By CASSIDY DESTEFANO and ANDREW GOUDSWARD
News Editors
Now in its ninth day, the federal government shutdown has affected students and staff within the Monmouth County
The Lincoln Memorial is surrounded by barricades, as well as police, preventing the public from entering. One police stated on Saturday that he had not been paid in eight days.
Vocational School District community.
The federal government was shut down last Tuesday after lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate were unable pass a budget to continue its funding.
Locally, The Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) was forced to postpone its information session for prospective students originally scheduled for Saturday, October 5. The school is located on Sandy Hook which is a part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, one of the casualties of the government shutdown.
Earl Moore, the principal of MAST, felt that the shutdown has both negative and positive impacts on the MAST community.
“Students really need to experience the academic, environmental and social elements of our property of our property to appreciate the school,” he said. However, he fears because of the shutdown many prospective students will miss out on that opportunity.
Moore also said he expects more changes to scheduling at MAST in the coming days, due to the shutdown.
Inside Communications High School, the shutdown has impacted a project Jeanine Gomez’s sophomore health students were doing. Ordinarily, the students use choosemyplate.org to track their daily food intake for three days. However, the website, owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was not available due to lack of funding.
“The shutdown affects us right here,” Gomez said.
The students instead switched to myfitnesspal.com, which Gomez called “a good learning experience.”
In addition, Dorothy Condon’s the junior health class was unable to access CDC.gov, for research on a project, forcing them to use alternative sources, according to Gomez.
Senior students at CHS all participate in a mentorship program, holding an unpaid internship at a business of their prospective career choice for one marking period. Due to the government shutdown, senior Maggie Trupio of Howell was furloughed from her internship at the office of Democratic Congressmen Frank Pallone starting on Tuesday after all non-essential staff members were told not to come to work in his office.
“Now I mostly stay in the TV room and hang out and do homework in the afternoon,” she said. According to Trupio, mentorship coordinator Bill Bengle has exempt her from several assignments as she now searches for a new play to work.
Trupio said that her message to congress is “Get your act together.”
Bengle was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
