm so excited because Elizabeth Jewett,
superintendent of Watchung Hills Regional High School,
has agreed to sit down to talk to us about
what it's really like inside the four walls
of Watchung Hills Regional High School.
Welcome, Elizabeth, and thank you so much
for being here today.
- Thank you so much for having me.
- This is such a conversation that
I've wanted to have for so long.
Because being in real estate, there are two questions
I get asked all the time.
Number one is how's the market?
And number two, you can guess,
it's how's the schools?
Today, people are so interested in a quick answer.
What are the rankings?
Where do they fit in, SAT scores?
I would love to share more the inner insights
of what goes on at Watchung Hills that make it more
of the real heartbeat of the school.
- So, we certainly make sure that we are aware
of the rankings and keep track of them.
And it's similar to all of the various indicators,
from AP performance, to SAT scores,
which a number of the rankings take into account,
and we look at each of the rankings
and the metrics that they use to see if those metrics
are aligned with the goals that we have set as a district.
And we've done very well, the New Jersey monthly ranking,
we moved from number 50 to number 11.
It's nice--
- And what was that, specific?
I'd love to know.
What was the big difference, in your eyes,
that made that a reality?
- I think it was really getting the staff
and the students to come together
and realize that there was more they could do
to reach their full potential.
We have a great community.
I feel very lucky to work in such a supportive community
where they really do consider the school the centerpiece.
So we have great students, we have very supportive parents.
We have a very supportive community that
doesn't necessarily have students in the school
but that are supportive of the high school.
And we have a world-class teaching staff.
So we have all of the ingredients and it's
our job as the administration and the board
to give them the support they need to go to that next level.
And I presented them with a challenge
when I came into the district five years ago
to increase opportunities for all students.
And what really is nice about Watchung Hills is
because we are large, we have the resources
to help each student really find their passion,
because we can provide a lot of offerings
that smaller schools cannot.
Everything from robotics-- - Sure seems that way, wow.
- To our various musical ensembles,
to the arts programs we have,
to the athletic programs we offer.
And if there's not a club that exists
that you're interested in, students propose clubs
all the time, and new clubs start as a result of that.
So I always talk about trying to make
a larger district feel smaller
by providing that niche for every student
to really feel that they belong.
- Yup, that makes a lot of sense.
Just to step back for a minute,
can you share with us the local towns
that are part of Watchung Hills.
- Sure.
So, we have Warren, Watchung, Long Hill, and Green Brook.
All four of those towns have K-8 districts
that send to the high school.
- I mean, your program is really second-to-none
and PAC, Performing Arts Center,
is relatively new, state-of-the-art.
- It's a beautiful facility.
And a lot of outside organizations
utilize that facility as well.
So it really is a community facility.
- I didn't know that, that's wonderful.
Is there some things that you brought on,
or not even you, just that you saw
just explode in popularity and just feel like,
that's Watchung Hills?
- So, if somebody were to ask me what it is
that makes Watchung Hills special, I would say
without a doubt, the actual community of people,
in terms of the students and staff.
Because they are what have driven a lot of the new
fresh ideas and initiatives that have come to the district.
Coding, you read about all the time.
- Yes.
- And we had, several weeks ago, on a Sunday,
we had about 80 students in our pack
for our hackathon event that was completely
student-organized and student-run, with help obviously
from some of our administrators.
- Wow.
- But to be standing there on a Sunday,
realizing that students are in our school,
voluntarily, on a Sunday.
- That's wonderful.
- It was a great event, and those students are also
planning our second annual TEDx Youth Event
at the end of the school year.
- That sounds interesting, what is that?
We all know what TED Talks are.
- Exactly, so there is a youth version of that.
TEDx is the unofficial TED Talk events.
- Kind of affiliates.
- Yes.
And so our students did their first TEDx Youth Event
last year, where they had...
Some were current students, some were alum,
some were adults that they had come in and do TED Talks.
And they're doing their second annual event of that
this year as well.
- I can feel the energy of the students
who are the ones whose brainchild it is.
And you guys are seeing it through with your support.
- Last year, the school musical was Beauty and the Beast.
And that was a wonderful example of five or six
different departments in the school coming together,
teachers and students, because we had, in addition to
the drama and the music departments, who obviously
put on the show, we had our graphic design students
work on the publicity for the show,
we had our culinary arts students work on food
for a breakfast with Belle and the Beast.
We had our accounting club who did
all of the marketing for it.
So it was such a phenomenal team effort
and what ended up resulting from that as well,
was, it expanded the audience for the show
because there were so many more students involved.
- Yes.
- That they hit more different--
- Created more interest.
- Exactly.
And that's something else that all schools are looking at,
is how to bring that relevance
to what we're teaching in the classroom.
- Absolutely.
- And I mentioned our culinary arts program.
That is certainly a program that
I think makes our school unique.
It's our most popular program in the high school.
- Wow.
- And it attracts students from all
varied levels of interest because it's such a unique program
and it's such a unique break from their typical course load.
That we really wanted to maintain that program if we could
and now we're looking to expand it.
