family, staff members, board of education, and students. My name is April Miller, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our recognition night 2025 to honor our retiring staff, special community members, and outstanding students. Please join me in a moment of silence.
Please join me in a salute to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. This evening is an official board of education meeting. So, if I um could have a motion to open, please. May I have a second? Thank you. I just want to let everyone know that we have the step and repeat
outside in the lobby. So, after this evening has concluded, um please feel free to take an opportunity to take pictures in front of it. We do ask that everyone stay until all of the recipients are recognized this evening. um we kind of spread it out this year a little differently. We will begin our
program this evening with the recognition of our retiring administrators and teachers. This year we will be honoring two administrators and three teachers who will be retiring from the district representing a total of 114 years of service to the Pitman School District. I will be asking each of our retirees to come forward to
receive a copy of the board's resolution that will be approved at our June 25th meeting. So if I can start please from Pitman Junior Senior High with 22 years of service to Pitman Principal Dr. Sherry Lombardo and I have the pleasure of
reading her bio which I had to actually uh make a little more concise for this evening. Dr. Lombardo retires after a distinguished and impactful career in education, including more than 25 years in leadership. She began as an English teacher in the Millville public school
district, later becoming director of guidance in the Woodstown Piles Grove School District and then vice principal at Glboro High School. In 2003, she joined Pitman High School as principal, a role she held with grace, dedication, and deep care for students and staff
alike. Known for her warmth, wisdom, and steady leadership, Dr. Dr. Lombardo helped shape a culture of support and academic excellence at Pitman. Her presence will be missed, but her influence will long be felt in the lives of those she served. Congratulations. If you didn't know, I
didn't know I was going to speak. So, I just want to say thank you to the board of education and Dr. Preston, Mr. Miles, and Mr. Calabiano for allowing me to do the things that you would always want to do as a principal and be yourself. Those students that I have had over the last
20 years, I I have to honestly say they are the reason why I come in every day. We have an amazing staff at Pitman Junior Senior High, but I think any educator would also tell you it's not a good day if you're not making a kid smile. So, if my 21 years here has made
multiple students smile, that's all been worth it. There's curriculum and there's data and there's all the testing that you can possibly imagine, but the bottom line is is we're here to make young children feel welcome and wanted. And I hope if nothing else, I've done that
over my time. Thank you. Also from Pitman Junior Senior High School with seven years of service, our athletic director, Mr. Grant Shivers. Mr. Shivers retires after more than four decades of dedicated service to education and athletics in New
Jersey. Second retirement. He began his career in 1984 as a physical education teacher at Woodbine Elementary School, then spent over a decade at Williamstown High School, teaching health and PE while coaching a wide range of sports, including 12 years as head basketball
coach, five years as head golf coach, and assistant roles in football, soccer, track, and cross country. In 1998, he became athletic director at Wood Woodbury High School, a role he held for 20 years with distinction. Since 2018, he has served as director of athletics
for Pitman, leading with integrity, passion, and a deep commitment to student athletes and the broader school community. Congratulations. Since it's my second retirement, I'm not going to say a lot, but just know that these seven years at Pitman have been awesome. What a great school, a great
group of administrators, teachers, and students, and parents. And thank you for the opportunity to work here. Thank you. If I could invite Mrs. Mason to join me on stage. Our next retiree is from Pitman Elementary School with 25 years of
service, special education teacher, Mrs. Michelle Panchelli Capello. I'm gonna let her walk up here slow. If anyone knows Michelle, we know she loves the spotlight, so soak it in. Um, wow. She's going to be hard to
