The Cougar Chronicle

Dear Cranford Community,

As the year comes to an end, it is nice to reflect on the first half of the school year while also looking toward 2025. Cranford staff and students continue to shine and we are so happy we can share their accomplishments with the community through this newsletter. If you have family members or friends who are not on the district’s mailing list but would like to receive the Cougar Chronicle, please share this form with them.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Board of Education member Terry Darling for his service to Cranford Public Schools over the past six years. Mr. Darling has dedicated countless hours to Cranford Public Schools and its students. We are incredibly grateful for his dedication to the district and for representing the community. Mr. Darling will end his years of service at the end of December.

On behalf of Cranford Public Schools, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a relaxing winter break. I hope you will use the winter break to pause, recharge, and connect with loved ones so that we can all come back in January ready to continue learning and growing!

Sincerely,

Dr. Scott Rubin

Superintendent of Schools

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Every month this digital newsletter will highlight someone making an impact in our schools.

College Board announced that Cranford High School (CHS) has been named to the 2024 Advanced Placement Program (AP) School Honor Roll, earning “Gold with Access”. Cranford is one of four comprehensive public high schools in the state to earn this recognition.

The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access to all students. Schools can earn this recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing college-going culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit, and maximizing college readiness.

“We are proud to be recognized as a “Gold with Access” school on the College Board’s AP School Honor Roll,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Brian Heineman, Ed.D. “One of the keys to our success at CHS, is that we aren’t just catering to the top students. Every student in Cranford gets an opportunity to succeed.”

Recently, the administration teamed up with the counseling department to review the results of the PSATs and AP Potential Report. Counselors can see where students' strengths are and encourage them to take an AP class that matches those skills. This practice has helped expose as many students as possible to college-level courses.

“It's our philosophy,” said CHS Principal Mark Cantagallo. “We want to provide the best education for our students and we want to make sure as many students reach their potential as possible.”

“We encourage every student to challenge themselves throughout their high school career,” added Cantagallo. “This award means so much because it reflects student success across the board.”

CHS offers 29 AP classes to students. In May of 2024, 351 CHS students took at least one AP exam and of those exams, 321 students earned a 3 or higher, or 91.5 percent, which is required to receive college credit. This is the highest percentage in CHS’s recorded history.

College Board’s AP Program enables students to pursue college-level studies—with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both—while still in high school. Through AP courses students learn to think critically, construct solid arguments, and see many sides of an issue—skills that prepare them for college and beyond.

For schools to be recognized on the AP School Honor Roll, they must have 40 percent or more of the graduating class take at least one AP exam during high school; 25 percent or more score a 3 or higher on at least one AP exam; and 2 percent or more of the graduating class took five or more AP exams during high school, with at least one of those exams taken in ninth or tenth grade. Schools that earn the Access Award show a high percentage of takers who are underrepresented minority and/or low-income students, mirroring the school’s overall student demographics.

“This is an amazing credit to the teachers, students and the community and a testament to the fact that the hard work they have put in from kindergarten to now culminated with this national recognition,” said Cantagallo.

The Cranford Board of Education is happy to announce that registration for the 2025-2026 school year is now open. In addition to registering students for grades kindergarten through Grade 12, the Cranford Board of Education will continue to offer a tuition-based full-day kindergarten program and a half-day preschool program, with selection through a lottery system. Please note that lottery signups will close at 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 10.

For more information, please visit the district’s website, cranfordschools.org, and click on the link for Student Registration.

Established in the 2020-2021 school year, the Cranford Esports program has become a thriving hub where gamers compete and play in a supportive and safe environment, fostering teamwork and community. This fall, the program achieved its first State Championship, with the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate team recording a 2-1 win over Sterling High School on Nov. 23. Starters Ryan West, Lorenzo Rodriguez, and Captain Zach Colyer, took home the Group Two championship belt.

“Our program is growing and developing a strong foundation with the younger players. Everyone has worked hard to get here and we are so proud of them,” said Advisors Mr. Jon Alvarez and Mr. Rich Bell.

Cranford's team has always been relatively small, but dedicated players constantly push themselves to improve. The Smash team, composed of new players to the game, quickly became the program's crown jewel– making their first playoff appearance last spring, before the championship win.

"The team chemistry is vital to our success," said team captain Zachary Colyer. "We play not just to win, but to enjoy the experience, and this team understands the true meaning of teamwork."

During the 2020-2021 school year, the graphics lab at Cranford High School underwent a computer upgrade. This space became the perfect location for an Esports program. The new computers allowed the Esports titles to be played without system constraints and the graphics classes had faster computers to support the intense programs of Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator. This win-win scenario set the stage for the program to have a classroom location for the gamers to meet.

