North Jersey Area Band Selects Kinnelon Students

Six high school and nine middle school students selected to perform in state band.

The following was submitted by Kinnelon High School Band Director Ryan Stroud. Have something you want to announce to the community? Upload it here. The North Jersey Area Band is an Honor Band that auditions and selects students from nearly 50 middle and high schools in northern New Jersey. These selected students are invited to a weeklong festival that culminates in a performance at Mt. Olive High School on Jan. 13. The NJAB has been in existence for 50 years providing outstanding music students with an opportunity to play music at a high level with guest conductors and clinicians. This year, at the high school level, 400 students auditioned for 140 available positions in the band.   From Kinnelon High School, six students were accepted. …

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Kinnelon Solar Project Nearly Complete

Panels will soon be installed on middle school roof.

Kinnelon Public Schools' project to install solar panels on three of the district schools is reaching its final phases, according to Business Administrator Jim Minkewicz. Minkewicz said the final phase of the project needed is to install a "pad" on Pearl R. Miller School where the solar panel field will be installed. The school district is participating in the Morris County Improvement Authorities Renewable Energy Program. Through the program, for which Kinnelon's participation was approved by the board of education in April, 375 kilowatts of energy are expected to be generated for the district. The panels, which are also being installed at Kinnelon High School and Stonybrook School, are expected to reduce energy consumption at the three …

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Santa Swinging By Pearl Miller Pancake Breakfast

Annual fundraiser event to be held Dec. 8.

Planning is underway for the annual Pearl R. Miller School Holiday Breakfast and organizers are promising a visit from Santa Claus. The breakfast will be held on Dec. 8 from 9 a.m. to noon (snow date is Dec. 15) at the school and will be hosted by the Pearl Miller Home and School Association. The breakfast will feature all-you-can-eat pancakes and sausages, orange juice and coffee, as well as games, crafts and music. Activities will include hat and cookie decorating. There will also be a bake sale and holiday boutique. Photo session packages can be preordered for $8 or cost $10 at the door. Tickets to the breakfast, itself, can also be preordered for $8 for adults, $5 for kids (ages four to nine) and free for kids under three. At the door…

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Newspaper Club Teaches Middle-Schoolers the Power of the 'PEN'

Students transform Pearl R. Miller School newspaper into online news site and find passion in sharing written stories.

At 13 years old, Kate Dolph has already achieved the ranking most journalists spend their entire careers working toward at their respective publications: she is the editor-in-chief of the PRM PEN. Dolph, an eighth grader at the Pearl R. Miller School (PRM), and her PRM PEN colleagues, a group of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, celebrated the publication and launch of the online newspaper's first issue on Friday. They looked at a finished version of their product, which took nearly two months of work, on a screen while enjoying bagels and coffee with faculty advisors and PRM teachers Aileen Florio and Lisa Kelly. Florio and Kelly took over the newspaper club this year and, in an effort to modernize and make the publication more "green…

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Former Kinnelon Principal to Work at Morristown High School

Ethel Minchello previously worked at Pearl R. Miller School.

It wasn't much of a retirement for Ethel Minchello. Only six months had passed following her tenure as principal of Frelinghuysen Middle School when she began an interim project with the Mount Arlington School. Then, just last month, Morris School District Superintendent Thomas Ficarra gave her a call and asked if she would be available as an interim principal at Morristown High School. But, that's OK for the 61-year-old Kinnelon resident, who has been in education for 40 years, including serving previously as the Pearl R. Miller School. "I knew I wasn't ready to give up education," she said. That call from the superintendent came only days before the Board of Education meeting in June that saw hundreds turn out in support of Murphy, who …

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PRM Student Plays in Carnegie Hall

Seventh grader Sarah Wang won first place in 'Crescendo International Music Competition.'

Family Asks Community to Wear Blue on Second Anniversary of Daughter's Passing

Mary Ramsden said Wednesday is not just for Nicole, but for all children who passed away too young.

Members of the Kinnelon community will be coming together Wednesday by wearing light blue or lime green clothing to honor and remember Nicole Ramsden, a resident whose life was cut short two years ago when she died of leukemia at just 12 years old. Wednesday marks the anniversary of Nicole's passing and for the second year in a row, her mother, Mary Ramsden, has reached out to everyone she knows through email and Facebook asking people to wear Nicole's favorite colors. There will also be a mass service for Nicole at the Our Lady of the Magnificat chapel at 8:15 a.m. and at 7:30 p.m. at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Wayne. "We've kind of gotten it out there in the community to wear green or blue as a way to remember Nicole, but really …

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Holidays in the Boroughs

JCK Students Celebrate Hanukkah

Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon School students celebrated Hanukkah Wednesday night.

Students in the Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon School celebrated Hanukkah by watching Rabbi Helaine Ettinger light the menorah Wednesday night and singing prayers and Hanukkah songs. After the menorah was lit, the school Principal Beth "Batyah" Hancock interviewed Pearl R. Miller School Principal John Hynes, who Hancock called the school's "Mitzvah hero of the month," about bullying in the schools and what PRM has done to prevent it.

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Pearl Miller Students Team Up to Raise Money for Pantry

Students form 'Peace, Love & Happiness' group to fundraise.

Three young ladies are teaming up to help people who are less fortunate than they are by raising money for the Kinnelon Food Pantry with their group “Peace, Love & Happiness.” Erin, Christy and Kelly are three Pearl R. Miller Middle School seventh graders that make up “Peace, Love & Happiness.” The girls raised $214 for the Kinnelon Food Pantry at the Kinnelon Arts and Crafts Fair on Sept. 10. This is in addition to the $160 the girls raised at the Kinnelon Earth Day Fair on April 9 for the Kinnelon Food Pantry. The three girls made flower pens, bows and bracelets using duct tape that were sold at the Kinnelon Arts and Crafts Fair. The girls also raffled off two larger duct pens and collected donations for the food pantry. Gail Flammer, in…

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