replace. Michelle Capello has spent over 25 years lovingly serving the students in Pitman. In total, she has been a dedicated special educator for 31 years. Throughout her years of service, Mrs. Capello has worked with thousands of
students and families in grades first through 8th. She's taught every subject area, ELA, math, science, social studies, and life skills. Mrs. Capello works tirelessly to establish positive, lasting relationships with her students
and their families. We love and will miss her energetic and contagious personality. Some of uh Mrs. Capella's favorite memories are the countless overnight field trips to Camp Aanickin. She loves seeing students in a different setting outside of the walls of her
classroom, experiencing nature and the outdoor challenges. Mrs. Capello is certainly someone that we will not be able to replace. Congratulations on your retirement. I just want to say um after all my years I said you know when you have your
students come up and then they say oh and here's my mom and you taught her too. That's when you know it's time to stop. That's it. So thank you. I've I've loved my journey here. Our next retiree was unable to join us this evening, but we'd still like to
honor from Pitman Elementary School with 31 years of service, teacher, Mrs. Tracy Dice. Mrs. Durice has dedicated 30 years of her life to the children and families of Pitman. She has worked in many different capacities at Wall School and PES as a general education teacher and a
special educator. Mrs. Jerice worked beyond her classroom walls as a mentor for new hires and student teachers, cheer committee representative, safety patrol adviser, fifth grade talent show coordinator, memory book adviser, and also completed a two-year math
fellowship through Princeton Montlair and Rowan universities. Her favorite memory was touring Maguire Air Force Base and the flight simulator simulator experience with her students. On a more personal note, I uh
have been most proud to be one of her principles. Uh and as a dad, I am so grateful that Mrs. Durice was one of the teachers who made such a pro positive impression on my both on both of my daughters in fifth
grade. Mrs. Drace is a one-of-a-kind educator who will be sorely missed by all and certainly by me. Our next retiree was also unable to join us this evening. Pitman Junior Senior High School with 29 years of service. Teacher Mrs. Stacy Hess. Dr.
Mrs. Hess has been teaching in the Pitman School District for 29 years. She has taught almost every math class there's offered within the Pitman High School curriculum. She has taught everything from algebra 1 to AP calculus. She advised the Key Club for
20 years where she had touched a lot of students in regards to service and understanding of the need for service. When asked about her fondest memory, she said she had many, maybe too many to even pick just one. But it was her
sincere honor to have worked with so many amazing students, so many amazing staff members, and be welcomed by a community that opened their arms to math for 29 years. I wanted to do something that I could take back to her and let
her know about tonight. I was wondering if anybody in the audience has either had Mrs. Hess or Miss S. If you could please stand because we have a lot of parents out there that have had her as well. I would like for you to take a look around and see the impact that Miss
S had on the community of Pitman. Thank you, Miss S. Congratulations to all of our retirees. If we could have one more round of applause for their service. The next group that we would like to recognize is our community volunteers. These individuals have
provided valuable assistance to our students and staff this past year. If Mrs. Miller could join me on stage, please. from Memorial School, Mrs. Elizabeth Flanigan. Good evening. Uh, Elizabeth Flanigan has volunteered in many capacities at Memorial School. Most
recently, she has served as part of the home and school association as vice president. She has organized and participated in fundraising events that have supported students and staff at Memorial through grants and projects.
Miss Flanigan has also volunteered in the summer through her employers volunteer program, helping with mailings, bulletin boards, and organization that has prepared for the new school year. Her help while her kids have been at Memorial has been invalued.
