Hosted annually at the Nutley Park Oval, the holiday season kicked off with the lighting of the tree on Sunday, December 8.  At approximately 5:30 p.m, the festivities and holiday music began. With a section of Franklin Avenue closed from Chestnut Street to New Street, adults and kids were allowed to roam around and have fun.  Nutley Mayor Joseph Scarpelli, in charge of the event, brought in horse and buggy rides for the kids, popcorn, roasted chestnuts, a live nativity, and song performances from the Middle School and High School choirs.  

On November 18, 2019, Julia Resnick, a junior, reminisced about her success in her theater career at Nutley High School. More specifically, she spoke about her recent project in the fall play, The Night of the Living Dead and the large role that she played offstage. The Night of the Living Dead is about the deceased resurrecting and eating the living on Halloween. The zombies held people hostage in a farmhouse, where most of the play took place. 

Ms. Gumbs is a Geophysical and Marine Science teacher who recently transferred to Nutley High School this year. Previously, she taught at Clifton High School and taught in Jersey City. And she has been in the education field for three years. She has always had a love for teaching and learning about her new students. Ms.Gumbs spoke to the Maroon and Gray on December 10, 2019, about her experience being a new teacher at Nutley High School. 

In Nutley High School, many students come and go, leaving their mark behind them as they graduate.  Many are remembered as someone who played sports, got good grades, or for being a great role model. A senior, who will graduate later this year, embodies all of these things, Samantha Gabriele.  Samantha, or also known as Sam, is a student-athlete on the varsity girls soccer team and track teams who works hard at what she does to make sure her goals are accomplished.   

On November 15, 2019, the Tricarico family of Nutley lost someone very important, their son and brother, James Vincent Tricarico. James was a celebrity in Nutley. If you ask anyone who lives in town about him, they knew who he was. The Nutley native attended Nutley High School for six years and graduated in 2006 and also worked as a Secretarial Aide for the high school for 13 years. He also worked for the Nutley ShopRite and called himself “the Mayor of ShopRite.” People who have visited the high school or the Nutley ShopRite were always given a warm welcome.

Host of 105.5 WDHA’s radio show, “Rockturnal,” Scotty B., also known as the “Southern Fried Maniac," has been in radio for about 35 years, and he knows everything there is to know about the industry. He learned about the music business through hard work and dedication. Rocking out from 7pm to midnight on weeknights, the northern Florida native knows how to have a good time on air. 

Mrs. Granelli is a new Geophysical and Environmental science teacher at Nutley High School and has just recently joined the NHS community. While Mrs. Granelli will only be here for the rest of the year, she has come to work as an in-class support teacher in the science department. She stated that she has always had a love for teaching and working with students. Mrs. Granelli spoke about her experience at Nutley High so far, her teaching history before she came to NHS, and what she hopes to accomplish for the rest of the year. 

Being a school counselor is not for the faint of heart. Students come to them throughout the day to ask for advice, change their classes, and sometimes just to talk about the things that have been bothering them. In this day and age where people are encouraged to talk about their mental health, a counselor has their hands full constantly. They face each and every person they see with respect and attention.

At Nutley High School, in mid-October and early Spring, students have the opportunity to take part in community service, either within the building or around Nutley. Not only does the community benefit from this day, the students do, too. They get their service hours for college which helps add to their college resume.  This event was organized by the NHS Student Council. 

This year, the school offered a plethora of volunteer options at locations such as the Nutley Family Service Bureau, Washington Elementary School, NHS.

In a high school setting, it is normal to have friend groups and “cliques.” By this age, teenagers have their set friends and don’t really make an effort to make new ones. It is hard for new students to make friends and blend into groups of people who have been friends for years, but it is especially hard for ESL students to put themselves out there into mainstream high school. This year at NHS, Mrs. Julie Mitschow, Coordinator of World Languages and ESL, came up with a solution to end this cycle. 

At NHS, art students often fly under the radar. There are so many talented students in the art program that often do not receive recognition. One student who stands out is NHS National Art Honor Society Finance Secretary and lead Set Club painter, senior Anais St Amant.

Local businesses have always been crucial to small towns like Nutley. Many companies in town have been around for generations. However, Nutley also stands as a great place to start a completely brand new business. In April of this year, Nutley Public Schools held its second annual Trep$ Marketplace. The marketplace encouraged students, in grades four through eight, to chase after their business ideas and try to make them into a reality. For JHWMS eighth grader, Braden Somers, this marketplace gave her a start to a new company.
    

All across the country, there have been countless mass shootings occurring in schools, malls, grocery stores, and churches in 2019 alone. On December 14, 2012, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. Sandy Hook Promise was founded by parents and loved ones who lost family members on that day. According to their website, their goal is to, “create a culture engaged in preventing shootings, violence, and other harmful acts in schools.”

As many New Jersey natives know, there’s a Six Flags Great Adventure, located in Jackson Township. It’s the world of many people’s childhood and family experiences, but you might want to hold off on putting your young ones on this coaster. 

Nutley High School offers its students multiple opportunities to contribute to the community around them, while also providing great ways to earn volunteer hours. One of those opportunities is to be part of clubs at NHS like the Human Relations Club, where members do volunteer work around town. One of the volunteer jobs the club does is planning and hosting parties for the elders in Nutley's senior homes. The club also participated in Project Linus, a non-profit organization which creates and distributes homemade blankets to children in need.

A Preview of the New Season of Stranger Things

NHS has welcomed many new teachers and staff members this year. Ms. Nicole Iannotta began as a NHS counselor in January and has been working very hard every since. 

If you ask almost any student in high school right now if they’ve ever owned an Instagram fan account for a celebrity, sports player or team, the answer would likely be yes. They probably would tell you that the account wasn’t gaining enough followers and likes so they stopped using that account and gave up on their dreams of their idol noticing them. For Jaron Kiviat, that most certainly is not the case. In April 2014, he created his account for the New York Mets on Instagram, NYM_NEWS. Now with 73.4K followers and counting, the senior in high school is thriving.

NHS Class President Sabrina Kuo to Make a Speech at 2019 Graduation

Summer is the warmest of all the seasons; the days are longer. With all the exciting events that go with summer, the days fly by without notice. Here in Nutley, there are many events and opportunities for adventure and exploration, one of them being Nutley's annual summer camp which is held in town at the Parks and Recreation Department at 44 Park Ave. Camp Nutley offers other amenities such as a recreation gym, Owens and Glotzbach Parks.