- What strikes me is the diversity
of those kind of classes where, I think what happens
in high schools, if you're on a certain track,
let's say you're on a math track
or a literary track, history track.
You see the same students, maybe, over and over again.
What's so interesting about this kind of program
in culinary arts and maybe these business classes
is that kids can meet other children, or young adults,
that are maybe a little different from them
and what they're studying, and again, I just think
that's the holistic approach, right, to school and life.
- That is certainly another bright spot
of the district, is our special services offerings.
It's a really very inclusive environment in the school.
And we are able to offer programs for our
students with special needs within the high school
so that we are able to meet their needs there
and they can still benefit from all of our other offerings
instead of having to go offsite somewhere else
to meet their needs.
- How do you feel the district is doing
on a technology standpoint?
- One thing I can tell you is we've become smarter
in terms of realizing that we need to utilize
the students' knowledge with regard to that.
Because they are able to educate the adults
in a lot of cases.
Our staff has really embraced the integration
of technology into their classes.
What we've really tried to focus on is using it
to enhance learning, not just to replace
ways that we used to teach things.
So now that it's on a SMARTBoard instead of a board.
- 'Cause people learn so differently, right?
- Exactly.
- Visual learners, auditory learners.
- So really using it as a tool to help the students
learn better and to present different material,
not just the same material in a different way.
That does have its purpose, but it's
a very expensive investment to just be able to
use a screen instead of a board.
So, several years ago, we started implementing
use of the Google set of applications.
And we are pretty much at a 100% implementation
across our teaching staff of Google Classroom.
The students and the teachers have found it to be
a great collaborative tool.
One of the benefits of using the various Google apps
is feedback, is instantaneous feedback to students
and their ability to collaborate.
- Neat.
- So, that has been widespread.
And we are also currently piloting a one-to-one
Chromebook rollout with our freshman class this year.
We are about six months into it.
Most of our students today are used to learning
on a screen, looking at a screen, that's just
become the way that they've adapted to learning.
So we use them to increase collaboration.
There's a number of apps that our
different departments utilize on the Chromebooks.
And that's something, right now what we're doing is
we're evaluating how the pilot has gone.
It's not that we're expecting students to be using them
every second of every period.
That's not the purpose of technology.
But if it's helping to enhance learning,
then it's certainly a worthy investment.
- Absolutely.
Talking all this through with you right now,
I think it would be clear to anyone
listening or watching today to understand
why seeing a ranking number or getting
just one metric, how it's impossible to know
what's going on inside the schools.
- There is something for you at Watchung Hills.
You just have to figure out for yourself,
what is it that I wanna try.
We try to balance out the rigor, obviously our
push for academic rigor, and achievement with wellness.
One of our strategic plan goals centers all around wellness.
With regards to students and staff.
And so that's been a very relevant topic
and we've been doing a number of
parent and student programs around that.
We actually have a page on our website
called The Healthy Edge.
And we have a wellness committee
that meets and develops different programs,
and again, they're really two-fold.
Some of them are for student education
and some of them are for parent education.
What additional supports can we provide
to our parents to help their students?
We really are trying to make an effort
to help students find a healthy balance.
- Right, that sounds amazing to me.
- It's a heavy lift and again--
- I mean, it's a lot.
- We're very lucky to have parent support.
- Yeah, bringing that into the school
on top of everything else you and the teachers have to do.
But really is the whole child, and all of this.
How good are we if we aren't healthy?
Physically, emotionally.
I see so many wonderful changes since
you've begun as superintendent, personally.
And I think the energy and the positivity that
you bring, and the openness, is a big change for our school,
so I'm very grateful to you for that.
Moving forward into the next five years, or few years,
what is your hope for the district and
hope for the school as you move forward?
Just to continue the plan, basically, on where you are?
You like the trajectory on where you're headed?
- I am very fortunate to work
within the school community that I do,
between the board, the administrative team,
the teachers, and the students.
Everyone really has a shared goal
of wanting to move the district forward.
So what I would like to see as we move forward
is to really continue that collaborative work
and I think getting our students even more involved
in taking ownership of some of these initiatives,
because the work that they've done
with some of the events that they've planned
is just so creative and I think it, for them as well,
shows them that they have the capability to do it.
- Yeah, they really have no limits.
These kids are so smart and so innovative.
You're right, giving them that power to be
the decision-maker on some of these ideas
is a wonderful idea.
- And I guess my ultimate goal for
all of these processes that we're putting in place,
that they become systemic.
So that it doesn't matter if I'm there or if
somebody else is there,
that all of these things we've just talked about,
the focus on wellness, the focus on academic rigor,
and the fact that we really do want to include
all students and really instill in them an awareness
that they are capable of just about anything
and of taking advantage of any of these opportunities.
My ultimate goal is for that to become systemic.
- Well, that's amazing.
I feel very excited just hearing you talk about it.
And I'm committed to try to help spread the word
because I don't think there's enough good information
getting out on what exactly you're doing.
So that's the goal for today and I
really appreciate you coming today
and sharing all of these great insights
for people who wanna know more than just a number.
So I'm very grateful to you.
Thank you so much.
(uplifting music)
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