Thank you so much. One more round of applause for our memorial school. If Mrs. Mason could please join me from Pitman Elementary School, the volunteer of the year is Mrs. Melissa Brown. She's coming. It's okay. No
pressure. Mrs. Brown, how are you? Come stand next to me. Good evening. This is Melissa Brown. She is Pitman Elementary's pick for community volunteer for the 2425 school year. Melissa Brown has been a huge
benefit to both schools and the entire Pitman community. She has worked tirelessly to support all children, specifically at Memorial and Pitman Elementary School, serving as the lead for the Scholastic Bookf Fairs, both Scholastic Book Fairs, which is a huge
endeavor. Um, she has also helped with our holiday shop. We appreciate Mrs. Brown's efforts and coordinating with many parent volunteers, teachers, administrators to ensure that all of these events at both schools are
successful. Thank you so much. I will turn it over to Mrs. Papalardo. Good evening everyone. My name is Stacy Papalardo and it is my pleasure to begin the introduction of the students being recognized this evening. I will be reading each student's name being
recognized. When your name is called, please enter the stage from the right, which is at that end, and line up across the stage. When all the students in each group have been announced, we will provide a moment for pictures to be taken. Parents are
welcome to come forward to take pictures at that time. First up, we have the Pitman Enrichment Program, also known as PEP. And for grade seven, we are honoring Fiona Albertson, Sage
Marshall, Zoe Pylon, and Mabel Pope. And in eighth grade, we are recognizing Riley Bowen Ashwin, Becket Campbell, Elliot Cook, Rachel
Mets, Liam Miles, Ezra Ralph, Emma Shyler and Liam Van Austin. How about one more round of applause for these amazing students? Parents, if you would like to
grab a quick picture before we send them off, come on ahead and come on up and grab one before they go. Next up, we have our All South Jersey Junior High band. The following students audition and were selected for the prestigious
ensemble in January. Selected students rank among the best musicians in the state of New Jersey. They pres performed with the ensemble in March at Firmwood Middle School in Egg Harbor Township. They are all from 8th grade.
Our first is Becket Campbell. Our second is Allora Pylon. Our third is Ezra Ralph. And we also have Emma Shler. And we are going to continue and keep it in the band and chorus theme.
Next up, we have our Olympic Conference Junior High Honors Band. a group of audition band students who rank among the best musicians throughout over 20 area middle schools. These students performed with the ensemble in February at Washington Township High School. They
are also all eighth graders. Uh, we have Becca Campbell, Juliana Johansson, Allora Pylon, Ezra Ralph, Emma
Shyler, and Julia Tatro. And for South Jersey Junior High Chorus, we have students in grades seven through eight, seven and eight, who audition and were accepted to participate in the South Jersey Coral Directors Association Junior High Chorus. Auditions are based
on factors of musical excellence, including inonation, vocal tone quality, and expressive musicianship. They rehearsed several times and performed at Washington Township High School in January. For grade seven, we have Jonah
Frost. And for grade eight, we have Allora Pylon and Julia Turra. And this would be another perfect time. If you want to grab a quick picture before we send them off stage, now's the time to do so. Good job everybody.
Now we're going to move on to Pitman Senior High School. First up, we have All South Jersey Choir, Senior High Honors Chorus. We have Fiona James and Megan
Mizola. Next up, we have our Olympic Conference Honor Band. We have four students who were able to participate this uh four students are Liam Biali, Mia
Gladney, Kelsey Patrick, and Noah Zwak. And we're going to ask everybody to stay up here because we have some names that are going to come up more than once. So, we're just going to ask them to stay here and go grab their next award and then we'll do pictures once we have
everybody up here at the end. Next up, we have Boy State delegates. We have three. We have Jake Bowen, Ashwin, Luke Driscoll, and Lucas Razy. We also have our girls career institute delegate and alternate which I believe
I'm famous two years in a row for forgetting, right? Is that the one I forgot? Um, we have two delegates. We have Kelsey Patrick and Carly Rzzy. And our alternates are Amanda Bradley and Laurel Rue.
Next up is our Hugh O'Brien Award for the leadership conference. Our delegate and alternate, we have Nathan Nukem and Lucas Razie. Our Rotary Youth Leadership, our
delegates are Nathan Nukem and Lucas Rousey. And last up, we have our World Language Seal of Biiteracy. We have four students who achieve this um award. We have Jaden Ammons, Anukica
Dminino, Megan Misola, and Rebecca Misola. And again, we'll take a quick break if anybody wants to come grab a picture before we send everybody back off stage. Let's have one more round of applause for these great students.
Pictures. Anyone? Nope. We're going to let them get back to their seats so that we can call them right back up. So, on behalf of the Pitman Board of Education, we'd like to recognize our student representatives, Rebecca Maza and Aubrey Yordi.
