GCIT Weekly Newsletter

This is the time of year when everything just seems to be more joyous and delightful! From gatherings with friends and family, gift exchanges, sharing delicious meals, sharing our thoughts and gratitude on a holiday card, to enjoying cozy and quiet moments with family and friends - this is the season for togetherness. The season when smiles are in abundance and making others happy seems to come natural to us. While some excel at gift-giving, others show their love with kind words that evoke lingering sentiments of appreciation and love.

On behalf of the entire Administrative Team, I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to our entire staff, students, and parents! We hope that you have a safe and restful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Please enjoy the video below - staff and students with best wishes for the holiday season!

We would like to thank all those who supported and participated in the SkillsUSA fundraiser "Breakfast with Santa". Many students and staff contributed to the success of the event. It was a sold out event and it was a joy to see the excitement on the children's faces as they participated in crafts, carpentry activities, cookie decorating, face painting, letter to Santa, enjoying a delicious breakfast, and off course visiting with Santa.

The success of this event would not be possible without the help and participation of all the CTSO advisors, the students, and the many families who attended. Thank you! Below are some pictures and video highlights from the event.

This week was our Holiday Spirit Week and our staff and students participated in a variety of activities - ugly sweater day, door decorating, carol sing-alongs in multiple languages, Holiday Pajama Day, Character Day, Holiday Twin Day, sending candy grams to friends, gingerbread house competition, Grinch Game, secret Santa gift exchanges, and the many holiday class parties. Thanks to all the students and staff for their participation in this week's festivities!

Mr. Long and Mr. Wright Twin Day Outfit

Winner

2nd Place

3rd Place

Honorable Mention

GCIT SkillsUSA Chapter held its annual toy drive for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey. Through the generosity of Students, Staff and Community over 375 toys were collected, and we also received several monetary donations. Everyone was very appreciative of the donations. It will make it a little easier for a lot of children who are away from home for the holidays.

The Ronald McDonald House provides housing, meals and essential items to families, at no cost, while their children are undergoing medical treatment.

Written by Toni Terpolilli

Sincere thanks to all the Skills USA Advisors for organizing this toy drive and the many students who assisted to pack and deliver the toys!

Members of Student Council (Santa's elves) were busy responding to the many letters that were sent to Santa during the Breakfast with Santa event. They also packaged candy grams and delivered them to students! Great job Mr. Bates and members of the Student Council!

Dominick Luci – 9th Biological Sciences

Josiah Darminio – 10th Biological Sciences

Kailany Mancebo – 11th Biological Sciences

Michael Enrique Altmann – 12th Biological Sciences

Amanda Pawela – 9th Health Sciences

Sadia Jimale – 10th Health Sciences

Brooke Jones – 11th Health Sciences

Gregory Polidoro – 12th Health Sciences

Leah Carelli – 10th Biological Sciences

Madison Bruno – 11th Biological Sciences

Tiffani Allard-Ajayi – 12th Biological Sciences

Diana Hale – 9th Health Sciences

Chloe Birch – 9th Health Sciences

Juliette Miller – 9th Health Sciences

Annika Blomquist – 9th Health Sciences

Savanh Epperson – 10th Health Sciences

Aries Lee – 10th Health Sciences

Lillian Heyman – 10th Health Sciences

Sophia Luedtke – 10th Health Sciences

Lauren Beaver – 11th Health Sciences

Paul Eller – 11th Health Sciences

Ethan Morris – 11th Health Sciences

Iman Khan – 11th Health Sciences

Skyanna Simon – 11th Health Sciences

Marina Hoagland – 11th Health Sciences

Avery Clum– 12th Health Sciences

Natalia Croce– 12th Health Sciences

Asley Godish – 12th Health Sciences

Marcielle Guinatang – 12th Health Sciences

Students in all my Spanish classes learned about different holiday traditions in Spain. One of the traditions which is called "El Gordo" Lottery takes place every December 22nd. It is one of the biggest lotteries in the world where billions of monetary prizes are given out. This lottery tradition in Spain has been taking place for more than 200 years.

This year in my classes, all the students picked a Lottery Ticket (a recreation of the real one) of their choice. Then I called the winning numbers. There was one grand prize winner in each of my classes who received a Wawa gift card!! Students had a lot of fun!!!

