James Betelle, Where Are You?

From the Wall Street Journal: Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country’s worst performing public school systems. Potentially to be matched by funds raised by [...]

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I recently acquired  a 20 minute reel of 16mm silent color home movies, shot in Maplewood, New Jersey, in the 1950s-60s. In it are typical scenes of a family’s life; Church, Christmas, Halloween, hanging out at the pool, etc. Interspersed with this are scenes around Maplewood that any resident will easily recognize. Cars and clothes [...]

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Marcia Worth at Patch, on Columbia High Schools wonderful auditorium that is in desperate need of restoration: But like an old home that has been lived in for generations, the auditorium is due for some renovation. The South Orange-Maplewood Education Foundation‘s fundraiser “A Night on the Towns,” scheduled for Sunday, May 23, has designated the auditorium [...]

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The April, 1915 issue of The School-Arts Magazine (“For Those Interested in Drawing & Handicraft”) ran a flowery piece, “Something Beautiful”, extolling the “rhythmic and refined” qualities of the Ridge Street School and Newark Normal School. Preceding the glowing praise are quotes from Ralph Adams Cram, “architect of some of the finest Gothic churches in [...]

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Marcia Worth of Patch, a local community portal, has written a nice piece on Montrose School in South Orange, New Jersey. “The Montrose school yard boasts what I consider to be the most beautiful birch tree in town. It’s also a fine tree for climbing, according to my neighbor, who indicated a branch far from the [...]

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