So, I just want to say on behalf of the board, these two ladies have transformed what the role of um being a student representative means. They've done so much for us as board members and sharing insight on what the high school experience is like and providing us with valuable feedback. But additionally,
they've definitely um provided a great service this year to us and last year as well for Miss Misola um in their in their service to the district and their social media campaign and their events and all the wonderful things. So, if we could have one more round of applause for them.
Next, we're going to go to the top five for the class of 2025. Conveniently, these two ladies can stay right here. Rebecca Misola, Megan Mizzola, Anukica Dminino, Aubrey
Yordy, and Madison Peak. These five students represent the top five in their class after weighted GPA for the prior seven semesters. So, if we could have one more round of applause for our class of 2025. Thank you guys. I'm now going to
ask Mrs. Higgbyono to come up. Okay. So, we're going to ask the students to remain on the stage until I ask them to leave. And when you do so, kids, please leave to the right here and
proceed into the hallway to receive your certificates. Okay. Excuse me. for the Pitman Elementary School Academic Achievement Award. Grade five. Samuel
Beavenon, Rachel Gresco, Vincent Jones, Regina Marino, Tula Marker, Sienna Pere, Audrey Robinson, Landon Smith,
Elelliana Testino, Mia Whiteitman, Braden Young, and Dominic Zambino. Parents, this would be a good
opportunity to take a picture. I got one more. Excellent. Okay, from grade six we have Olivia Antonori, Peter Bell, Evelyn
Blackman, Alexandra Clanden, Savannah Cologne, Kinley Eisenhart, Laurel Eisenhart, Edward
Hems, Bladen Jones, Lily Landis, Jason Lcure, Aaron McMullen, Bryson Miller, Liliana Ninstead, Aninsley
O'Brien, Landon Rue, Sophia Strasinski, Oliver Strollitz, James Sullin, Sullivan, excuse me, and Evelyn
Walsh. Again, parents, this is your opportunity to take a quick picture. Yeah. Wow. All right. Thank you. Okay, now we have principal's list for
grade five. Valerie Armstrong, Samuel Beavenon, Noah Golden, Brantley Lcure, Graham
Lynch, Carter Mason, Charlie McN, Mia Npalitano, Cecilia Patterson, Thomas Piscon, Audrey
Reinhose, Joselyn Strereer, Lucy Vanderlife, and Mattaline Ward. Parents, if you'd like to take pictures, now's your chance. Okay. And principal's list for grade
six, Olivia Antonor. and Tenori, Jake Blair, Gianna Bonfentino, Hudson Campbell, Alexandra Clanden, Savannah
Cologne, Edward Hemis, Thomas Keepers, Jason Lcure, Cassidy Mallet, Olivia Fam, Landon
Rue, Abigail Salerno, Katherine Shonne, Violet Smith, Sophia Strasinski, Oliver
Strollitz, James Sullivan and Evelyn Walsh. Good job. Right. Again, parents, if you'd like to take a quick picture, I'm going to turn the program over to Mrs. Farrell now.