Written by Rachelle Eppolite

On behalf of the administrators, staff, students, and parents, we would like to congratulate our Assistant Superintendent, Brian Shakespeare, on his retirement!

Brian’s journey in the district began more than 30 years ago when he joined the GCSSSD faculty as a Special Education Teacher. During his tenure at GCSSSD and GCVTSD, he served in many roles including Program Manager, Supervisor of Special Education, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and Assistant Superintendent. Among his many skills, Brian ensured that both GCSSSD and GCVTSD met or exceeded NJQSAC monitoring requirements to be deemed high performing districts.

Thank you Brian, for your years of dedication, service, and the indelible mark you have left on the district. Enjoy the new adventures that awaits during the blissful years of retirement!

Congratulations to School Resource Officer Ed Seibert on his retirement! Officer Seibert served our school for many years keeping our staff and student safe. Thank you Officer Seibert for your years of service to our school community!

10th grade Engineering student, Max Lopes, designed and created a token of our appreciation for Officer Seibert.

Ms. Clark should be recognized and commended on her hard work and dedication to the school district. She not only teaches during the day, but also teaches night classes. Although the holidays were so close together this year, she still performed her duties during the day and put happy faces on my holiday dessert table. My 95-year-old mom loves her Italian Cannoli’s and tells me they are better than Termini’s bakery. Her professionalism is beyond the top.

I thank her and appreciate all she does. Merry Christmas to you and your family. May the new year bring our families good health.

Written by Linda Decina

Applications to GCIT for the 25-26 School Year Deadline is January 1, 2025.

Interested 8th grade students must apply for the 25-26 school year by January 1st. If you miss the deadline you will automatically be placed on the waitlist. The application can be found under the admissions tab on the gcit.org website. You can only choose one program when applying. If you have any questions, please contact admissions.

Written by DyannaSchroer

The following students were ambassadors for their CTE program during our Program Showcases. They volunteered their time to speak to the prospective students and assisted the program teachers during the shadowing sessions.

Thank you students - you are true ambassadors for GCIT!

Junior Drama student, Jocelyn Lee graduated from the KYW Newstudies Program on Saturday, December 14th. The program was excellent and Jocelyn had the opportunity to report on a story on KYW news radio last month. The news story was created by Jocelyn. Thank you so much for the opportunity and I’m truly happy she was able to represent GCIT.

Written by Lynette Lee

Thank you to all of our students for the cards they made for the Veterans at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial home. We collected over 450 cards with warm sincere holiday messages. Baking and Pastry art students provided cookie tray for everyone to enjoy.

These small asks of kindness from our GCIT family will help to brighten their holiday.

Written by Katie Arnold

Give your items a second chance! GCIT HOSA will be hosting a fundraiser clothing drive on Saturday, January 11 from 7:30-10:30 AM. We will be accepting gently used/unwanted items - clothing, shoes, apparel, purses, jewelry, backpacks, utensils, hard and soft toys, electronics. Any items with holes, stains, or odor will not be accepted. We kindly ask that any high-school aged clothing be separately bagged for GCIT students. With any questions, contact Ms. Melniczuk or Ms. Boskey!

Written by Caitlin Estabillo

Every year the ShopRite in West Deptford donates a cake to our school for the Holiday Season and for Teacher Appreciation Week.

GCIT wishes to thank the management of ShopRite West Deptford for their continued appreciation to GCIT Staff!

School Based Youth Services has had a very successful 2024 and are looking to go into 2025 with a full head of steam! None of this would have been possible without the support of the staff, students and community; THANK YOU.

We will have more trips coming in the future and we are currently advertising the skating trip to the RiverRink in Philadelphia. Please get a permission slip in one of our offices and the trip is slated for January 16, 2025. We are also attending the Cathedral Kitchen on January 28th, but you must be 16 in order to attend. In February we will also be attending All Fired Up and possibly participating in the Cardboard Classic at Montage Mountain at the end of February!!! Attendance is always free and we are here to make some new friends and create awesome experiences. Join us!

Some of the highlights that we had in December:

Longwood Gardens on December 5th was beautiful, COLD, but beautiful.

