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A District That Celebrates

Columbia High School

Three Columbia High students named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

September 21, 2020 By Communications

Three Columbia High students named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

September 18, 2020 – The South Orange and Maplewood School District Board of Education is pleased to announce the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Among the academically talented high school seniors named are three seniors from Columbia High School:  Matthew D. Krause, Daniel J. Palumbo, and Julia A. Vitale were named as Semifinalists for the 2021 National Merit® Scholarship Program and have an opportunity to continue to the National Merit Scholarship competition.  The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

“Amid so much uncertainty and change for our students, this is a wonderful announcement,” said, Superintendent of Schools, Ronald G. Taylor.  “As a District, we are proud of CHS Seniors, Matthew, Daniel, and Julia for this great accomplishment, we are rooting for them and hope that they will be able to celebrate all of their senior milestones fully this year.”

In April 2020, NMSC identified the 50,000 highest scorers and notified their high schools. Some 16,000 of those high performers were recently designated Semifinalists on a state representational basis. Their schools were notified, and NMSC released their names to news media on September 9.  From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February, they will be notified of this designation. All winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

As semifinalists, the three students will have an opportunity to continue in the Merit Scholarship® competition and advance to Finalist standing by meeting some additional requirements.  Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, as well as 1,000 corporate scholarships. The next round will be announced in February.

Columbia High School Principal, Frank Sanchez, shared, “We are so proud that in addition to these three semi-finalists, we have a total of 20 National Merit Commended Scholars, representing an incredible senior class.  This accomplishment demonstrates years of hard work and dedication by these students and by the mentoring of our faculty at Columbia High School and our colleagues across the district.”

Over 1.5 million students took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) last October and entered the National Merit Scholarship Program, a nationwide competition for recognition and awards conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

 

September 21, 2020 Filed Under: Columbia, District News & Announcements Tagged With: CHS, Columbia High School

Principal Frank Sanchez: Hybrid Schedule Update Message to the CHS Community

August 12, 2020 By Communications

Dear Students,

It is with great Columbia Pride that I introduce myself as your new principal. I must say that it has been great to see students return to campus these past two weeks as we have started our fall sports program.

For the past month, I have been holding several teacher and student forums to learn about Columbia High School, and based on what I have discovered, I am so excited for the start of the school year to meet you all. In fact, when I asked your teachers what makes Columbia High School special, they always answered first with an emphatic "Our students!"  They also talked about this great energy that crackles through the Columbia hallways and I am excited to get a sense of that.

Of course, it is our first priority to bring you all in safely. Since I am sure you have several questions on what school will look like when we start in September, I have created this quick video explaining the two options you will have. Please remind your parents they need to make their initial decision by this Friday, AUGUST 14 by completing this GoogleForm. 

Please know this is just our initial sketch of the schedule to help you and your parents make your decision. A more detailed explanation will follow in the next few weeks once we have collected the data and can say with certainty what the schooldays will look like. We will also be able to describe in detail how many of our arts programs -- dance, orchestra, chorus -- will look like under the present health conditions. The same goes with PE and extracurricular activities.

Until then, please stay safe and healthy. You may also want to start "training" for the start of the year by wearing a mask for an hour this week, and then for two hours next week.

With Columbia Pride, Mr. Sanchez

August 12, 2020 Filed Under: District News Tagged With: Columbia High School

New Jersey’s State Teen Arts Festival recognizes Columbia High School Art Students

June 11, 2019 By SOMSD Webmaster

This was the third consecutive year Columbia High School participated in the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival on May 30th, 2019 at Ocean County College.

South Orange Maplewood Schools was the only district from Essex County participating in the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival for the 3 year in a row. Sixteen CHS Visual Art and Photography students had work on display at the festival from May 29th to May 31st.  These students are, Christopher Lopez, Desiree Hume, Elliot Dix, Freya Zaccerelli, Iman Zubieta, Jesser Pilato, Jorden Fastov, Laura Rafolo, Lucia Garritano, Miriam Sorkin, Naomi McMechen, Rowan Slater, Shakeelah Gilkes, Tayor Goodson.

In addition, Iman Zubieta, Josie Lally, Eliot Dix and Rowan Slater were selected to be part of the 2019- 2020 NJ State Teen Arts Touring Exhibition.

District involvement in the annual New Jersey Teen Arts Festival was initiated and led by Fine Arts Supervisor James A. Manno who secured participation by coordinating efforts with festival director and by providing student product entries via a digital adjudication process. 

Special thanks to this year’s participating teachers Jon Fisher (Photography), Karen Murphy (Visual Art), Nicole Thomas (Visual Art), Alexandra Cappucci (Visual Art). 

Teen Arts Festival - Display

 

Teen Arts Festival - Students

June 11, 2019 Filed Under: Columbia, District News, District News & Announcements Tagged With: Columbia High School, Teen Arts Festival

South Orange-Maplewood School District

South Orange-Maplewood School District

Address & Contact Info

525 Academy Street
Maplewood, NJ 07040

Main Office: (973) 762-5600

District Title IX Information

Dr. Kevin Gilbert
Asst., Supt., Access & Equity
District Title IX Coordinator
525 Academy Street
Maplewood, NJ 07040
e: kgilbert@somsd.k12.nj.us
p: (973) 762 - 5600 ext. 1859

Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB)

Dr. Kevin Gilbert
Asst., Supt., Access & Equity
District HIB Coordinator
e: kgilbert@somsd.k12.nj.us
p: (973) 762 - 5600 ext. 1859

Ms. Robin Curry
Confidential Secretary to the Asst. Supt., Access & Equity
e: rcurry@somsd.k12.nj.us
p: (973) 762 - 5600 ext. 1822

More HIB Information

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The South Orange & Maplewood School District is committed to making our content accessible to all members of the public, including those with disabilities. This includes parents, students, employees, and all others associated with our district. If you need assistance in accessing materials on the district website or you would like to provide feedback or file a complaint about the website, please email the webmaster.

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