Most matches are played online, and the students meet after school to compete with players from all over NJ and the northeast region. Over the years, they have competed in a few different leagues –some have been for full seasons and some small tournaments. Currently, the team is strongly involved in the Garden State Esports (GSE) League. Established in 2019, the GSE League offers three titles each season for High Schools and Middle Schools to compete at a Championship level (varsity) and a few more titles in the Contenders level (junior varsity). They also offer a Valkyrie League (for women and nonbinary players) and a Unified League (for special needs players) which CHS hopes to participate in in the future.

“Having this extracurricular program is important to these players,” Bell said. “Gaming is important to these students, and by having an Esports program, we are telling them that it is important to us as well. That can help them have more of a reason to come to school and be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

The players also find time during the lunch block to get in some more unofficial practice with the Strategist Guild’s lunchtime meetings. They get some preparation matches in, review opponents, and get warmed up for the afternoon matches.

Freshman Arman Patel said, “I believe that I would not have met many friends if not for the Esports program being available.”

Additionally, our Esports program has sponsored a lot of outside participation including a series of school-wide Mario Kart tournaments, the Roblox “Dress to Impress” competitions in collaboration with our Girls Who Code Chapter, and the Student Council has asked our program to host class competitions with Mario Kart to help raise school spirit. Finally, Project Graduation has reached out about potential fundraising events to support the graduating class.

As we look to the future, Cranford’s gamers are excited about what is next. Nearly 300 colleges have an Esports program, and some of our graduates have already gone on to this level of gaming. With over $50 million in scholarships available nationally, Cranford’s goal is for our students to take full advantage of the growing opportunities in collegiate Esports with recruiting sessions, introductions to coaches, programs, and participation in events that scouts attend. As the Esports program grows, we are looking to implement varsity letters for our players and to establish official varsity coaches to run practices daily during the three seasons. These improvements to our program will boost our players' visibility to colleges providing them with increased opportunities for the future. We also want to bring home another belt!

For those interested, practices take place after school in the computer lab on Tuesdays through Thursdays. In our meetings, we practice playing the games, plan strategies and plan for our next opponents. Casual play is also encouraged in all of the titles rated “T for teen” and below.

This year, Orange Avenue School and Cranford High School will compete at the Championship and Contenders levels, and Hillside Avenue School will be joining the ranks later this year.

Cranford High School kicked off a month-long celebration of positivity and support with World Kindness Day on Nov. 13. The PRIDE club used links made from a team building activity from 9th Grade Orientation to spell out the word “Kindness” and students were asked to add post-its regarding how we show kindness daily.

This was followed by the SEL Facilitators linking students together in “tolerance” with a similar creative art piece. In addition, the Gender, Equity Alliance Club created links and post-its leading into Inclusive Schools Week, which took place from Dec. 2 - 6. The Schools and Careers program created the letters and captions for the posters. The efforts over the past month proved that CHS students “link up” and collaborate to support one another and their entire school community!

Throughout the months of October and November, students have been learning about gratitude and what it means to give to others. Students participated in multiple activities around the concepts of kindness to others and gratitude. Over the past few months, students have created a kindness garden with snippets of advice regarding how to be kind to others as well as adding in gratitude butterflies, expressing people and aspects of their lives they are grateful for.The students also made decorative gourds to give to people in a nursing home to let them know we are thinking of them and hope they have a nice Thanksgiving season.

The students enjoyed painting the gourds in various designs and colored “Give Thanks” cards to give to the nursing home residents. The decorative gourds and cards were delivered and the residents were full of gratitude as they proudly displayed them throughout the facility for all to enjoy.

Last month, Livingston Avenue School celebrated the third annual THANKSGIVINGSTON. Students and staff offered thanks and gratitude to the school community. Staff were given thank you cards and challenged to write notes of gratitude to at least one other staff member. In the classrooms, the teachers taught a lesson on offering gratitude for what we have to be grateful for. Each homeroom teacher received a blank thank you card template for each child in their class. The teachers had each child choose another child’s name anonymously and write out a thank you card for the person they selected. LAS families were asked to send emails/cards of thanks to LAS staff and other LAS families to promote the practice of offering thanks to one another. This is always a favorite day at LAS. The amount of joy each student and staff member has when reading these notes of gratitude is always wonderful to see!

The Brookside Place School PTA hosted a fun and successful Holiday Boutique last Thursday and Friday. Students were able to shop independently for gifts for special people in their lives and even have one present wrapped by a helpful volunteer. Thank you to all who helped and event chairs Vicki Cywin and Annette Oriscello.

Students in the Arts Service Club have diligently crafted festive holiday layovers for premature babies in the NICU at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center. These layovers will be presented to the Medical Center, allowing the babies in the NICU to have a cheerful holiday photo.