Written by Dr. Joe Jacob

December 6th SBYS worked with Student Council to raise more than 200 pounds of food and donated to Preston and Steve's Campout for Hunger. The food drive is the largest single food drive in the country and this year they raise 1.6 MILLION pounds of food and almost a million dollars going straight towards feeding our surrounding communities. Absolutely incredible.

Just a shoutout to everyone that participated in the Breakfast with Santa on December 14th. What a wonderful event and a great job by countless organizations throughout GCIT. Well done!

And we ended with an amazing door which Mrs. Jacob, Ella Fishburn and Addison Biddinger helped design!

School Based Youth Services would like to thank the following elves that contributed to the "SBYS Santa's Workshop":

Becky Snodgrass, Cherise Hasko, Danielle Mandell, Dave Doyal, Eddie Ruiz

Gary Cop, Holly Humbert, Jamie Minix, Jenn Myers, Mr. Kahan, Kim Glazer,

Liz Mizia, Mr. R., and Ryan Stires.

THANK YOU!! Your kindness and generosity went above and beyond. Again, thank you for always supporting School Based and we wish you a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.

"Shout out to the following students that knew exactly what to do during a lock down drill. The drill took place during a passing period and without missing a beat, the students entered the closest classroom and followed the lock down protocol unprompted. I was very pleased and proud of these students for taking the initiative and thinking clearly and critically.

Way to go Noah Abdalla, Dane Coker, Jurnee Costanzo, Lucia Pasquarello, & Marissa Ciesielka!"

Written by Michelle Souders

All 9th graders taking Algebra I, Geometry, and English in second semester will take a placement test.

The Algebra 1 and Geometry placement test will take place on January 3rd (8am -9:25am) and the English placement test will be on January 10th (8am -9:25am). As a result, on those days, Club will be extended until 9:25am.

Parents of students who will be taking the placement test(s) should have received an email from the Assessment Team with more information.

Beginning January 2nd, 2025, all GCIT students MUST have their GCIT lanyard and ID around their neck in order to enter the building.

Please note: Students will not be allowed to enter the building without a GCIT ID and lanyard. Parents will be called to pick up students who do not have their ID.

All teachers and staff will check that students are wearing their lanyard and ID at all times throughout the day. Students not wearing lanyard and ID will be sent in the office.

Students, if you do not have your GCIT lanyard or ID, please send an email or Teams message to your Assistant Principal.

Grade-level Assistant Principals:

Mrs. Worthington – 9th grade (hworthington@gcecnj.org)

Mr. Wright – 10th grade (gwright@gcecnj.org)

Mrs. Wilbraham – 11th grade (jwilbraham@gcecnj.org)

Mr. Long – 12th grade (jlong@gcecnj.org)

December 23 - January 1 - Winter Break

January 11 - GCIT Day of Dance

January 23 & 24 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

January 24 - GCIT Live

January 29 -30 - Students 12:15 Dismissal

January 31 - Staff In Service (no students)

February 3 - 7 - School Counselor Week

February 26 - Red Cross Blood Drive

March 4 - 8 - School Musical

March 8 - SAT

March 10 - 17 - St. Patrick's Day Door Decorating Contest

March 17 - 21 - Spirit Week

March 26 - 27 - Dancing For Humanity

March 28 - Cotillion (9th & 10th Grade Dance)

March 29 - SkillsUSA Competition at GCIT

April 3 - Schoolwide Culture Day

April 7 - 11 - Assistant Principals Appreciation Week

April 16 - Administrative Professional's Day (observed)

April 17 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

April 18 - 25 - Spring Break (school closed)

April 28 - May 1 - Spring Dance Showcase

May 2 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

May 2 - Junior Prom

May 5 - 9 - Teacher Appreciation Week

May 6 - 11 - Freshman Drama Production

May 20 & 21 - Dance Senior Pieces

May 23 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

May 26 - Memorial Day (school closed)

May 27 - Senior Awards Ceremony

May 30 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

May 30 - Senior Prom

June 1 - 5 - Senior Trip - Disney World, Orlando, FL

June 9 - Junior Trip - Hersey Park

June 17 & 18 - Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

June 19 - Juneteenth (school closed)

June 20 - Last Day For Students - 12:15pm Dismissal

June 20 - Graduation Day (Tentative)

June 23 - Last Day For Instructional Staff