By FRANCESCA COCCHI
Staff Writer
Responding to student presentations at a monthly meeting Thursday night, the Parent Student Faculty Association voted unanimously to grant $1,000 to the Student Television Network (STN) Club as well as to the Photo Club to assist payments for upcoming trips.
Seniors Joe Zirkel of Matawan and Brian Murphy of West Long Branch spoke for a group of STN students regarding the request, which had been originally presented at a previous meeting. According to Zirkel, 10 students will attend the trip, which is hosted in Dallas, Texas, and features competitions in broadcast journalism. After several calculations, Zirkel said the club determined the trip will cost around $12,300.
Zirkel said the district has agreed to fund $4,200, and the club has raised about $3,000 through fundraising. After hearing the presentation, the PSFA voted 25-0 in favor of the grant.
Photo Club president senior Caiti Borruso and adviser Maryanne Rodriguez presented a similar request later in the meeting. The club plans to take five board members to a conference in Washington D.C., which will feature staff photographers from Life and Time magazines as well as Nobel Prize and Infinity Award winners. Rodriguez said they will then relay the information to the rest of the 60 club members.
The PSFA agreed to grant the Photo Club, which is receiving no district funding for the trip, $1,000.
“We love to have you guys come and present,” said PSFA co-president Debbie Talamo after the presentations. “There are only two things I ask – that you have it prepped and tell me your coming.”
The large part of the meeting consisted of discussion about the new Peer Review Board, the first of its kind in the district, which started last Friday. According to Academic Integrity Committee chairperson Leah Morgan, the board consists of Student Government Association Adviser Sharyn O’Keefe and five student representatives, three of whom rotate from a pool of 25 students on a regular basis.
Morgan said the purpose of the board is to help reach one of CHS’s two Middle States goals: to lower the incidence of cheating by 11 percent through the course of seven years.
The board will review cheating cases at the discretion of Principal James Gleason, Morgan said. Progress is being checked through annual anonymous surveys of the student body.
Talamo said the other Monmouth County Vocational School District schools are using the Peer Review Board as a model and may introduce similar committees in the future.