I will be announcing the principal's list for grade seven. Tyler Busk, Finn Clemens, Audrey Fure, Nola
Gladney, Noel Hood, Graham Jacobs, Candace Johnston, Felix Canals, Sage Marshall, Zoe Pylong,
and Mabel Poe. Congratulations students. Parents, if you would like to come up and take a picture, you may. Thank you, seventh graders. I will now be announcing the principal's list for grade 8. Riley Bowen
Ashwin, Nicholas Brown, Becket Campbell, Kylie Fure, Isaiah Gonzalez, Fiona Laneir, Rachel Met, Aaron Rudley, Anna Russell, Selma Selman,
Yamin Congratulations students. Parents, if you would like to come up and take a picture, you may. Thank you. eighth grade. Mrs. Bolton will begin the introductions for the high school honor awards. All right. Honor awards. Any student who
receives a cumulative grade point average of 93 during the first three marking periods of the current school year shall be named a recipient of the academic honors award and will receive an appropriate recognition tonight. Here
we go. Class of 2028. Kira Austin, Liam Bali, Tegan Cana, Marin Clark, Payton
Coyle, Grady Dats, Mirabel De Bros, May Edelman, Lstella Eisenhart, Bria Everwine, Braden
Giri, Mia Glad, Italia Gray, Elizabeth Hines, Emily Iono, Anna Jones, Hannah Keefe, Jared
Lou, Tessa Marker, Carara Martin, Reagan O'Brien, Delaney Pearson, Audrey Pal, Emily
Sabatini, Callie Cybert, Kirsten Tomlin, Michaela Tutora, and John Wiznookski. All right, congratulations students, parents. If you want to click
take a pick, feel free. I guess they're doing it from their seats, guys. Class of 2027. Samuel Adams, Kayla Allen, Cassidy
Batton, Kendall Bennett, Phoebe Bolton, Anthony Capello, Gavin Carmichael, Tristan Clark, Jane Conroy,
Groman, Parker Christopher, Riley Trriscoll, Gavin Holmstrom, Alexa Castiac, Ava Mullenower, Nolan
Russell, Emry Sharpneck, Elizabeth Silverman, Delaney Stevenson, Lauren Strek, Jonas Trum and Molly
Waznooki. Parents, if you would like to come up and take a picture, now is the time. Congratulations students. Hello. I'm going to announce the awards for the class of 2026. Blaine
Arian, Jake Bowen, Ashwin, Luke Driscoll, Aiden Evans, Ella Everwine, Gavin
Forchick, Fiona James, Andrew Keefe, Ethan Kubat, Nathan Nukem, Gayton Papalardo, Ella Padiling, Michaela
Quick, Carly Razie, Lucas Razie, Colette Rollins, Madison Ross, Laurel Rue, Noah Swack, Ryan Tartaglia, and Emily
Ward. Congratulations students. And once they're up, you can come take your picture. Parents, it's your picture opportunity. Okay, thank you. Congratulations. Now, the recipients for the class of 2025 awards. Owen
Bolton, Anelise Brown, Anukica Dminino, John Diora, Michael Fisicara, Nathan Harms, Shelby Hess, Divine Johnson, Skyler
Lawrence, Megan Misola, Rebecca Mizzola, Summer Miller, Madison Peak, Gregory Peterson, Anthony
Serno, Hope Suac, Nicholas Watson, Megan Whan, McKenzie Wen, Elena Williams, and Aubrey Yordy. Congratulations students.
parents, this is your opportunity for a photo. And we'll give one more round of applause. Congratulations. I'll turn it over to Dr. Preston. As we bring this evening to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on what
we've celebrated tonight and what I've had the chance to witness in my first year as superintendent here in Pitman. Um, coming into this role, I knew Pitman had a very strong reputation. Uh, but I said, but to say living it dayto-day,
seeing the commitment of our staff, the talent and heart and grit of our students, and the way this community shows up for its schools has exceeded my expectations. It's genuinely impressive. Tonight was a perfect example of that. We celebrated retirees whose careers
have shaped generations of learners, volunteers who give their time with no expectation of credit, and students whose hard work, curiosity, tenacity, and leadership give us so much to look forward
to. Retirees, thank you for the years you've given to this district. You've left something behind in the lives of students that goes beyond any curriculum or any job description. You've left a mark on your fellow colleagues and I have no doubt that your
impact will live for many years on students. The reason, the true reason we're here, you represent the best of our schools. I'm proud of what you've achieved, but even more impressed by what who by who you are becoming. Keep striving. Stay grounded and continue
doing the hard work, the quiet work of growth. Shakespeare said, "We know what we are, but know not what we may be." You've already begun to define who you are through your actions and achievements, but your story is still
being written. There's so much ahead of you, so many chances to rise and to lead and to do great things. Keep pushing forward and becoming who you're meant to be. To our families, staff, board members, thank you for your unwavering
support and for continuing to believe in the work we do together. This year reminded me that when people care deeply and when they act on that care, you end up with a school district like Pitman. And I feel blessed to be a part of it. Thank you for being here tonight and thank you for all you've done this year. Have a
wonderful evening.